THT Daily: 400
by Dave StudemanJune 06, 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/
On this Day at THT: Last year, John Walsh wrote an early Pitch f/x article on the mysteries of the sinker.
Player News
Player Headlines are courtesy of Rotoworld |
| Ryan Garko at bat in yesterday's Texas victory over Cleveland. (Icon/SMI) |
Rays selected shortstop Tim Beckham with the first pick in the 2008 draft. Beckham has a polished bat for a high school player, yet he still has an awful lot of upside. His position is in doubt. There's a chance he could remain at shortstop, but second base and center field are also possibilities. The right-handed hitter could bat .300 and hit 25 homers per year in the majors someday.
Cole Hamels tossed his second career complete-game shutout Thursday, holding the Reds to three hits while improving to 6-4 with a 3.36 ERA. Hamels had turned in back-to-back rough outings, but needed just 103 pitches to record 27 outs, striking out four and walking three. His first career shutout came last month against the Braves.
Coco Crisp was ejected from Thursday's game in the second inning for charging the mound against the Rays' James Shields. Crisp was thought to be a target going in after last night's incident, and when Shields hit him with the first pitch of the at-bat, it was off to the faces. Crisp took off for the mound, ducked a haymaker from Shields and then delivered a punch of his own. Both players and several others ended up on the ground, and it took several minutes for order to be restored. Crisp is certainly facing a suspension.
X-rays on Jacoby Ellsbury's wrist were negative, and the Red Sox are calling his injury a strain. It's good news for the Red Sox, but it's still entirely possible that he'll land on the disabled list. It'd be a big blow for a team already minus David Ortiz and likely to lose Coco Crisp for several days. Sean Casey would get plenty of at-bats at DH, and Brandon Moss would likely be called up to help out in the outfield.
Jorge Posada revealed that he'll have labrum surgery after this season. Posada is back with the Yankees and expected to start on Thursday, but he's clearly not 100 percent. "It's good enough. I think it's good enough to get going here... There's no discomfort. Obviously something's messed up in there. We're going to have to get that fixed after the season," Posada said. The Yankees will carry three catchers until Posada shows he can catch more than two straight games.
Tadahito Iguchi separated his right shoulder during Thursday's game and will go on the disabled list. "(Iguchi) has a separated shoulder," Padres manager Bud Black said. "It looks like it could be four weeks minimum of just rest. He landed on the right shoulder trying to avoid the ball." Matt Antonelli is hitting .176 in Triple-A, so it seems doubtful that he'll replace Iguchi on the roster. Craig Stansberry would be the logical choice. He'd probably share time with Edgar Gonzalez at second base while Iguchi is out. Gonzalez has little upside, but he's worth picking up in NL-only leagues for now.
The Astros said after Thursday's game that they're demoting J.R. Towles to Triple-A Round Rock. Not until after he sat behind the dreadful Brad Ausmus in a third straight game tonight. The Astros probably would have done this at least a couple of weeks ago had Humberto Quintero been showing anything in Triple-A. Quintero gets the callup anyway, but with the way he's performed, neither he nor Ausmus figures to be worth using in NL-only leagues.
The Pirates will activate Ryan Doumit (thumb) and option Ronny Paulino to Triple-A prior to Friday's game. The team should regret not dealing Paulino over the winter when he still had substantial value. Raul Chavez will back up Doumit behind the plate for now.
Vernon Wells (wrist) is in Single-A Dunedin's lineup Thursday for the first game of a rehab assignment. Wells was ahead of schedule, but it's still a surprise to see him back on the field already. "He could be back by the middle or end of next week if all goes well," manager John Gibbons said. The Jays should drop one of the veteran outfielders, probably either Shannon Stewart or Kevin Mench rather than Brad Wilkerson, when Wells returns.
Yesterday’s Results
Game recaps courtesy of Craig Calcaterra
Red Sox 7, Rays 1: Fisticuffsmanship! Unlike most baseball fights, however, this one had some real punching. It was kicked off when Coco Crisp got beaned, but ultimately Jonny Gomes -- who was in the dugout at the time -- got the most blows in of anyone, raining blows down on Coco as Dioner Navarro held him down. Expect Gomes to see more Rays games via HD-TV than from the inside of a stadium for the foreseeable future.
The fallout of this fight could be pretty massive. Coco is going to get suspended for sure, and that combined with (a) Ellsbury leaving the game with a strained wrist; (b) Manny doing something to his hamstring; and (c) Papi being out already is going to make the Red Sox outfield something of a mess for a while. Casey at first, Youkilis in right, Drew in center and, um, who again in left and at DH?
Phillies 5, Reds 0: I loved Philadelphia's blue hats. Phillies fans loved Cole Hamels' three hit shutout. Almost exactly this time last year, the baseball world was stoked for Homer Bailey's debut. His first big league action of this year was less celebrated. There are more really good Reds' message boards out there than you might imagine, and the majority of the posters on just about all of them would throw Baily in with a Griffey or Dunn salary dump if it meant getting something back other than a phantom PTBNL.
Braves 7, Marlins 5: Chipper Jones hit home run number 400 off of Ricky Nolasco. Number 1 came off of Josias Manzanill; number 100 off of Kevin Tapani; number 200 off of Darryl Kile; and number 300 off of Sterling Hitchcock. No reason. Just felt like it. Oh, and he went 4-5 to raise his average to .418 and I gots to tell ya, I'm starting to think -- just a little bit mind you -- that he could pull it off.
Yankees 8, Blue Jays 8: Jason Giambi has long been a hell of a ballplayer, but he has quite the reputation as a party guy as well. Just last month he discussed his fast livin', and about how he's getting to the age where he can't really get away with that anymore. I know the feeling. I live in mortal fear of hangovers these days because they hit you a hundred times harder at 35 than they did at 25, and when you're 35, you usually have to work the next morning. I mention all of this because there was a pretty good chance that on Wednesday night, Giambi knew he didn't have to work yesterday. His foot hurt and he had missed a game and was likely going to miss another one. You hate to assume this sort of thing, but people are creatures of habit, and you really have to wonder if he didn't view his impending day off as a license to tip back a couple of extra ones the night before. Wouldn't you? Of course you would.
But ask yourself: could you wake up the next day and make it in to work when your boss unexpectedly calls you in? Even then, could you nail a major presentation for investors with no prep? No way. Well, Giambi did the baseball equivalent of that yesterday when he hit that pinch hit homer to win the game in the bottom of the ninth, and for my own peculiar purposes, I sort of hope he was nursing a humdinger of a hangover when he did it.
Nats 10, Cards 9: Hey, two teams you can abbreviate! Elijah Dukes hit his own walkoff homer -- this one in the 10th, and he went 4-6 with with 4 RBI too. While there's only a chance that Giambi hit the ball out with a hangover, we know for certain that Dukes was loaded on 100-proof crazy when he hit his, so consider me more impressed. This was the back end of a double dip, by the way, and the Cards took that one 4-1.
Pirates 4, Astros 3: I hadn't noticed until now, but Jason Bay is back to being Jason Bay (.292/.410/.542). Unfortunately for Houston, the Astros are still the Astros, and they lost their eighth game in the last ten. Astro run totals in those games: 6-8-1-2-1-1-1-2-2-3.
White Sox 6, Royals 2: Kansas City has won 3 of 19. Bet you don't remember the five game winning streak they had before that stretch. In other news, Rany Jazayerli's decision to pick this season to start his dedicated Royals blog is sort of like someone deciding to jump head first into the subprime market last fall.
Orioles 3, Twins 2: You know you're getting old and out of touch when you glance at an Orioles box score, see "G. Olson" and absently think "man, I wonder if his curve is still holdin' up?"
Rangers 9, Indians 4: No one scored in double digits? The game took an even three hours? What have you done with my Rangers and Indians? By the way, Ron Washington, Josh Hamilton went 0-4 and you still scored nine runs. How about giving him a day off once in a while? It's hotter than the Devil's anvil in Texas, and a big boy like that is going to get tired come late July if you don't let him ride the pine once in a while.
Padres 2, Mets 1: Scott Schoeneweis' ninth inning -- walk-walk-ground out-walk-plunk -- wastes a rare nice performance by Mike Pelfrey.
Cubs 5, Dodgers 4: The OBP's of last night's Cubs' lineup: .325, .412, .338, .418, .408, .375, .279, .391. Of the four lower than .375, three of those guys are slugging over .500. The remaining one -- .279 -- is Jim Edmonds. So basically they have one hole in their everyday lineup, and even that one is theoretically capable of going on an All-Star level tear (even if I think he's done). That's why they have the best record in baseball, and why I said the other day that they look like the 90s-vintage Yankees' teams. Just tough outs all around.
You can download a compact version of yesterday's boxscores from Heater Magazine.
| First Inning's Major and Minor League Daily Reports: |
| {embed="pageblocks/FirstInning_Team_Lookup"} |
Today’s Games
National League --------------- Arizona Diamondbacks at Pittsburgh Pirates, 7:05 PM (R) Brandon Webb (10-2) vs. (R) Ian Snell (2-5) Cincinnati Reds at Florida Marlins, 7:10 PM (R) Johnny Cueto (4-5) vs. (L) Andrew Miller (4-4) San Francisco Giants at Washington Nationals, 7:35 PM (R) Tim Lincecum (7-1) vs. (R) Jason Bergmann (1-2) Philadelphia Phillies at Atlanta Braves, 7:35 PM (L) Jamie Moyer (6-3) vs. (R) Tim Hudson (7-4) St. Louis Cardinals at Houston Astros, 8:05 PM (R) Braden Looper (7-4) vs. (R) Brian Moehler (2-2) Milwaukee Brewers at Colorado Rockies, 9:05 PM (R) Ben Sheets (6-1) vs. (R) Ubaldo Jimenez (1-6) New York Mets at San Diego Padres, 10:05 PM (L) Johan Santana (7-3) vs. (L) Randy Wolf (3-4) Chicago Cubs at Los Angeles Dodgers, 10:40 PM (R) Sean Gallagher (3-1) vs. (R) Hiroki Kuroda (2-5) American League --------------- Kansas City Royals at New York Yankees, 7:05 PM (R) Kyle Davies (1-0) vs. (R) Darrell Rasner (3-2) Seattle Mariners at Boston Red Sox, 7:05 PM (R) Felix Hernandez (3-5) vs. (R) Bartolo Colon (3-0) Cleveland Indians at Detroit Tigers, 7:05 PM (R) Paul Byrd (2-5) vs. (R) Justin Verlander (2-8) Baltimore Orioles at Toronto Blue Jays, 7:07 PM (L) Brian Burres (4-5) vs. (R) Shaun Marcum (5-3) Tampa Bay Rays at Texas Rangers, 8:05 PM (L) Scott Kazmir (5-1) vs. (R) Vicente Padilla (7-2) Minnesota Twins at Chicago White Sox, 8:11 PM (R) Nick Blackburn (4-3) vs. (R) Javier Vazquez (5-4) LA Angels of Anaheim at Oakland Athletics, 10:05 PM (R) John Lackey (1-1) vs. (R) Joe Blanton (3-7)
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 38 25 .603 0.0 37 1TB 35 25 .583 1.5 32 3
TOR 32 30 .516 5.5 34 -2
NYA 30 30 .500 6.5 29 1
BAL 29 30 .492 7.0 28 1
American League Central CHA 33 26 .559 0.0 35 -2
MIN 31 29 .517 2.5 29 2
CLE 27 33 .450 6.5 31 -4
DET 24 35 .407 9.0 27 -3
KC 23 37 .383 10.5 23 0
American League West LAA 37 24 .607 0.0 31 6
OAK 33 27 .550 3.5 35 -2
TEX 31 31 .500 6.5 30 1
SEA 21 39 .350 15.5 24 -3
National League East Pwins Diff PHI 36 26 .581 0.0 38 -2
FLA 32 27 .542 2.5 30 2
ATL 32 29 .525 3.5 36 -4
NYN 30 29 .508 4.5 30 0
WAS 25 36 .410 10.5 24 1
National League Central CHN 39 22 .639 0.0 40 -1
STL 36 26 .581 3.5 34 2
MIL 32 28 .533 6.5 30 2
HOU 31 30 .508 8.0 29 2
PIT 29 31 .483 9.5 28 1
CIN 29 32 .475 10.0 28 1
National League West ARI 32 28 .533 0.0 34 -2
LAN 28 32 .467 4.0 31 -3
SF 25 35 .417 7.0 25 0
SD 25 37 .403 8.0 24 1
COL 22 38 .367 10.0 23 -1
Game of the Day
Yankees 9, Blue Jays 8 - FINAL
TORONTO ab r h rbi bb so lob avg
S Stewart lf 3 0 0 0 1 0 0 .249
M Scutaro 2b 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 .268
D Eckstein ss 5 1 1 0 0 1 5 .265
A Rios cf 4 2 1 0 1 1 3 .265
S Rolen 3b 3 2 2 0 1 0 0 .312
M Stairs dh 5 2 3 5 0 1 1 .272
L Overbay 1b 5 0 1 2 0 1 3 .278
K Mench rf 3 0 0 0 0 0 1 .216
B Wilkerson rf 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 .237
R Barajas c 3 0 0 0 1 3 4 .288
J Inglett 2b-lf 3 1 1 0 1 0 3 .281
Totals 35 8 9 7 7 7 21 ###
NY YANKEES ab r h rbi bb so lob avg
J Damon dh 3 2 2 0 2 0 2 .315
D Jeter ss 4 1 1 0 0 1 1 .281
B Abreu rf 5 0 2 2 0 0 0 .284
A Rodriguez 3b 3 1 1 2 0 0 2 .293
H Matsui lf 5 1 1 1 0 2 4 .333
J Posada c 3 0 1 0 1 1 0 .303
S Duncan pr 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .175
J Molina c 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .222
ha-J Giambi ph 1 1 1 2 0 0 0 .258
R Cano 2b 4 1 2 0 0 0 1 .222
W Betemit 1b 4 1 2 2 0 1 1 .261
M Cabrera cf 3 1 1 0 1 2 1 .266
Totals 35 9 14 9 4 7 12 ###
----------------------------------------------------
TORONTO - 000 250 001 -- 8 9 0
NY YANKEES - 200 022 003 -- 9 14 1
Two outs when winning run scored.
----------------------------------------------------
ha-homered to right for J Molina in the 9th.
BATTING: 2B - L Overbay (11, C Wang); M Stairs (5, K Farnsworth); D Jeter (9, D
McGowan); B Abreu (13, J Frasor). HR - M Stairs (7, 4th inning off C Wang 1 on,
0 Out), W Betemit (3, 6th inning off J Carlson 1 on, 1 Out), J Giambi (12, 9th
inning off B Ryan 1 on, 2 Out). S - J Inglett. SF - A Rodriguez 2. RBI - M
Stairs 5 (21), L Overbay 2 (24), B Abreu 2 (39), A Rodriguez 2 (25), W Betemit
2 (6), H Matsui (29), J Giambi 2 (31). 2-out RBI - H Matsui, J Giambi 2.
Runners left in scoring position, 2 out - L Overbay 1, J Inglett 2, R Barajas
1, D Eckstein 2, A Rios 2, J Damon 2, H Matsui 3, M Cabrera 1. GIDP - M Stairs,
W Betemit, R Cano. Team LOB - TORONTO 10, NY YANKEES 7. BASERUNNING: SB - B
Wilkerson (2, 2nd base off J Veras/J Posada), J Damon (9, 2nd base off D
McGowan/R Barajas). CS - J Damon (3, 2nd base by J Frasor/R Barajas). FIELDING:
E - M Cabrera (3, line drive). PB - R Barajas. DP: (L Overbay-D Eckstein-D
McGowan, D Eckstein-L Overbay, W Betemit-D Jeter-J Veras).
TORONTO ip h r er bb so hr era
D McGowan 5 1/3 7 5 5 2 5 0 4.26
J Carlson (H, 7) 1/3 2 1 1 0 1 1 1.96
J Frasor (H, 3) 2/3 1 0 0 0 0 0 3.26
S Downs (H, 8) 1 2/3 1 0 0 2 1 0 1.75
B Ryan (L, 1-2; B, 2) 2/3 3 3 3 0 0 1 2.95
NY YANKEES ip h r er bb so hr era
C Wang 4 1/3 5 7 6 4 4 1 4.57
R Ohlendorf 2/3 0 0 0 0 1 0 5.67
L Hawkins 1 1 0 0 1 0 0 6.07
J Veras 2 0 0 0 1 1 0 4.50
K Farnsworth (W, 1-2) 1 3 1 1 1 1 0 4.45
L Hawkins pitched to 2 batters in the 7th.
IBB - B Wilkerson (by K Farnsworth). HBP - S Rolen (by C Wang); R Barajas (by
J Veras); D Jeter (by D McGowan). Pitches-strikes: D McGowan 100-65; J Carlson
13-8; J Frasor 12-7; S Downs 31-15; B Ryan 21-14; C Wang 90-51; R Ohlendorf
9-5; L Hawkins 22-14; J Veras 35-18; K Farnsworth 26-15. Ground balls-fly
balls: D McGowan 7-4; J Carlson 0-0; J Frasor 1-0; S Downs 3-1; B Ryan 1-1; C
Wang 6-3; R Ohlendorf 0-1; L Hawkins 0-3; J Veras 4-1; K Farnsworth 1-1.
Batters faced: D McGowan 25; J Carlson 3; J Frasor 2; S Downs 7; B Ryan 5; C
Wang 24; R Ohlendorf 2; L Hawkins 5; J Veras 7; K Farnsworth 7. IRS - J
Carlson. UMPIRES: HP--Joe West. 1B--Ed Rapuano. 2B--Ed Hickox. 3B--C.B.
Bucknor. T--3:53. Att--53,571. Weather: 71 degrees, cloudy. Wind: 7 mph,
right to left.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 Runs
The 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 Wilson Betemit NYY Jesse Carlson TOR 403 417 3 PL Milton Bradley TEX Rafael Betancourt CLE 380 370 13 PL Elijah Dukes WAS Ryan Franklin STL 422 435 1 PL Yunel Escobar ATL Ricky Nolasco FLA 403 379 6 JE/L Jason Giambi NYY B.J. Ryan TOR 405 398 12 ND Troy Glaus STL John Lannan WAS 399 396 6 PL Troy Glaus STL Tim Redding WAS 412 418 5 JE Geoff Jenkins PHI Homer Bailey CIN 396 390 6 PL Adam Jones BAL Brian Bass MIN 378 373 3 PL Chipper Jones ATL Ricky Nolasco FLA 412 387 14 PL Nick Markakis BAL Scott Baker MIN 380 375 10 PL Joe Mather STL Brian Sanches WAS 407 406 1 ND Brian McCann ATL Ricky Nolasco FLA 400 375 11 JE/L Albert Pujols STL Joel Hanrahan WAS 358 348 15 PL/L Hanley Ramirez FLA Jair Jurrjens ATL 415 394 12 JE/L Matt Stairs TOR Chien-Ming Wang NYY 329 336 7 JE Mark Worrell STL Tim Redding WAS 406 406 1 PL Michael Young TEX Edward Mujica CLE 358 391 6 PL
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, with a focus on each team’s top prospects.ORG LVL PLAYER AB H 2B 3B HR BB SO Notes MIN A C. Parmelee....... 4 3 0 0 2 0 0 4 RBI TOR AAA Adam Lind......... 4 3 2 0 0 1 0 OAK A+ Sean Doolittle.... 3 2 2 0 0 2 0 OAK A+ Chris Carter...... 4 2 1 0 1 1 1 CHC A+ Tony Thomas....... 4 2 0 1 1 1 1 5 RBI ! NYY A Justin Snyder..... 3 2 2 0 0 2 1 SF AA Travis Ishikawa... 3 1 0 0 1 2 1 STL A+ Daryl Jones....... 4 3 0 0 1 0 0 LA A Andrew Lambo...... 5 4 0 0 1 0 0 PHI AA Jason Donald...... 5 3 1 0 0 1 0 LAA A+ Hank Conger....... 4 2 1 0 1 0 0 LAA AAA Matthew Brown..... 4 3 0 0 1 0 0 ORG LVL PLAYER IP H R ER SO BB HR Notes PHI A Drew Naylor....... 9 5 1 1 13 1 0 TB AAA Jeff Niemann...... 6 5 0 0 10 0 0 PHI AAA J.A. Happ......... 8 5 2 2 10 0 1 TB A+ J. Hellickson..... 5 0 0 0 7 0 0 BAL AA C. Tillman........ 5 5 2 2 9 2 0 SEA A Juan Ramirez...... 6 4 3 2 6 1 0 PHI AA Fabio Castro...... 4 2 1 1 7 1 0 CHC AA Donald Veal....... 5 3 2 2 8 3 0 SD A Jeremy Hefner..... 6 6 2 2 5 0 0 OAK A+ Brett Anderson.... 6 5 2 2 5 1 0 12 GB STL AA Jesse Todd........ 6 7 2 1 4 0 0 TOR AAA David Purcey...... 6 6 3 3 7 1 1
Access THT’s stats here…
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Dave was called a "national treasure" by Rob Neyer. Seriously. Comments about this article can be sent to him through the miracle of e-mail.
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