THT Daily: Final Week

by Matthew Carruth
September 23, 2007

Major League News for September 23

Player News
Yesterday’s Results
Today’s Games
Standings
Stats

You can always find the most recent THT Daily at http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/content/thtdaily/

Player News

Player news items are provided by Rotoworld

Rich Harden won't come off the DL and start Sunday as planned because of discomfort during his simulated game Friday.
"I'd love to be out there, but there's no sense in possibly doing damage in two starts -- for what? -- in games that don't mean anything," Harden said. He'll have his shoulder examined by Dr. Lewis Yocum next week. Dallas Braden will start in his place.

Ben Sheets was still uncomfortable throwing in the outfield on Saturday, so he'll miss his scheduled start Sunday with strained left hamstring.
Chris Capuano gets the nod over Claudio Vargas, apparently because of his past success against Atlanta. Maybe it will work, but Ned Yost pays more attention to those kind of numbers than he should.

Yesterday’s Results

American League
NYA    12  TOR    11    (Recap and Boxscore)
BOS     8  TB      6    (Recap and Boxscore)
OAK     9  CLE     3    (Recap and Boxscore)
KC      7  DET     4    (Recap and Boxscore)
CHA     8  MIN     3    (Recap and Boxscore)
SEA     3  LAA     2    (Recap and Boxscore)
BAL    11  TEX     9    (Recap and Boxscore)

National League
ATL     4  MIL     3    (Recap and Boxscore)
NYN     7  FLA     2    (Recap and Boxscore)
PHI     4  WAS     1    (Recap and Boxscore)
CHN     9  PIT     5    (Recap and Boxscore)
STL     7  HOU     4    (Recap and Boxscore)
ARI     6  LAN     2    (Recap and Boxscore)
COL     6  SD      2    (Recap and Boxscore)
SF      2  CIN     0    (Recap and Boxscore)

Today’s Games

National League
 ---------------
 Philadelphia Phillies at Washington Nationals, 12:05 PM
  (L) Cole Hamels (14-5) vs. (R) Joel Hanrahan (4-3)
 Milwaukee Brewers at Atlanta Braves, 1:05 PM
  (L) Chris Capuano (5-12) vs. (L) Jo-Jo Reyes (1-2)
 New York Mets at Florida Marlins, 1:05 PM
  (R) John Maine (14-10) vs. (L) Chris Seddon (0-1)
 Pittsburgh Pirates at Chicago Cubs, 2:20 PM
  (L) Tom Gorzelanny (14-8) vs. (R) Carlos Zambrano (16-13)
 Cincinnati Reds at San Francisco Giants, 4:05 PM
  (R) Aaron Harang (16-4) vs. (L) Travis Blackley (0-0)
 Colorado Rockies at San Diego Padres, 4:05 PM
  (L) Jeff Francis (16-8) vs. (R) Greg Maddux (13-10)
 Los Angeles Dodgers at Arizona Diamondbacks, 4:40 PM
  (R) Chad Billingsley (11-5) vs. (R) Edgar Gonzalez (8-2)
 Houston Astros at St. Louis Cardinals, 8:05 PM
  (R) Roy Oswalt (14-7) vs. (R) Todd Wellemeyer (3-2)
 
 American League
 ---------------
 Oakland Athletics at Cleveland Indians, 1:05 PM
  (L) Dallas Braden (1-7) vs. (R) Jake Westbrook (5-9)
 Toronto Blue Jays at New York Yankees, 1:05 PM
  (R) Dustin McGowan (11-9) vs. (R) Mike Mussina (10-10)
 Kansas City Royals at Detroit Tigers, 1:05 PM
  (L) Jorge De La Rosa (8-11) vs. (R) Justin Verlander (17-6)
 Boston Red Sox at Tampa Bay Devil Rays, 1:40 PM
  (R) Tim Wakefield (16-11) vs. (R) Edwin Jackson (4-15)
 Chicago White Sox at Minnesota Twins, 2:10 PM
  (R) Gavin Floyd (1-4) vs. (R) Kevin Slowey (3-0)
 Baltimore Orioles at Texas Rangers, 3:05 PM
  (R) Jon Leicester (2-2) vs. (R) Kevin Millwood (9-13)
 Seattle Mariners at LA Angels of Anaheim, 3:35 PM
  (R) Jeff Weaver (7-12) vs. (R) John Lackey (17-9)

Standings

The 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     92  63 .594    0.0   97    -5    
NYA     89  65 .578    2.5   93    -4    
TOR     78  76 .506   13.5   82    -4    
BAL     66  88 .429   25.5   68    -2    
TB      63  92 .406   29.0   63     0    
American League Central     
CLE     91  63 .591    0.0   86     5    
DET     84  71 .542    7.5   84     0    
MIN     75  79 .487   16.0   77    -2    
CHA     68  87 .439   23.5   63     5    
KC      67  87 .435   24.0   71    -4    
American League West        
LAA     91  64 .587    0.0   88     3    
SEA     83  71 .539    7.5   75     8    
OAK     75  81 .481   16.5   78    -3    
TEX     71  84 .458   20.0   74    -3    


National League East        Pwins  Diff
NYN     86  68 .558    0.0   84     2    
PHI     85  70 .548    1.5   83     2    
ATL     81  74 .523    5.5   85    -4    
WAS     68  87 .439   18.5   65     3    
FLA     66  89 .426   20.5   68    -2    
National League Central     
CHN     82  73 .529    0.0   83    -1    
MIL     79  75 .513    2.5   79     0    
STL     72  82 .468    9.5   67     5    
CIN     71  84 .458   11.0   72    -1    
HOU     68  87 .439   14.0   68     0    
PIT     66  89 .426   16.0   68    -2    
National League West        
ARI     88  67 .568    0.0   77    11    
SD      85  69 .552    2.5   85     0    
COL     83  72 .535    5.0   85    -2    
LAN     79  76 .510    9.0   79     0    
SF      68  87 .439   20.0   74    -6    


Wildcard Standings
American League             
NYA     89  65 .578    0.0
DET     84  71 .542    5.5
SEA     83  71 .539    6.0
TOR     78  76 .506   11.0
MIN     75  79 .487   14.0
National League             
SD      85  69 .552    0.0
PHI     85  70 .548    0.5
COL     83  72 .535    2.5
ATL     81  74 .523    4.5
MIL     79  75 .513    6.0