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: Woe to Chicago Third Basemenby Matthew CarruthJune 07, 2007 Major League News for June 7Today’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 LinksHitting harder to draft - Jon Weisman talks to a couple prospect mavens and they tell him that hitting is less projectable, something that surprised me. Draft boards - A number of blogs are running draft coverage today, including Baseball Analysts (which will provide a live blog), U.S.S. Mariner (Mariners), Mets Geek (Mets), Federal Baseball (Nationals), Purple Row (Rockies), Halos Heaven (Angels) and Batter's Box (Blue Jays). Star appeal - The Boston Globe breaks down the All-Star ballot and writes that Red Sox starter Daisuke Matsuzaka may be an odd man out. This surprised me at first, especially since he started out relatively well, but at this point he doesn't deserve it on performance alone. That said, it's the All-Star Game. He has to be there. If MLB puts him on the fan ballot for the 32nd spot, I have no doubt in my mind that he'll make it. Hot streak - Don't look now, but it's June and the A's have won five straight to climb within two games of Detroit in the wild card standings. I really have no good explanation for the A's history of getting hot in June or July, so I have no rational expectation that it will continue. However, as a fan, I fully expect them to play roughly .700 ball the rest of the way and make the playoffs. 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 NewsPlayer Headlines are courtesy of RotoworldTrevor Hoffman recorded his 500th career save with a scoreless ninth Wednesday against the Dodgers. Hoffman, who hasn't allowed a run since April 27, is 18-for-20 in save chances this season. He broke Lee Smith's major league record with his 479th career save last September and now is just trying to add to it, so he doesn't have to worry about Mariano Rivera, Francisco Rodriguez or someone else eventually catching him. Gary Sheffield pounded two home runs and drove in five runs as Detroit extended Texas' agony with a 10-0 win on Wednesday. Sheffield hit a two-run homer in the first and again in the third, the latter of which capped a four-run Tiger uprising. He added an RBI single. Sheffield has hit multi-jacks twice this season and 35 times in his career and by reaching 1,539 career RBI, he's tied Harry Heilman for 40th place on the all-time list. Sheffield has 15 homers in just 56 games this season. Chien-Ming Wang tossed a five-hitter Wednesday for the Yankees' first nine-inning complete-game in almost a year as they whipped the White Sox 5-1. The last time a Yankees starter turned the trick was July 28, when Wang tossed a two-hitter. In throwing his third career complete game, Wang struck out four and walked one in a 104-pitch night. He's now won four times in his last five starts to move to 5-4 overall. Roger Clemens is aiming to pitch Saturday after his throwing session Wednesday went according to plan. "Everything today went well," Clemens said. "I have a short downhill training session tomorrow and then I should be locked in and ready to go. The weakness that came from the scar tissue has so far dispersed. Today's bullpen session was a little more intense than a regular side session. Normally, I would throw about 60 percent, but today I threw closer to 80 percent." It sounds like the final word won't come until Thursday. Nate Robertson will be placed on the disabled list prior to Thursday's game due to a tired arm. Robertson said he felt fine physically, but his performance suggested otherwise and he agreed to go on the DL during a meeting with manager Jim Leyland today. A reliever will replace Robertson initially before Andrew Miller is brought up to start in his place Sunday. Miller's stay could be another short one, but he'll be worth using right away. Lance Berkman will be suspended for his actions during Tuesday's game, when he was ejected for arguing a check-swing call. Berkman seemed mostly annoyed over the check-swing call. It was the ejection for what he believed with some rather innocent words that infuriated him. Afterward, he threw his batting glove and an equipment bag onto the field from the dugout. It's probably going to cost him three or four games. We'll know for sure on Thursday. The Twins confirmed that they'll activate Joe Mauer prior to Friday's game. Jason Miller will head to Triple-A to open up room on the roster, leaving the Twins with three catchers for now. Chris Heintz should return to Triple-A eventually. It's possible that Mauer will bat second, rather than his usual third, giving the Twins a stronger top of the order. Aramis Ramirez left Wednesday's game because of a strained left knee, according to the Cubs. Ramirez, who was injured running to first base in the second inning, will probably undergo tests on the knee within the next 24 hours. Mark DeRosa, Ryan Theriot and Cesar Izturis will all play regularly while Ramirez is out. White Sox placed third baseman Joe Crede on the 15-day disabled list, retroactive to June 5, with lower back inflammation. Josh Fields is up to take his place as the everyday third baseman for at least the next couple of weeks. The White Sox are probably annoyed now that Crede decided against offseason back surgery. He had proven capable of managing his back problems in the past, but it had gotten too hard for him now. Maybe he'll be closer to 100 percent after two weeks off. Yesterday’s ResultsAmerican League TB 6 TOR 2 (Recap and Boxscore) NYA 5 CHA 1 (Recap and Boxscore) KC 4 CLE 3 (Recap and Boxscore) MIN 8 LAA 5 (Recap and Boxscore) OAK 3 BOS 2 (Recap and Boxscore) BAL 9 SEA 5 (Recap and Boxscore) DET 10 TEX 0 (Recap and Boxscore) National League FLA 7 ATL 4 (Recap and Boxscore) PHI 4 NYN 2 (Recap and Boxscore) WAS 6 PIT 5 (Recap and Boxscore) CHN 6 MIL 2 (Recap and Boxscore) STL 6 CIN 4 (Recap and Boxscore) ARI 1 SF 0 (Recap and Boxscore) COL 8 HOU 7 (Recap and Boxscore) SD 5 LAN 2 (Recap and Boxscore) Today’s GamesNational League --------------- Pittsburgh Pirates at Washington Nationals, 1:05 PM (R) Ian Snell (5-4) vs. (L) Matt Chico (3-4) Houston Astros at Colorado Rockies, 3:05 PM (R) Roy Oswalt (6-4) vs. (R) Josh Fogg (1-5) Philadelphia Phillies at New York Mets, 7:10 PM (L) Cole Hamels (8-2) vs. (R) John Maine (6-3) Chicago Cubs at Atlanta Braves, 7:35 PM (L) Rich Hill (4-4) vs. (L) Chuck James (5-4) Cincinnati Reds at St. Louis Cardinals, 8:10 PM (R) Kyle Lohse (2-7) vs. (R) Adam Wainwright (4-4) San Francisco Giants at Arizona Diamondbacks, 9:40 PM (L) Noah Lowry (5-5) vs. (R) Livan Hernandez (5-3) Los Angeles Dodgers at San Diego Padres, 10:05 PM (L) Hong-Chih Kuo (0-1) vs. (R) Jake Peavy (7-1) American League --------------- Kansas City Royals at Cleveland Indians, 12:05 PM (L) Odalis Perez (3-5) vs. (R) Fausto Carmona (6-1) Tampa Bay Devil Rays at Toronto Blue Jays, 12:37 PM (R) Edwin Jackson (0-7) vs. (R) AJ Burnett (5-5) Boston Red Sox at Oakland Athletics, 3:35 PM (R) Curt Schilling (5-2) vs. (R) Joe Blanton (5-3) New York Yankees at Chicago White Sox, 8:11 PM (R) Mike Mussina (2-3) vs. (R) Jose Contreras (4-5) Detroit Tigers at Texas Rangers, 8:35 PM (L) Mike Maroth (3-2) vs. (R) Kameron Loe (1-5) 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 BOS 37 21 .638 0.0 36 1 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 ARI AA Carlos Gonzalez... 4 2 0 0 1 1 0 3 R TB AA Evan Longoria..... 4 3 1 0 1 1 0 3 R CLE AAA Andy Marte........ 3 1 0 0 1 1 0 ARI AA Justin Upton...... 4 1 1 0 0 1 0 SD AA Chase Headley..... 5 3 1 0 2 1 2 4 RBI COL AA Jonathan Herrera.. 4 4 3 0 0 0 0 3 R COL A+ Eric Young........ 5 3 0 1 1 0 0 2 SB CLE A+ Michael Aubrey.... 3 3 0 0 2 1 0 3 R CIN A+ Jay Bruce......... 5 1 1 0 0 0 2 OAK A+ Anthony Recker.... 4 2 0 0 2 1 2 ARI AA Chris Rahl........ 4 2 1 0 1 1 2 CIN A+ B. Szymanski...... 4 3 1 1 1 0 0 3 R ORG LVL PLAYER IP H R ER SO BB HR Notes MIN AAA Matt Garza........ 6 5 4 4 6 1 0 PHI A+ Carlos Carrasco... 8 3 1 1 8 1 1 SD A+ Wade Leblanc...... 8 3 1 1 8 0 1 TB A+ Wade Davis........ 7 2 1 1 8 3 1 BOS AAA Abe Alvarez....... 7 4 1 1 6 0 0 13 GB OAK AA Michael Madsen.... 7 7 1 1 9 2 1 PHI AA Kyle Kendrick..... 9 6 1 1 5 1 0 18 GB MIN A+ Zachary Ward...... 6 8 2 2 9 2 0 11 GB CLE A+ Ryan Edell........ 7 5 2 0 3 0 0 CLE AA Scott Lewis....... 6 5 2 2 4 0 1 11 OF TB AAA Mitch Talbot...... 7 5 0 0 3 2 0 12 GB HOU AA Troy Patton....... 6 7 2 2 4 4 0 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. Commenting is not available in this weblog entry. Do you have a general question or comment for one of THT's writers? Send it in to our weekly mailbag We also welcome unsolicited op-ed pieces of approximately 500 words for consideration. We reserve the right to edit for length, clarity and consistency of style. Please include your whole name and location to be considered. If you have a comment about this specific article, please email the writer. Next Article: One Month Late?>> <<Previous Article: Ping! | |||
TOR 28 30 .483 9.0 28 -1 
BAL 28 32 .467 10.0 30 -3 
NYA 26 31 .456 10.5 30 -6 
TB 25 32 .439 11.5 21 3 
American League Central
CLE 35 22 .614 0.0 31 3 
DET 33 25 .569 2.5 32 0 
MIN 29 29 .500 6.5 29 -1 
CHA 26 29 .473 8.0 23 3 
KC 22 38 .367 14.5 21 0 
American League West
LAA 38 23 .623 0.0 35 2 
SEA 30 26 .536 5.5 28 1 
OAK 31 27 .534 5.5 32 -3 
TEX 21 38 .356 16.0 24 -4 
National League East Pwins Diff
NYN 35 22 .614 0.0 34 1 
ATL 33 27 .550 3.5 30 2 
PHI 30 29 .508 6.0 28 0 
FLA 30 30 .500 6.5 29 -1 
WAS 24 35 .407 12.0 21 2 
National League Central
MIL 32 27 .542 0.0 30 2 
STL 26 30 .464 4.5 21 3 
CHN 25 32 .439 6.0 30 -6 
PIT 25 34 .424 7.0 24 0 
HOU 24 34 .414 7.5 24 -1 
CIN 22 38 .367 10.5 25 -3 
National League West
SD 35 23 .603 0.0 35 -2 
ARI 36 24 .600 0.0 31 3 
LAN 34 25 .576 1.5 31 3 
COL 28 31 .475 7.5 24 3 
SF 27 31 .466 8.0 31 -4 