November 21, 2009
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THT Daily: Unrunnableby THT StaffJuly 28, 2008 Player News Yesterday’s Results Today’s Games Standings Game of the Day Yesterday’s Home Runs Top Minor League Performances 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 RotoworldWith two shutout innings against the Rangers on Sunday, Brad Ziegler set the major league record for consecutive scoreless innings to begin a career with 27. Ziegler struck out three and gave up two singles between the pair of innings. The record was previously held by George McCullen in 1907. Ziegler obviously isn't this good, but expecting him to be one of the better setup men in the American League is far from outlandish. The right-hander has a 1.98 ERA between the majors and minors over the last two seasons, and he hasn't given up a homer in 128 1/3 innings since switching to a sidearm delivery. Tigers manager Jim Leyland said he's replacing Todd Jones with Fernando Rodney in the closer's role. Two good weeks from Rodney apparently outweighs the fact that his 5.14 ERA is higher than that of either Jones (4.99) or Joel Zumaya (1.65). There's really no good reason for the team to make this switch. Rodney isn't going to be their long-term closer, and Jones had just three blown saves all year. Rodney actually had two in a setup role even though he's made just 14 appearances since coming off the disabled list. It's worth picking him up in fantasy leagues, but we're skeptical this will last. Eric Chavez called the labrum in his throwing shoulder "shredded" on Saturday after a poor throwing session. Chavez may be done as a third baseman in this league. "My career is definitely at a crossroads," he said. Chavez might be hinting at a possible move to first base, as he said he's refocused his attention on becoming a productive offensive player once again. "The way I feel about my arm, I know the end result already," he said. Manny Ramirez spoke with reporters on Sunday and confirmed that he is open to a trade. "What I said was if the Red Sox they think they could find a trade that's going to make the team better and both sides are going to be happy, I'm going to agree," he said. "But if they cannot find a trade... It's something simple. It's no big deal. At the end of the season, all they've got to do is call my agent and say, 'Hey, we're not going to pick Manny's option for '09, he's going to become a free agent. And that's it. I go my way, and you guys go your way, something simple." Ramirez sounded like he didn't think he'd be back in 2009 regardless. "I don't want to talk to them about contracts right now. So what? I know they got me, but enough is enough. I'm tired of them, they're tired of me. After 2008, just send me a letter or whatever. You don't even got to call my agent or whatever. 'Hey, thank you for everything. You're going to become a free agent. We're not going to pick up your option in '09.'" Brian McCann was diagnosed with a mild concussion after coming out of Sunday's game against the Phillies. McCann expects to avoid the disabled list. "I have a headache right now, but I’ll be OK," he said. "I’m not too worried. I’ll probably be out a couple days." McCann's injury might make it more likely that Chipper Jones goes on the DL, as the Braves could want to add a third catcher on Monday. Chipper Jones thinks he might need to go on the disabled list because of his strained left hamstring. Jones hasn't played since Wednesday. "It still bothers me just walking around," he said. "Doing anything baseball-related is a few days away, at the very least." The Braves could make a move on Monday. If they place him on the DL, it's likely that they'd call up Brent Lillibridge. Yesterday’s ResultsGame recaps provided by Craig Calcaterra of Shysterball.Red Sox 9, Yankees 2: L'enfant terrible goes 3-5 with a couple of doubles and a couple of RBI. While I suppose the events of the past few days constitute some new low in Red Sox-Manny relations, it's a difference of degree, not kind. The parties have been through this before. The Sox are going to explore their options, but will soon realize that they're better off playing the rest of the season with Ramirez in left than they are trying to cobble together an outfield in the middle of a three-way pennant race. For his part, Manny will get distracted by a laser pointer or a pinwheel or something soon and forget whatever it is he's pouting about. If I had to place money on it, I'd have the Red Sox trading punches with the Yankees and Rays for the next two months in an effective enough manner to where they'll end up on top, after which they'll slog their way to the World Series once again. Sometime in hour four of Game Five of the ALCS, McCarver will remind us all about this little fracas and say something about how that was "a long, long time ago." Diamondbacks 7, Giants 2: Randy Johnson wins his fourth in a row, which brings him up to 292 on his career. The Diamondbacks have 58 games left, which means that, assuming he stays healthy, The Big Unit could get 10-11 starts. That makes the odds of him getting to 300 this year pretty darn slim, but I am openly rooting for him to do it anyway. Not because I like him all that much or anything. I just want to read the columns from the guys who just last season said that Tom Glavine would be the last pitcher to ever win 300. Sure, even if he doesn't make it this year Johnson will hang on for one more season to get there, but if we get one more intervening winter, enough time will have elapsed for the dummy columnists to figure out what excuses to make. If it happens the very next season after Glavine, they'll have to write about how just how wrong they were, won't they? Dodgers 2, Nats 0: My buddy Ethan went to the Nats-Giants game on Thursday. Like this one, it was also a short game in which Washington was shut out. I had said something nice about Matt Cain's performance after that game, but Ethan said "It was definitely a 'failure of hitting' more than a 'triumph of pitching' sort of game." I think recent results bear this out, as the Nats have now scored two runs in the last 36 innings, having been shut out three of four times. Yeah, Matt Cain is good, and Clayton Kershaw is gonna be pretty good, and Derek Lowe's nothin' to sneeze at either, but at some point you just look at an offense like Washington's and say, man, they really really stink. A's 6, Rangers 5: A's reliever Brad Ziegler has started his career with 27 consecutive scoreless innings, which is a new record. Sources report that Billy Beane is now desperately trying to trade the 28 year-old rookie before he gets too expensive. Milwaukee has offered Oakland its second, fourth, fifth, and ninth ranked prospects plus an undisclosed amount of cash. Royals 6, Rays 1: After looking at some ink blots, doing a bit of word association, and talking about their mothers, the Royals go out and beat the first place Rays. But it's not the winning that made them sleep better last night. It was the inner peace that came from knowing that they're working on a better them. Cubs 9, Marlins 6: The Cubs won this one, but have really been struggling lately, having lost seven of their previous ten. All of that will be forgotten, however, if they can take three from Milwaukee over the next four games. And now that I think about it, actually, all of that will be forgotten if Milwaukee cleans their clock too, as the Brewers will be given credit for derailing the Cubs' season, not the Diamondbacks and Marlins. Astros 11, Brewers 6: It's the return of the Killer Bs, as Blum (2-4, 2 HR 4RBI) and, um, Brad (4-4 2 RBI) put the hurt on Jeff Suppan and a Brewers team that may have been thinking more about the upcoming series against Chicago than this quaint Sunday afternoon affair. Orioles 5, Angels 2: Sometimes I worry that I give Baltimore short-shrift. I probably know fewer Orioles players than guys on most teams, and I often struggle to find anything all that insightful to say about them. I'm not the only one, however, as for what seems like the umpteenth time this year, the guy responsible for doing the AP game story mentions the Orioles' record on Sundays. As if a one-day-of-the-week streak matters for anything. Padres 3, Pirates 1: Pittsburgh is swept by the worst team in the majors immediately after completing their annual WTF Trade. Some day there will be a reunion of players who were inexplicably traded by or to the Pirates. They'll all meet in banquet room somewhere and talk about the time their careers intersected with Pittsburgh, not unlike the way alien abductees talk about their experiences. Confusion will rule the day, but there will be serious efforts made by those in attendance to make sense of it all. Guys like Matt Morris and Raul Mondesi will wonder how they every got to Pittsburgh and guys like Xavier Nady, Jason Schmidt, and Aramis Ramirez will wonder why they were shipped out. Mariners 5, Blue Jays 1: Two of the rarest things in Seattle baseball -- A Mariners win and a decent performance from Jose Vidro -- and Dave Niehaus has to miss it. What a shame. Tigers 6, White Sox 4: A win here is nice, but Detroit dropped two of three to the White Sox. There's still time to catch up, but people have been saying that all year, and eventually it will cease to be a true statement. Phillies 12, Braves 10: If this one were any uglier it would've required two bags. The Braves blew a 5-0 lead, then nearly came back from a 12-5 deficit only to fall short, and got their best active player knocked out of the game with a concussion to boot. I have spent the past three or four years complaining about the decline and eventual disappearance of Braves' games from TBS, but you know what? I've actually become pretty cool with it. Twins 4, Indians 2: Cubs-Brewers is not the only major battle in the Upper Midwest this week. The Twins -- fresh off taking two of three from the Tribe -- now face the White Sox in the dome for four. Rockies 11, Reds 0: When most teams go on a really hot streak that brings them up to ten games under .500, we call that regression to the mean. When an NL West team does it, we call it a surge. Really, I love how the Rockies can take three from the Reds, still end the series with a record two games behind that of Cincinnati, yet they're still spoken of as a frisky contender. In a just world, any team worse than the Reds would be disqualified from experiencing hope. This is not a just world, however. If it were, the NL West would not exist. Mets 9, Cardinals 1: Johan Santana (CG, 6 H, 1 ER, 5K) must have read Neyer's post last week about how he never goes long in games and came out yesterday hellbent on shutting him up. Having dropped two of three, the Cardinals Road Trip of Doom continues. They may get well this week, however, as they take a trip to Atlanta where everyone who is good is hurt. You can download a compact version of yesterday's boxscores from Heater Magazine.
Today’s GamesNational League --------------- Colorado Rockies at Pittsburgh Pirates, 7:05 PM (R) Jason Hirsh (0-0) vs. (R) Ian Snell (3-8) New York Mets at Florida Marlins, 7:10 PM (R) John Maine (9-7) vs. (R) Ricky Nolasco (10-6) St. Louis Cardinals at Atlanta Braves, 7:10 PM (R) Braden Looper (9-8) vs. (R) Charlie Morton (2-3) Chicago Cubs at Milwaukee Brewers, 8:05 PM (L) Ted Lilly (10-6) vs. (L) CC Sabathia (4-0) Cincinnati Reds at Houston Astros, 8:05 PM (R) Johnny Cueto (7-9) vs. (R) Roy Oswalt (7-8) Arizona Diamondbacks at San Diego Padres, 10:05 PM (R) Micah Owings (6-8) vs. (R) Greg Maddux (3-8) San Francisco Giants at Los Angeles Dodgers, 10:10 PM (R) Kevin Correia (1-5) vs. (R) Hiroki Kuroda (5-7) American League --------------- Baltimore Orioles at New York Yankees, 7:05 PM (R) Jeremy Guthrie (6-8) vs. (R) Mike Mussina (13-6) LA Angels of Anaheim at Boston Red Sox, 7:05 PM (R) Jered Weaver (8-8) vs. (R) Daisuke Matsuzaka (11-1) Detroit Tigers at Cleveland Indians, 7:05 PM (L) Kenny Rogers (8-6) vs. (R) Paul Byrd (4-10) Tampa Bay Rays at Toronto Blue Jays, 7:07 PM (R) James Shields (9-6) vs. (R) A.J. Burnett (11-9) Seattle Mariners at Texas Rangers, 8:05 PM (R) Felix Hernandez (7-6) vs. (R) Scott Feldman (4-3) Chicago White Sox at Minnesota Twins, 8:10 PM (L) Mark Buehrle (8-8) vs. (R) Kevin Slowey (6-7) Kansas City Royals at Oakland Athletics, 10:05 PM (R) Zack Greinke (7-7) vs. (L) Dallas Braden (2-0) 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 61 43 .587 0.0 56 5 Game of the DayMINNESOTA (4) VS CLEVELAND (2) - FINAL
MINNESOTA ab r h rbi bb so lob avg
D Span cf 4 0 0 1 0 0 1 .324
A Casilla 2b 4 1 1 1 0 0 0 .314
M Redmond c 4 0 0 0 0 1 2 .269
J Morneau 1b 4 1 1 1 0 1 0 .318
D Young lf 3 0 0 0 1 0 0 .295
J Kubel rf 4 0 1 1 0 2 0 .263
C Monroe dh 4 1 2 0 0 1 2 .206
B Harris 3b 2 1 0 0 1 1 1 .259
N Punto ss 3 0 1 0 0 0 0 .289
Totals 32 4 6 4 2 6 6
BATTING: 2B - C Monroe (9, J Sowers); A Casilla (15, R Perez); J Morneau (25, R
Perez). RBI - D Span (9), A Casilla (39), J Morneau (76), J Kubel (51). 2-out
RBI - J Morneau, J Kubel. Runners left in scoring position, 2 out - C Monroe 1,
M Redmond 1. Team LOB - 3.
BASERUNNING: CS - C Monroe (1, 2nd base by J Sowers).
FIELDING: E - J Morneau (3, ground ball). DP: 1 (J Morneau-N Punto-J
Morneau).
CLEVELAND ab r h rbi bb so lob avg
G Sizemore dh 3 0 2 0 1 1 0 .276
F Gutierrez cf 3 0 0 0 0 0 2 .217
a-D Dellucci ph-lf 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 .224
B Francisco lf-cf 4 0 0 0 0 1 3 .277
J Peralta ss 4 0 0 0 0 0 3 .269
S Choo rf 4 1 1 0 0 0 0 .257
A Marte 3b 4 0 1 0 0 1 1 .192
R Garko 1b 4 0 1 0 0 2 3 .236
S Fasano c 2 0 0 1 0 0 3 .273
A Cabrera 2b 3 1 1 0 0 0 1 .186
Totals 31 2 6 2 1 5 17
a-hit sacrifice fly to center for F Gutierrez in the 8th.
BATTING: SF - S Fasano , D Dellucci. RBI - S Fasano (2), D Dellucci (34).
Runners left in scoring position, 2 out - S Fasano 1, J Peralta 1. GIDP - S
Fasano. Team LOB - 5.
BASERUNNING: SB - G Sizemore (25, 2nd base off N Blackburn/M Redmond), S Choo
(3, 2nd base off N Blackburn/M Redmond).
----------------------------------------------------
MINNESOTA - 000 002 002 -- 4
CLEVELAND - 010 000 010 -- 2
----------------------------------------------------
MINNESOTA ip h r er bb so hr era
N Blackburn 7 4 1 1 1 3 0 3.68
D Reyes 0 2 1 1 0 0 0 2.96
M Guerrier (W, 6-4; B, 4) 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 3.27
J Nathan (S, 28) 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 1.05
CLEVELAND ip h r er bb so hr era
J Sowers 8 3 2 2 1 5 0 5.86
R Perez (L, 1-2) 1 3 2 2 1 1 0 3.42
D Reyes pitched to 2 batters in the 8th.
IBB - D Young (by R Perez). Pitches-strikes: N Blackburn 99-69; D Reyes 8-5;
M Guerrier 11-9; J Nathan 9-7; J Sowers 101-70; R Perez 25-14. Ground balls-fly
balls: N Blackburn 7-11; D Reyes 0-0; M Guerrier 0-2; J Nathan 1-1; J Sowers
9-9; R Perez 2-0. Batters faced: N Blackburn 26; D Reyes 2; M Guerrier 3; J
Nathan 3; J Sowers 27; R Perez 7.
UMPIRES: HP--Jeff Nelson. 1B--Adrian Johnson. 2B--Tim Tschida. 3B--Jim Joyce.
T--2:42. Att--31,562.
Weather: 79 degrees, sunny. Wind: 15 mph, left 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 Garrett Atkins COL Josh Fogg CIN 356 351 15 JE Mike Aviles KC Andy Sonnanstine TB 412 394 5 PL/L Jeff Baker COL Josh Fogg CIN 417 407 9 PL Josh Bard SD John Grabow PIT 413 380 1 JE/L Geoff Blum HOU Jeff Suppan MIL 385 381 8 PL Geoff Blum HOU Jeff Suppan MIL 377 365 7 PL Ryan Braun MIL Randy Wolf HOU 352 353 27 PL Pat Burrell PHI Julian Tavarez ATL 381 373 26 PL Billy Butler KC Andy Sonnanstine TB 353 325 6 PL/L Ramon Castro NYM Kyle Lohse STL 392 389 6 PL Chris Coste PHI Jo-Jo Reyes ATL 399 398 8 JE Jack Cust OAK Eric Hurley TEX 397 407 19 PL Jermaine Dye CWS Zach Miner DET 368 363 24 JE Curtis Granderson DET Javier Vazquez CWS 379 378 11 PL Scott Hairston SD John Grabow PIT 391 364 17 JE/L Chris Iannetta COL Todd Coffey CIN 443 437 11 ND Omar Infante ATL Adam Eaton PHI 394 387 2 ND Conor Jackson ARI Sergio Romo SF 392 370 12 PL Mike Jacobs FLA Jason Marquis CHC 417 382 22 JE/L Mike Jacobs FLA Jason Marquis CHC 370 345 21 JE/L Kelly Johnson ATL Adam Eaton PHI 361 364 9 JE Derrek Lee CHC Mark Hendrickson FLA 420 383 17 PL/L James Loney LAD Jason Bergmann WAS 410 410 9 PL John McDonald TOR Jarrod Washburn SEA 392 384 1 PL David Ortiz BOS Sidney Ponson NYY 409 388 14 PL A.J. Pierzynski CWS Zach Miner DET 388 390 7 PL Albert Pujols STL Johan Santana NYM 396 394 20 PL Mark Reynolds ARI Barry Zito SF 392 383 21 JE Jimmy Rollins PHI Buddy Carlyle ATL 358 363 7 PL Alfonso Soriano CHC Rick VandenHurk FLA 409 373 16 PL/L Kurt Suzuki OAK Eric Hurley TEX 407 415 5 PL Fernando Tatis NYM Kyle Lohse STL 380 377 7 PL Marcus Thames DET Javier Vazquez CWS 414 413 20 ND Dan Uggla FLA Jason Marquis CHC 0 0 25 ND Shane Victorino PHI Jo-Jo Reyes ATL 385 382 8 PL Jose Vidro SEA Shaun Marcum TOR 400 398 7 PL Jayson Werth PHI Blaine Boyer ATL 423 420 14 PL David Wright NYM Kyle Lohse STL 421 418 20 ND Top Minor League GamesThe 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 FLA AAA Dallas McPherson.. 5 4 0 0 3 0 0 3 R OAK AA Aaron Cunningham.. 6 4 1 0 2 0 1 4 R SF AAA Travis Ishikawa... 4 2 0 0 2 0 0 BOS AAA Brandon Moss...... 5 2 0 0 2 0 2 STL AAA David Freese...... 3 2 1 0 1 1 0 4 RBI TEX AAA Nelson Cruz....... 5 2 0 0 1 0 2 2 SB COL AA Dexter Fowler..... 5 3 1 1 0 0 1 3 LD BOS A+ Jonathan Still.... 4 3 2 0 0 0 0 FLA A Michael Stanton... 4 2 1 0 1 0 0 3 R STL AAA Nick Stavinoha.... 4 2 1 1 0 0 1 ATL AAA B. Lillibridge.... 6 2 0 0 1 1 0 3 LD KC AA Kila Kaaihue...... 5 3 0 0 1 0 0 5 RBI ! ORG LVL PLAYER IP H R ER SO BB HR Notes MIN A M. McCardell...... 7 2 0 0 7 0 0 TOR AA Brett Cecil....... 6 3 0 0 8 1 0 TOR A Luis Perez........ 5 4 3 3 9 1 0 BAL AA Jason Berken...... 6 6 1 0 8 0 0 ATL A+ Scott Diamond..... 6 4 4 2 7 1 0 STL AAA C. Mortensen...... 7 5 2 2 8 1 1 TEX A- Wilfredo Boscan... 5 4 1 1 7 0 1 MIN AAA F. Liriano........ 6 8 4 4 9 1 1 ATL A Edgar Osuna....... 7 4 0 0 4 1 0 PIT A Duke Welker....... 6 2 0 0 6 3 0 12 GB CHW AAA Jack Egbert....... 7 5 1 1 7 4 0 NYY A Jairo Heredia..... 5 8 5 4 8 2 0 11 GB Access THT’s stats here…
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BOS 61 45 .575 1.0 63 -2 
NYA 58 46 .558 3.0 57 1 
TOR 53 52 .505 8.5 56 -3 
BAL 49 55 .471 12.0 50 -1 
American League Central
CHA 59 44 .573 0.0 60 -1 
MIN 57 47 .548 2.5 54 3 
DET 53 51 .510 6.5 55 -2 
KC 47 59 .443 13.5 45 2 
CLE 45 58 .437 14.0 52 -7 
American League West
LAA 64 40 .615 0.0 56 8 
TEX 54 51 .514 10.5 50 4 
OAK 53 51 .510 11.0 57 -4 
SEA 39 65 .375 25.0 44 -5 
National League East Pwins Diff
NYN 57 48 .543 0.0 57 0 
PHI 56 49 .533 1.0 59 -3 
FLA 55 50 .524 2.0 49 6 
ATL 49 55 .471 7.5 55 -6 
WAS 38 67 .362 19.0 40 -2 
National League Central
CHN 61 44 .581 0.0 63 -2 
MIL 60 45 .571 1.0 56 4 
STL 58 49 .542 4.0 55 3 
CIN 50 56 .472 11.5 46 4 
HOU 48 56 .462 12.5 46 2 
PIT 48 57 .457 13.0 46 2 
National League West
ARI 53 51 .510 0.0 54 -1 
LAN 52 52 .500 1.0 54 -2 
COL 48 58 .453 6.0 49 -1 
SF 43 61 .413 10.0 43 0 
SD 41 65 .387 13.0 42 -1 