THT Daily: Perfect is as perfect pitches
by Dave StudemanJuly 29, 2009
Major League News for July 29
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 RotoworldThe Seattle Times' Geoff Baker has "little doubt" that Jeff Clement will be traded after he was pulled from Triple-A Tacoma'a game on Tuesday.
Baker also thinks that Brandon Morrow could be a part of it. If the Mariners were to move those two in the same deal, it'd suggest that they're going for broke. Clement alone could be traded for another youngster capable of helping in 2010 and beyond. The Mariners have obviously soured on the 25-year-old Clement, who has yet to hit in the majors and still isn't much of a catcher.
Bartolo Colon was scratched from Wednesday night's start because of a sore right elbow.
His return to the rotation sure didn't last long. The White Sox were sending Clayton Richard back to the pen, but he'll remain a starter for now and likely pitch Friday. Jose Contreras will be moved up to start Wednesday.
Cole Hamels threw eight innings of one-run ball in a 4-3 win over the Diamondbacks on Tuesday night.
Hamels was excellent, shutting the Diamondbacks down after serving up a solo homer to Ryan Roberts in the first. He limited the D'Backs to just four hits, fanning nine and not walking a batter. He has won three straight decisions. Phillies fans will continue to drool over the possibilities of a Halladay-Hamels one-two punch.
According to MLB.com's Alyson Footer, Roy Oswalt will fly to Houston on Wednesday to meet with team physicians.
Oswalt suffered a lower left back strain Tuesday evening and had to depart from his start in the second inning. The Astros have already made plans to call up minor league hurler Bud Norris, so it appears Roy is headed for the disabled list.
The Rangers are calling Ian Kinsler day-to-day with a mild left hamstring strain.
Omar Vizquel will be in the lineup if Kinsler isn't ready to play on Wednesday.
Mark Buehrle broke a major league record by retiring 45 consecutive batters, but lost against the Twins on Tuesday night.
He passed the previous mark of 41, set by the Giants' Jim Barr in 1972 and reliever Bobby Jenks in 2007. Buehrle was perfect through five innings, prompting many think he was on his way to doing the unthinkable again, but the amazing run ended with a walk to Alexei Casilla with two outs in the sixth inning. Buehrle ended up allowing five runs over 6 1/3 innings, dropping to 11-4 on the year.
According to Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle, the Giants had a deal in place for Freddy Sanchez on Monday, but "wanted to hold off" over concerns about the second baseman's left knee.
Ken Rosenthal of FOXSports.com reported earlier Tuesday night that Giants team physicians examined Sanchez's knee. That sort of thing wouldn't have been allowed unless the teams were close to an agreement. The Giants are sure to spend time reviewing those test results before putting together a package of prospects. We'll keep you updated.
Matt Wieters had the first-four hit game of his career in an extra-inning loss to the Royals on Tuesday night.
The first of many, we're sure. He brought his batting average up from .254 to .273 in the span of one game. He contributed with an RBI single in the loss.
According to Gordon Edes of Yahoo! Sports, the Red Sox are ramping up their efforts to land Toronto ace Roy Halladay.
Clay Buchholz is being dangled as the centerpiece. The Jays have also been told they can pick from reliever Justin Masterson, Triple-A pitcher Michael Bowden, or Double-A first baseman Lars Anderson as the second player in the deal. A third prospect would also be included. It's the most aggressive offer we've seen yet, but still might not get the job done.
Yesterday’s Results
For the full scoop regarding yesterday's games, read "And That Happened" at Shysterball.American League KC 4 BAL 3 (Recap and Boxscore) OAK 9 BOS 8 (Recap and Boxscore) TB 6 NYA 2 (Recap and Boxscore) MIN 5 CHA 3 (Recap and Boxscore) LAA 7 CLE 6 (Recap and Boxscore) SEA 4 TOR 3 (Recap and Boxscore) TEX 7 DET 3 (Recap and Boxscore) National League FLA 4 ATL 3 (Recap and Boxscore) NYN 4 COL 0 (Recap and Boxscore) HOU 11 CHN 6 (Recap and Boxscore) SD 3 CIN 2 (Recap and Boxscore) WAS 8 MIL 3 (Recap and Boxscore) STL 10 LAN 0 (Recap and Boxscore) PHI 4 ARI 3 (Recap and Boxscore) SF 3 PIT 2 (Recap and Boxscore)Check out Fangraphs' scoreboard to see all the games in action.
Today’s Games
National League --------------- Houston Astros at Chicago Cubs, 2:20 PM (L) Mike Hampton (6-7) vs. (R) Randy Wells (6-4) Pittsburgh Pirates at San Francisco Giants, 3:45 PM (L) Zach Duke (9-9) vs. (R) Matt Cain (12-2) San Diego Padres at Cincinnati Reds, 7:10 PM (R) Mat Latos (1-1) vs. (R) Aaron Harang (5-11) Atlanta Braves at Florida Marlins, 7:10 PM (R) Kenshin Kawakami (5-7) vs. (R) Josh Johnson (9-2) Colorado Rockies at New York Mets, 7:10 PM (R) Jason Hammel (5-5) vs. (L) Johan Santana (11-8) Washington Nationals at Milwaukee Brewers, 8:05 PM (R) Garrett Mock (0-4) vs. (L) Manny Parra (4-8) Los Angeles Dodgers at St. Louis Cardinals, 8:15 PM (L) Clayton Kershaw (8-5) vs. (R) Joel Pineiro (9-9) Philadelphia Phillies at Arizona Diamondbacks, 9:40 PM (L) J.A. Happ (7-1) vs. (R) Yusmeiro Petit (0-5) American League --------------- Cleveland Indians at LA Angels of Anaheim, 3:35 PM (L) Aaron Laffey (4-2) vs. (R) John Lackey (6-4) Toronto Blue Jays at Seattle Mariners, 4:40 PM (R) Roy Halladay (11-3) vs. (L) Ryan Rowland-Smith (0-1) Kansas City Royals at Baltimore Orioles, 7:05 PM (R) Zack Greinke (10-6) vs. (R) Chris Tillman (0-0) New York Yankees at Tampa Bay Rays, 7:08 PM (R) Joba Chamberlain (6-2) vs. (R) Matt Garza (7-7) Oakland Athletics at Boston Red Sox, 7:10 PM (L) Brett Anderson (5-8) vs. (R) Brad Penny (7-4) Detroit Tigers at Texas Rangers, 8:05 PM (R) Justin Verlander (11-5) vs. (R) Scott Feldman (9-3) Chicago White Sox at Minnesota Twins, 8:10 PM (R) Jose Contreras (4-9) vs. (L) Francisco Liriano (4-10)
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 NYA 61 39 .610 0.0 57 4BOS 58 41 .586 2.5 58 0
TB 55 46 .545 6.5 57 -2
TOR 49 52 .485 12.5 55 -6
BAL 42 57 .424 18.5 43 -1
American League Central DET 52 47 .525 0.0 52 0
CHA 51 50 .505 2.0 50 1
MIN 51 50 .505 2.0 52 -1
CLE 42 59 .416 11.0 48 -6
KC 40 59 .404 12.0 39 1
American League West LAA 59 40 .596 0.0 54 5
TEX 56 42 .571 2.5 54 2
SEA 52 48 .520 7.5 45 7
OAK 42 57 .424 17.0 45 -3
National League East Pwins Diff PHI 58 40 .592 0.0 57 1
FLA 52 48 .520 7.0 49 3
ATL 51 49 .510 8.0 53 -2
NYN 48 51 .485 10.5 46 2
WAS 32 68 .320 27.0 40 -8
National League Central STL 55 48 .534 0.0 55 0
CHN 52 46 .531 0.5 51 1
HOU 51 49 .510 2.5 47 4
MIL 49 51 .490 4.5 47 2
CIN 45 54 .455 8.0 42 3
PIT 43 57 .430 10.5 47 -4
National League West LAN 62 38 .620 0.0 60 2
COL 54 46 .540 8.0 55 -1
SF 54 46 .540 8.0 53 1
ARI 43 58 .426 19.5 47 -4
SD 39 62 .386 23.5 35 4
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 STL AAA Jonathan Jay...... 6 5 1 0 1 0 0 4 R CIN AA Juan Francisco.... 6 3 1 0 1 0 1 SF AA Brandon Crawford.. 6 4 2 0 0 0 1 3 R TEX AAA Julio Borbon...... 5 4 0 1 0 0 0 TB AAA Matthew Joyce..... 4 2 1 0 1 0 1 OAK AA Josh Donaldson.... 3 2 0 0 1 1 0 PIT AA Pedro Alvarez..... 3 2 2 0 0 1 0 SF A+ Thomas Neal....... 5 3 2 0 0 0 1 HOU A+ Thomas Steele..... 4 3 1 1 0 0 0 LA A A. Delmonico...... 4 2 1 0 1 0 0 BAL AAA Brandon Snyder.... 4 3 0 1 0 0 0 3 LD PIT AAA L. Milledge....... 4 2 1 0 0 1 1 ORG LVL PLAYER IP H R ER SO BB HR Notes LAA AAA Sean O'Sullivan... 9 0 0 0 7 1 0 SD A Simon Castro...... 5 1 0 0 9 0 0 LAA AA Trevor Reckling... 7 1 0 0 9 4 0 LAA A+ Alexander Torres.. 8 5 0 0 6 2 0 17 GB CLE AA Jeanmar Gomez..... 7 4 2 2 8 0 2 MIN A+ Tyler Robertson... 7 7 3 3 6 1 0 MIL A+ Mark Rogers....... 4 0 0 0 4 0 0 BOS AAA Junichi Tazawa.... 6 3 2 1 3 0 0 SEA AA Daniel Cortes..... 6 5 0 0 6 2 0 SD A+ Nick Schmidt...... 6 4 0 0 5 2 0 ATL A+ Craig Kimbrel..... 2 1 0 0 5 0 0 SF A Eric Surkamp...... 3 1 1 0 4 0 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.
The most amazing thing about Buerhle’s streak is that he had all of one great defensive play and only a couple of above average ones behind him. He struck out only 9 of those 45 guys and got about 35 of the other 36 to hit easy grounders and weak fly balls right at people.
Wasn’t there a recent article on THT about whether or not pitchers can control BABIP?