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THT Daily: KC Sweepsby Matthew CarruthJune 28, 2007 Major League News for June 28Today’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 LinksThe long ball - Beyond the Box Score looks at the friendliest home run ballparks this season. Ballot stuffing - This is the last day to vote for All-Star Game starters at MLB.com. Go vote for your favorites! Rise of the ancient Mariner - I expected the Mariners to be decent but not great this season; they're definitely doing better than decent, having just swept the Red Sox. Here's Dave Cameron's look at why. Cover your eyes, Walt - Daric Barton is 45 for his last 90 down at Triple-A, and could be called up to help the moribund A's offense. He's one of the better hitters left in the upper minors at this point, so fantasy owners take note. 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 NewsPlayer Headlines are courtesy of RotoworldRyan Howard hit his 100th career homer Wednesday, breaking Ralph Kiner's record for the least amount of games to reach the century mark. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Howard's three-run blast, that broke up a scoreless game in the fifth, gave him 100 homers in 325 career games -- 60 less games than it took Pirate great Kiner to hit the plateau in the late 40s. Howard is batting .256 and has driven in 56 runs -- 43 of them in the last 36 games. According to the Chicago Sun-Times, the White Sox have pulled Mark Buehrle off the trading block and may be close to signing him to a long-term contract extension. The newspaper reports that both sides had a change of heart this week after indications were that the pending free agent would leave following the season if he wasn't traded first. If the White Sox indeed lock up Buehrle long term, they could look to trade Jose Contreras or Javier Vazquez instead. According to Newsday, the Yankees are engaged in serious talks with the Angels regarding a Shea Hillenbrand deal. It'd be great news for the rest of the AL contenders if bringing in Hillenbrand is all the Yankees do to address their problems at first base. He could prove to be an upgrade over Andy Phillips, but there are no shortage of better choices out there. Hillenbrand was informed Wednesday that the Angels will designate him for assignment on Friday. Curt Schilling (shoulder) won't resume throwing this week, seemingly ruling out a return before the All-Star break. "Basically the program stays what it is and he will be reevaluated on Monday at home, with the hope that things are progressing to the point where he can throw," manager Terry Francona said. "He can throw now, but I think they want him to reach certain levels with testing. All the things we said the other day remain true. We want him to be able to finish the season being a consistent, good pitcher. That's why we're trying to use good judgment." Schilling hasn't been very happy about management's decision to baby him, but it'll probably work out for the best. Kason Gabbard will make at least one more start in his place. Randy Johnson (back) will come off the disabled list and face the Dodgers on Thursday. Johnson was cleared to go after experiencing no problems Tuesday following Monday's simulated game. "Today was a big day," he said. "I didn't feel that bad, relatively speaking. It's nothing that I haven't felt already -- last year when I was pitching or earlier this year." Johnson is fine to activate in fantasy leagues for tomorrow's start, but it sounds like he might need another stint on the DL in order to get through the rest of the season. "I don't know how much longer I can pitch with it," Johnson said. "So I'm going in with a positive frame of mind. I'll go as hard as I can as long as I can. When I was in New York, I pitched through a lot of discomfort." Yesterday’s ResultsAmerican League BAL 4 NYA 0 (Recap and Boxscore) Bedard: 7 IP, 0 R CHA 5 TB 3 (Recap and Boxscore) OAK 13 CLE 7 (Recap and Boxscore) Cust: HR, 5 RBI TOR 5 MIN 4 (Recap and Boxscore) KC 1 LAA 0 (Recap and Boxscore) KC sweeps LAA; De La Rosa: 6 IP, 10 H, 0 R SEA 2 BOS 1 (Recap and Boxscore) 11 innings; Matsuzaka: 8 IP, 1 R National League ATL 13 WAS 0 (Recap and Boxscore) Escobar: 4-5, 2 2B PIT 7 FLA 5 (Recap and Boxscore) 10 innings; Nady: 2 HR, incl. GW NYN 2 STL 0 (Recap and Boxscore) 6 inning game; Glavine: 1 H CIN 9 PHI 6 (Recap and Boxscore) CHN 6 COL 4 (Recap and Boxscore) Fontenot batting .408 in 76 PA MIL 6 HOU 3 (Recap and Boxscore) 11 innings; Miller: GW HR ARI 2 LAN 0 (Recap and Boxscore) Webb: 7 IP, 0 R SD 4 SF 2 (Recap and Boxscore) Maddux: 7 IP, 1 R
Today’s GamesNational League --------------- Pittsburgh Pirates at Florida Marlins, 12:05 PM (L) Zach Duke (3-6) vs. (L) Scott Olsen (5-6) Los Angeles Dodgers at Arizona Diamondbacks, 6:40 PM (L) Randy Wolf (8-6) vs. (L) Randy Johnson (4-2) Cincinnati Reds at Philadelphia Phillies, 7:05 PM (R) Matt Belisle (5-5) vs. (R) Adam Eaton (7-5) St. Louis Cardinals at New York Mets, 7:10 PM (R) Adam Wainwright (6-6) vs. (R) Orlando Hernandez (3-3) Colorado Rockies at Houston Astros, 8:05 PM (R) Aaron Cook (4-5) vs. (R) Roy Oswalt (7-5) American League --------------- Oakland Athletics at Cleveland Indians, 12:05 PM (R) Joe Blanton (7-4) vs. (R) Paul Byrd (6-3) Texas Rangers at Detroit Tigers, 1:05 PM (R) Kevin Millwood (4-6) vs. (L) Kenny Rogers (1-0) Toronto Blue Jays at Minnesota Twins, 1:10 PM (R) AJ Burnett (5-6) vs. (R) Carlos Silva (5-8) New York Yankees at Baltimore Orioles, 7:05 PM (R) Chien-Ming Wang (7-4) vs. (R) Daniel Cabrera (6-8) Chicago White Sox at Tampa Bay Devil Rays, 7:10 PM (R) Javier Vazquez (3-5) vs. (L) Scott Kazmir (5-3) 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 48 29 .623 0.0 47 1 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, with a focus on each team’s top prospects.ORG LVL PLAYER AB H 2B 3B HR BB SO Notes PIT A+ James Boone....... 5 4 2 0 2 0 0 5 RBI ! TEX A+ C. Davis.......... 5 3 1 0 2 0 1 6 RBI ! CIN AAA Joey Votto........ 4 2 0 0 1 1 1 SEA AAA W. Balentien...... 4 2 0 0 2 0 0 TEX AAA Jason Botts....... 4 3 2 0 0 1 1 ARI AAA Alberto Callaspo.. 4 2 2 0 0 2 0 OAK AAA Daric Barton...... 3 2 0 0 1 0 0 OAK A- Matthew Sulentic.. 4 1 1 0 0 2 0 FLA A+ Gaby Sanchez...... 4 2 2 0 0 1 1 4 RBI COL A Daniel Mayora..... 5 3 1 0 1 0 1 CHW AAA Ryan Sweeney...... 2 1 0 0 1 2 0 SEA AAA Bryan LaHair...... 4 3 2 0 0 0 1 ORG LVL PLAYER IP H R ER SO BB HR Notes DET AA Jair Jurrjens..... 7 5 1 1 9 0 0 HOU AAA Juan Gutierrez.... 8 4 2 1 6 1 0 15 GB CHC AA Donald Veal....... 5 2 1 1 11 4 1 MIN A Alex Burnett...... 7 4 0 0 6 2 0 SF A Adam Cowart....... 6 5 3 1 4 1 0 ATL AAA Jo-Jo Reyes....... 6 7 3 3 7 2 1 MIN AA Kyle Waldrop...... 5 3 0 0 3 1 0 9 GB SF AAA Patrick Misch..... 3 1 0 0 4 0 0 ATL A Jamie Richmond.... 6 6 1 0 4 2 0 13 GB NYY A+ Kevin Whelan...... 4 1 0 0 2 1 0 7 OF STL AAA Mike Parisi....... 8 7 3 3 2 2 0 WAN A+ Clint Everts...... 2 0 0 0 4 1 0 Access 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: The best unemployed GM in baseball>> <<Previous Article: Streaking | |||||
TOR 39 38 .506 9.0 40 -1 
NYA 36 39 .480 11.0 43 -7 
BAL 34 43 .442 14.0 38 -4 
TB 33 43 .434 14.5 30 3 
American League Central
DET 45 31 .592 0.0 47 -2 
CLE 45 32 .584 0.5 43 2 
MIN 39 37 .513 6.0 40 -1 
CHA 32 42 .432 12.0 31 1 
KC 33 46 .418 13.5 34 -1 
American League West
LAA 49 30 .620 0.0 46 3 
SEA 42 33 .560 5.0 38 4 
OAK 40 37 .519 8.0 42 -2 
TEX 32 45 .416 16.0 35 -3 
National League East Pwins Diff
NYN 43 33 .566 0.0 42 1 
ATL 41 38 .519 3.5 39 2 
PHI 40 37 .519 3.5 38 2 
FLA 36 42 .462 8.0 36 0 
WAS 32 46 .410 12.0 28 4 
National League Central
MIL 46 32 .590 0.0 43 3 
CHN 38 39 .494 7.5 42 -4 
STL 34 41 .453 10.5 30 4 
PIT 33 44 .429 12.5 32 1 
HOU 32 46 .410 14.0 34 -2 
CIN 30 48 .385 16.0 35 -5 
National League West
SD 44 33 .571 0.0 48 -4 
ARI 45 34 .570 0.0 40 5 
LAN 44 34 .564 0.5 42 2 
COL 38 40 .487 6.5 37 1 
SF 33 44 .429 11.0 38 -5 