November 8, 2009
Order Now The Hardball Times Baseball Annual 2010 is now in development and will ship in mid November! This year's book will feature articles by THT's staff as well as Bill James, Tom Tango and Craig Wright. If you use this link to purchase the Annual, you will be in the first group to receive it and you'll be supporting THT. 
Rich Barbieri
John Barten Brian Borawski Craig Brown Evan Brunell David Gassko Jonathan Hale Brandon Isleib Chris Jaffe Max Marchi Bruce Markusen Harry Pavlidis Jeff Sackmann Dave Studeman Steve Treder Bryan Tsao Tuck! Dan Turkenkopf Colin Wyers Geoff Young John Brattain And here's the full roster.
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THT Daily: This is the season that does not endby THT StaffSeptember 30, 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 RotoworldAlexei Ramirez broke a 2-2 tie with a grand slam in the bottom of the sixth, and the White Sox went on to beat the Tigers 8-2 to force a playoff game against the Twins on Tuesday. John Danks and Nick Blackburn will be the starters tomorrow night. Ramirez's grand slam was his fourth in just 17 at-bats with the bases loaded this year. He also had an infield single and a steal in the contest. Ramirez remains something of a raw talent, but he finished with 21 homers in his first year in the U.S. anyway. Freddy Garcia left Monday's game against the White Sox in the sixth inning with an apparent injury. Garcia allowed a run before getting his first out of the game, but he had otherwise shut down the White Sox until the sixth, when he short-armed a pitch to Jermaine Dye. The hope is that it was a spasm somewhere in his neck or upper back, but it's possible that he aggravated his surgically repaired shoulder. Cardinals agreed to terms with RHP Kyle Lohse on a four-year, $41 million contract. Lohse will receive a $1.25 million signing bonus, $7,125,000 in 2009, $8,875,000 in 2010 and $11,875,000 in each of the final two seasons. He also gets a full no-trade clause. This all for a pitcher who signed a one-year, $4.25 million last March. Lohse's strikeout rate was as mediocre as ever this season. He has improved his command and he's always had pretty good stuff, but he could just as easily be a fourth starter as a No. 3 going forward. Durability is the biggest thing he has working in his favor. Still, we wouldn't want to take our chances on him being worth more than $23 million in 2011 and '12. Yankees manager Joe Girardi said Mariano Rivera would have surgery to remove calcification over the AC joint in his throwing shoulder. Rivera is expected to be ready for the beginning of spring training, though he'll have his usual relaxed workload in March. Tigers GM Dave Dombrowski said Monday that Edgar Renteria's $12 million option for 2009 will not be picked up. "We have advised him that we are not going to pick up his option," Dombrowski said, "but we are not going to close the door. We have to get better at shortstop." The door is closed. The Tigers will save just $9 million after buying out Renteria for $3 million, and he's not going to sign a one-year deal for less than amount. Expect to see Renteria head back to the NL. The Tigers will likely consider other veteran shortstops, but they do have Ramon Santiago as a fallback. They won't want to go long-term with a shortstop since they think Cale Iorg could be the answer by 2010. Blue Jays acquired LHP Fabio Castro from the Phillies to complete the Aug. 30 trade for Matt Stairs. Castro had some success for the Phillies as a Rule-5 pick in 2006, but he pitched just 12 innings in the majors in 2007 and he never made an appearance for Philadelphia this year. The 23-year-old went 8-2 with a 4.40 ERA in 16 starts and 11 relief appearances for Double-A Reading. There's not much upside here, but he's another potentially useful left-handed reliever for an organization that already has a few. Blue Jays president Paul Godfrey said he will leave the team when his contract expires at the end of the year. This comes just a few days after Godfrey said J.P. Ricciardi, the general manager he hired seven years ago, would be returning next year. No replacement for Godfrey was named. The Jays tried to relive their glory days when they rehired Cito Gaston this summer. Maybe they'll try to do the same by bringing back Paul Beeston as the new president. He was in that role when the team won back-to-back World Series in 1992 and '93. Yesterday’s ResultsAmerican League CHA 8 DET 2 (Recap and Boxscore)You can download a compact version of yesterday's boxscores from Heater Magazine.
Today’s GamesAmerican League --------------- Minnesota Twins at Chicago White Sox, 7:37 PM (R) Nick Blackburn (11-10) vs. (L) John Danks (11-9) 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 97 65 .599 0.0 92 5 Game of the DayDETROIT (2) VS CHI WHITE SOX (8) - FINAL
DETROIT ab r h rbi bb so lob avg
C Granderson cf 4 0 0 0 1 1 2 .280
G Sheffield dh 3 0 0 0 0 1 4 .225
M Ordonez rf 4 0 1 0 0 2 2 .317
M Cabrera 1b 4 1 1 0 0 1 2 .292
M Thames lf 4 0 0 0 0 2 2 .241
R Raburn 2b 4 1 2 0 0 0 1 .236
B Inge 3b 3 0 1 1 1 2 1 .205
D Ryan c 3 0 1 0 0 1 2 .318
a-J Larish ph 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 .260
R Santiago ss 3 0 0 0 0 1 2 .282
b-M Joyce ph 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 .252
Totals 34 2 6 1 2 13 18
a-struck out swinging for D Ryan in the 9th; b-struck out swinging for R
Santiago in the 9th.
BATTING: 2B - B Inge (16, G Floyd); M Cabrera (36, G Floyd). RBI - B Inge (51).
Runners left in scoring position, 2 out - G Sheffield 2, M Ordonez 1, M Cabrera
1, D Ryan 1. GIDP - M Thames. Team LOB - 8.
BASERUNNING: SB - G Sheffield (9, 2nd base off G Floyd/A Pierzynski), C
Granderson 2 (12, 2nd base off O Dotel/A Pierzynski, 2nd base off G Floyd/A
Pierzynski), R Raburn (3, 2nd base off G Floyd/A Pierzynski).
FIELDING: E - R Raburn (10, ground ball).
CHI WHITE SOX ab r h rbi bb so lob avg
O Cabrera ss 4 1 0 0 1 1 2 .282
D Wise lf 2 1 0 0 2 1 0 .256
J Dye rf 3 1 1 1 1 0 0 .290
J Thome dh 4 0 0 0 0 3 3 .244
P Konerko 1b 3 1 0 0 1 1 2 .241
N Swisher 1b 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .219
K Griffey Jr cf 2 1 1 0 1 0 2 .258
B Anderson cf 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 .232
A Ramirez 2b 4 2 2 4 0 0 1 .290
A Pierzynski c 4 1 2 1 0 1 0 .282
J Uribe 3b 4 0 0 0 0 0 2 .249
Totals 31 8 6 6 6 8 12
BATTING: 2B - A Pierzynski 2 (31, A Lopez, G Glover). HR - A Ramirez (21, 6th
inning off G Glover 3 on, 1 Out). RBI - J Dye (96), A Ramirez 4 (77), A
Pierzynski (60). 2-out RBI - A Pierzynski. Runners left in scoring position, 2
out - K Griffey Jr 1, O Cabrera 1. Team LOB - 5.
BASERUNNING: SB - D Wise (9, 2nd base off F Garcia/D Ryan), A Ramirez (13,
2nd base off A Lopez/D Ryan).
FIELDING: E - G Floyd (2, throw); O Cabrera (16, throw). DP: 1 (O Cabrera-A
Ramirez-P Konerko).
----------------------------------------------------
DETROIT - 000 011 000 -- 2
CHI WHITE SOX - 100 005 02x -- 8
----------------------------------------------------
DETROIT ip h r er bb so hr era
F Garcia 5 2 2 2 3 3 0 4.20
A Galarraga (L, 13-7; B, 1) 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 3.73
B Seay 1/3 0 2 2 2 1 0 4.47
G Glover 1 2/3 2 1 1 0 2 1 5.30
A Lopez 1 2 2 1 0 2 0 3.55
CHI WHITE SOX ip h r er bb so hr era
G Floyd (W, 17-8) 6 5 2 1 2 8 0 3.84
M Thornton 1/3 0 0 0 0 0 0 2.67
O Dotel 2/3 0 0 0 0 0 0 3.76
S Linebrink 1 1 0 0 0 3 0 3.69
D Carrasco 1 0 0 0 0 2 0 3.96
F Garcia pitched to 1 batter in the 6th.
A Galarraga pitched to 1 batter in the 6th.
WP - A Galarraga 2, B Seay, A Lopez. IBB - B Inge (by G Floyd), P Konerko (by
B Seay). HBP - G Sheffield (by G Floyd). Pitches-strikes: F Garcia 73-41; A
Galarraga 3-1; B Seay 14-4; G Glover 24-17; A Lopez 28-18; G Floyd 118-70; M
Thornton 4-3; O Dotel 11-6; S Linebrink 19-14; D Carrasco 12-8. Ground
balls-fly balls: F Garcia 5-7; A Galarraga 0-0; B Seay 0-0; G Glover 1-2; A
Lopez 0-1; G Floyd 6-4; M Thornton 0-1; O Dotel 0-2; S Linebrink 0-0; D
Carrasco 0-1. Batters faced: F Garcia 20; A Galarraga 1; B Seay 3; G Glover 7;
A Lopez 6; G Floyd 26; M Thornton 2; O Dotel 2; S Linebrink 4; D Carrasco 3.
UMPIRES: HP--Mike Dimuro. 1B--Tim Mcclelland. 2B--Larry Vanover. 3B--Mike
Everitt.
T--3:14. (Plus rain delay totaling 183 minutes in the 1st). Att--35,923.
Weather: 61 degrees, cloudy. Wind: 11 mph, out to right.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 Alexei Ramirez CWS Gary Glover DET 404 401 21 PL Access THT’s stats here…
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BOS 95 67 .586 2.0 96 -1 
NYA 89 73 .549 8.0 87 2 
TOR 86 76 .531 11.0 93 -7 
BAL 68 93 .422 28.5 72 -4 
American League Central
CHA 88 74 .543 0.0 89 -1 
MIN 88 74 .543 0.0 89 -1 
CLE 81 81 .500 7.0 85 -4 
KC 75 87 .463 13.0 72 3 
DET 74 88 .457 14.0 78 -4 
American League West
LAA 100 62 .617 0.0 88 12 
TEX 79 83 .488 21.0 75 4 
OAK 75 86 .466 24.5 76 -1 
SEA 61 101 .377 39.0 67 -6 
National League East Pwins Diff
PHI 92 70 .568 0.0 93 -1 
NYN 89 73 .549 3.0 89 0 
FLA 84 77 .522 7.5 81 3 
ATL 72 90 .444 20.0 78 -6 
WAS 59 102 .366 32.5 62 -3 
National League Central
CHN 97 64 .602 0.0 99 -2 
MIL 90 72 .556 7.5 87 3 
HOU 86 75 .534 11.0 77 9 
STL 86 76 .531 11.5 86 0 
CIN 74 88 .457 23.5 71 3 
PIT 67 95 .414 30.5 67 0 
National League West
LAN 84 78 .519 0.0 87 -3 
ARI 82 80 .506 2.0 82 0 
COL 74 88 .457 10.0 74 0 
SF 72 90 .444 12.0 68 4 
SD 63 99 .389 21.0 68 -5 
Wildcard Standings
American League
BOS 95 67 .586 0.0
NYA 89 73 .549 6.0
TOR 86 76 .531 9.0
CLE 81 81 .500 14.0
TEX 79 83 .488 16.0
National League
MIL 90 72 .556 0.0
NYN 89 73 .549 1.0
HOU 86 75 .534 3.5
STL 86 76 .531 4.0
FLA 84 77 .522 5.5