THT Daily: Transaction news
by Matthew CarruthJuly 13, 2007
Major League News for July 13
Today’s LinksPlayer 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/
THT Links
Bold Moves - With the Athletics dropping another game yesterday and falling further out of the playoff race, some fans are calling for some future-thinking moves to be made.
Welcome Mark Cuban - Mark Cuban wants to buy the Cubs. Well, considering David Samson's latest outburst, he cannot be any worse for baseball than the mockery of Florida.
It Just Got More Interesting - The saga around Alex Rodriguez steps up another notch as it now appears that the Yankees are setting a deadline on a new contract. They say they will not participate in a free agency bidding war for A-Rod. That is, if he opts out, the Yanks are done with him. What would that do to Scott Boras' goal of $30M+ per year?
The More Things Change... - The more they stay the same. John McLaren is repeating many of the same mistakes of Mike Hargrove that drove Mariner fans crazy.
Breaking Down 10,000 - 10,000 losses takes a long time to accumulate. The Good Phight goes back over them. It's a good thing that Philadelphia sports fans are used to pain.
Record Breaking - You probably did not hear about it, but Tony Pena Jr. just not-walked his way into the record books.
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 .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
Player News
Player Headlines are courtesy of RotoworldAlex Rodriguez confirmed Thursday that he's not interested in discussing an extension with the Yankees right now. "Like I've said all year, I think it's something we need to do at the end of the year," Rodriguez said. "I think it would be selfish on my part to talk about my contract status when our team desperately needs wins." Jorge Posada expressed a similar sentiment today. It doesn't looks like the Yankees will be getting any deals done until after the season wraps up.
MLB suspended LHP David Wells seven games for arguing with an umpire in a July 7 game. Wells was wrong for firing the ball at the backstop following his argument with Ed Hickox, but this still seems overly harsh, given that it all followed an ejection that seemed unwarranted. Wells has appealed and will serve the suspension around a day off in the schedule.
Indians signed designated hitter Travis Hafner to a four-year, $52 million contract extension through the 2012 season with a club option for the 2013. According to the Plain Dealer, Hafner gets $11 million each in 2009 and 2010 and then $13 million each in 2011 and 2012. Most of the other $9 million will be added to his 2007 and 2008 salaries (previously $3.75 million this year and $4.75 million in 2008), with the remainder likely coming in the form of a buyout of the 2013 option. It's a pretty reasonable deal for Cleveland. Hafner isn't guaranteed to age well, but it's hard to imagine him not being at least a $10 million-per-year player in the latter half of the deal. Now it just remains to be seen whether there's still going to be room in the budget for C.C. Sabathia. Since he may want at least a Barry Zito-type contract, odds are that he's going to end up leaving as a free agent after 2008
Athletics placed RHP Rich Harden on the 15-day disabled list, retroactive to July 8, with a strained right shoulder. Harden is just going to have to do his best to pitch through it at some point. This, however, apparently is not the time. He can't be counted on to contribute in fantasy leagues at any point during the final two months. The A's will likely go forward with both Joe Kennedy and Lenny DiNardo in the rotation for now. One could be bumped if Esteban Loaiza makes it back next month.
Roy Oswalt told the Houston Chronicle he would waive his no-trade clause if a move would be better for the Astros' future. Oswalt is due $58 million from 2008-2011, and his contract includes a $16 million option for 2012 with a $2 million buyout. The Mets are believed to be the team most interested in making a push for Oswalt's services, but the Red Sox and Yankees would surely love to have him, too.
David Ortiz said after Thursday's game that he has been playing with a torn meniscus in his right knee since the middle of the 2006 season. If that's the case, he should have had surgery after last season. The operation takes only three or four weeks to recover from. "It wasn't anything major," he said. "I just kept playing through it last year. This year, it's been bothering me more than it used to." Ortiz will keep playing through the soreness and then probably undergo surgery in October or November. It seems this won't be the season in which he gets to two steals for the first time his career.
According to the AP, the Giants and general manager Brian Sabean are closing in on a multiyear contract extension. Both sides might have been better off moving on. The Giants could have gone to someone better equipped to handle a rebuilding project with the club likely to have a tough time in the post-Bonds era, and Sabean is likely to have his reputation tarnished when the Giants do eventually go in the tank. This is already looking like a third straight year of irrelevance for the club.
Melvin Mora left Thursday's game after one inning because of the bruised instep on his left foot. Mora didn't seem to aggravate the injury; he just couldn't play through it. The DL looks like a real possibility here. If it happens, the Orioles would go with Chris Gomez at third and Brandon Fahey at short. Perhaps J.R. House would be called up to act as a bat off the bench.
Yesterday’s results
American League CHA 9 BAL 7 (Recap and Boxscore) BOS 7 TOR 4 (Recap and Boxscore) NYA 7 TB 3 (Recap and Boxscore) MIN 6 OAK 2 (Recap and Boxscore) SEA 3 DET 2 (Recap and Boxscore) National League NYN 3 CIN 2 (Recap and Boxscore)
| First Inning's Major and Minor League Daily Reports: |
Today’s Games
National League --------------- Houston Astros at Chicago Cubs, 2:20 PM (R) Jason Jennings (1-4) vs. (R) Carlos Zambrano (10-7) Washington Nationals at Florida Marlins, 7:05 PM (R) Jason Bergmann (1-5) vs. (L) Dontrelle Willis (7-7) St. Louis Cardinals at Philadelphia Phillies, 7:05 PM (R) Kip Wells (3-11) vs. (R) Kyle Kendrick (3-0) Cincinnati Reds at New York Mets, 7:10 PM (R) Aaron Harang (9-2) vs. (R) John Maine (10-4) Pittsburgh Pirates at Atlanta Braves, 7:35 PM (R) Ian Snell (7-5) vs. (R) Tim Hudson (8-5) Colorado Rockies at Milwaukee Brewers, 8:05 PM (L) Jeff Francis (8-5) vs. (R) Ben Sheets (10-4) San Diego Padres at Arizona Diamondbacks, 9:40 PM (R) Greg Maddux (7-6) vs. (L) Doug Davis (5-10) Los Angeles Dodgers at San Francisco Giants, 10:15 PM (R) Chad Billingsley (5-0) vs. (R) Matt Cain (3-9) American League --------------- Chicago White Sox at Baltimore Orioles, 7:05 PM (L) Mark Buehrle (6-4) vs. (L) Erik Bedard (7-4) Toronto Blue Jays at Boston Red Sox, 7:05 PM (R) Shaun Marcum (4-3) vs. (R) Julian Tavarez (5-7) Kansas City Royals at Cleveland Indians, 7:05 PM (L) Odalis Perez (4-8) vs. (R) Jake Westbrook (1-4) New York Yankees at Tampa Bay Devil Rays, 7:10 PM (R) Roger Clemens (2-3) vs. (L) Scott Kazmir (5-6) Oakland Athletics at Minnesota Twins, 8:10 PM (L) Lenny DiNardo (3-5) vs. (L) Johan Santana (10-6) Detroit Tigers at Seattle Mariners, 10:05 PM (R) Jeremy Bonderman (9-1) vs. (L) Jarrod Washburn (8-6) Texas Rangers at LA Angels of Anaheim, 10:05 PM (R) Kevin Millwood (6-7) vs. (R) Jered Weaver (6-5)
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 54 34 .614 0.0 53 1NYA 43 43 .500 10.0 51 -8
TOR 43 45 .489 11.0 45 -2
BAL 38 50 .432 16.0 43 -5
TB 34 54 .386 20.0 32 2
American League Central DET 52 35 .598 0.0 53 -1
CLE 52 36 .591 0.5 49 3
MIN 46 43 .517 7.0 49 -3
CHA 40 47 .460 12.0 37 3
KC 38 50 .432 14.5 41 -3
American League West LAA 53 35 .602 0.0 49 4
SEA 50 36 .581 2.0 45 5
OAK 44 45 .494 9.5 47 -3
TEX 38 50 .432 15.0 40 -2
National League East Pwins Diff NYN 49 39 .557 0.0 47 2
ATL 47 42 .528 2.5 45 2
PHI 44 44 .500 5.0 43 1
FLA 42 47 .472 7.5 41 1
WAS 36 52 .409 13.0 33 3
National League Central MIL 49 39 .557 0.0 48 1
CHN 44 43 .506 4.5 46 -2
STL 40 45 .471 7.5 36 4
PIT 40 48 .455 9.0 38 2
HOU 39 50 .438 10.5 41 -2
CIN 36 53 .404 13.5 41 -5
National League West SD 49 38 .563 0.0 52 -3
LAN 49 40 .551 1.0 48 1
ARI 47 43 .522 3.5 42 5
COL 44 44 .500 5.5 43 1
SF 38 48 .442 10.5 43 -5
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 Carlos Gonzalez... 5 2 0 0 2 0 1 ARI AAA Carlos Quentin.... 5 3 0 1 0 1 0 3 R ARI AAA Chris Carter...... 6 5 1 0 2 0 0 5 RBI ! CIN AAA Jay Bruce......... 4 1 0 0 1 0 1 SEA AAA Adam Jones........ 3 1 0 0 1 0 1 ARI AAA James D'Antona.... 5 4 2 0 1 0 0 COL AAA Ian Stewart....... 5 2 1 0 0 1 0 BOS AAA George Kottaras... 5 2 2 0 0 0 2 TOR AAA Adam Lind......... 3 2 1 0 0 2 0 DET AAA Brent Clevlen..... 3 2 0 0 2 1 0 OAK AAA Daric Barton...... 4 2 1 0 0 1 0 COL AAA Joseph Koshansky.. 5 3 1 0 0 0 0 ORG LVL PLAYER IP H R ER SO BB HR Notes MIN AAA Kevin Slowey...... 6 8 3 3 5 0 0 NYY AA Ian Kennedy....... 7 3 2 2 8 2 0 SF AA Nick Pereira...... 6 4 0 0 8 2 0 TOR AA Ricky Romero...... 5 3 3 3 9 5 1 NYY A- Jeff Karstens..... 5 4 1 1 8 0 1 BOS A- Jose Capellan..... 5 4 3 3 7 0 0 10 GB COL A+ Chaz Roe.......... 7 8 3 3 9 2 0 MIN A+ Oswaldo Sosa...... 7 3 1 0 5 1 0 KC AA Carlos Rosa....... 5 5 1 1 6 1 0 CLE AAA Sean Smith........ 7 6 1 1 4 1 1 STL AA Mitchell Boggs.... 6 4 2 0 5 3 0 FLA A+ C. Volstad........ 8 9 4 3 5 2 1 16 GB
Access THT’s stats here…
|
|
Matthew Carruth is an editor for The Hardball Times. He welcomes any and all sorts of communication at his email.