THT Daily: NL Central drama
by Matthew CarruthAugust 17, 2007
Major League News for August 17
Today’s LinksPlayer News
Yesterday’s Results
Today’s Games
Standings
Top Minor League Performances
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THT Links
$91.5 Million - The Cubs and Carlos Zambrano agree to a five-year, $91.5 million contract. It includes a full no-trade clause and a sixth year player option for a little over $19 million. Teams do not learn.
Return Fire - Scott Olsen's agent retorts back to the media concerning David Samson's comments about Olsen. I'm not sure who's right and who's wrong but I think we can all agree to [expletive] David Samson.
The Physics of Baseball - That's the title of Alan Nathan's website which provides a wealth of information for the curious baseball fan including some good stuff on the Pitch/FX data.
Astros - The Astros are struggling mightily and need to rebuild. Here's how you fail in that regard. Lose your first two picks for signing Carlos Lee and Woody Williams and than don't sign your third or fourth round selections.
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 .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
Player News
Player Headlines are courtesy of RotoworldNationals GM Jim Bowden said Thursday that Nick Johnson will miss the rest of the season. It had been starting to look that way. Johnson's broken leg is supposed to be healed, but pain in his hip has proven to be too difficult of a setback for him to overcome. He's expected to undergo another surgery at some point, and there is concern about whether he'll be ready for the beginning of 2008. Don't think that Johnson's long-term outlook didn't play some role in the Nationals' decision to extend Dmitri Young.
David Wells is drawing interest from the Dodgers and Rockies after clearing waivers and becoming a free agent Thursday. Both teams should be willing to put him right in the rotation, and since that's the case, we imagine Wells would prefer staying close to San Diego and joining the Dodgers.
Commissioner Bud Selig announced that he will not take any disciplinary measures against Jason Giambi given his cooperation with Senator George Mitchell's investigation and his off-field charitable activities. How ridiculous. The only reason Selig didn't issue a suspension months ago is that he knew there was no way it'd hold up in front of an arbitrator. Everything else is merely politics. Giambi essentially admitted to using steroids in an interview earlier this year, but since he didn't pinpoint when it happened, there was never anything that could be done.
Yesterday’s Results
American League DET 8 NYA 5 (Recap and Boxscore) LAA 4 TOR 3 (Recap and Boxscore) OAK 8 CHA 5 (Recap and Boxscore) 10 innings KC 6 TEX 2 (Recap and Boxscore) National League SF 9 ATL 3 (Recap and Boxscore) ARI 5 FLA 4 (Recap and Boxscore) PHI 4 WAS 2 (Recap and Boxscore) CHN 12 CIN 4 (Recap and Boxscore) STL 8 MIL 0 (Recap and Boxscore) PIT 10 NYN 7 (Recap and Boxscore) LAN 6 HOU 2 (Recap and Boxscore) SD 11 COL 9 (Recap and Boxscore)
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Today’s Games
National League --------------- St. Louis Cardinals at Chicago Cubs, 2:20 PM (R) Braden Looper (10-9) vs. (L) Rich Hill (6-7) San Francisco Giants at Florida Marlins, 7:05 PM (L) Barry Zito (8-11) vs. (L) Scott Olsen (9-9) New York Mets at Washington Nationals, 7:05 PM (L) Tom Glavine (10-6) vs. (L) Matt Chico (5-6) Philadelphia Phillies at Pittsburgh Pirates, 7:05 PM (R) J.D. Durbin (4-2) vs. (L) Tom Gorzelanny (11-6) Arizona Diamondbacks at Atlanta Braves, 7:35 PM (R) Brandon Webb (12-8) vs. (R) Lance Cormier (0-2) Cincinnati Reds at Milwaukee Brewers, 8:05 PM (R) Bronson Arroyo (5-13) vs. (R) Jeff Suppan (8-9) Houston Astros at San Diego Padres, 10:05 PM (R) Woody Williams (6-12) vs. (R) Jake Peavy (13-5) Colorado Rockies at Los Angeles Dodgers, 10:40 PM (R) Josh Fogg (7-7) vs. (L) Eric Stults (0-1) American League --------------- LA Angels of Anaheim at Boston Red Sox, 1:05 PM (R) Ervin Santana (5-11) vs. (R) Clay Buchholz (0-0) LA Angels of Anaheim at Boston Red Sox, 7:05 PM (R) John Lackey (15-6) vs. (R) Josh Beckett (15-5) Detroit Tigers at New York Yankees, 7:05 PM (L) Nate Robertson (7-9) vs. (L) Andy Pettitte (9-7) Baltimore Orioles at Toronto Blue Jays, 7:07 PM (L) Garrett Olson (1-1) vs. (R) AJ Burnett (6-6) Cleveland Indians at Tampa Bay Devil Rays, 7:10 PM (R) Paul Byrd (10-5) vs. (R) Edwin Jackson (3-11) Texas Rangers at Minnesota Twins, 8:10 PM (L) Kason Gabbard (5-1) vs. (R) Carlos Silva (9-12) Kansas City Royals at Oakland Athletics, 10:05 PM (R) Brian Bannister (8-7) vs. (L) Dan Meyer (0-0) Chicago White Sox at Seattle Mariners, 10:05 PM (R) Jose Contreras (6-14) vs. (R) Miguel Batista (12-8)
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 72 48 .600 0.0 73 -1NYA 67 54 .554 5.5 74 -7
TOR 61 59 .508 11.0 64 -3
BAL 56 63 .471 15.5 60 -4
TB 46 74 .383 26.0 44 2
American League Central DET 67 54 .554 0.0 67 0
CLE 66 54 .550 0.5 64 2
MIN 60 60 .500 6.5 62 -2
CHA 54 66 .450 12.5 50 4
KC 53 67 .442 13.5 56 -3
American League West LAA 70 49 .588 0.0 67 3
SEA 66 52 .559 3.5 60 6
OAK 60 62 .492 11.5 63 -3
TEX 53 67 .442 17.5 54 -1
National League East Pwins Diff NYN 67 53 .558 0.0 65 2
PHI 64 56 .533 3.0 65 -1
ATL 64 57 .529 3.5 65 -1
FLA 56 65 .463 11.5 56 0
WAS 55 66 .455 12.5 51 4
National League Central MIL 62 59 .512 0.0 59 3
CHN 61 59 .508 0.5 65 -4
STL 58 60 .492 2.5 53 5
HOU 54 67 .446 8.0 54 0
CIN 52 68 .433 9.5 54 -2
PIT 50 69 .420 11.0 51 -1
National League West ARI 69 53 .566 0.0 58 11
SD 65 55 .542 3.0 67 -2
COL 62 58 .517 6.0 64 -2
LAN 62 59 .512 6.5 61 1
SF 51 70 .421 17.5 59 -8
Wildcard Standings American League SEA 66 52 .559 0.0 NYA 67 54 .554 0.5 CLE 66 54 .550 1.0 TOR 61 59 .508 6.0 MIN 60 60 .500 7.0 National League SD 65 55 .542 0.0 PHI 64 56 .533 1.0 ATL 64 57 .529 1.5 COL 62 58 .517 3.0 LAN 62 59 .512 3.5
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 NYY AAA Eric Duncan....... 4 3 2 0 1 0 1 PIT AAA Steven Pearce..... 5 3 1 0 2 0 0 6 RBI ! COL AAA Joseph Koshansky.. 3 3 0 0 1 0 0 ARI AAA Carlos Quentin.... 5 1 1 0 0 0 1 BAL AA Nolan Reimold..... 1 1 0 0 1 3 0 TB AAA Evan Longoria..... 3 1 0 0 1 1 0 TOR A Travis Snider..... 4 3 1 0 0 0 1 3 R SEA AAA Bryan LaHair...... 3 2 1 0 1 1 0 TB AA Chris Nowak....... 4 3 0 0 1 1 0 DET A Gorkys Hernandez.. 5 4 1 1 0 0 0 3 R ATL AA J.C. Holt......... 5 4 0 0 0 0 0 4 SB TOR A+ Anthony Hatch..... 4 3 0 0 1 0 0 ORG LVL PLAYER IP H R ER SO BB HR Notes KC AAA Luke Hochevar..... 6 6 2 2 6 1 1 TEX AAA Eric Hurley....... 7 3 1 1 6 2 0 MIN AAA Kevin Slowey...... 7 4 1 1 4 1 0 CHC AA Donald Veal....... 6 3 1 1 8 3 0 FLA A+ Ryan Tucker....... 6 2 0 0 6 2 0 SF AAA Jonathan Sanchez.. 4 3 0 0 5 0 0 MIN A Alex Burnett...... 6 2 0 0 5 0 0 MIN AA Anthony Swarzak... 6 6 2 2 5 0 1 12 OF NYM AA Kevin Mulvey...... 8 7 3 3 5 2 0 16 GB SEA A Anthony Butler.... 6 5 3 2 5 2 0 NYY AA Alan Horne........ 6 3 4 3 6 3 1 PIT AAA Bryan Bullington.. 8 6 1 1 6 2 1 15 GB
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Matthew Carruth is an editor for The Hardball Times. He welcomes any and all sorts of communication at his email.