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THT Daily: Excitementby Matthew CarruthApril 20, 2007 Major League News for April 20Today's LinksPlayer News Yesterday’s Results Today’s Games Standings Top Minor League Performances Stats Today's LinksCall the Accountants - Forbes is on the lookout again, publishing their annual evaluation of the financial worth of all MLB franchises. On the page you can also see their list of baseball's best GMs (umm how strongly can I disagree with that list?) and a vote for "baseball's best clutch player" which features such laughable candidates as: Darin Erstad, Jason Kendall and Jose Vidro.Game On - The 2009 Baseball World Classic is on, and should mark the commencement of the standard four-year cycle. Smackdown with the Tools of Ignorance - John Sickels has a prospect comparison between the Braves Jarrod Saltalamacchia and the Mariners Jeff Clement, perhaps the best two catching prospects in baseball. How Bad has Jorge Julio Been? - He has been this bad. Mariner Fans Step Back From Ledge, For Now - The word is back on Felix and it is about the best that they could have hoped for, a strain of the flexor-pronator muscle. This similar to the injury J.J. Putz had in Spring Training and he bounced back just fine in under a week. More Lidge Fallout - More news on the Brad Lidge situation, from Houston GM Tim Purpura who says the Astros are not looking to trade him (well, yeah, his value sucks right now) and from Lidge himself who thinks he deserves more chances to close before being demoted (shocker). Selective Memory Prevails Again - More evidence to add to the pile in favor of "smallball" as the Twins launch a five-run rally on the backs of three consecutive bunts to start the inning, two of which went for hits. This will completely overshadow the 20 times that a bunt fails. Felix and Fantasy - Christina Kahrl has a rant about how some people watch MLB through a strictly fantasy-lens. I don't think the situation is a bad as she makes it out, playing fantasy baseball helps me stay interested in random ballgames that I otherwise would have no interest in, but there is a line and the colleague in question is close to it. Selig to Crackdown on Blackouts? - Really? The guy who tried to castrate all out-of-market fans by forcing them to buy DirecTV is suddenly trying to clean up the mess of blackouts in baseball? Color me skeptical until it happens. Player NewsPlayer Headlines are courtesy of RotoworldMiguel Cabrera says he has a mild right oblique strain, but he feels it's something he's capable of playing through. "It's nothing serious," Cabrera said. "I want to play. It's just when I swing and miss, I feel something." Manager Fredi Gonzalez said it's 50/50 whether Cabrera will play Friday night against the Nationals. The South Florida Sun-Sentinel believes it's more likely he'll be held out of the lineup until Monday. Aaron Boone and Alfredo Amezaga could start in his place. Randy Johnson (back) gave up two runs in six innings Thursday for Triple-A Tucson. The runs came in the first two innings. Johnson allowed six hits, walked one and struck out seven. He appears set to come off the DL and face the Padres next week. Rich Hill pitched eight scoreless innings to beat the Braves on Thursday and lower his ERA to 0.41. Hill allowed four hits, walked three and struck out seven in improving to 3-0 in three starts. He's had the advantage of having the wind blowing in his last two times out, but since he's getting more grounders than he did last year, he might not be quite so vulnerable to the home run ball anyway. He could be one of the NL's top fantasy pitchers this year. Chien-Ming Wang (hamstring) allowed three runs and five hits over five innings in a rehab start for Single-A Tampa on Thursday night. "He's ready to go," Yankees vice president Billy Connors said. "The main thing at this time is the pitch count and he got to 74, then he went down to the bullpen and threw an extra 15. He's fine. He's throwing all his pitches. He's got them all going for him." Wang will likely be activated to start Tuesday. Luis Castillo left Wednesday's game in the fifth inning due to a left quad injury. One infielder returns and another goes down. It's the price the Twins should have figured they'd have top pay for going with both Casillo and Nick Punto as regulars. Alexi Casilla took over at second base. Miguel Cabrera was lifted from Thursday's game after two innings with stiffness in his right torso. Cabrera was also hurting in Wednesday's game. He actually tried a sac bunt in his first at-bat tonight, giving a strong indication that he wasn't close to 100 percent. Aaron Boone replaced him tonight. The Mariners are saying Felix Hernandez will likely miss two to three starts with a flexor-pronator strain inside his right, pitching elbow and forearm. Hernandez won't throw at all for five days, and then will play only catch initially.\r\n"I think 10 to 20 days is a reasonable estimate," Mariners medical director Dr. Ed Khalfayan said when asked when Hernandez might again pitch in a game. "That's as good a news as you can get from an elbow injury." Hernandez will likely go on the DL, putting Jake Woods into the Seattle rotation. The possibility still exists that the injury is worse than the Mariners currently believe. Willy Aybar, suspended indefinitely by the Braves on Wednesday, is in Boston dealing with "drinking and drugs," his agent told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The agent said Aybar was too shy and embarrassed to reach out to anyone with the team. "It's a situation where he doesn't want anybody to help him," Valdez said. "He's embarrassed for himself, for his family." Valdez didn't provide any timetable for when Aybar might rejoin the Braves.\r\n Alex Rodriguez hit a three-run, walkoff homer off Joe Borowski as the Yankees overcame a four-run deficit in the bottom of the ninth on Thursday. Borowski allowed six straight to reach with two outs, giving up a homer to Josh Phelps, a single, a walk, a pair of RBI singles to Derek Jeter and Bobby Abreu and then the walkoff homer on a pitch that was practically on a tee for A-Rod. The homer was Rodriguez's 10th, including his second to end a game. The sweep of the Indians leaves the Yankees one game back of the Red Sox with a series at Fenway beginning Friday. Ryan Howard is sitting out Thursday's game because of a sprained ligament in his left knee. He's day-to-day. GM Pat Gillick said X-rays done Wednesday showed nothing was torn and that Howard wouldn't need an MRI. Greg Dobbs is starting in his place today. ' Yesterday’s ResultsAmerican League NYA 8 CLE 6 (Recap and Boxscore) BOS 5 TOR 3 (Recap and Boxscore) CHA 6 TEX 4 (Recap and Boxscore) MIN 6 SEA 5 (Recap and Boxscore) National League CHN 3 ATL 0 (Recap and Boxscore) NYN 11 FLA 3 (Recap and Boxscore) PHI 4 WAS 2 (Recap and Boxscore) HOU 8 CIN 6 (Recap and Boxscore) MIL 7 PIT 5 (Recap and Boxscore) LAN 8 COL 1 (Recap and Boxscore) SD 11 ARI 6 (Recap and Boxscore) SF 6 STL 2 (Recap and Boxscore) Today’s GamesNational League --------------- St. Louis Cardinals at Chicago Cubs, 2:20 PM (R) Braden Looper (2-1) vs. (L) Ted Lilly (1-1) Washington Nationals at Florida Marlins, 7:05 PM (R) Shawn Hill (1-2) vs. (L) Scott Olsen (2-1) Atlanta Braves at New York Mets, 7:10 PM (R) Tim Hudson (2-0) vs. (R) Mike Pelfrey (0-0) Philadelphia Phillies at Cincinnati Reds, 7:10 PM (R) Jon Lieber (0-0) vs. (R) Kyle Lohse (1-0) Houston Astros at Milwaukee Brewers, 8:05 PM (R) Matt Albers (0-0) vs. (R) Ben Sheets (1-2) San Diego Padres at Colorado Rockies, 9:05 PM (R) Chris Young (1-1) vs. (R) Josh Fogg (0-0) Arizona Diamondbacks at San Francisco Giants, 10:15 PM (L) Doug Davis (1-1) vs. (R) Russ Ortiz (1-1) Pittsburgh Pirates at Los Angeles Dodgers, 10:40 PM (R) Tony Armas (0-1) vs. (L) Randy Wolf (2-1) American League --------------- Chicago White Sox at Detroit Tigers, 7:05 PM (L) John Danks (0-2) vs. (R) Chad Durbin (0-1) Toronto Blue Jays at Baltimore Orioles, 7:05 PM (R) AJ Burnett (1-1) vs. (R) Daniel Cabrera (1-1) New York Yankees at Boston Red Sox, 7:05 PM (L) Andy Pettitte (1-0) vs. (R) Curt Schilling (2-1) Cleveland Indians at Tampa Bay Devil Rays, 7:10 PM (L) CC Sabathia (3-0) vs. (R) Edwin Jackson (0-2) Oakland Athletics at Texas Rangers, 8:05 PM (R) Joe Blanton (1-0) vs. (R) Brandon McCarthy (1-2) Minnesota Twins at Kansas City Royals, 8:10 PM (R) Sidney Ponson (1-1) vs. (L) Odalis Perez (0-2) Seattle Mariners at LA Angels of Anaheim, 10:05 PM (R) Miguel Batista (1-1) vs. (L) Joe Saunders (1-0) StandingsThe graphics next to each team are called "sparklines.” They depict each team’s performance over the last month. Each "up" bar is a victory and a "down" bar is a loss. There are horizontal lines for home games and red bars represent games decided by two runs or less. "PWins" is short for Projected Wins, based on each team’s Run Differential, and is often a better measure of a team’s true strength. Other team graphs and stats can be found on our Team Page.American League East Pwins Diff BOS 9 5 .643 0.0 11 -2 Top Minor League GamesThe following list, provided by First Inning, includes the top minor league batting (based on Runs Created) and pitching (based on Game Score) performances from yesterday.ORG LVL PLAYER POS AB H 2B 3B HR BB SO Notes BOS A Pedro Vasquez 2B 4 3 1 0 1 0 0 4 runs scored DET A+ Cameron Maybin CF 4 3 1 1 0 2 1 5 runs scored DET A+ Justin Justice RF 4 3 0 1 1 0 0 6 RBI KC A Alvi Morel RF 3 3 0 1 0 1 0 OAK A+ Luke Appert DH 4 4 1 0 0 1 0 STL A 2B 5 3 1 1 1 0 0 4 RBI STL AAA Ryan Ludwick LF 4 3 0 0 2 0 0 .517 OBP during past week TOR AA Sergio Santos SS 4 3 1 0 1 0 1 TOR A Chris Emanuele CF 4 3 1 0 1 0 0 3 runs scored WAN AAA Tony Batista 3B 4 3 1 1 1 0 0 ORG LVL PLAYER IP H R ER SO BB HR Notes ARI AA Matthew Green 5.0 0 0 0 9 3 0 1.20 ERA over past month BAL A Jeffrey Moore 6.2 2 1 0 6 3 0 CHC AAA Carlos Marmol 7.0 3 1 1 8 2 0 24 K over last 16 IP LA AAA Greg Miller 6.0 0 1 0 4 2 0 MIN A Jeffrey Manship 7.2 3 2 2 7 0 0 MIN AAA Kevin Slowey 5.2 3 0 0 9 0 0 OAK AAA Dallas Braden 6.0 3 0 0 7 1 0 TB A+ Michael Wlodarczyk 6.0 2 0 0 6 2 0 TB A Lewis Rollins 6.0 2 0 0 7 1 0 StatsAccess all of THT’s stats here…
Matthew Carruth is an editor for The Hardball Times. He welcomes any and all sorts of communication at his email. Do you have a general question or comment for one of THT's writers? Send it in to our weekly mailbag We also welcome unsolicited op-ed pieces of approximately 500 words for consideration. We reserve the right to edit for length, clarity and consistency of style. Please include your whole name and location to be considered. If you have a comment about this specific article, please email the writer. Next Article: Too Early To Worry>> <<Previous Article: Ten Things I Didn't Know Last Week | |||
NYA 8 6 .571 1.0 9 -1 
BAL 8 7 .533 1.5 8 0 
TOR 8 7 .533 1.5 8 0 
TB 6 9 .400 3.5 6 0 
American League Central
MIN 10 5 .667 0.0 9 1 
DET 9 6 .600 1.0 8 1 
CHA 7 7 .500 2.5 7 0 
CLE 6 6 .500 2.5 5 1 
KC 4 11 .267 6.0 5 -1 
American League West
OAK 8 7 .533 0.0 8 0 
SEA 5 6 .455 1.0 5 0 
LAA 6 9 .400 2.0 6 0 
TEX 6 9 .400 2.0 7 -1 
National League East Pwins Diff
NYN 10 4 .714 0.0 12 -2 
ATL 10 5 .667 0.5 8 2 
FLA 6 9 .400 4.5 7 -1 
WAS 5 11 .313 6.0 4 1 
PHI 4 10 .286 6.0 5 -1 
National League Central
MIL 9 6 .600 0.0 8 1 
HOU 8 6 .571 0.5 8 0 
CIN 8 8 .500 1.5 8 0 
PIT 6 8 .429 2.5 6 0 
CHN 6 9 .400 3.0 8 -2 
STL 6 9 .400 3.0 6 0 
National League West
LAN 11 5 .688 0.0 10 1 
ARI 10 7 .588 1.5 9 1 
SD 9 7 .563 2.0 8 1 
COL 7 9 .438 4.0 8 -1 
SF 6 8 .429 4.0 6 0 