THT Daily: Sigh
by Matthew CarruthMay 16, 2008
Major League News for May 16
Player News
Yesterday’s Results
Today’s Games
Standings
Top Minor League Performances
You can always find the most recent THT Daily at http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/content/thtdaily/
Player News
Player Headlines are courtesy of RotoworldThe Cardinals plan to place the struggling Jason Isringhausen on the disabled list Friday.
They'll use his arthritic left hip as an excuse, but the truth is that they just want him off the roster for a couple of weeks. The alternative would be to designate him for assignment and let him get some work in the minors after he clears waivers. Ryan Franklin has replaced Isringhausen in the closer's role.
Lance Berkman homered off Vinnie Chulk in the top of the ninth to lift the Astros to an 8-7 win over the Giants on Thursday.
Berkman previously had a two-run single and a walk in the contest. The Astros came back from four runs down on homers from Carlos Lee and Darin Erstad in the eighth before Berkman gave the team its first lead in the ninth. Berkman has hit seven of his major league-leading 15 homers in May. He currently ranks second in the majors with a .391 average (Chipper Jones, .418) and with 43 RBI (Josh Hamilton, 44).
Ryan Dempster pitched into the ninth and fanned a career-high 12 batters as the Cubs shut out the Padres on Thursday.
Kerry Wood preserved the shutout after entering with runners on first and third and one out in the ninth, earning him a save. Dempster bested his previous season high in strikeouts by five. His previous career high was an 11-K game against the Rays in 2000. In improving to 5-1, he lasted at least six innings for the eighth time in nine starts this season. That he's been effective as a starter is a modest surprise. That he's actually been able to work this deep into games after spending his entire career as such an inefficient pitcher is the shocker.
Chipper Jones was scratched from Thursday night's game after tweaking his groin on Wednesday.
Jones missed a couple of games with back spasms in April, and he's likely day-to-day with this groin injury. He's leading the majors with a .418 batting average and is fourth in the league with 11 home runs, but don't count on this being the last time he's slowed by injury this season.
Nationals placed first baseman Nick Johnson on the 15-day disabled list with a torn tendon sheath in his right wrist.
It was bound to happen at some point. Dmitri Young will come off the DL on Friday and reassume the starting job at first base. Aaron Boone will also get some additional playing time and may have a little value in NL-only leagues. Johnson is expected to miss 4-6 weeks with the injury, and it's anyone guess whether he'll return at 100 percent.
Brewers signed outfielder Ryan Braun to an eight-year, $45 million contract.
The deal includes Braun's $455,000 salary for this season, so it's really a seven-year extension that will keep the reigning NL Rookie of the Year in Milwaukee through 2015. In handing out the largest contract in team history, the Brewers buy out Braun's first two years of free agency and keep him locked up through his age-31 season. Braun is only 152 games into his big league career, so there's plenty of risk involved for the Brewers, but if he stays healthy and productive the team will end up saving a ton of money.
Cubs signed outfielder Jim Edmonds for the remainder of the season.
Edmonds passed his physical, so his signing was confirmed after Wednesday's game. He'll take over as the center fielder against right-handers, with Reed Johnson likely to play against lefties. The smaller ballpark should do him some good, but Edmonds isn't going to hit for average or be a big RBI guy. He should have only modest value in NL-only leagues. Johnson won't be worth using again until a starter gets hurt.
C.C. Sabathia struck out eleven en route to pitching a complete game shutout against the Athletics on Wednesday night.
Sabathia allowed just five hits and walked two in the effort, picking up his third win and lowering his ERA to 5.47. After a brutal start to the season, Sabathia has rounded into his old form, with quality starts in four of his last five trips to the mound. If there was any doubt, the buy low window has closed.
Rays agreed to terms with LHP Scott Kazmir on a three-year, $28.5 million contract with a club option for 2012.
The Rays buy out his first year of free agency and get an option for the second. Signing Kazmir is perhaps the riskiest move the Rays have ever made, given the potential for more arm problems, but it's not like they were ever going to come up with a suitable replacement in free agency if they opted to let him go. At this price, it doesn't seem like a bad investment.
Yesterday’s Results
American League TB 5 NYA 2 (Recap and Boxscore) CLE 4 OAK 2 (Recap and Boxscore) KC 8 DET 4 (Recap and Boxscore) TOR 3 MIN 2 (Recap and Boxscore) CHA 4 LAA 3 (Recap and Boxscore) National League WAS 1 NYN 0 (Recap and Boxscore) PHI 5 ATL 0 (Recap and Boxscore) CHN 4 SD 0 (Recap and Boxscore) LAN 7 MIL 2 (Recap and Boxscore) PIT 11 STL 5 (Recap and Boxscore) ARI 8 COL 5 (Recap and Boxscore) HOU 8 SF 7 (Recap and Boxscore)
Today’s Games
National League --------------- Pittsburgh Pirates at Chicago Cubs, 2:20 PM (L) Tom Gorzelanny (3-3) vs. (R) Sean Gallagher (0-0) Inter-League ------------ Milwaukee Brewers at Boston Red Sox, 7:05 PM (R) Jeff Suppan (2-2) vs. (R) Daisuke Matsuzaka (6-0) New York Mets at New York Yankees, 7:05 PM (L) Johan Santana (4-2) vs. (R) Darrell Rasner (2-0) Toronto Blue Jays at Philadelphia Phillies, 7:05 PM (L) David Purcey (0-0) vs. (L) Jamie Moyer (2-3) Washington Nationals at Baltimore Orioles, 7:05 PM (R) Shawn Hill (0-0) vs. (L) Garrett Olson (2-0) Kansas City Royals at Florida Marlins, 7:10 PM (R) Brett Tomko (1-4) vs. (L) Andrew Miller (3-2) Cleveland Indians at Cincinnati Reds, 7:10 PM (L) Jeremy Sowers (0-0) vs. (R) Johnny Cueto (2-4) Oakland Athletics at Atlanta Braves, 7:35 PM (L) Dana Eveland (3-3) vs. (R) Jair Jurrjens (4-3) Houston Astros at Texas Rangers, 8:05 PM (R) Shawn Chacon (0-0) vs. (R) Sidney Ponson (2-0) Tampa Bay Rays at St. Louis Cardinals, 8:15 PM (R) Andy Sonnanstine (5-1) vs. (R) Braden Looper (5-2) Minnesota Twins at Colorado Rockies, 9:05 PM (R) Nick Blackburn (3-2) vs. (R) Ubaldo Jimenez (1-3) Detroit Tigers at Arizona Diamondbacks, 9:40 PM (R) Jeremy Bonderman (2-4) vs. (R) Dan Haren (4-2) Los Angeles Dodgers at LA Angels of Anaheim, 10:05 PM (R) Hiroki Kuroda (1-2) vs. (L) Joe Saunders (6-1) San Diego Padres at Seattle Mariners, 10:10 PM (R) Chris Young (3-3) vs. (R) Miguel Batista (3-4) Chicago White Sox at San Francisco Giants, 10:15 PM (R) Gavin Floyd (3-2) vs. (L) Jonathan Sanchez (2-2)
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 24 17 .585 0.0 23 1BOS 24 19 .558 1.0 24 0
BAL 21 19 .525 2.5 20 1
TOR 21 22 .488 4.0 21 0
NYA 20 22 .476 4.5 20 0
American League Central CLE 22 19 .537 0.0 24 -2
CHA 20 20 .500 1.5 23 -3
MIN 20 20 .500 1.5 19 1
KC 19 21 .475 2.5 17 2
DET 16 25 .390 6.0 17 -1
American League West LAA 24 19 .558 0.0 21 3
OAK 23 19 .548 0.5 25 -2
TEX 20 22 .476 3.5 18 2
SEA 16 26 .381 7.5 18 -2
National League East Pwins Diff FLA 23 17 .575 0.0 21 2
PHI 23 19 .548 1.0 22 1
NYN 20 19 .513 2.5 20 0
ATL 20 20 .500 3.0 24 -4
WAS 18 24 .429 6.0 17 1
National League Central CHN 25 16 .610 0.0 27 -2
HOU 24 18 .571 1.5 24 0
STL 24 19 .558 2.0 23 1
MIL 20 21 .488 5.0 18 2
PIT 20 21 .488 5.0 19 1
CIN 18 23 .439 7.0 18 0
National League West ARI 26 15 .634 0.0 25 1
LAN 21 19 .525 4.5 22 -1
SF 17 25 .405 9.5 16 1
COL 15 26 .366 11.0 16 -1
SD 15 27 .357 11.5 14 1
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 TEX AA C. Davis.......... 4 4 3 0 0 1 0 4 R DET AAA Jeff Larish....... 3 3 1 0 1 0 0 3 R STL AA Allen Craig....... 4 3 1 0 1 0 0 MIN AA Erik Lis.......... 5 4 2 0 0 0 0 TOR A+ Brian Dopirak..... 5 3 1 0 1 0 0 COL AAA Ian Stewart....... 5 2 0 0 2 0 2 6 RBI ! BOS A+ Lars Anderson..... 4 2 1 0 1 1 1 SD AAA Chase Headley..... 5 2 1 0 1 0 2 TEX AAA Nelson Cruz....... 6 3 0 1 0 0 2 LAA AAA Kendry Morales.... 4 2 0 0 1 1 0 STL AA Jonathan Jay...... 3 1 0 0 1 2 1 ATL A+ Brandon Hicks..... 2 1 0 0 1 2 0 ORG LVL PLAYER IP H R ER SO BB HR Notes NYY A Z. McAllister..... 7 7 0 0 11 0 0 BAL AA C. Tillman........ 6 3 0 0 9 2 0 MIN A+ Tyler Robertson... 7 6 3 3 9 0 1 BAL A+ Jake Arrieta...... 7 2 0 0 6 3 0 12 GB KC A Edward Cegarra.... 6 6 5 4 7 1 0 MIN AAA F. Liriano........ 8 7 3 3 4 1 0 SEA A Juan Ramirez...... 7 4 2 2 3 1 0 12 GB PHI AA Carlos Carrasco... 5 7 3 3 6 1 0 SD A Jeremy Hefner..... 5 5 4 4 4 0 0 9 GB ARI AAA Billy Buckner..... 7 7 2 2 4 1 0 CLE AA David Huff........ 7 3 0 0 2 1 0 KC AA Daniel Cortes..... 5 3 2 2 5 0 1
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Matthew Carruth is an editor for The Hardball Times. He welcomes any and all sorts of communication at his email.