THT Daily: Two Complete Games
by Matthew CarruthMay 01, 2007
Major League News for May 1
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/
Today's Links
Drama King - The Rocket gets ready to start deciding what team he might pitch for if he is so inclined.
Marlins stadium update - FishStripes explains how a new gambling law could help the Marlins in their quest for a new stadium.
Maine Improvement - Mets Geek profiles John Maine and goes over how he might have improved from middling former top prospect to seeming ace.
Plate Discipline - Albert Pujols walked on three balls in yesterday's game between the Cardinals and the Brewers. Insert your own joke about plate discipline or stars getting the calls here.
Hot Start - John Sickels reveals what he thinks is in store for Josh Hamilton, and the Minor League Ball community work on a community projection.
Biomechanics - Jeff over at Lookout Landing does the research, comes up with some actual evidence in favor of some biometrics and applies it to King Felix.
Lit Analysis - What poetry can tell us about B.J. Upton.
Carpenter On Track - Cardinals ace Chris Carpenter threw without pain last week and is on track to make a rehab start today. If all goes well, we could be seeing him back in the bigs soon.
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 RotoworldRoy Halladay was masterful on Monday, tossing a five-hitter for his second complete game of the season to guide the Jays past Texas 6-1. Halladay, 4-0 for the first time in his career, gave up a first-inning run and then put it on cruise control, running up streaks of eight straight and then 11 straight outs. He fanned eight, and is suddenly chalking up more Ks, with 18 over his last two starts. With five straight starts of at least seven innings, Halladay is looking like a serious workhorse as usual. If this keeps up, and he can avoid his traditional late-season injury, he will again be right in the Cy Young mix.
Blue Jays placed LHP Gustavo Chacin on the 15-day disabled list, retroactive to April 29, because of a strained left elbow. We've suspected since last year that Chacin is going to need Tommy John surgery at some point. It may not happen this time, but he's not going to help the Jays if he returns and resumes pitching at less than 100 percent. Maybe Dustin McGowan will get a chance to replace him in the rotation Thursday against the Indians. The other option would be to go right back to Josh Towers.
Braves placed RHP Bob Wickman went on the disabled list with an upper back strain. Pitching through pain may be admirable, but if Wickman had been up front about his troubles, there's a good chance the Braves would be 17-6 right now instead of 15-8. Wickman was awful in three straight appearances, blowing saves twice. The Braves didn't announce a closer in his place, but Mike Gonzalez figures to get more opportunities that Rafael Soriano.
Mets placed RHP Orlando Hernandez on the 15-day disabled list, retroactive to April 25, with shoulder tightness. The Mets had to know when they were re-signing El Duque that they'd be fortunate to get 150-160 innings per year from him. Going carefully with him now with an eye towards having him close to 100 percent in October is the correct strategy. Chan Ho Park will start in his place tonight.
Mets placed second baseman Jose Valentin on the 15-day disabled list, retroactive to April 29, with a partial tear of his right ACL. Valentin is expected to miss 2-4 weeks. The Mets will have Damion Easley and switch-hitter Ruben Gotay fill in at second base. Easley will get all the playing time against lefties, but he should lose at-bats to Gotay against righties. Easley still figures to be the better option of the two in NL-only leagues.
The Angels activated IF/OF Chone Figgins (fingers) from the disabled list Monday. Figgins joined the team in time for Monday night's game in Kansas City and is expected to take over starting duties at third base. Brandon Wood was optioned back to Triple-A to make room for Figgins on the roster.
Moises Alou has a sore right shoulder and will undergo an MRI on Tuesday. Alou, banged up at the moment, needed two stitches in his chin tonight after crashing into the wall in left field. If Alou's shoulder puts him on the DL, Endy Chavez would take over as the regular in left field. Ricky Ledee could be called up to serve as a reserve. The injured Lastings Milledge isn't an option.
Yesterday’s Results
American League TOR 6 TEX 1 (Recap and Boxscore) Halladay: 9 IP, 1 R DET 8 BAL 4 (Recap and Boxscore) Sheffield: 1-2, HR LAA 3 KC 1 (Recap and Boxscore) Lackey: 6.1 IP, 1 R; Vlad: 2 2B National League ATL 5 PHI 2 (Recap and Boxscore) Andruw: 2-4, GW HR; Hudson: 8 IP, 2 R FLA 9 NYN 6 (Recap and Boxscore) Ramirez: 2-4, HR, batting .364 MIL 7 STL 1 (Recap and Boxscore) Suppan: 9 IP, 1 R PIT 3 CHN 2 (Recap and Boxscore) Duke: 6.2 IP, 2 R; Hill: 7 IP, 2 R ARI 9 LAN 1 (Recap and Boxscore) Young: 3-5, 2 HR; Webb: 7 IP, 1 R WAS 3 SD 2 (Recap and Boxscore) Patterson: 6 IP, 1 R; Peavy: 7 IP, 3 R, 10 K SF 9 COL 5 (Recap and Boxscore) Aurilia: 2 2B; Tulowitzki: 4-4
Today’s Games
National League --------------- Chicago Cubs at Pittsburgh Pirates, 7:05 PM (L) Ted Lilly (2-2) vs. (R) Tony Armas (0-2) Florida Marlins at New York Mets, 7:10 PM (R) Ricky Nolasco (0-0) vs. (R) Mike Pelfrey (0-2) Philadelphia Phillies at Atlanta Braves, 7:35 PM (L) Cole Hamels (2-1) vs. (L) Mark Redman (0-3) Cincinnati Reds at Houston Astros, 8:05 PM (R) Bronson Arroyo (0-2) vs. (R) Matt Albers (0-0) St. Louis Cardinals at Milwaukee Brewers, 8:05 PM (R) Braden Looper (3-1) vs. (R) Ben Sheets (1-2) Washington Nationals at San Diego Padres, 10:05 PM (R) Shawn Hill (2-2) vs. (R) Chris Young (2-2) Arizona Diamondbacks at Los Angeles Dodgers, 10:10 PM (R) Livan Hernandez (2-1) vs. (R) Brad Penny (3-0) Colorado Rockies at San Francisco Giants, 10:15 PM (R) Taylor Buchholz (1-1) vs. (R) Russ Ortiz (2-1) American League --------------- Baltimore Orioles at Detroit Tigers, 7:05 PM (L) Adam Loewen (2-0) vs. (R) Chad Durbin (1-1) Oakland Athletics at Boston Red Sox, 7:05 PM (R) Joe Blanton (2-1) vs. (R) Curt Schilling (3-1) Toronto Blue Jays at Cleveland Indians, 7:05 PM (R) AJ Burnett (2-1) vs. (L) CC Sabathia (3-0) Minnesota Twins at Tampa Bay Devil Rays, 7:10 PM (R) Sidney Ponson (1-3) vs. (R) Edwin Jackson (0-3) New York Yankees at Texas Rangers, 8:05 PM (R) Philip Hughes (0-1) vs. (R) Kameron Loe (1-1) LA Angels of Anaheim at Kansas City Royals, 8:10 PM (R) Bartolo Colon (2-0) vs. (R) Zack Greinke (1-2) Chicago White Sox at Seattle Mariners, 10:05 PM (R) Javier Vazquez (2-0) vs. (L) Jarrod Washburn (1-2)
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 BOS 16 8 .667 0.0 16 0TOR 13 12 .520 3.5 15 -2
BAL 12 14 .462 5.0 12 0
TB 11 14 .440 5.5 9 2
NYA 9 14 .391 6.5 12 -3
American League Central CLE 14 8 .636 0.0 12 2
DET 14 11 .560 1.5 13 1
MIN 14 11 .560 1.5 14 0
CHA 12 11 .522 2.5 11 1
KC 8 18 .308 8.0 10 -2
American League West LAA 15 11 .577 0.0 14 1
SEA 10 10 .500 2.0 9 1
OAK 12 13 .480 2.5 13 -1
TEX 10 15 .400 4.5 10 0
National League East Pwins Diff ATL 16 9 .640 0.0 14 2
NYN 15 9 .625 0.5 17 -2
FLA 12 13 .480 4.0 13 -1
PHI 11 14 .440 5.0 13 -2
WAS 9 17 .346 7.5 7 2
National League Central MIL 16 9 .640 0.0 13 3
PIT 12 12 .500 3.5 10 2
CIN 12 13 .480 4.0 12 0
CHN 10 14 .417 5.5 14 -4
HOU 10 14 .417 5.5 11 -1
STL 10 14 .417 5.5 9 1
National League West ARI 16 11 .593 0.0 14 2
LAN 15 11 .577 0.5 15 0
SF 13 11 .542 1.5 12 1
SD 13 13 .500 2.5 14 -1
COL 10 16 .385 5.5 11 -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 POS AB H 2B 3B HR BB SO Notes CHW AA Ricardo Nanita LF 4 3 0 0 1 0 0 .522 OBP during past week CIN AA Drew Anderson LF 3 2 1 0 1 2 0 CIN A+ Adam Rosales 1B 3 2 1 1 0 2 0 CLE A LF 3 2 1 0 1 1 1 4 RBI COL AAA Sean Barker RF 3 3 2 0 0 0 0 FLA A+ Brad McCann DH 6 4 2 0 0 0 1 FLA AA Brett Carroll CF 2 2 0 0 1 0 0 LA A Matt Berezay LF 3 3 1 0 0 0 0 MIL A Charles Caufield RF 5 4 1 0 0 0 0 MIL A+ Freddy Parejo LF 4 3 1 0 1 0 1 4 RBI ORG LVL PLAYER IP H R ER SO BB HR Notes COL A+ Brandon Hynick 9.0 2 0 0 7 0 0 0 ER allowed over last 25 IP FLA A+ Sergio Mitre 6.0 2 0 0 0 0 0 HOU A Douglas Arguello 7.0 2 0 0 2 2 0 HOU A+ Raymar Diaz 6.0 2 0 0 4 2 0 MIN A Jeffrey Manship 7.0 1 0 0 8 1 0 1.03 ERA over past month MIN AAA Kevin Slowey 7.0 5 1 1 8 1 0 SD A+ Wade Leblanc 6.0 2 0 0 4 1 0 SD AA Cesar Ramos 9.0 3 0 0 6 1 0 SEA A Kyle Parker 5.0 1 0 0 3 0 0
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Matthew Carruth is an editor for The Hardball Times. He welcomes any and all sorts of communication at his email.