THT Daily: Questionable Endurance

by Matthew Carruth
September 14, 2008

Major League News for September 14

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
Tim Lincecum's first career complete game was a 138-pitch shutout of the Padres on Saturday.
Lincecum is an incredible pitcher. We're really hoping that's still the case in a few years, but we're becoming more skeptical every time Bruce Bochy sends him back out for that one extra inning. Does anyone really think the NL's ERA leader needs a confidence boost at this point? Why on earth send him back out to pitch the ninth in a 7-0 game when he's already thrown 118 pitches? He just threw 127 pitches on Monday. He had an 132-pitch outing on Aug. 27 (and followed it up with one of his worst starts of the year). Lincecum gave up two hits in the ninth tonight, bringing the Padres' total for the night up to four. He ended up striking out 12. It was an outstanding performance. However, it wouldn't have been any less impressive had he left after eight.

Francisco Rodriguez set a major league record Saturday by recording his 58th save, breaking Bobby Thigpen's mark of 57 from 1990.
K-Rod entered a 5-2 game against the AL's worst team, put two men on to start the inning and then retired the next three batters he faced to finish it. So, it was pretty much a typical night for him. K-Rod has done a fine job this year, but the major league record -- much like the ones Jimmy Rollins set for at-bats and plate appearances last year -- says more about his team than it does him. He's just an elite closer doing exactly what he's supposed to do with what's been an astounding number of opportunities. No matter how many more chances the Angels give him during the final two weeks, his 2004 and 2006 seasons will still stand out as the best years of his career.

Hanley Ramirez hit his 30th homer on Saturday, becoming the second 30-30 man in Marlins history and giving the Fish just the second infield ever with three 30-homer guys.
When Jorge Cantu hit his 25th on Friday, it became the first infield to have four players with 25 homers. Now, Ramirez, Dan Uggla and Mike Jacobs have joined Jason Giambi, Eric Chavez and Miguel Tejada of the 2001 A's as the the second group to have three 30-homer guys. Cantu just hit No. 26 tonight, so the Marlins might actually get all four players to that level. Ramirez missed a 30-30 season by one homer last year, so tonight's gave him a new career high. He and Preston Wilson are the only Marlins to go 30-30.

The Cubs and Astros will play Sunday and Monday in Milwaukee, the league announced tonight.
Jason Marquis and Randy Wolf will start in the game scheduled for 7:05 CDT on Sunday. The two teams will play the second game of the series on Monday. If the third game has to be played, it will happen on Sept. 29, which is the day after the regular season is supposed to conclude.

Adrian Beltre will finish the weekend series and then undergo surgery for a torn ligament in his left thumb.
Surgery is officially scheduled for Thursday, but Beltre will call it a season after Sunday's game. Matt Tuiasosopo will start at third base during the final two weeks.

Yesterday’s Results

American League
MIN    12  BAL     6    (Recap and Boxscore)
MIN    12  BAL     2    (Recap and Boxscore)
TOR     8  BOS     1    (Recap and Boxscore)
BOS     7  TOR     5    (Recap and Boxscore)
NYA     6  TB      5    (Recap and Boxscore)
TB      7  NYA     1    (Recap and Boxscore)
KC      8  CLE     3    (Recap and Boxscore)
KC      8  CLE     4    (Recap and Boxscore)
LAA     5  SEA     2    (Recap and Boxscore)
OAK     7  TEX     1    (Recap and Boxscore)

National League
FLA     4  WAS     2    (Recap and Boxscore)
NYN     5  ATL     0    (Recap and Boxscore)
ATL     3  NYN     2    (Recap and Boxscore)
PHI     7  MIL     3    (Recap and Boxscore)
PIT     7  STL     6    (Recap and Boxscore)
CIN     3  ARI     2    (Recap and Boxscore)
LAN     5  COL     1    (Recap and Boxscore)
SF      7  SD      0    (Recap and Boxscore)

Today’s Games

National League
 ---------------
 Washington Nationals at Florida Marlins, 1:10 PM
  (R) Collin Balester (3-6) vs. (R) Anibal Sanchez (2-4)
 Atlanta Braves at New York Mets, 1:10 PM
  (R) Jorge Campillo (7-7) vs. (L) Oliver Perez (10-7)
 St. Louis Cardinals at Pittsburgh Pirates, 1:35 PM
  (R) Brad Thompson (5-2) vs. (R) Jason Davis (1-4)
 Milwaukee Brewers at Philadelphia Phillies, 1:35 PM
  (R) Dave Bush (9-10) vs. (R) Joe Blanton (2-0)
 Los Angeles Dodgers at Colorado Rockies, 3:05 PM
  (R) Greg Maddux (7-12) vs. (R) Aaron Cook (16-9)
 San Francisco Giants at San Diego Padres, 4:05 PM
  (L) Barry Zito (9-16) vs. (R) Cha Seung Baek (5-9)
 Cincinnati Reds at Arizona Diamondbacks, 4:10 PM
  (R) Johnny Cueto (8-13) vs. (R) Max Scherzer (0-2)
 Milwaukee Brewers at Philadelphia Phillies, 7:35 PM
  (R) Jeff Suppan (10-8) vs. (R) Brett Myers (9-11)
 Chicago Cubs at Houston Astros, 8:05 PM
  (R) Carlos Zambrano (13-5) vs. (L) Randy Wolf (10-11)
 
 American League
 ---------------
 Kansas City Royals at Cleveland Indians, 1:05 PM
  (R) Brian Bannister (7-15) vs. (L) Jeremy Sowers (3-8)
 Tampa Bay Rays at New York Yankees, 1:05 PM
  (R) Edwin Jackson (11-10) vs. (R) Carl Pavano (2-1)
 Minnesota Twins at Baltimore Orioles, 1:35 PM
  (R) Nick Blackburn (10-8) vs. (R) Radhames Liz (5-5)
 Toronto Blue Jays at Boston Red Sox, 1:35 PM
  (R) Roy Halladay (18-10) vs. (L) Jon Lester (14-5)
 Detroit Tigers at Chicago White Sox, 2:05 PM
  (R) Justin Verlander (10-15) vs. (R) Javier Vazquez (11-13)
 Seattle Mariners at LA Angels of Anaheim, 3:35 PM
  (R) Felix Hernandez (9-10) vs. (R) Ervin Santana (15-6)
 Texas Rangers at Oakland Athletics, 4:05 PM
  (R) Vicente Padilla (13-7) vs. (L) Dana Eveland (8-8)
 Detroit Tigers at Chicago White Sox, 8:05 PM
  (L) Kenny Rogers (9-13) vs. (L) John Danks (10-8)

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
TB      88  58 .603    0.0   83     5    
BOS     87  61 .588    2.0   90    -3    
TOR     80  69 .537    9.5   85    -5    
NYA     78  70 .527   11.0   77     1    
BAL     65  82 .442   23.5   68    -3    
American League Central     
CHA     81  65 .555    0.0   82    -1    
MIN     82  66 .554    0.0   84    -2    
CLE     72  76 .486   10.0   78    -6    
DET     70  76 .479   11.0   72    -2    
KC      64  84 .432   18.0   60     4    
American League West        
LAA     91  57 .615    0.0   81    10    
TEX     73  76 .490   18.5   69     4    
OAK     68  80 .459   23.0   70    -2    
SEA     57  90 .388   33.5   61    -4    


National League East        Pwins  Diff
NYN     83  64 .565    0.0   83     0    
PHI     81  67 .547    2.5   84    -3    
FLA     76  72 .514    7.5   71     5    
ATL     66  83 .443   18.0   72    -6    
WAS     56  92 .378   27.5   58    -2    
National League Central     
CHN     88  58 .603    0.0   91    -3    
MIL     83  65 .561    6.0   80     3    
HOU     80  67 .544    8.5   73     7    
STL     78  70 .527   11.0   78     0    
CIN     67  81 .453   22.0   65     2    
PIT     62  86 .419   27.0   60     2    
National League West        
LAN     77  71 .520    0.0   78    -1    
ARI     72  75 .490    4.5   74    -2    
SF      67  81 .453   10.0   63     4    
COL     67  82 .450   10.5   67     0    
SD      57  92 .383   20.5   62    -5