THT Daily: Premature Choking

by Matthew Carruth
September 20, 2008

Major League News for September 20

Player News
Yesterday’s Results
Today’s Games
Standings

You can always find the most recent THT Daily at http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/content/thtdaily/

Player News

Player Headlines are courtesy of Rotoworld
Joe Blanton revealed Friday that he pitched through biceps tendinitis during the month of August.
Blanton is 2-0 with a 4.53 ERA in 11 starts as a member of the Phillies, but he had a stretch of rough starts beginnng on August 13 that can probably be blamed on the tendinitis. "Any time you're not comfortable, you try to do different stuff," pitching coach Rich Dubee said. "You try to correct it and you compound the problem."

Milton Bradley says he will seek a multi-year deal this offseason.
Bradley is finishing up the best season of his career. "I just know I deserve to quit getting these one-year deals," he said. "I need to have a long-term contract. I'm not just a rent-a-player for one year. I'm looking for fair value. I'm one of the better hitters in the game, and .320 hitters with .440 on-base percentages don't grow on trees, so you need to take advantage of it when you got it." Rangers' brass began contract talks with the 30-year-old's agent back in July, but no deal came close to satisfying him. He would probably prefer to DH with an American League club.

Jack Cust fanned twice Friday to break the AL single-season record for strikeouts.
We always knew Cust would do great things if he got his chance. Cust is up to 187 strikeouts, giving him one more than Rob Deer had for the Brewers in 1987. Despite having the AL record all to himself, Cust is third in baseball in strikeouts this season. Ryan Howard and Mark Reynolds both have 192.

Fausto Carmona was one of four player ejected from Friday's game against the Tigers after a benches-clearing incident in the seventh inning.
Carmona hit Gary Sheffield with a pitch and later exchanged words with the volatile DH after a pickoff throw to first base. Sheffield charged the mound, and there were several punches exchanged after the benches cleared. With a suspension looming, Carmona might have thrown his last pitch of the season. He gave up four runs in 5 1/3 innings tonight.

Red Sox placed RHP Bartolo Colon on the suspended list.
Whatever it takes for a World Series ring? Hardly. Colon didn't want to pitch in relief, so it seems that his Red Sox career is over. He's already gone home to the Dominican Republic.

Shaun Marcum will undergo Tommy John surgery and could miss all of 2009.
Maybe it would have happened anyway, but it needs to be remembered that the Jays had Marcum back pitching in games within a month when he went down with a sore elbow earlier this season and kept running him out there despite clearly diminished velocity and poor command, two signs that he was still injured. While it's hard to argue with the results the Jays have had on the mound lately, this is the third young pitcher they've had go down with a major arm injury in the last year. Dustin McGowan and Casey Janssen were the others.

Yesterday’s Results

American League
NYA     3  BAL     2    (Recap and Boxscore)
TB     11  MIN     1    (Recap and Boxscore)
BOS     4  TOR     3    (Recap and Boxscore)
CLE     6  DET     5    (Recap and Boxscore)
CHA     9  KC      4    (Recap and Boxscore)
OAK     2  SEA     0    (Recap and Boxscore)
LAA    15  TEX    13    (Recap and Boxscore)

National League
NYN     9  ATL     5    (Recap and Boxscore)
FLA    14  PHI     8    (Recap and Boxscore)
SD     11  WAS     6    (Recap and Boxscore)
STL    12  CHN     6    (Recap and Boxscore)
CIN    11  MIL     2    (Recap and Boxscore)
HOU     5  PIT     1    (Recap and Boxscore)
COL     3  ARI     2    (Recap and Boxscore)
SF      7  LAN     1    (Recap and Boxscore)

Today’s Games

National League
 ---------------
 St. Louis Cardinals at Chicago Cubs, 3:55 PM
  (R) Joel Pineiro (6-6) vs. (L) Ted Lilly (15-9)
 Milwaukee Brewers at Cincinnati Reds, 3:55 PM
  (L) CC Sabathia (9-1) vs. (R) Johnny Cueto (8-13)
 Houston Astros at Pittsburgh Pirates, 7:05 PM
  (R) Brian Moehler (11-7) vs. (R) Jimmy Barthmaier (0-1)
 San Diego Padres at Washington Nationals, 7:10 PM
  (R) Chris Young (5-6) vs. (L) John Lannan (9-13)
 Philadelphia Phillies at Florida Marlins, 7:10 PM
  (R) Joe Blanton (2-0) vs. (R) Anibal Sanchez (2-4)
 New York Mets at Atlanta Braves, 7:10 PM
  (R) Pedro Martinez (5-5) vs. (R) Jorge Campillo (7-7)
 Arizona Diamondbacks at Colorado Rockies, 8:05 PM
  (L) Doug Davis (6-8) vs. (R) Aaron Cook (16-9)
 San Francisco Giants at Los Angeles Dodgers, 10:10 PM
  (R) Brad Hennessey (1-2) vs. (R) Hiroki Kuroda (9-10)
 
 American League
 ---------------
 Baltimore Orioles at New York Yankees, 1:05 PM
  (L) Brian Burres (7-9) vs. (R) Alfredo Aceves (1-0)
 Boston Red Sox at Toronto Blue Jays, 1:07 PM
  (L) Jon Lester (15-5) vs. (R) Roy Halladay (18-11)
 Minnesota Twins at Tampa Bay Rays, 3:55 PM
  (R) Kevin Slowey (12-10) vs. (L) Scott Kazmir (11-7)
 Seattle Mariners at Oakland Athletics, 4:05 PM
  (R) Carlos Silva (4-15) vs. (R) Kirk Saarloos (1-0)
 Detroit Tigers at Cleveland Indians, 7:05 PM
  (R) Justin Verlander (10-16) vs. (L) Jeremy Sowers (3-8)
 Chicago White Sox at Kansas City Royals, 7:10 PM
  (R) Gavin Floyd (16-7) vs. (R) Kyle Davies (7-7)
 LA Angels of Anaheim at Texas Rangers, 8:05 PM
  (R) Dustin Moseley (2-4) vs. (R) Vicente Padilla (13-7)

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
TB      91  61 .599    0.0   86     5    
BOS     90  63 .588    1.5   92    -2    
NYA     83  71 .539    9.0   81     2    
TOR     82  72 .532   10.0   87    -5    
BAL     67  85 .441   24.0   70    -3    
American League Central     
CHA     85  68 .556    0.0   85     0    
MIN     83  71 .539    2.5   85    -2    
CLE     76  77 .497    9.0   80    -4    
DET     71  81 .467   13.5   75    -4    
KC      69  85 .448   16.5   66     3    
American League West        
LAA     94  59 .614    0.0   83    11    
TEX     75  79 .487   19.5   70     5    
OAK     72  81 .471   22.0   73    -1    
SEA     57  96 .373   37.0   62    -5    


National League East        Pwins  Diff
NYN     86  67 .562    0.0   86     0    
PHI     86  68 .558    0.5   88    -2    
FLA     81  72 .529    5.0   77     4    
ATL     67  87 .435   19.5   74    -7    
WAS     58  96 .377   28.5   60    -2    
National League Central     
CHN     92  60 .605    0.0   94    -2    
MIL     84  70 .545    9.0   82     2    
HOU     81  72 .529   11.5   73     8    
STL     80  73 .523   12.5   80     0    
CIN     71  82 .464   21.5   69     2    
PIT     64  90 .416   29.0   63     1    
National League West        
LAN     80  74 .519    0.0   81    -1    
ARI     76  77 .497    3.5   78    -2    
COL     71  83 .461    9.0   70     1    
SF      69  85 .448   11.0   66     3    
SD      59  95 .383   21.0   65    -6