THT Daily: Two homer day

by Matthew Carruth
September 12, 2007

Major League News for September 12

Today’s Links
Player News
Yesterday’s Results
Today’s Games
Standings

You can always find the most recent THT Daily at http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/content/thtdaily/

THT Links

Coming soon.

Player News

Player Headlines are courtesy of Rotoworld

Although the Yankees said his MRI came back negative, Roger Clemens said Tuesday that the test revealed ligament damage and internal bleeding in his forearm, adding that the muscle was "pretty nasty." We're hardly stunned that the Yankees fibbed here. Clemens threw on Tuesday and said he felt good enough to return Sunday versus the Red Sox. How his elbow fares over the rest of the season could play a role in determining whether there's any chance of him pitching in 2008.

Andy Pettitte, who almost retired last offseason, says he is unsure of his 2008 plans. He holds a $16 million player option for next year, but hasn't yet decided whether he'll pick it up. "I'm not real sure what I'm going to do," said Pettitte. "It's kind of strange, because for sure I didn't expect my arm to respond the way it has this year. That's the whole reason I wanted the option, so I didn't feel obligated if I was hurting this year to come back."

White Sox signed manager Ozzie Guillen to a multiyear contract extension through the 2012 season. Five more years? Well, it's not Ken Williams' money, so what does he care? It's certainly not going to have any effect on his budget for signing players. Locking up Guillen creates an aura of stability that may prove useful when it's time to sign free agents this winter. There's hardly any chance that Guillen will actually last the full five years, but this will deflect some controversy through at least the first half of 2008. If he needs to be fired next year or in 2009, it's still only a minor hit to Jerry Reinsdorf's wallet.

The Angels plan to hold Gary Matthews Jr. out of action for the rest of the week after he sprained his ankle Tuesday. He'll miss at least five games. The Angels will give additional at-bats to Juan Rivera and Kendry Morales while Matthews is out.

Yesterday’s Results

American League
LAA    10  BAL     5    (Recap and Boxscore)
BOS    16  TB     10    (Recap and Boxscore)
NYA     9  TOR     2    (Recap and Boxscore)
CLE     8  CHA     3    (Recap and Boxscore)
DET     4  TEX     1    (Recap and Boxscore)
TEX    13  DET     6    (Recap and Boxscore)
MIN     6  KC      3    (Recap and Boxscore)
OAK     7  SEA     4    (Recap and Boxscore)

National League
FLA    13  WAS     8    (Recap and Boxscore)
ATL    13  NYN     5    (Recap and Boxscore)
COL     8  PHI     2    (Recap and Boxscore)
CIN     7  STL     2    (Recap and Boxscore)
HOU     5  CHN     4    (Recap and Boxscore) 11 innings
MIL     6  PIT     1    (Recap and Boxscore)
SD      9  LAN     4    (Recap and Boxscore)
SF      2  ARI     1    (Recap and Boxscore)

You can download a compact version of yesterday's boxscores from Heater Magazine.

First Inning's Major and Minor League Daily Reports:

Today’s Games

National League
 ---------------
 Milwaukee Brewers at Pittsburgh Pirates, 12:35 PM
  (R) Dave Bush (11-10) vs. (L) Tom Gorzelanny (14-7)
 Washington Nationals at Florida Marlins, 1:05 PM
  (R) Joel Hanrahan (4-3) vs. (R) Byung-Hyun Kim (9-6)
 Colorado Rockies at Philadelphia Phillies, 7:05 PM
  (R) Denny Bautista (2-1) vs. (R) Kyle Kendrick (8-3)
 Atlanta Braves at New York Mets, 7:10 PM
  (R) John Smoltz (13-7) vs. (R) John Maine (14-9)
 St. Louis Cardinals at Cincinnati Reds, 7:10 PM
  (R) Anthony Reyes (2-13) vs. (R) Bronson Arroyo (8-14)
 Chicago Cubs at Houston Astros, 8:05 PM
  (L) Rich Hill (8-8) vs. (R) Matt Albers (4-7)
 San Diego Padres at Los Angeles Dodgers, 10:10 PM
  (R) Justin Germano (7-9) vs. (R) Derek Lowe (11-12)
 Arizona Diamondbacks at San Francisco Giants, 10:15 PM
  (R) Brandon Webb (15-10) vs. (L) Jonathan Sanchez (1-3)
 
 American League
 ---------------
 Cleveland Indians at Chicago White Sox, 2:05 PM
  (R) Jake Westbrook (5-8) vs. (R) Javier Vazquez (11-8)
 Minnesota Twins at Kansas City Royals, 2:10 PM
  (R) Carlos Silva (11-13) vs. (R) Gil Meche (7-12)
 LA Angels of Anaheim at Baltimore Orioles, 7:05 PM
  (R) Kelvim Escobar (16-7) vs. (R) Daniel Cabrera (9-15)
 Texas Rangers at Detroit Tigers, 7:05 PM
  (R) Edinson Volquez (2-0) vs. (R) Justin Verlander (16-5)
 Tampa Bay Devil Rays at Boston Red Sox, 7:05 PM
  (R) Edwin Jackson (4-14) vs. (L) Jon Lester (4-0)
 New York Yankees at Toronto Blue Jays, 7:07 PM
  (R) Mike Mussina (8-10) vs. (R) Dustin McGowan (10-8)
 Oakland Athletics at Seattle Mariners, 10:05 PM
  (R) Dan Haren (14-7) vs. (R) Miguel Batista (13-11)

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     88  58 .603    0.0   92    -4    
NYA     82  62 .569    5.0   87    -5    
TOR     72  72 .500   15.0   76    -4    
BAL     61  82 .427   25.5   64    -3    
TB      61  84 .421   26.5   59     2    
American League Central     
CLE     85  60 .586    0.0   81     4    
DET     79  67 .541    6.5   79     0    
MIN     72  73 .497   13.0   74    -2    
KC      62  82 .431   22.5   68    -6    
CHA     61  84 .421   24.0   56     5    
American League West        
LAA     85  59 .590    0.0   81     4    
SEA     75  68 .524    9.5   69     6    
OAK     71  75 .486   15.0   73    -2    
TEX     69  75 .479   16.0   70    -1    


National League East        Pwins  Diff
NYN     82  62 .569    0.0   79     3    
PHI     76  68 .528    6.0   77    -1    
ATL     74  71 .510    8.5   79    -5    
WAS     65  80 .448   17.5   61     4    
FLA     62  83 .428   20.5   65    -3    
National League Central     
MIL     74  70 .514    0.0   72     2    
CHN     73  71 .507    1.0   76    -3    
STL     69  73 .486    4.0   63     6    
CIN     65  79 .451    9.0   66    -1    
PIT     64  81 .441   10.5   65    -1    
HOU     63  81 .438   11.0   62     1    
National League West        
ARI     82  64 .562    0.0   70    12    
SD      78  65 .545    2.5   79    -1    
COL     75  69 .521    6.0   77    -2    
LAN     75  69 .521    6.0   75     0    
SF      66  79 .455   15.5   71    -5    


Wildcard Standings
American League             
NYA     82  62 .569    0.0
DET     79  67 .541    4.0
SEA     75  68 .524    6.5
TOR     72  72 .500   10.0
MIN     72  73 .497   10.5
National League             
SD      78  65 .545    0.0
PHI     76  68 .528    2.5
LAN     75  69 .521    3.5
COL     75  69 .521    3.5
ATL     74  71 .510    5.0