May 25, 2012
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Friday, May 22, 2009THT Daily: More Trade TalkMajor League News for May 22Player 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/ Player NewsPlayer Headlines are courtesy of RotoworldReds designated outfielder Darnell McDonald for assignment. McDonald had Reds fans excited this spring, but he was a major disappointment once the season got underway. The 30-year-old will leave behind a .175/.250/.225 batting line in 40 at-bats. He didn't have a homer and managed just one RBI. Peter Gammons told ESPN's Mike & Mike In The Morning on Thursday that the Nationals have discussed swapping Nick Johnson for Boston's Manny Delcarmen. The Red Sox will probably give David Ortiz a little more time to get his swing figured out before pulling the trigger. If he can't get it turned around, Johnson would make a nice fit. He's batting .338/.435/.473 this season with four home runs and 25 RBI in 148 at-bats. Delcarmen has been lights out, with a 0.95 ERA in 19 innings, but the Red Sox have enough pitching depth in their system to cope with the loss. Rangers manager Ron Washington is expecting Josh Hamilton (groin) to return to the starting lineup Friday. Of course, Washington had the same expectations Thursday morning. Hamilton knows the importance of playing it safe. "I’d rather sit out one more day and play Saturday at 95 percent than rush back tomorrow," Hamilton said Thursday night. "If I can improve tomorrow like I did today, then we’ll be good to go the next couple days." Conor Jackson was diagnosed with pneumonia on Thursday evening. Jackson was placed on the disabled list over a week ago with an "undisclosed illness." Doctors determined this week that he had Valley Fever, which eventually led to the pneumonia. "I haven't lifted a weight, I haven't run, in three weeks pretty much," he said. "We haven't even talked about timetable. One doctor told me, 'You're going to be fatigued for the rest of the year.' The infectious-disease guy said everybody reacts differently, so I don't know what to expect." It might be time to drop him. Joba Chamberlain was diagnosed with a bruised right knee after being hit with a comebacker Thursday night. Chamberlain said he is "100 percent confident" that he'll be ready for his next scheduled start. "He's day-to-day, so we won't really know until we get to that fifth day," manager Joe Girardi added. "In my opinion, he'll make his next start. There's not a ton of swelling right now, but I don't know what it's going to look like (Friday)." Jake Peavy exercised his no-trade clause to officially veto a deal to the White Sox Thursday. "As of right now, this is the best place for us to be. We made that decision for the time being," Peavy said. The ace pitcher wants to remain in the National League, although that wasn't part of his official statement, and he ideally wants to head to a top contender. Peavy will start against the Cubs Friday. He is 3-5 with a 3.82 ERA and 1.11 WHIP. It will be interesting to see whether the trade talk will affect his game - it's worth keeping an eye on. Joe Girardi announced that Chien-Ming Wang will make a start for Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes Barre on Thursday night. Wang's return to the Yankees was speculated to be imminent, possibly as soon as a start on Friday against the Phillies. The Yankees, however, did not feel that Wang's stuff was major league caliber just yet, so he will get another minor league start. Phil Hughes will pitch at Texas on Monday. Batting second for the first time this year, Joe Mauer homered, doubled twice and drove in six runs as the Twins blasted the White Sox 20-1 on Thursday. We've long been in favor of Mauer batting second, but it probably wouldn't lead to the Twins scoring 20 runs every game. Maybe just 15 or so. Mauer now has eight homers and 23 RBI in 19 games. He's on his way to smashing his career high of 13 homers, and he might even top his high of 85 RBI despite missing all of April. Reds placed RHP Edinson Volquez on the 15-day disabled list, retroactive to May 17, with back spasms. Volquez underwent an MRI Thursday, one day after back soreness truncated a bullpen session after a few pitches and caused Dusty Baker to say that he would be skipped in his next rotation turn. "It's muscular. Nothing in his vertebrae or anything like that," Reds manager Dusty Baker said. "That's positive news. We just decided that instead of sending him out there 75-80 percent, we'll get him well and skip one start and get him back to 100 percent." Volquez could be activated as soon as June 1. Homey Bailey was recalled from Triple-A Louisville to take Volquez's roster spot. Bailey will start on Saturday against the Indians. Yesterday’s ResultsFor the full scoop regarding yesterday's games, read "And That Happened" at Shysterball.American League BOS 5 TOR 1 (Recap and Boxscore) NYA 7 BAL 4 (Recap and Boxscore) TB 6 OAK 5 (Recap and Boxscore) MIN 20 CHA 1 (Recap and Boxscore) DET 4 TEX 3 (Recap and Boxscore) CLE 8 KC 3 (Recap and Boxscore) LAA 3 SEA 0 (Recap and Boxscore) National League COL 9 ATL 0 (Recap and Boxscore) ARI 4 FLA 3 (Recap and Boxscore) WAS 5 PIT 4 (Recap and Boxscore) PHI 12 CIN 5 (Recap and Boxscore) MIL 4 HOU 3 (Recap and Boxscore) STL 3 CHN 1 (Recap and Boxscore) SD 3 SF 2 (Recap and Boxscore)Check out Fangraphs' scoreboard to see all the games in action. Today’s GamesNational League --------------- Chicago Cubs at San Diego Padres, 10:05 PM (R) Carlos Zambrano (3-1) vs. (R) Jake Peavy (3-5) Inter-League ------------ Baltimore Orioles at Washington Nationals, 7:05 PM (L) Rich Hill (1-0) vs. (R) Jordan Zimmermann (2-1) Colorado Rockies at Detroit Tigers, 7:05 PM (R) Ubaldo Jimenez (3-4) vs. (R) Rick Porcello (4-3) Philadelphia Phillies at New York Yankees, 7:05 PM (R) Brett Myers (3-2) vs. (R) A.J. Burnett (2-1) Tampa Bay Rays at Florida Marlins, 7:10 PM (R) Andy Sonnanstine (2-4) vs. (R) Ricky Nolasco (2-4) New York Mets at Boston Red Sox, 7:10 PM (L) Johan Santana (5-2) vs. (R) Daisuke Matsuzaka (0-1) Cleveland Indians at Cincinnati Reds, 7:10 PM (R) Anthony Reyes (1-1) vs. (R) Bronson Arroyo (5-3) Toronto Blue Jays at Atlanta Braves, 7:35 PM (R) Roy Halladay (8-1) vs. (R) Kenshin Kawakami (2-5) Texas Rangers at Houston Astros, 8:05 PM (L) Derek Holland (1-1) vs. (R) Felipe Paulino (1-3) Milwaukee Brewers at Minnesota Twins, 8:10 PM (L) Manny Parra (3-4) vs. (R) Kevin Slowey (5-1) Pittsburgh Pirates at Chicago White Sox, 8:11 PM (L) Zach Duke (5-3) vs. (R) Gavin Floyd (2-4) Kansas City Royals at St. Louis Cardinals, 8:15 PM (R) Kyle Davies (2-2) vs. (R) Todd Wellemeyer (3-4) Arizona Diamondbacks at Oakland Athletics, 10:05 PM (R) Billy Buckner (0-0) vs. (R) Trevor Cahill (2-3) LA Angels of Anaheim at Los Angeles Dodgers, 10:10 PM (R) Jered Weaver (3-2) vs. (L) Clayton Kershaw (2-3) San Francisco Giants at Seattle Mariners, 10:10 PM (L) Randy Johnson (3-4) vs. (L) Jason Vargas (1-0) 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 TOR 27 17 .614 0.0 27 0 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.ORG LVL PLAYER AB H 2B 3B HR BB SO Notes BOS AA Lars Anderson..... 2 2 1 0 1 3 0 4 RBI ATL A+ Cody Johnson...... 4 2 0 0 2 1 2 5 RBI ! SEA AAA Jeff Clement...... 5 4 2 0 0 0 1 4 LD NYM A+ Isaac Davis....... 4 2 1 0 1 0 1 ATL A+ F. Freeman........ 5 3 2 0 0 0 0 LAA A+ Clayton Fuller.... 4 3 1 0 0 1 0 CHW AA Gordon Beckham.... 5 4 0 0 1 0 0 TB AAA Matthew Joyce..... 5 3 2 0 0 0 1 SD A Jaff Decker....... 4 2 0 0 1 1 1 WAN A+ Michael Burgess... 4 2 0 0 1 1 1 PIT A+ Pedro Alvarez..... 4 2 2 0 0 0 0 CHW AA Jordan Danks...... 4 2 0 0 1 1 2 ORG LVL PLAYER IP H R ER SO BB HR Notes CLE AA Jeanmar Gomez..... 9 0 0 0 8 0 0 ATL AAA Thomas Hanson..... 6 1 0 0 9 1 0 NYY A Andrew Brackman... 8 5 1 1 6 1 0 PIT AA Brad Lincoln...... 9 2 0 0 4 2 0 BOS AA Felix Doubront.... 5 4 0 0 6 1 0 NYY AA Z. McAllister..... 6 6 2 1 5 1 0 LAA A Manuarys Correa... 7 6 3 3 3 0 0 TEX AAA Neftali Feliz..... 6 4 1 1 4 1 0 STL AA Lance Lynn........ 7 8 3 2 6 0 1 TEX AA Kasey Kiker....... 4 2 3 2 7 3 0 SF AA Henry Sosa........ 6 5 1 0 3 1 0 DET A Mauricio Robles... 5 4 4 4 8 2 2
ClumpingI had a bit of a rough time creating the National League graphs on our team page this morning, because so many of the teams are clumped in the middle and arranging the labels around each data point was difficult. I know, life is hard. But it got me to wondering, which teams are the most similar right now? I thought a few of those NL teams, like the Cubs and Reds, would be most similar. But the two most similar teams so far, at least by my reckoning, aren't in the same league. The Phillies and the Yankees. Here are the key facts:
Those basic facts make the Phillies and Yankees pretty darn similar, though a few teams are more similar. The Padres and Mariners, for instance, and the Cubs and Mets. But when you factor in "second order" stats, like OBP, Slugging Percentage, strikeouts per game, walks allowed per game, home runs allowed and fielding prowess, the Phillies and Yankees are the most similar, and the Padres and Mariners are a close second. And they're not even on the same graphs. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
BOS 25 16 .610 0.5 23 2 
NYA 24 17 .585 1.5 21 3 
TB 21 22 .488 5.5 24 -3 
BAL 16 25 .390 9.5 16 0 
American League Central
DET 23 16 .590 0.0 23 0 
KC 21 20 .512 3.0 22 -1 
MIN 19 23 .452 5.5 20 -1 
CHA 17 23 .425 6.5 15 2 
CLE 16 26 .381 8.5 19 -3 
American League West
TEX 23 17 .575 0.0 22 1 
LAA 21 19 .525 2.0 20 1 
SEA 19 23 .452 5.0 17 2 
OAK 15 23 .395 7.0 16 -1 
National League East Pwins Diff
PHI 22 17 .564 0.0 21 1 
NYN 21 19 .525 1.5 22 -1 
ATL 20 20 .500 2.5 19 1 
FLA 19 23 .452 4.5 19 0 
WAS 12 28 .300 10.5 16 -4 
National League Central
MIL 26 15 .634 0.0 24 2 
STL 24 17 .585 2.0 22 2 
CHN 21 18 .538 4.0 20 1 
CIN 21 19 .525 4.5 20 1 
PIT 19 22 .463 7.0 22 -3 
HOU 18 21 .462 7.0 18 0 
National League West
LAN 29 13 .690 0.0 28 1 
SF 19 21 .475 9.0 18 1 
SD 19 22 .463 9.5 16 3 
ARI 17 24 .415 11.5 18 -1 
COL 16 24 .400 12.0 20 -4 