THT Daily: .458
by Dave StudemanApril 21, 2008
Major League News for April 17
Player NewsYesterday’s Results
Standings
Game of the Day
Top Minor League Performances
You can always find the most recent THT Daily at http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/content/thtdaily/
Player News
Player Headlines are courtesy of RotoworldYankees co-chairman Hank Steinbrenner made it clear Sunday that he'd like to see Joba Chamberlain in the rotation as soon as possible. "I want him as a starter and so does everyone else, including him, and that is what we are working toward and we need him there now," Steinbrenner told the New York Times. "There is no question about it, you don’t have a guy with a 100-mile-per-hour fastball and keep him as a setup guy. You just don’t do that. You have to be an idiot to do that." Steinbrenner didn't get his way when it came to Johan Santana. It remains to be seen whether things will turn out any differently now. The supposed plan is for Chamberlain to go into the rotation around midseason, but many think he'll simply be left in the pen all year.
Chase Utley went 3-for-4 with his seven and eighth homers to drive in four of the Phillies' five runs Sunday in a win over the Mets. Utley's solo homer in the first and three-run blast in the fifth accounted for all of the scoring early, but the Mets came up with four runs in the sixth. The Phillies went back ahead on Pedro Feliz's solo shot in the seventh and held on to win 5-4 when the Mets failed to convert after getting the first two men on in the ninth against Brad Lidge. Utley's big game allowed him to overtake Derrek Lee for the major league lead with eight homers. He's gone deep in four straight.
Alex Rodriguez said he'll have a better idea on Monday whether he'll miss any time with a strained right quad. The Yankees have tomorrow off. "I’ll get some rest, wake up and see how it feels," he said. "I’ll treat it all day. I have a heat pad, sleep on that, then ice it, and do treatment all day and let it roll." Fantasy leaguers have little choice but to keep A-Rod active and hope for the best.
Manager Bobby Cox called Chipper Jones (quad) questionable to play Monday against the Nationals. Cox said the injury is "nothing that’s going to have him out any length at all." Martin Prado will play if Jones cannot tomorrow.
Scott Rolen (finger) went 0-for-3 as the designated hitter Sunday in his first game at Single-A Dunedin. Manager John Gibbons said Tuesday that Rolen was still at least two weeks away, but now it's possible he'll return as soon as Wednesday. He's scheduled to play in two more games for Dunedin before being reevaluated. If the finger doesn't react as well as hoped to both fielding and hitting, then Rolen's return could be delayed. The Jays are already saying that he won't be brought back as a designated hitter.
Phillies placed shotstop Jimmy Rollins on the 15-day disabled list with a left ankle sprain. This comes after he came off the bench Saturday, so he'll have to miss the full 15 days. Eric Bruntlett will keep filling in at shortstop, so he's worth using in NL-only leagues. It's the first DL stint of Rollins' career.
Astros placed LHP Wandy Rodriguez on the 15-day disabled list with a strained left groin. "It’s disappointing," Rodriguez said through an interpreter. "But it’s better this way. I don’t want to make it worse." Jack Cassel will be called up Thursday to start in his place. Until then, the Astros will have Tim Byrdak available as an extra reliever.
Royals designated RHP Hideo Nomo for assignment. It would have been a nice story if Nomo could have made a successful comeback as a reliever, but the fastball wasn't there and the Royals should have known it after watching him this spring. He had an 18.69 ERA in 4 1/3 innings.
Yesterday’s Results
American League NYA 7 BAL 1 (Recap and Boxscore) BOS 6 TEX 5 (Recap and Boxscore) CHA 6 TB 0 (Recap and Boxscore) TOR 5 DET 3 (Recap and Boxscore) MIN 2 CLE 1 (Recap and Boxscore) SEA 4 LAA 2 (Recap and Boxscore) OAK 7 KC 1 (Recap and Boxscore) National League ATL 6 LAN 1 (Recap and Boxscore) FLA 6 WAS 1 (Recap and Boxscore) PHI 5 NYN 4 (Recap and Boxscore) CHN 13 PIT 6 (Recap and Boxscore) CIN 4 MIL 3 (Recap and Boxscore) HOU 6 COL 4 (Recap and Boxscore) SF 8 STL 2 (Recap and Boxscore) SD 9 ARI 4 (Recap and Boxscore)You can download a compact version of yesterday's boxscores from Heater Magazine.
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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 13 7 .650 0.0 11 2BAL 11 8 .579 1.5 10 1
TOR 10 9 .526 2.5 11 -1
NYA 10 10 .500 3.0 9 1
TB 8 11 .421 4.5 10 -2
American League Central CHA 11 7 .611 0.0 12 -1
KC 9 10 .474 2.5 8 1
MIN 9 10 .474 2.5 9 0
CLE 7 12 .368 4.5 8 -1
DET 6 13 .316 5.5 6 0
American League West LAA 12 8 .600 0.0 11 1
OAK 12 8 .600 0.0 12 0
SEA 10 10 .500 2.0 11 -1
TEX 7 12 .368 4.5 8 -1
National League East Pwins Diff FLA 11 7 .611 0.0 8 3
NYN 10 7 .588 0.5 11 -1
ATL 9 9 .500 2.0 12 -3
PHI 9 10 .474 2.5 10 -1
WAS 5 14 .263 6.5 6 -1
National League Central CHN 12 6 .667 0.0 11 1
STL 12 7 .632 0.5 12 0
MIL 11 7 .611 1.0 10 1
CIN 8 11 .421 4.5 9 -1
PIT 7 11 .389 5.0 6 1
HOU 7 12 .368 5.5 8 -1
National League West ARI 13 5 .722 0.0 14 -1
COL 9 9 .500 4.0 8 1
SD 9 10 .474 4.5 7 2
SF 8 11 .421 5.5 6 2
LAN 7 11 .389 6.0 10 -3
Game of the Day
Yovani Gallardo and Aaron Harang engaged in a tremendous pitching duel, allowing only one run each in 7/8 inning (respectively). But the real highlight of this game came in the tenth inning, when the Brewers first went up 3-1 on the Reds, largely due to a Jared Burton wild pitch and Edwin Encarnacion error. Encarnacion and the Reds made up for their errors in the bottom of the tenth—Encarnacion and Paul Bako hit back-to-back home runs off Eric Gagne to tie the game, and Ken Griffey singled in the winning run as the Reds won in a dramatic comeback, 4-3.Reds 4, Brewers 3 - FINAL
MILWAUKEE ab r h rbi bb so lob avg
R Weeks 2b 5 0 0 0 0 3 6 .174
J Hardy ss 5 1 3 2 0 0 1 .231
R Braun lf 4 0 0 0 1 2 3 .222
P Fielder 1b 4 0 0 0 0 1 1 .222
C Hart rf 4 0 0 0 0 2 1 .273
B Hall 3b 4 0 0 0 0 1 0 .211
G Gross cf 3 1 1 0 1 0 0 .139
Y Gallardo p 3 0 1 0 0 0 1 .333
M Stetter p 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000
va-C Counsell ph 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 .391
E Gagne p 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000
S Torres p 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000
J Kendall c 4 0 1 0 0 1 1 .352
Totals 37 3 7 2 2 10 14 ###
CINCINNATI ab r h rbi bb so lob avg
C Patterson cf 3 0 0 0 2 1 1 .186
B Phillips 2b 5 0 1 0 0 0 3 .264
K Griffey Jr rf 5 0 1 1 0 0 1 .261
A Dunn lf 3 0 0 0 1 2 1 .189
J Keppinger ss 4 0 2 0 0 0 0 .329
J Votto 1b 4 0 0 0 0 1 1 .298
J Burton p 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000
E Encarnacion 3b 4 2 2 2 0 0 0 .258
P Bako c 4 1 2 1 0 1 0 .313
A Harang p 2 0 0 0 0 2 0 .200
F Cordero p 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000
S Hatteberg 1b 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 .160
R Freel pr 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 .267
Totals 34 4 8 4 4 7 7 ###
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MILWAUKEE - 000 100 000 2 -- 3 7 0
CINCINNATI - 000 010 000 3 -- 4 8 1
One out when winning run scored.
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va-singled to left for M Stetter in the 10th.
BATTING: 2B - Y Gallardo (1, A Harang); J Kendall (7, A Harang); J Keppinger 2
(7, Y Gallardo 2). HR - J Hardy (1, 4th inning off A Harang 0 on, 0 Out), E
Encarnacion 2 (4, 5th inning off Y Gallardo 0 on, 1 Out, 10th inning off E
Gagne 0 on, 0 Out), P Bako (1, 10th inning off E Gagne 0 on, 0 Out). S - A
Harang. RBI - J Hardy 2 (6), E Encarnacion 2 (9), P Bako (4), K Griffey Jr
(13). 2-out RBI - J Hardy. Runners left in scoring position, 2 out - R Weeks 2,
C Hart 1, R Braun 2, B Phillips 1, J Votto 1. GIDP - P Fielder. Team LOB -
MILWAUKEE 6, CINCINNATI 7. FIELDING: E - E Encarnacion (6, ground ball).
Outfield assists - R Braun (A Dunn at Home). DP: (J Keppinger-J Votto).
MILWAUKEE ip h r er bb so hr era
Y Gallardo 7 4 1 1 3 4 1 1.29
M Stetter 2 0 0 0 0 2 0 0.00
E Gagne (L, 1-1; B, 3) 0 2 3 3 1 0 2 8.22
S Torres 1/3 2 0 0 0 1 0 2.08
CINCINNATI ip h r er bb so hr era
A Harang 8 4 1 1 0 8 1 2.83
F Cordero 1 1 0 0 1 0 0 1.12
J Burton (W, 1-1) 1 2 2 0 1 2 0 4.22
E Gagne pitched to 3 batters in the 10th.
WP - J Burton. Pitches-strikes: Y Gallardo 112-68; M Stetter 22-14; E Gagne
14-7; S Torres 14-11; A Harang 114-74; F Cordero 17-9; J Burton 29-16. Ground
balls-fly balls: Y Gallardo 7-9; M Stetter 2-2; E Gagne 0-0; S Torres 0-0; A
Harang 9-7; F Cordero 3-0; J Burton 0-1. Batters faced: Y Gallardo 27; M
Stetter 6; E Gagne 3; S Torres 3; A Harang 28; F Cordero 4; J Burton 7. IRS - S
Torres. UMPIRES: HP--Marvin Hudson. 1B--Randy Marsh. 2B--Brian Knight.
3B--Hunter Wendelstedt. T--3:07. Att--26,902. Weather: 59 degrees, drizzle.
Wind: 3 mph, out to center.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.
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 CIN AAA Jay Bruce......... 4 2 1 0 0 0 1 PIT AAA Andrew McCutchen.. 3 2 1 0 0 1 1 OAK AAA Carlos Gonzalez... 4 2 0 0 0 1 1 TEX AA C. Davis.......... 4 3 0 0 2 0 0 3 R DET AAA Brent Clevlen..... 5 4 2 0 0 0 1 OAK A+ Matthew Sulentic.. 3 2 0 0 0 2 1 TOR A+ Travis Snider..... 1 1 0 0 1 0 0 MIL A+ Lorenzo Cain...... 3 2 0 1 0 2 0 OAK AAA Jeffrey Baisley... 4 2 0 0 1 1 0 MIN AA Matt Moses........ 5 2 2 0 0 0 1 BOS AA Ryan Khoury....... 5 4 1 0 0 0 0 ATL AA Jason Perry....... 3 3 0 0 1 1 0 ORG LVL PLAYER IP H R ER SO BB HR Notes LAA AAA Nick Adenhart..... 6 4 0 0 5 3 0 FLA AA Ryan Tucker....... 6 3 1 1 9 1 1 HOU AAA Chad Reineke...... 7 6 2 2 8 1 0 LA AA Clayton Kershaw... 6 2 2 0 5 2 0 ARI AAA Juan Gutierrez.... 5 11 4 4 8 1 0 11 GB SD AA William Inman..... 6 5 3 3 4 2 0 KC AA Carlos Rosa....... 6 4 2 2 6 1 1 ATL A Jeffrey Locke..... 5 7 3 3 6 0 0 11 GB CLE AAA Sean Smith........ 6 4 3 3 5 2 1 CHC AA Jeff Samardzija... 6 6 3 3 3 1 0 11 GB COL AAA Gregory Reynolds.. 7 6 5 1 2 2 0 15 GB ARI AA Anthony Barnette.. 5 5 1 1 6 3 0
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Dave is the manager of the Baseball Graphs website.. Comments about this article can be sent to him through the miracle of e-mail.