THT Daily: Four-way tie (almost)

by Dave Studeman
May 02, 2009

Major League News for May 2

Player News
Yesterday’s Results
Today’s Games
Standings
Top Minor League Performances

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

Player News

Player Headlines are courtesy of Rotoworld
The Indians plan to call up Matt LaPorta, Luis Valbuena and Josh Barfield prior to Saturday's game.
Trevor Crowe and Tony Graffanino will be exiled, while reliever Joe Smith (shoulder) will be placed on the DL. Manager Eric Wedge supposedly said LaPorta would serve "as a complement to David Dellucci," which is a complete joke if he really meant it. Calling up Valbuena to serve as a backup for three regulars who won't sit very often is a ridiculous move -- it makes much more sense for him to play regularly in Triple-A -- but LaPorta will be of immediate use with Hafner on the disabled list. Still, Wedge has to be trusted to use him correctly and we have less faith in him by the day.

Twins activiated C Joe Mauer from the disabled list.
Not a moment too soon for Twins fans! RHP Juan Morillo was outrighted to Triple-A to make room for Mauer. He should return to his third spot in the lineup, and be starting in any and all formats.

Yesterday’s Results

For the full scoop regarding yesterday's games, read "And That Happened" at Shysterball.

American League
NYA    10  LAA     9    (Recap and Boxscore)
TB      6  BOS     2    (Recap and Boxscore)
TOR     8  BAL     4    (Recap and Boxscore)
CLE     6  DET     5    (Recap and Boxscore)
MIN     7  KC      5    (Recap and Boxscore)
SEA     8  OAK     7    (Recap and Boxscore)
CHA     4  TEX     3    (Recap and Boxscore)

National League
ATL     7  HOU     2    (Recap and Boxscore)
NYN     7  PHI     4    (Recap and Boxscore)
STL     6  WAS     2    (Recap and Boxscore)
CHN     8  FLA     6    (Recap and Boxscore)
ARI     5  MIL     2    (Recap and Boxscore)
CIN     4  PIT     0    (Recap and Boxscore)
LAN     1  SD      0    (Recap and Boxscore)
SF      3  COL     2    (Recap and Boxscore)

Check out Fangraphs' scoreboard to see all the games in action.

Today’s Games

National League
 ---------------
 Florida Marlins at Chicago Cubs, 1:05 PM
  (R) Anibal Sanchez (1-2) vs. (L) Ted Lilly (2-2)
 St. Louis Cardinals at Washington Nationals, 1:05 PM
  (R) Joel Pineiro (4-0) vs. (R) Shairon Martis (2-0)
 New York Mets at Philadelphia Phillies, 3:40 PM
  (L) Oliver Perez (1-2) vs. (L) Jamie Moyer (3-1)
 Houston Astros at Atlanta Braves, 3:40 PM
  (R) Roy Oswalt (0-2) vs. (R) Jair Jurrjens (2-2)
 Colorado Rockies at San Francisco Giants, 4:05 PM
  (R) Jason Marquis (3-1) vs. (R) Matt Cain (2-0)
 Arizona Diamondbacks at Milwaukee Brewers, 7:05 PM
  (R) Dan Haren (2-3) vs. (R) Braden Looper (2-0)
 Cincinnati Reds at Pittsburgh Pirates, 7:05 PM
  (R) Micah Owings (1-2) vs. (R) Ross Ohlendorf (2-2)
 San Diego Padres at Los Angeles Dodgers, 10:10 PM
  (R) Chris Young (2-1) vs. (L) Randy Wolf (1-1)
 
 American League
 ---------------
 LA Angels of Anaheim at New York Yankees, 1:05 PM
  (R) Matt Palmer (1-0) vs. (L) CC Sabathia (1-2)
 Baltimore Orioles at Toronto Blue Jays, 1:07 PM
  (R) Brad Bergesen (1-0) vs. (R) Robert Ray (0-0)
 Cleveland Indians at Detroit Tigers, 3:40 PM
  (L) Aaron Laffey (2-0) vs. (R) Zach Miner (2-1)
 Boston Red Sox at Tampa Bay Rays, 7:08 PM
  (R) Tim Wakefield (2-1) vs. (R) Jeff Niemann (2-2)
 Kansas City Royals at Minnesota Twins, 7:10 PM
  (R) Brian Bannister (2-0) vs. (L) Glen Perkins (1-2)
 Chicago White Sox at Texas Rangers, 8:05 PM
  (R) Jose Contreras (0-3) vs. (R) Brandon McCarthy (2-0)
 Oakland Athletics at Seattle Mariners, 9:10 PM
  (R) Trevor Cahill (0-2) vs. (L) Jarrod Washburn (3-1)

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
TOR     16   9 .640    0.0   16     0    
BOS     14   9 .609    1.0   13     1    
NYA     13  10 .565    2.0   11     2    
TB      10  14 .417    5.5   13    -3    
BAL      9  14 .391    6.0    9     0    
American League Central     
CHA     12  10 .545    0.0   11     1    
KC      12  11 .522    0.5   13    -1    
MIN     12  11 .522    0.5    9     3    
DET     11  11 .500    1.0   12    -1    
CLE      9  14 .391    3.5   11    -2    
American League West        
SEA     14   9 .609    0.0   13     1    
TEX     10  12 .455    3.5   11    -1    
LAA      9  13 .409    4.5   10    -1    
OAK      8  12 .400    4.5   10    -2    


National League East        Pwins  Diff
FLA     14   9 .609    0.0   12     2    
PHI     11  10 .524    2.0   11     0    
ATL     11  11 .500    2.5   11     0    
NYN     10  12 .455    3.5   11    -1    
WAS      5  17 .227    8.5    8    -3    
National League Central     
STL     17   7 .708    0.0   16     1    
CIN     12  10 .545    4.0   10     2    
MIL     12  11 .522    4.5   11     1    
CHN     11  11 .500    5.0   11     0    
PIT     11  11 .500    5.0   13    -2    
HOU      9  14 .391    7.5    9     0    
National League West        
LAN     16   8 .667    0.0   16     0    
SF      11  10 .524    3.5   10     1    
SD      11  12 .478    4.5    9     2    
ARI     10  13 .435    5.5   10     0    
COL      8  13 .381    6.5   10    -2

Top Minor League Games

The 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            AB  H 2B 3B HR BB SO  Notes
CLE AA  Nicholas Weglarz.. 5  3  2  0  1  0  0  
OAK AA  Chris Carter...... 5  4  0  0  1  0  0  
FLA AAA Gaby Sanchez...... 5  3  1  0  1  0  0  
PIT A   Robbie Grossman... 5  3  2  0  0  0  1  
BAL A+  Brandon Waring.... 4  3  1  0  0  2  1  
PIT A+  Pedro Alvarez..... 4  2  1  0  1  0  1  
MIN AA  Wilson Ramos...... 5  3  2  0  0  0  0  3 R
MIN AA  Daniel Valencia... 5  2  1  0  1  0  1  
TOR A+  Moises Sierra..... 4  3  1  0  0  1  0  
NYM A+  David Havens...... 3  2  1  0  0  2  1  
CHW AA  Gordon Beckham.... 4  2  2  0  0  0  0  
CLE AAA Luis Valbuena..... 4  2  0  0  1  1  0  3 R

ORG LVL PLAYER            IP  H  R ER SO BB HR  Notes
NYM AAA Jonathon Niese.... 6  3  1  1  8  1  0  
ATL AAA K. Medlen......... 6  3  0  0  8  2  0  
ATL A+  Jeffrey Locke..... 7  2  0  0  6  2  0  
BOS AA  Junichi Tazawa.... 5  2  1  1  6  2  0  
COL AA  Jhoulys Chacin.... 6  2  1  1  7  4  0  
OAK A   Brett Hunter...... 5  1  1  1  6  3  0  
BAL AAA C. Tillman........ 5  4  3  3  6  2  0  
PHI A+  Kyle Drabek....... 5  5  2  2  6  2  0  
NYY A   D.J. Mitchell..... 6  5  3  1  6  3  0  
BAL A+  Brian Matusz...... 5  6  4  3  6  2  0  
CLE AAA David Huff........ 6  4  0  0  4  2  0  
NYM A+  Bradley Holt...... 5  4  2  2  4  1  0

First Inning's Major and Minor League Daily Reports:

Dave was called a "national treasure" by Rob Neyer. Seriously. Comments about this article can be sent to him through the miracle of e-mail.

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