February 9, 2010

Fangraphs Player Search:

Order Now


Get "The world champ of baseball annuals." The Hardball Times Baseball Annual 2010 features articles by THT's staff as well as Bill James, Tom Tango and Craig Wright and contains much, much more. Please support THT and use this link to purchase the Annual.


Get the fantasy book that everyone's raving about! Edited by THT Fantasy's Rob McQuown and Michael Street, and featuring our own Matt Hagen on prospects. Shipping now from ACTA!


And here's the full roster.



Or you can search by:

Sports Tickets

Gear up for baseball season with Chicago White Sox tickets and New York Yankees tickets. LA Angels tickets, Houston Astros tickets, and Atlanta Braves tickets are hot sellers! You can get Boston Red Sox tickets, San Diego Padres tickets or Chicago Cubs tickets for your favorite baseball fan. Coast to Coast Tickets has the best MLB tickets like Minnesota Twins tickets, LA Dodgers tickets, Milwaukee Brewers tickets, New York Met tickets and St. Louis Cardinals tickets.
Find premium Chicago Cubs tickets and other Chicago tickets at JustGreatTickets.com.
Chicago Cubs Tickets
Chicago Tickets
Championship Tickets



Creative Commons License
All content on this site (including text, graphs, and any other original works), unless otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

THT Daily: Royals Gone Wild

by Matthew Carruth
May 24, 2007

Major League News for May 24
Today’s Links
Player News
Yesterday’s Results
Today’s Games
Standings
Game of the Day
Top Minor League Performances

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

THT Links

Stadium of the Future - Chillin' with Lew Wolff and tidbits about the A's new stadium.
The A's say they will be able to monitor food quantities digitally and if, say, there's a surplus of hot dogs on a given night, they'll be able to react by instantly lowering the prices during the game and informing the fans via digital signs that will be installed throughout the stadium.


Value of the Stolen Base - Some cool research about whether a stolen base is more valuable in the NCAA game over at Baseball Analysts.

Class - I don't write many nice things about the Yankees organization, but this was all class.

Angels lose domain - The Angels lost a case to appropriate the Angels.com domain name under the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy.

Kiper, is that you? - MLB.com is projecting the top 10 picks of the 2007 draft. Here's a profile of top prospect Josh Vitters, a high school baseman who is compared to Alex Rodriguez in the article.

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 Headlines are courtesy of Rotoworld

Carl Pavano has been given the go-ahead to have Tommy John surgery performed by Dr. James Andrews. The Yankees wanted Pavano to rehab further, but it seems they've given up on ever getting anything from him. Maybe he'll be ready to go by the All-Star break next year, but it's not something anyone is going to count on. Pavano is 5-6 with a 4.77 ERA in 19 starts since signing a four-year, $39.95 million contract prior to 2005.

Elijah Dukes' wife filed for a restraining order last week and claimed that Dukes "threatened to kill her and sent a photo of a handgun to her cell phone." According to the St. Petersburg Times, NiShea Gilbert played the newspaper a voice mail that she claimed was left by Dukes, in which a man threatens Gilbert and her children. "I just don't think I should live in fear," Gilbert said. "When (the Rays) go out of town, I come home. When they're at home, I go stay with my mother. I shouldn't have to live like that because he's a baseball player."

The Phillies said Brett Myers might return to Philadelphia for an examination after he suffered a strained right shoulder Wednesday. "It didn't feel right," he said. "I felt weird out. It was one of those things where, 'I'd better not throw another pitch. Something might happen."' Myers seems likely to end up on the DL, which would probably cause the Phillies to go to a closer-by-committee, with Ryan Madson the best bet for saves, until Tom Gordon returns.

Roger Clemens pitched 5 1/3 innings and allowed three runs Wednesday in his start for Double-A Trenton. Clemens walked three in a 30-pitch first inning, but he was pretty good from the second through the fifth. Surprisingly, he came back out for the sixth at 85 pitches and struggled. He hit a batter to load the bases with one out after narrowly avoiding a two-run double -- a fly down the right-field line went foul by inches -- and then issued his first walk since the first to score a run. He left a 2-2 game with the bases still loaded having thrown 102 pitches. We can't imagine he would have thrown that many pitches tonight unless he intended to face the Blue Jays in five or six days.

Athletics placed outfielder Milton Bradley on the 15-day disabled list, retroactive to May 15, with a strained left hamstring. This makes six DL stints in two years. Bradley will be eligible to return in a week, but the A's will want to be sure he's ready next time they try bringing him back. Mark Kotsay will probably beat him back from the DL.

Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said Joe Mauer could return Monday from a strained left quad. Mauer caught a bullpen session Tuesday and took batting practice Wednesday, so he seems to be making steady progress. His return should send Chris Heintz back to Triple-A.

Randy Johnson will miss his next start Friday with tendinitis in his forearm. Johnson won't go on the DL immediately. "It's just a forearm thing that tightened up on him, so we're going to try to be proactive," manager Bob Melvin said. Edgar Gonzalez is going to start in Johnson's place against the Astros.

Yesterday’s Results
American League
BAL     5  TOR     2    (Recap and Boxscore)
NYA     8  BOS     3    (Recap and Boxscore)
SEA     5  TB      1    (Recap and Boxscore)
OAK     4  CHA     0    (Recap and Boxscore)
DET     8  LAA     7    (Recap and Boxscore)
KC     11  CLE     7    (Recap and Boxscore)
MIN     5  TEX     3    (Recap and Boxscore)

National League
NYN     3  ATL     0    (Recap and Boxscore)
PHI     8  FLA     7    (Recap and Boxscore)
WAS    12  CIN     7    (Recap and Boxscore)
STL     5  PIT     3    (Recap and Boxscore)
COL     2  ARI     0    (Recap and Boxscore)
LAN     5  MIL     1    (Recap and Boxscore)
SD      2  CHN     1    (Recap and Boxscore)
SF      9  HOU     1    (Recap and Boxscore)

Today’s Games
National League
 ---------------
 Pittsburgh Pirates at St. Louis Cardinals, 1:10 PM
  (L) Tom Gorzelanny (5-2) vs. (R) Braden Looper (5-3)
 Philadelphia Phillies at Florida Marlins, 7:05 PM
  (R) Jon Lieber (2-2) vs. (L) Dontrelle Willis (6-3)
 Washington Nationals at Cincinnati Reds, 7:10 PM
  (L) Mike Bacsik (0-0) vs. (R) Matt Belisle (4-3)
 New York Mets at Atlanta Braves, 7:35 PM
  (L) Tom Glavine (5-1) vs. (R) John Smoltz (6-2)
 Houston Astros at Arizona Diamondbacks, 9:40 PM
  (L) Wandy Rodriguez (2-3) vs. (R) Micah Owings (2-1)
 Chicago Cubs at San Diego Padres, 10:05 PM
  (R) Jason Marquis (5-1) vs. (R) Chris Young (5-3)
 
 American League
 ---------------
 LA Angels of Anaheim at Detroit Tigers, 1:05 PM
  (R) Ervin Santana (3-5) vs. (R) Jeremy Bonderman (2-0)
 Seattle Mariners at Tampa Bay Devil Rays, 3:10 PM
  (L) Horacio Ramirez (4-2) vs. (R) Jae Seo (2-4)
 Toronto Blue Jays at Baltimore Orioles, 7:05 PM
  (R) Shaun Marcum (2-2) vs. (R) Jeremy Guthrie (2-1)
 Cleveland Indians at Kansas City Royals, 8:10 PM
  (L) Jeremy Sowers (0-4) vs. (L) Jorge De La Rosa (4-3)

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     31  15 .674    0.0   30     1    sparkline graph
NYA     21  24 .467    9.5   26    -5    sparkline graph
BAL     21  25 .457   10.0   22    -1    sparkline graph
TOR     20  25 .444   10.5   22    -2    sparkline graph
TB      18  27 .400   12.5   16     2    sparkline graph
American League Central     
DET     28  17 .622    0.0   25     3    sparkline graph
CLE     27  17 .614    0.5   25     2    sparkline graph
CHA     23  20 .535    4.0   20     3    sparkline graph
MIN     22  24 .478    6.5   23    -1    sparkline graph
KC      19  28 .404   10.0   20    -1    sparkline graph
American League West        
LAA     28  19 .596    0.0   28     0    sparkline graph
OAK     23  23 .500    4.5   27    -4    sparkline graph
SEA     21  21 .500    4.5   19     2    sparkline graph
TEX     18  29 .383   10.0   21    -3    sparkline graph


National League East        Pwins  Diff
NYN     29  16 .644    0.0   28     1    sparkline graph
ATL     27  19 .587    2.5   26     1    sparkline graph
PHI     23  23 .500    6.5   24    -1    sparkline graph
FLA     22  24 .478    7.5   22     0    sparkline graph
WAS     18  29 .383   12.0   18     0    sparkline graph
National League Central     
MIL     28  19 .596    0.0   26     2    sparkline graph
HOU     21  25 .457    6.5   21     0    sparkline graph
CHN     20  24 .455    6.5   25    -5    sparkline graph
PIT     19  26 .422    8.0   19     0    sparkline graph
STL     18  25 .419    8.0   16     2    sparkline graph
CIN     18  29 .383   10.0   22    -4    sparkline graph
National League West        
LAN     27  20 .574    0.0   25     2    sparkline graph
SD      26  20 .565    0.5   27    -1    sparkline graph
SF      24  22 .522    2.5   25    -1    sparkline graph
ARI     25  23 .521    2.5   22     3    sparkline graph
COL     20  27 .426    7.0   18     2    sparkline graph

Game of the Day
There was a wild ninth inning in Florida. The Phillies scored three in the top of the ninth to take a commanding 7-3 lead, but the Marlins scored four in the bottom to send the game into extra innings, when the Phillies promptly scored one more to win it, 8-7.

The winning blow was an Abraham Nunez single, but Aaron Boone’s single to left with two out in the bottom of the ninth was the biggest hit of the game (WPA of .439). The game also featured near-cycles by Dan Uggla (all but the single) and Chase Utley (all but the double).
PHILADELPHIA (8) VS FLORIDA (7) - FINAL IN 10 INNINGS 

PHILADELPHIA           ab  r  h rbi bb so lob   avg
M Bourn lf              1  1  0  0   2  1   2  .238
 a-J Werth ph-lf        1  0  1  1   2  0   0  .279
S Victorino rf          5  0  0  1   1  1   5  .260
J Rollins ss            6  1  1  0   0  2   5  .265
C Utley 2b              5  2  3  2   1  0   4  .300
A Rowand cf             6  1  2  1   0  1   2  .331
G Dobbs 1b              5  0  1  0   1  2   3  .290
A Nunez 3b              3  3  2  1   3  0   1  .315
R Barajas c             5  0  1  1   0  1   5  .208
 C Ruiz c               1  0  0  0   0  0   2  .261
F Garcia p              1  0  0  0   1  0   2  .231
 G Geary p              0  0  0  0   0  0   0  .000
 b-P Burrell ph         1  0  0  0   0  1   0  .242
 A Alfonseca p          0  0  0  0   0  0   0  .000
 c-W Helms ph           1  0  1  1   0  0   0  .272
 B Myers p              0  0  0  0   0  0   0  .000
 C Condrey p            0  0  0  0   0  0   0  .000

Totals                 41  8 12  8  11  9  31

a-walked for M Bourn in the 6th;  b-struck out looking for G Geary in the 8th;  
c-singled to left for A Alfonseca in the 9th.

BATTING: 2B - A Nunez (6, B Kim); A Rowand (11, L Gardner). 3B - C Utley (1, L 
Gardner). HR - C Utley (9, 1st inning off B Kim 1 on, 2 Out). S - F Garcia. RBI 
- C Utley 2 (36), R Barajas (5), S Victorino (18), A Rowand (24), W Helms (13), 
J Werth (7), A Nunez (9). 2-out RBI - C Utley 2, W Helms, J Werth, A Nunez. 
Runners left in scoring position, 2 out - C Utley 2, J Rollins 1, S Victorino 
2, C Ruiz 1, M Bourn 2. Team LOB - 15. 
 
BASERUNNING: SB - M Bourn (5, 2nd base off B Kim/M Treanor). 
 
FIELDING: DP: 1 (J Rollins-C Utley-G Dobbs). 
 
FLORIDA                ab  r  h rbi bb so lob   avg
A Amezaga cf            5  1  1  0   0  0   0  .229
D Uggla 2b              6  3  3  3   0  1   1  .258
H Ramirez ss            4  2  3  3   0  1   0  .345
M Cabrera 3b            5  0  1  0   1  2   4  .317
J Willingham lf         2  0  0  0   2  1   1  .285
 R Abercrombie pr-lf    0  0  0  0   0  0   0  .214
J Hermida rf            5  0  0  0   0  1   6  .303
A Boone 1b              4  0  2  1   0  1   0  .296
M Treanor c             3  0  0  0   0  0   1  .148
 b-M Olivo ph-c         1  0  0  0   1  0   1  .218
B Kim p                 2  0  0  0   0  1   0  .000
 T Tankersley p         0  0  0  0   0  0   0  .000
 J Miller p             0  0  0  0   0  0   0  .000
 a-J Borchard ph        1  0  1  0   0  0   0  .198
 L Gardner p            0  0  0  0   0  0   0  .000
 R Messenger p          0  0  0  0   0  0   0  .000
 c-T Linden ph          2  1  1  0   0  0   3  .183
 K Gregg p              0  0  0  0   0  0   0  .000

Totals                 40  7 12  7   4  8  17

a-hit a ground rule double to deep center for J Miller in the 7th;  b-fouled 
out to first for M Treanor in the 8th;  c-singled to left for R Messenger in 
the 9th.

BATTING: 2B - D Uggla (18, F Garcia); J Borchard (6, G Geary). 3B - D Uggla (2, 
B Myers). HR - H Ramirez (7, 1st inning off F Garcia 0 on, 2 Out), D Uggla (9, 
5th inning off F Garcia 0 on, 1 Out). S - A Amezaga , H Ramirez. RBI - H 
Ramirez 3 (12), D Uggla 3 (28), A Boone (17). 2-out RBI - H Ramirez 2, A Boone. 
Runners left in scoring position, 2 out - M Cabrera 1, T Linden 2, J Hermida 2. 
GIDP - J Hermida. Team LOB - 12. 
 
FIELDING: E - B Kim (1, throw); M Cabrera (9, throw); A Amezaga (2, bobble). 

----------------------------------------------------
    PHILADELPHIA    - 200 101 003 1  --   8
    FLORIDA         - 101 010 004 0  --   7
----------------------------------------------------

PHILADELPHIA                 ip       h   r  er  bb  so  hr    era
F Garcia                      6       5   3   3   3   4   2   4.81
G Geary (H, 7)                1       1   0   0   0   1   0   4.30
A Alfonseca (H, 7)            1       1   0   0   0   1   0   4.79
B Myers                         2/3   4   4   4   1   2   0   5.50
C Condrey (W, 2-0)            1 1/3   1   0   0   0   0   0   7.56

FLORIDA                      ip       h   r  er  bb  so  hr    era
B Kim                         5 1/3   5   4   4   6   4   1   7.02
T Tankersley                    2/3   0   0   0   2   1   0   5.40
J Miller                      1       0   0   0   1   1   0   0.00
L Gardner                     1 2/3   3   3   3   2   2   0   4.24
R Messenger                     1/3   1   0   0   0   0   0   3.50
K Gregg (L, 0-2)              1       3   1   0   0   1   0   2.25

WP - B Myers. IBB - M Cabrera (by F Garcia), A Nunez (by L Gardner). HBP - A 
Boone (by F Garcia); H Ramirez (by G Geary); J Willingham (by B Myers). 
Pitches-strikes: F Garcia 112-70; G Geary 16-9; A Alfonseca 13-8; B Myers 
28-16; C Condrey 12-9; B Kim 108-62; T Tankersley 22-9; J Miller 22-14; L 
Gardner 31-16; R Messenger 8-5; K Gregg 21-17. Ground balls-fly balls: F Garcia 
7-7; G Geary 2-0; A Alfonseca 0-2; B Myers 1-0; C Condrey 1-3; B Kim 8-4; T 
Tankersley 0-1; J Miller 0-2; L Gardner 2-1; R Messenger 0-1; K Gregg 0-2. 
Batters faced: F Garcia 26; G Geary 5; A Alfonseca 4; B Myers 9; C Condrey 5; B 
Kim 27; T Tankersley 4; J Miller 4; L Gardner 10; R Messenger 2; K Gregg 6. 
 
UMPIRES: HP--Tim Timmons. 1B--Rick Reed. 2B--Chuck Meriwether. 3B--Alfonso 
Marquez. 
EJECTIONS:  PHILADELPHIA's Manuel by Timmons (9th), PHILADELPHIA's Barajas by Timmons (9th). 
T--3:55. Att--11,575. 
Weather: 80 degrees, partly cloudy. Wind: 18 mph, in from center.

The following graph tracks the game's Win Probability, courtesy of Fan Graphs. You can also view live WPA graphs at Fangraphs during any ballgame all season long.

image

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, with a focus on each team’s top prospects.
ORG LVL PLAYER            AB  H 2B 3B HR BB SO  Notes
ARI AA  Justin Upton...... 3  1  0  0  1  0  0  
MIL AAA Ryan Braun........ 4  3  1  0  1  1  0  
STL AA  Colby Rasmus...... 2  1  1  0  0  3  0  
LAA AAA Brandon Wood...... 4  2  0  0  0  1  1  
OAK AAA Daric Barton...... 4  2  0  0  1  0  0  
OAK AAA Kevin Melillo..... 4  2  1  0  1  0  1  
CIN A   Chris Valaika..... 5  2  1  0  1  0  0  4 RBI
ATL A+  Eric Campbell..... 3  1  0  0  1  1  1  
BOS AA  Jed Lowrie........ 4  2  2  0  0  1  1  
LA  AAA Matt Kemp......... 5  2  1  0  0  0  1  
BOS A+  Ryan Khoury....... 4  2  0  0  2  1  1  5 RBI !
ARI AAA Chris Carter...... 3  2  0  0  0  2  1  

ORG LVL PLAYER            IP  H  R ER SO BB HR  Notes
TEX AA  Eric Hurley....... 9  5  0  0  8  1  0  
NYM AAA Mike Pelfrey...... 6  4  1  1  4  0  0  
CIN A+  Travis Wood....... 5  2  0  0  9  0  0  
BOS AA  Clay Buchholz..... 6  7  2  2  8  0  0  11 GB
MIN A+  Yohan Pino........ 7  2  0  0  5  1  0  
FLA A+  Ryan Tucker....... 6  3  0  0  4  1  0  
CIN AA  Richie Gardner.... 5  6  2  0  9  0  0  
CLE AA  Chuck Lofgren..... 6  7  2  2  5  1  1  
TB  A+  Matthew Walker.... 5  2  2  0  5  3  0  
MIN A   Brian Kirwan...... 5  1  0  0  5  1  0  
STL A   Tyler Herron...... 6  3  2  2  4  2  0  
SF  AA  Nick Pereira...... 5  6  0  0  6  2  0  

Access THT’s stats here…
Player Search:


Matthew Carruth is an editor for The Hardball Times. He welcomes any and all sorts of communication at his email.




Commenting is not available in this weblog entry.

Do you have a general question or comment for one of THT's writers? Send it in to our weekly mailbag We also welcome unsolicited op-ed pieces of approximately 500 words for consideration. We reserve the right to edit for length, clarity and consistency of style. Please include your whole name and location to be considered. If you have a comment about this specific article, please email the writer.



The best online source for major league baseball tickets is Ticket City.

     Next Article:  Ten Things I Didn't Know Last Week>> <<Previous Article:  Business of Baseball Report