THT Daily: Immediate Dividends
by Matthew CarruthAugust 02, 2007
Major League News for August 2
Today’s LinksPlayer 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/
THT Links
This year? - Don't look now, but the Cubbies are in first place.
Soon to be gone, but not forgotten - A fascinating look at the history of the player to be named later.
From the frying pan into the fire - Matt Morris took a shot at the Giants organization yesterday after being traded to the Pittsburgh Pirates, accusing the team of accepting losing. Boy, is he in for a surprise.
Need two? - Major League Baseball entered into a five-year agreement with StubHub yesterday, granting the online ticket website exclusive rights to MLB's official online ticket resale market. I think the move shows MLB Advanced Media's continued savvy in generating new revenue streams. In this case, online ticket reselling and scalping was going to happen no matter what, but this deal allows teams to get a little more than they otherwise would have.
Ace in the hole - Pedro Martinez is scheduled to throw a simulated game for the Mets, and could return by the end of the month. If he has anything left, he could be bigger than most of the trade deadline acquisitions.
End of the road? - The Braves cut 48-year-old first baseman Julio Franco yesterday after acquiring slugger Mark Teixeira.
THT Links represents the best efforts of our editors in scouring the various tubes of the interweb for both relevant and irrelevant news items. If you have happened upon a story that we have overlooked or wish to give feedback of any sort, please notify us at THT Links.
Player News
Player Headlines are courtesy of RotoworldThe Twins have postponed Thursday's game against the Royals due to a bridge collapsing on Interstate 35 on Wednesday. At least three people are dead as a result of the bridge collaspe. Tonight's game is going on as scheduled, but Thursday's scheduled duel between Odalis Perez and Johan Santana will have to be made up later.
Buddy Bell said Wednesday that he'll retire at the end of the season. Bell said he hasn't felt any pressure from the organization to step down. "It started last year when I got sick," said Bell, who underwent surgery in September to remove a cancerous growth in his throat. He's hoping to remain with the Royals in another position. Braves hitting coach Terry Pendleton, who has a relationship with Royals GM Dayton Moore from their time together in Atlanta, could be the favorite to replace Bell.
Brewers optioned second baseman Rickie Weeks to Triple-A Nashville. Weeks will be back in September, but the Brewers seem to be pretty much giving up on him for the rest of 2007 with this move. Weeks was just 7-for-46 last month, and he hasn't homered since April, when he had five of them. His wrist just won't allow him to drive the ball right now. The Brewers will go with Tony Graffanino and Craig Counsell at second base, possibly for the rest of the season.
Mark Teixeira paid instant dividends for Atlanta, homering and driving in four runs to lead Atlanta to another slaughter of Houston on Wednesday, 12-3. He drew a bases-loaded walk to get things going for the Braves, then turned the game into a laugher with his three-run blast in the sixth. Teixeira scored twice and struck out twice in his Atlanta debut.
Gary Sheffield will see a doctor in Detroit for an examination of his sore right shoulder. Sheffield's injury has turned into a major source of concern. If he needs to go on the DL, Ryan Raburn would take over in the outfield, at least until Marcus Thames returns.
Yesterday’s Results
American League BOS 5 BAL 4 (Recap and Boxscore) NYA 8 CHA 1 (Recap and Boxscore) TB 6 TOR 2 (Recap and Boxscore) TEX 9 CLE 6 (Recap and Boxscore) KC 5 MIN 3 (Recap and Boxscore) OAK 3 DET 2 (Recap and Boxscore) SEA 8 LAA 7 (Recap and Boxscore) National League ATL 12 HOU 3 (Recap and Boxscore) FLA 4 COL 3 (Recap and Boxscore) WAS 7 CIN 2 (Recap and Boxscore) CHN 5 PHI 4 (Recap and Boxscore) NYN 8 MIL 5 (Recap and Boxscore) PIT 15 STL 1 (Recap and Boxscore) LAN 6 SF 4 (Recap and Boxscore) ARI 9 SD 5 (Recap and Boxscore)
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Today’s Games
National League --------------- St. Louis Cardinals at Pittsburgh Pirates, 12:35 PM (R) Anthony Reyes (1-10) vs. (L) Shane Youman (2-3) New York Mets at Milwaukee Brewers, 2:05 PM (R) Brian Lawrence (0-0) vs. (L) Chris Capuano (5-7) Philadelphia Phillies at Chicago Cubs, 2:20 PM (R) Kyle Lohse (6-12) vs. (L) Sean Marshall (5-4) Arizona Diamondbacks at San Diego Padres, 3:35 PM (R) Yusmeiro Petit (2-2) vs. (R) Jake Peavy (10-5) Colorado Rockies at Florida Marlins, 7:05 PM (R) Jason Hirsh (4-7) vs. (R) Rick Vanden Hurk (3-2) Cincinnati Reds at Washington Nationals, 7:05 PM (L) Phil Dumatrait (0-0) vs. (L) Mike Bacsik (4-6) Houston Astros at Atlanta Braves, 7:35 PM (R) Woody Williams (5-12) vs. (L) Jo-Jo Reyes (0-1) San Francisco Giants at Los Angeles Dodgers, 10:10 PM (L) Barry Zito (7-10) vs. (R) Brett Tomko (2-8) American League --------------- Texas Rangers at Cleveland Indians, 12:05 PM (L) Kason Gabbard (4-0) vs. (R) Jake Westbrook (1-6) Chicago White Sox at New York Yankees, 1:05 PM (R) Jon Garland (8-7) vs. (R) Roger Clemens (3-5) Baltimore Orioles at Boston Red Sox, 1:05 PM (R) Jeremy Guthrie (7-3) vs. (R) Tim Wakefield (12-9) Kansas City Royals at Minnesota Twins, 1:10 PM - POSTPONED (L) Odalis Perez (6-9) vs. (L) Johan Santana (11-8) LA Angels of Anaheim at Oakland Athletics, 10:05 PM (L) Joe Saunders (4-0) vs. (R) Chad Gaudin (8-6)
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 65 42 .607 0.0 66 -1NYA 58 49 .542 7.0 66 -8
TOR 53 54 .495 12.0 56 -3
BAL 50 56 .472 14.5 54 -4
TB 41 66 .383 24.0 39 2
American League Central DET 61 46 .570 0.0 61 0
CLE 60 47 .561 1.0 58 2
MIN 55 52 .514 6.0 56 -1
CHA 48 59 .449 13.0 43 5
KC 48 59 .449 13.0 51 -3
American League West LAA 62 44 .585 0.0 59 3
SEA 59 47 .557 3.0 53 6
OAK 51 57 .472 12.0 55 -4
TEX 48 59 .449 14.5 49 -1
National League East Pwins Diff NYN 60 47 .561 0.0 58 2
ATL 57 51 .528 3.5 59 -2
PHI 56 51 .523 4.0 57 -1
FLA 50 58 .463 10.5 51 -1
WAS 47 60 .439 13.0 43 4
National League Central CHN 57 49 .538 0.0 60 -3
MIL 58 50 .537 0.0 58 0
STL 50 54 .481 6.0 43 7
HOU 46 61 .430 11.5 46 0
CIN 45 63 .417 13.0 48 -3
PIT 43 62 .410 13.5 44 -1
National League West ARI 60 49 .550 0.0 52 8
LAN 58 49 .542 1.0 57 1
SD 56 50 .528 2.5 57 -1
COL 54 52 .509 4.5 54 0
SF 46 59 .438 12.0 51 -5
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, with a focus on each team’s top prospects.ORG LVL PLAYER AB H 2B 3B HR BB SO Notes SEA AAA Adam Jones........ 3 3 1 0 1 1 0 CIN AAA Jay Bruce......... 5 3 0 0 1 0 1 STL AA Colby Rasmus...... 3 3 0 0 2 2 0 3 R LA AAA Andy LaRoche...... 4 1 0 0 1 0 1 ARI AA Carlos Gonzalez... 3 2 1 0 0 0 0 LAA AAA Terry Evans....... 6 3 2 1 0 0 1 3 R BAL A Billy Rowell...... 2 1 0 0 1 1 1 WAN A+ C. Marrero........ 3 2 0 0 2 1 1 CLE AA Ryan Goleski...... 5 3 0 0 1 0 1 ATL AAA B. Lillibridge.... 3 3 0 0 1 0 0 COL A+ Eric Young........ 4 3 1 0 0 1 1 PIT AA Andrew McCutchen.. 3 1 0 0 1 0 1 ORG LVL PLAYER IP H R ER SO BB HR Notes DET AA Jair Jurrjens..... 9 3 0 0 10 0 0 BOS AAA Clay Buchholz..... 6 5 2 2 9 0 1 CIN AA Matthew Maloney... 7 6 1 1 10 1 0 BOS A- Jose Capellan..... 6 2 0 0 7 0 0 CLE AAA Jeremy Sowers..... 6 4 2 1 3 1 0 CIN AAA Johnny Cueto...... 6 2 0 0 4 0 0 CHW A+ Kyle McCulloch.... 6 0 0 0 4 1 0 MIL A Jeremy Jeffress... 6 4 1 1 5 0 0 CIN A Alexander Smit.... 7 5 0 0 4 1 0 MIN AA Oswaldo Sosa...... 7 6 3 1 6 1 1 COL A Aneury Rodriguez.. 5 6 3 1 7 2 0 9 GB WAN A Jhonny Nunez...... 6 4 2 2 5 2 1
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Matthew Carruth is an editor for The Hardball Times. He welcomes any and all sorts of communication at his email.