THT Daily: Premature Choking
by Matthew CarruthSeptember 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 RotoworldJoe 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 5BOS 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
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.






 
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 