THT Daily: Pitching Gems
by Matthew CarruthMay 15, 2007
Major League News for May 15
LinksPlayer News
Yesterday’s Results
Today’s Games
Standings
Top Minor League Performances
Stats
Links
Who is Jason Bergmann? - Being an AL guy, I don't really follow the senior circuit that much, so I hadn't even heard of this guy until just now. One of those feel good, untouted low minors player goes from rags to riches ones though. Federal Baseball goes over his professional career.
Hot Start - Is Jeff Francouer for real? JC Bradbury takes a look.
The Voice on the TV - You know Michael Kay the broadcaster. But do you know Michael Kay the guy who has never had soup because the slurping sound is "grotesque"? A strange encounter with the voice of the Yankees.
Grade A - Marc Hulet of Baseball Analysts takes a look at the best teams in Single-A. Good news for fans of the Indians, Red Sox and Royals.
42 - Life's most important question: Should I blow my waiver position to pick up ________ in my fantasy league? Roto Authority considers Scott Baker.
Rerun - Rich Harden feels good about his rehab and is on track to return soon. I wonder if Susan Slusser (who does a great job) has a macro for that in Word.
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 news items are provided by RotoworldGreg Maddux threw a five-hitter for his first complete game since 2005 in Monday's 7-1 win over the Reds.
The curse of Edwin Encarnacion remains in effect. Maddux retired the first 16 batters he faced in his 109th career complete game. He kept the shutout going until there were two outs in the ninth, when Ken Griffey Jr. had a sac fly. Brandon Phillips struck out to end it as Maddux moved to 3-2 with a 3.20 ERA.
Daisuke Matsuzaka, who had 72 complete games in Japan, got his first in the U.S. in Monday's 7-1 win over the Tigers.
Curtis Granderson's third-inning homer was the only damage. Dice-K allowed six hits, walked none and struck out five in a 124-pitch outing. It's the first time this year he's thrown 120 pitches. Considering that he was working on four days' rest and will do the same again Saturday, it's kind of surprising the Red Sox let him go the distance. The victory improved Matszuaka's record to 5-2. He's lowered his ERA from 5.45 to 4.17 with back-to-back strong showings.
According to Skip Caray, John Smoltz suffered a dislocated pinkie on his pitching hand making a tag in Monday's game.
It'd be good news if it's just dislocated. However, with a dislocation could come tendon damage. That's what's going to keep Joel Zumaya sidelined for three months. We might know tomorrow how much time Smoltz will miss. If the Braves need to replace him, they could bring back Mark Redman without having him make another rehab start.
Jason Bergmann threw no-hit ball for seven innings before Brian McCann took him yard, and he he wound up winning his first game of the season Monday as Washington edged Atlanta 2-1.
With John Patterson and Shawn Hill each on the DL, Bergmann is the de facto ace of the Nats' staff, and -- for a night anyways -- pitched like it. He lasted eight-plus innings, giving up a mere two hits, while striking out 10 and walking one. Bergmann, a full-time reliever until the Nats got desperate a year ago, lowered his ERA to an eye-catching 2.76. If he can show this kind of command more often, he'll really be on to something. Still, he's likely to be a long-term reliever.
The Rangers aren't sure when Kevin Millwood will pitch again after he left Monday's game in the second inning.
Millwood aggravated his left hamstring. "I kind of misstepped, actually to the first batter in the game," he said. "It got sorer as I went on. In the second inning, I couldn't get out over my front leg. It's not easy to pitch that way." The Rangers may place Millwood back on the DL.
Troy Glaus is playing third base and batting fifth Monday against the Orioles.
Very surprising news. Glaus said he felt a pop in his foot when he left Friday's game, and even yesterday, the Jays said it'd be a couple of more days before he had any chance of playing. It's still unlikely that we've heard the last of this injury.
Yesterday’s Results
American League BOS 7 DET 1 (Recap and Boxscore) TOR 5 BAL 3 (Recap and Boxscore) KC 2 OAK 1 (Recap and Boxscore) LAA 7 TEX 2 (Recap and Boxscore) National League NYN 5 CHN 4 (Recap and Boxscore) PHI 8 MIL 6 (Recap and Boxscore) WAS 2 ATL 1 (Recap and Boxscore) PIT 7 FLA 0 (Recap and Boxscore) STL 8 LAN 4 (Recap and Boxscore) SD 7 CIN 1 (Recap and Boxscore)
Today’s Games
National League --------------- Atlanta Braves at Washington Nationals, 7:05 PM (R) Tim Hudson (4-1) vs. (R) Jerome Williams (0-4) Florida Marlins at Pittsburgh Pirates, 7:05 PM (R) Sergio Mitre (0-2) vs. (L) Paul Maholm (2-4) Milwaukee Brewers at Philadelphia Phillies, 7:05 PM (R) Claudio Vargas (3-0) vs. (R) Adam Eaton (3-3) Chicago Cubs at New York Mets, 7:10 PM (R) Carlos Zambrano (3-3) vs. (R) John Maine (5-0) San Francisco Giants at Houston Astros, 8:05 PM (R) Matt Morris (4-1) vs. (R) Woody Williams (1-5) Arizona Diamondbacks at Colorado Rockies, 8:35 PM (L) Randy Johnson (0-2) vs. (R) Jason Hirsh (2-3) Cincinnati Reds at San Diego Padres, 10:05 PM (R) Aaron Harang (5-1) vs. (L) David Wells (1-2) St. Louis Cardinals at Los Angeles Dodgers, 10:10 PM (R) Adam Wainwright (3-2) vs. (R) Derek Lowe (3-4) American League --------------- Detroit Tigers at Boston Red Sox, 7:05 PM (R) Justin Verlander (3-1) vs. (R) Tim Wakefield (4-3) Minnesota Twins at Cleveland Indians, 7:05 PM (R) Ramon Ortiz (3-3) vs. (R) Paul Byrd (2-1) Baltimore Orioles at Toronto Blue Jays, 7:07 PM (R) Daniel Cabrera (3-3) vs. (R) Jesse Litsch (0-0) Texas Rangers at Tampa Bay Devil Rays, 7:10 PM (R) Brandon McCarthy (3-4) vs. (R) James Shields (3-0) New York Yankees at Chicago White Sox, 8:11 PM (R) Mike Mussina (2-1) vs. (L) John Danks (1-4) Kansas City Royals at Oakland Athletics, 10:05 PM (R) Brian Bannister (0-2) vs. (L) Joe Kennedy (1-2) LA Angels of Anaheim at Seattle Mariners, 10:05 PM (R) Kelvim Escobar (4-1) vs. (R) Felix Hernandez (2-1)
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 BOS 26 11 .703 0.0 26 0NYA 17 19 .472 8.5 20 -3
BAL 18 21 .462 9.0 18 0
TOR 16 22 .421 10.5 17 -1
TB 15 22 .405 11.0 13 2
American League Central DET 23 14 .622 0.0 20 3
CLE 21 14 .600 1.0 19 2
CHA 18 16 .529 3.5 16 2
MIN 18 19 .486 5.0 20 -2
KC 13 26 .333 11.0 14 -1
American League West LAA 22 17 .564 0.0 22 0
SEA 17 16 .515 2.0 15 2
OAK 19 18 .514 2.0 22 -3
TEX 15 23 .395 6.5 16 -1
National League East Pwins Diff NYN 24 13 .649 0.0 24 0
ATL 24 14 .632 0.5 21 3
PHI 18 20 .474 6.5 20 -2
FLA 16 22 .421 8.5 17 -1
WAS 13 25 .342 11.5 12 1
National League Central MIL 25 13 .658 0.0 23 2
HOU 18 19 .486 6.5 19 -1
CHN 17 19 .472 7.0 21 -4
PIT 17 20 .459 7.5 15 2
STL 16 20 .444 8.0 13 3
CIN 15 24 .385 10.5 19 -4
National League West LAN 23 16 .590 0.0 23 0
SD 21 18 .538 2.0 23 -2
SF 19 18 .514 3.0 20 -1
ARI 20 19 .513 3.0 18 2
COL 16 22 .421 6.5 14 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 AAA Andy Marte........ 4 4 0 0 1 0 0 3 LD ARI AA Justin Upton...... 3 1 0 0 1 1 1 ARI AA Carlos Gonzalez... 4 2 1 0 0 0 1 SEA AAA Adam Jones........ 3 1 0 0 0 2 0 3 R TB AA Evan Longoria..... 4 3 0 0 1 1 0 3 R ARI AAA Danny Richar...... 5 4 0 1 1 1 0 3 R CIN AA Cody Strait....... 6 3 1 0 1 0 0 3 R OAK AAA Kurt Suzuki....... 4 1 0 0 1 1 0 STL AAA Nick Stavinoha.... 4 2 1 0 1 1 0 4 RBI TB AA John Jaso......... 5 3 0 0 1 0 0 4 RBI CHC AAA Felix Pie......... 4 2 0 0 1 0 0 ARI AAA Alex Romero....... 6 4 0 0 1 0 0 4 RBI ORG LVL PLAYER IP H R ER SO BB HR Notes TB AAA A. Sonnanstine.... 7 2 1 1 10 2 1 COL A+ Chaz Roe.......... 8 3 1 0 7 1 0 ARI A+ Brooks Brown...... 7 5 2 2 6 0 0 BOS AAA Kason Gabbard..... 5 2 1 0 7 1 0 BAL A Pedro Beato....... 5 3 2 2 5 2 0 KC A Brent Fisher...... 5 1 0 0 3 1 0 ARI A Anthony Barnette.. 6 7 5 5 7 1 1 KC AA Carlos Rosa....... 5 5 2 2 3 1 0 LAA A+ Stephen Marek..... 6 7 5 5 5 3 0 HOU AA Felipe Paulino.... 4 4 2 1 3 1 0 HOU AAA Juan Gutierrez.... 6 5 4 4 4 0 2 CHW AA Gio Gonzalez...... 5 4 2 2 4 2 1
THT Stats
Access all of THT’s stats here…
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Matthew Carruth is an editor for The Hardball Times. He welcomes any and all sorts of communication at his email.