February 9, 2010
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THT Daily: Still firstby THT StaffSeptember 18, 2008 Player News Yesterday’s Results Today’s Games Standings Game of the Day Yesterday’s Home Runs You can always find the most recent THT Daily at http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/content/thtdaily/ and an archive at http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/thtdaily_index/ Player NewsPlayer Headlines are courtesy of Rotoworld
Erik Bedard revealed Wednesday that an MRI exam earlier this season showed that he has "a tear in the labrum and a cyst" in his injured left shoulder. "We tried rehab and it got better, but it never got good," Bedard said. "The pain was less at times, but I always felt it." Surgery to repair a torn labrum would knock Bedard out for at least half of next season and put his future in question, as the injury typically has a lower success rate for comebacks than Tommy John surgery. With one season of arbitration left before free agency, it's possible that the Mariners could non-tender Bedard during the offseason, in which case they'll have parted with Adam Jones, George Sherrill and three prospects for 81 innings of a 3.67 ERA Ben Sheets said after Wednesday's game that he's been dealing with elbow pain for several starts. It makes one wonder whether there was anything at all to the "groin tightness" that caused him to leave a start two weeks ago. Sheets said he underwent an MRI, though he didn't say when it happened, and that it showed no structural damage. He's optimistic that he will pitch again this season. "It's been so up and down that I would think it's very possible," he said. "There's been really good days and really bad days. There's been days where it's hard to move it and it's stiff. Then the next day it's great. So we'll see." Manny Parra would probably go back into the rotation if Sheets misses his next turn. Aaron Harang's first complete game of the year was a shutout of the Cardinals on Wednesday. Harang allowed six hits, walked none and struck out four in his fifth career shutout and fifth victory of 2008. It's been an awfully tough year for one of the game's most underrated pitchers, but he is finishing awfully well. This makes six quality starts in a row. Hanley Ramirez left Wednesday's game in the fourth inning because of a sore left shoulder. It's the same shoulder he had surgery on after last season. Ramirez homered twice before being replaced by Alfredo Amezaga. Carlos Quentin had the soft cast removed from his broken right wrist Wednesday and will begin working on range-of-motion exercises. The White Sox might get Quentin back for the postseason. The broken bones in his wrist have to completely heal, so it's doubtful that we'll see him next week. Yesterday’s ResultsGame recaps provided by Craig Calcaterra of Shysterball.Rays 10, Red Sox 3: These last two Rays-Sox series have been like Ali-Foreman. Boston lands a hard punch, tires, and then Tampa Bay batters, befuddles, and exhausts the Sox with their counter punching over the next two games. We've all expected Tampa Bay to eventually juke when they should have jived and find themselves on the canvass courtesy of a mighty Red Sox blow, but here they are, shuffling in the ring having taken four of the last six from a Boston team who sits in the corner getting that white goop applied to the big knot above its left eye. Brewers 6, Cubs 2: The good news: Milwaukee gets a much-needed win. The bad news: they lose Ben Sheets after two innings to tightness in the forearm of his pitching hand. Folks have visited Dr. Andrews for less. Rockies 1, Padres 0: Livan Hernandez and four other Rockies' pitchers combine to shut out the Padres. After the game, Livan had this to say about his stint in Colorado: "I don't have to show my ability to nobody," he said. "The last start I didn't pitch that bad. The only bad games I've had are the first two games." How true. Sure, he got slaughtered in his first two post-trade starts (15 R in 8.2 innings), but he felt fantastic when he gave up six runs on eight hits in just over three innings, so that totally doesn't count as bad. And I suppose the four runs in five innings he gave up on September 2nd can technically qualify as "good" inasmuch as his ERA went down after that start (from 15.32 to 11.09). So really, Livan has basically been all aces since he came over and everyone should get off his case. Reds 3, Cardinals 0: A six-hit shutout for Aaron Harang sends the Cards to their seventh straight loss. They had a nine-game losing streak at essentially the same time last season (September 7-15th). Maybe Browning was right: "Autumn wins you best by this its mute appeal to sympathy for its decay." Pirates 15, Dodgers 8: I suppose you can't win 'em all, but if you are going to lose one once in a while, you'd think you'd try to make it look less ugly than this one did for L.A. A huge inning, some awful defense, and a Nomar injury added to the ambiance. Yankees 5, White Sox 1: Hey, a Phil Hughes sighting! He hasn't been too busy this year, of course, what with the fifteen posts he's written at his two blogs since opening day. That kind of hectic schedule can take a lot out of a guy. Blue Jays 8, Orioles 7: Small sample size disclaimer and everything, but it's worth noting that 20 year-old Travis Snider is .341/.383/.568 in the first 45-50 at bats of his major league career. He was drafted in the same 2006 draft as Joba Chamberlain, Tim Lincecum, and Evan Longoria. That was a pretty sweet class, huh? Tigers 16, Rangers 4: Miguel Cabrera saved his best two months for August and September. Too bad Detroit was long out of it by then. Mets 9, Nationals 7: The win is nice, but coming as it does on the same night as a Brewers and a Phillies win, it provides zero stress-relief for Mets' fans. Phillies 6, Braves 1: The AJC's Dave O'Brien thinks that Ned Yost will end up back in Atlanta next season, installed as Bobby Cox's heir apparent. I could see that happening. And despite all that has been said and written about Yost in the past couple of days, I could think of worse things to do to a young, rebuilding Braves team than to put Ned in charge one day. Marlins 14, Astros 2: Four straight losses for the Astros after such a hot streak answers the age-old question of what happens when a buzz saw meets a hurricane. Indians 6, Twins 4: Minnesota is the first team to smack Cliff Lee around since Detroit did back at the end of July, but like the Tigers, they couldn't hang a loss on him. A's 3, Angels 2: Hey, lay off K-Rod for making a big throwing error and blowing this save. He has the record already. What more do you people want? Dimondbacks 7, Giants 6: Despite his bullpen's best effort to prevent it from happening, Brandon Webb wins his 21st game. For the Giants, Jonathan Sanchez blew a 3-0 first-inning lead. Quote from Sanchez after the game: "That's big," Sanchez acknowledged. "I wanted to beat Webb to make it easier for Timmy." So it's official: the Giants are only playing now to deliver an individual award to one of their players. Giants Fans OK with this? Royals 5, Mariners 2: Kansas City couldn't touch Clark, Andersen, or Vande Berg, but they lit up Beattie, and that was enough to carry the day. You can download a compact version of yesterday's boxscores from Heater Magazine.
Today’s GamesNational League --------------- Los Angeles Dodgers at Pittsburgh Pirates, 12:35 PM (L) Clayton Kershaw (4-5) vs. (L) Paul Maholm (9-8) Milwaukee Brewers at Chicago Cubs, 2:20 PM (R) Dave Bush (9-10) vs. (R) Rich Harden (5-1) St. Louis Cardinals at Cincinnati Reds, 7:10 PM (R) Kyle Lohse (13-6) vs. (R) Edinson Volquez (16-5) New York Mets at Washington Nationals, 7:10 PM (L) Johan Santana (13-7) vs. (R) Tim Redding (10-9) Houston Astros at Florida Marlins, 7:10 PM (R) Alberto Arias (1-0) vs. (L) Scott Olsen (7-10) Philadelphia Phillies at Atlanta Braves, 7:10 PM (L) Cole Hamels (13-9) vs. (L) Mike Hampton (2-2) San Francisco Giants at Arizona Diamondbacks, 9:40 PM (R) Tim Lincecum (17-3) vs. (L) Randy Johnson (10-9) American League --------------- Seattle Mariners at Kansas City Royals, 2:10 PM (L) Ryan Feierabend (1-3) vs. (R) Zack Greinke (11-10) LA Angels of Anaheim at Oakland Athletics, 3:35 PM (L) Joe Saunders (15-7) vs. (L) Josh Outman (1-0) Chicago White Sox at New York Yankees, 7:05 PM (R) Javier Vazquez (12-13) vs. (R) Mike Mussina (17-9) Baltimore Orioles at Toronto Blue Jays, 7:07 PM (R) Daniel Cabrera (8-10) vs. (R) Jesse Litsch (11-8) Minnesota Twins at Tampa Bay Rays, 7:10 PM (L) Glen Perkins (12-4) vs. (R) James Shields (13-8) StandingsThe 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 90 60 .600 0.0 84 6 Game of the DayAthletics 3, Angels 2 - FINAL
LA ANGELS ab r h rbi bb so lob avg
E Aybar ss 3 0 1 0 0 0 1 .276
B Wood ss 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 .194
G Anderson lf 4 1 1 0 0 1 1 .288
M Teixeira 1b 4 1 3 2 0 0 0 .353
K Morales dh 4 0 0 0 0 1 2 .243
R Quinlan 3b 3 0 0 0 1 1 0 .262
G Matthews cf 4 0 0 0 0 0 2 .235
J Mathis c 3 0 1 0 0 2 0 .192
S Rodriguez 2b 3 0 0 0 0 1 1 .190
R Willits rf 2 0 0 0 1 0 0 .178
Totals 31 2 6 2 2 7 7 ###
OAKLAND ab r h rbi bb so lob avg
T Buck rf-lf 4 0 2 0 0 0 0 .184
A Cunningham lf 4 0 2 1 0 1 1 .333
R Davis cf 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .260
R Sweeney cf-rf 1 0 0 0 3 1 0 .300
J Cust dh 4 0 1 0 0 3 5 .228
K Suzuki c 4 0 0 0 0 1 5 .285
D Barton 1b 4 1 1 0 0 0 0 .214
J Hannahan 3b 3 1 0 0 1 3 0 .216
C Pennington ss-2b 4 0 2 0 0 1 0 .262
E Patterson 2b 2 0 0 0 0 1 1 .174
B Crosby pr-ss 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 .242
Totals 31 3 8 1 4 11 12 ###
----------------------------------------------------
LA ANGELS - 000 000 002 -- 2 6 2
OAKLAND - 000 010 002 -- 3 8 0
No outs when winning run scored.
----------------------------------------------------
BATTING: 2B - M Teixeira 2 (10, G Smith 2); J Cust (18, J Weaver); A Cunningham
2 (5, J Weaver 2). HR - M Teixeira (11, 9th inning off B Ziegler 1 on, 0 Out).
RBI - M Teixeira 2 (36), A Cunningham (11). Runners left in scoring position, 2
out - G Matthews 1, K Morales 1, J Cust 1, K Suzuki 4. GIDP - G Anderson, G
Matthews, A Cunningham. Team LOB - LA ANGELS 4, OAKLAND 8. FIELDING: E - G
Matthews (7, throw); F Rodriguez (2, throw). DP: (S Rodriguez-E Aybar-M
Teixeira, C Pennington-D Barton, B Crosby-C Pennington-D Barton).
LA ANGELS ip h r er bb so hr era
J Weaver 6 6 1 1 3 8 0 4.16
D Oliver 2 0 0 0 0 3 0 2.83
F Rodriguez (L, 2-3; B, 7) 0 2 2 0 1 0 0 2.38
OAKLAND ip h r er bb so hr era
G Smith 6 4 0 0 1 4 0 4.09
H Street (H, 3) 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 3.90
J Devine (H, 9) 1 0 0 0 0 2 0 0.65
B Ziegler (W, 2-0; B, 1) 1 2 2 2 1 0 1 0.82
F Rodriguez pitched to 3 batters in the 9th.
IBB - R Sweeney (by J Weaver). Pitches-strikes: J Weaver 105-65; D Oliver
29-18; F Rodriguez 10-5; G Smith 85-55; H Street 6-6; J Devine 11-8; B Ziegler
21-11. Ground balls-fly balls: J Weaver 7-3; D Oliver 1-2; F Rodriguez 0-0; G
Smith 9-5; H Street 0-2; J Devine 0-1; B Ziegler 2-1. Batters faced: J Weaver
26; D Oliver 6; F Rodriguez 3; G Smith 22; H Street 3; J Devine 3; B Ziegler 5.
UMPIRES: HP--Andy Fletcher. 1B--Bob Davidson. 2B--Alfonso Marquez. 3B--Mike
Reilly. T--2:28. Att--20,102. Weather: 63 degrees, clear. Wind: 11 mph, in
from left.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.  Yesterday’s Home RunsThe following stats are provided by Hit Tracker, which logs the projected “true” distance of each home run (if it were to land uninterrupted at field level) and its "standard" distance, which is corrected for weather conditions. Each homer is also categorized into one of three types: Just Enough (JE) for homers that cleared the fence by ten feet or less, Plenty (PL) for those that were sure home runs but not “blasts,” and No Doubt (ND) for true “blasts”—homers that cleared the fence by at least 20 feet and landed at least 50 feet beyond the fence.Hitter Team Pitcher Team True Stnd. # Type Willy Aybar TB Tim Wakefield BOS 381 380 9 PL Carlos Beltran NYM Shairon Martis WAS 0 0 26 0 Carlos Beltran NYM Charlie Manning WAS 0 0 25 0 Jorge Cantu FLA Dave Borkowski HOU 0 0 28 0 Johnny Damon NYY Scott Linebrink CWS 396 395 15 PL Carlos Delgado NYM Shairon Martis WAS 0 0 35 0 Ryan Doumit PIT Scott Elbert LAD 388 383 14 PL Elijah Dukes WAS Brian Stokes NYM 0 0 13 0 Carlos Gomez MIN Cliff Lee CLE 395 388 7 JE Gabe Gross TB Tim Wakefield BOS 384 384 13 JE Travis Hafner CLE Scott Baker MIN 436 422 5 ND Aubrey Huff BAL David Purcey TOR 410 0 33 PL/L Joe Koshansky COL Josh Geer SD 433 397 3 PL Adam LaRoche PIT Chad Billingsley LAD 400 396 21 PL Adam LaRoche PIT Chad Billingsley LAD 437 434 20 PL David Ortiz BOS Matt Garza TB 428 426 21 PL David Ortiz BOS Matt Garza TB 0 0 20 0 Hunter Pence HOU Ricky Nolasco FLA 440 446 24 PL Hunter Pence HOU Ricky Nolasco FLA 433 437 23 PL Jhonny Peralta CLE Scott Baker MIN 386 373 22 JE/L Fernando Perez TB Tim Wakefield BOS 379 379 2 PL Hanley Ramirez FLA Brandon Backe HOU 425 432 32 PL Hanley Ramirez FLA Brandon Backe HOU 0 0 31 0 Jose Reyes NYM Shairon Martis WAS 0 0 15 0 Alex Rios TOR Rocky Cherry BAL 414 426 15 PL Alex Rodriguez NYY Scott Linebrink CWS 346 344 35 JE Justin Upton ARI Jonathan Sanchez SF 437 411 14 PL/L Access THT’s stats here…
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BOS 89 63 .586 2.0 92 -3 
NYA 81 71 .533 10.0 80 1 
TOR 81 71 .533 10.0 86 -5 
BAL 67 83 .447 23.0 70 -3 
American League Central
CHA 84 67 .556 0.0 85 -1 
MIN 82 70 .539 2.5 85 -3 
CLE 75 77 .493 9.5 80 -5 
DET 71 80 .470 13.0 75 -4 
KC 68 84 .447 16.5 64 4 
American League West
LAA 92 59 .609 0.0 82 10 
TEX 75 78 .490 18.0 70 5 
OAK 71 80 .470 21.0 72 -1 
SEA 57 94 .377 35.0 62 -5 
National League East Pwins Diff
PHI 85 67 .559 0.0 88 -3 
NYN 84 67 .556 0.5 84 0 
FLA 79 72 .523 5.5 75 4 
ATL 67 85 .441 18.0 73 -6 
WAS 58 94 .382 27.0 60 -2 
National League Central
CHN 91 59 .607 0.0 93 -2 
MIL 84 68 .553 8.0 82 2 
HOU 80 71 .530 11.5 72 8 
STL 78 73 .517 13.5 78 0 
CIN 70 81 .464 21.5 67 3 
PIT 64 88 .421 28.0 63 1 
National League West
LAN 79 73 .520 0.0 81 -2 
ARI 75 76 .497 3.5 77 -2 
COL 70 83 .458 9.5 69 1 
SF 68 84 .447 11.0 64 4 
SD 58 95 .379 21.5 64 -6 
Wildcard Standings
American League
BOS 89 63 .586 0.0
MIN 82 70 .539 7.0
TOR 81 71 .533 8.0
NYA 81 71 .533 8.0
CLE 75 77 .493 14.0
National League
NYN 84 67 .556 0.0
MIL 84 68 .553 0.5
HOU 80 71 .530 4.0
FLA 79 72 .523 5.0
STL 78 73 .517 6.0