THT Daily: All star edition
by THT StaffJuly 14, 2008
Player News
Yesterday’s Results
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/
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| Reggie Willits scores from second on an infield single for the winning run in the Angels' win yesterday. (Icon/SMI) |
Player News
Player Headlines are courtesy of RotoworldThe Phillies have reportedly entered the running for Rockies' left-handed reliever Brian Fuentes. The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that the Rockies are asking for RHP Carlos Carrasco or catcher Lou Marson, the Phillies' two top prospects. That's way too high of an asking price for Fuentes, who's having a pretty mediocre season. The Phillies have the best bullpen ERA in the majors, but are looking for another lefty to compliment J.C. Romero. We'll keep you updated.
Yesterday’s Results
Game recaps provided by Craig Calcaterra of Shysterball.I hate the All-Star Break. The home run derby always bores me, the game itself usually does too, and the lack of real live competitive baseball is simply depressing. If I ran the world, there would be a cable channel running wall-to-wall rebroadcasts of old games, preferably from the 70s and 80s, and preferably not famous ones, so that we may actually enjoy them in ignorance of their outcomes like we would real, current ballgames. Alas, that won't happen, however, because MLB knows that a random Cardinals-Mets game from the mid-80s would hold people's interest way better than that spectacle they're having up in the Bronx, and that's simply unacceptable.
The lack of baseball between now and Thursday evening is going to suck eggs, but at least we have each other, and we'll find a way to get through this madness somehow.
Indians 5, Rays 2: The Rays certainly cured what ailed the Indians! Wait, that's not true, because the Indians will still probably stink after the break. How about this: the Indians certainly infected the Rays!
Tigers 4, Twins 2: Last Wednesday, Leyland was complaining about the Tigers' All-Star break schedule because he and his guys didn't get the same amount of time off as everyone else. "I want everyone to write it and put it all over the airwaves. It's a joke. Silly is what it is," he said. This coming Wednesday, Leyland is among 50 baseball people invited as guests at a White House dinner, about which he said "I can't believe that I'm on the list, but it is going to be exciting to have dinner with President Bush. That's big time." Just to be clear, Jim Leyland complained about having to play a baseball game, but is thrilled about dinner with George Bush. Politics aside, wouldn't you rather be at the ballgame? Me too.
Astros 5, Nationals 0: There's been a lot of talk lately about putting the DH in the NL. I'm against it because I'm an NL guy and I like the pitcher batting. I can't really explain it in terms much more rational than that, and no one making the case for the DH in the NL has made much of a better argument than that which I can muster for my side. It's a political issue, really, and most political issues are kind of like that. Carlos Lee said something after this game, however, that could actually move the ball on this one in my mind a little bit. In response to Astros' pitcher Brandon Backe having a good game at the plate (2-3, 2B, 2 R), Lee said "We feel like we're playing with nine instead of eight." Do NL players really think of it in those terms? That they're playing with less than a full compliment of men somehow when pitchers bat? It wouldn't change my mind about the DH if they did, but it would make me think about it in slightly modified terms.
Blue Jays 4, Yankees 1: Peter Abraham spotted a great getaway day stat: "The Yankees had 32 plate appearances against A.J. Burnett and 25 of them were over in three pitches or fewer. Only four of those were strikeouts." Hey, when ya got somewhere to be, ya got somewhere to be.
Phillies 6, Diamondbacks 3: You're not livin' right when you rack up 14 hits and a walk and still only score three runs.
Red Sox 2, Orioles 1: Boston understands this whole it's-a-marathon-not-a-sprint thing. No one has been talking about them -- well, no one has been talking about them as much as they usually do -- but here they are, in first place at the break, just like they planned it all along. At the risk of channeling Bill Simmons, I'm going say that I think that the Ortiz injury, while certainly a negative, may have some positive byproducts inasmuch as a lot of guys are getting the kind of at bats and rest (when they fill the DH slot) they wouldn't have otherwise had if Papi wasn't hurt. The Sox may not have the firepower they need if Papi can't play or play effectively this year, but if he can, there are going to be a lot of guys who are fresher and sharper this fall than they might have been had he not gotten hurt in the first place.
Cardinals 11, Pirates 6: If the season ended today, the Cardinals would win the wild card, and I'm still not quite sure how that's possible. Many so-called experts were predicting that the Reds would be the frisky team in the NL Central this year and that the Cards would be keeping the Pirates company down south in the standard. Er, yeah.
Mariners 4, Royals 3: Seattle is 12-11 under Riggelman. Not bad considering they have about three major leaguers in their everyday lineup.
Brewers 3, Reds 2: CC goes the distance -- throwing 122 pitches and hitting a dinger in the process -- to beat the Reds. I didn't worry about his pitch count in this game too much because (1) CC has been a frickin' horse for the past month or two, looking stronger the longer he goes. It's as though he's just loosenin' up for the first 80 pitches; (2) he's gettin' a few days off; and (3) the Brewers need to win games against teams like the Reds on getaway days. Ned Yost can't really trust the back end of his bullpen, and if I'm him, I leave Sabathia in too.
Rangers 12, White Sox 11: Texas seems to play in these kinds of games every other day. It has to be hard on their fans. It's always in the mid 90s or hotter at game time, and the Rangers force them to sit through four hours of slow, turgid, bludgeonball. Ozzie Guillen: "This was the worst baseball game I've ever seen . . . The pitchers should look themselves in the mirror and be embarrassed." And I don't think he would have changed his assessment if the score was flip-flopped.
Giants 4, Cubs 2: All hail the Freak (8 IP, 6 H, 1 ER, 9K), who is on pace to go 17-3 for one of the worst teams in the league.
Angels 4, A's 3: Reggie Willits scored from second on an infield single in the ninth for the game winning run. Barton claimed that he would have had a play on him had the catcher been paying attention. Maybe so, but it's still pretty cool.
Braves 12, Padres 3: Atlanta breaks out the whuppin' sticks, and Bobby Cox says something like "that will make them feel good going into the break." Isn't it funny how teams that are doing poorly heading into the break always talk like the break will change their fortunes for the better once play resumes, while teams playing well at the break talk as though the good stuff will continue despite the upcoming days off? Can't poor play be maintained and can't good play be thrown off the rails by virtue of a break?
Dodgers 9, Marlins 1: Chad Billingsley (7 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 13K) dominates the Marlins. The Dodgers are the luckiest team in baseball. The Diamondbacks showed every sign of running away with the NL West and hiding back at the end of April, and here are the Dodgers, who haven't had a stretch of sustained good play all year, a single game behind the leaders. They're like the guys who never studied for the exams in law school but who still scored high enough to mess up the curve for the rest of us morons.
Mets 7, Rockies 0: When you're hot, you're hot. The Mets are hot. Do you think they're hot enough to score Jerry Manuel the permanent managers' job? No, I wouldn't give it to him if I were running the Mets, but there's a lot of idle time between now and Friday, and you know that the tabloids are going to be looking for something to go on about. I think the "Jerry Manuel contract extension" talk would be about as fun as anything else to fill up that time.
You can download a compact version of yesterday's boxscores from Heater Magazine.
| First Inning's Major and Minor League Daily Reports: |
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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 57 40 .588 0.0 59 -2TB 55 39 .585 0.5 52 3
NYA 50 45 .526 6.0 50 0
TOR 47 48 .495 9.0 50 -3
BAL 45 48 .484 10.0 46 -1
American League Central CHA 54 40 .574 0.0 56 -2
MIN 53 42 .558 1.5 49 4
DET 47 47 .500 7.0 47 0
KC 43 53 .448 12.0 42 1
CLE 41 53 .436 13.0 48 -7
American League West LAA 57 38 .600 0.0 50 7
OAK 51 44 .537 6.0 55 -4
TEX 50 46 .521 7.5 46 4
SEA 37 58 .389 20.0 41 -4
National League East Pwins Diff PHI 52 44 .542 0.0 56 -4
NYN 51 44 .537 0.5 51 0
FLA 50 45 .526 1.5 45 5
ATL 45 50 .474 6.5 52 -7
WAS 36 60 .375 16.0 36 0
National League Central CHN 57 38 .600 0.0 58 -1
STL 53 43 .552 4.5 50 3
MIL 52 43 .547 5.0 49 3
CIN 46 50 .479 11.5 43 3
PIT 44 50 .468 12.5 41 3
HOU 44 51 .463 13.0 43 1
National League West ARI 47 48 .495 0.0 48 -1
LAN 46 49 .484 1.0 49 -3
SF 40 55 .421 7.0 41 -1
COL 39 57 .406 8.5 39 0
SD 37 58 .389 10.0 38 -1
Game of the Day
Angels 4, Athletics 3 - FINAL
LA ANGELS ab r h rbi bb so lob avg
M Izturis 3b 5 0 1 0 0 0 1 .271
C Kotchman 1b 4 1 1 1 0 0 1 .282
G Anderson lf 4 0 1 0 0 1 0 .263
V Guerrero dh 4 1 1 0 0 0 1 .286
T Hunter cf 3 1 1 0 1 0 0 .269
J Rivera rf 3 0 2 0 1 0 0 .233
R Willits pr-rf 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 .164
H Kendrick 2b 3 0 0 2 0 1 4 .321
J Mathis c 2 0 0 0 0 1 2 .216
va-G Matthews ph 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 .235
R Budde c 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000
E Aybar ss 4 0 1 1 0 0 0 .282
Totals 33 4 8 4 2 3 10 ###
OAKLAND ab r h rbi bb so lob avg
K Suzuki c 5 1 1 0 0 1 3 .281
M Murton lf 3 0 0 0 1 2 1 .083
J Cust dh 2 2 2 1 2 0 0 .229
E Brown rf 4 0 1 1 0 0 3 .255
R Davis cf 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .237
C Gonzalez cf-rf 4 0 2 1 0 1 0 .274
M Ellis 2b 3 0 0 0 1 0 2 .238
D Barton 1b 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 .224
J Hannahan 3b 3 0 0 0 1 1 0 .226
D Murphy ss 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 .181
ha-R Bowen ph 1 0 0 0 0 1 3 .204
Totals 31 3 6 3 5 6 12 ###
----------------------------------------------------
LA ANGELS - 000 100 012 -- 4 8 0
OAKLAND - 200 001 000 -- 3 6 1
----------------------------------------------------
va-grounded to shortstop for J Mathis in the 7th; ha-struck out looking for D
Murphy in the 9th.
BATTING: 3B - M Izturis (1, J Duchscherer). HR - J Cust (18, 6th inning off D
Oliver 0 on, 1 Out), C Kotchman (9, 8th inning off J Duchscherer 0 on, 2 Out).
S - R Budde , D Barton. SF - H Kendrick. RBI - H Kendrick 2 (25), C Kotchman
(45), E Aybar (21), E Brown (47), C Gonzalez (16), J Cust (47). 2-out RBI - C
Kotchman, E Aybar. Runners left in scoring position, 2 out - C Kotchman 1, J
Mathis 1, E Brown 1, K Suzuki 2. GIDP - G Matthews, M Ellis. Team LOB - LA
ANGELS 6, OAKLAND 7. FIELDING: E - D Murphy (3, ground ball). DP: (E Aybar-H
Kendrick-C Kotchman, D Barton-D Murphy-J Duchscherer).
LA ANGELS ip h r er bb so hr era
D Moseley 5 1/3 4 2 2 1 4 0 7.15
D Oliver 1 2/3 1 1 1 0 0 1 3.63
J Arredondo (W, 3-0) 1 0 0 0 2 0 0 1.12
F Rodriguez (S, 38) 1 1 0 0 2 2 0 2.36
OAKLAND ip h r er bb so hr era
J Duchscherer 7 2/3 5 2 2 2 3 1 1.82
B Ziegler (H, 6) 1/3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.00
H Street (L, 2-3; B, 4) 1 3 2 2 0 0 0 4.07
IBB - J Hannahan (by F Rodriguez). Pitches-strikes: D Moseley 81-51; D Oliver
18-14; J Arredondo 18-6; F Rodriguez 25-12; J Duchscherer 98-68; B Ziegler 1-1;
H Street 29-19. Ground balls-fly balls: D Moseley 7-5; D Oliver 2-3; J
Arredondo 2-1; F Rodriguez 1-0; J Duchscherer 8-12; B Ziegler 1-0; H Street
1-2. Batters faced: D Moseley 20; D Oliver 6; J Arredondo 5; F Rodriguez 6; J
Duchscherer 30; B Ziegler 1; H Street 6. UMPIRES: HP--C.B. Bucknor. 1B--Joe
West. 2B--Chris Guccione. 3B--Ed Hickox. T--2:37. Att--29,352. Weather: 70
degrees, sunny. Wind: 14 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 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 Carlos Beltran NYM Mark Redman COL 405 401 15 PL Milton Bradley TEX Jose Contreras CWS 344 334 19 JE Pat Burrell PHI Chad Qualls ARI 386 374 23 JE/L Jeff Clement SEA Kyle Davies KC 396 381 5 JE/L Jack Cust OAK Darren Oliver LAA 392 389 18 NQ Carlos Delgado NYM R.Speier COL 399 395 17 PL Jermaine Dye CWS Eddie Guardado TEX 423 402 21 PL/L Pedro Feliz PHI Chad Qualls ARI 359 352 12 JE/L Jason Giambi NYY A.J. Burnett TOR 392 390 19 PL Troy Glaus STL Tyler Yates PIT 405 403 15 JE Chase Headley SD Mike Gonzalez ATL 427 428 6 ND Matt Joyce DET Brian Bass MIN 440 426 9 PL Casey Kotchman LAA Justin Duchscherer OAK 392 388 9 PL Kevin Kouzmanoff SD Jorge Campillo ATL 383 401 12 PL Ryan Ludwick STL T.J. Beam PIT 418 403 21 PL Andy Marte CLE Scott Kazmir TB 407 400 1 JE Brian McCann ATL Josh Banks SD 374 367 19 PL/L Aaron Miles STL Ian Snell PIT 365 347 2 PL Jhonny Peralta CLE Scott Kazmir TB 374 373 16 JE Carlos Quentin CWS Matt Harrison TEX 422 394 22 PL/L C.C. Sabathia MIL Homer Bailey CIN 377 368 2 PL Marco Scutaro TOR Andy Pettitte NYY 395 396 3 PL Clete Thomas DET Nick Blackburn MIN 372 347 1 PL Chad Tracy ARI Cole Hamels PHI 388 378 5 ND Ty Wigginton HOU Odalis Perez WAS 379 372 8 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 OAK AAA Eric Patterson.... 5 3 1 0 1 0 0 3 R TOR A+ Brian Dopirak..... 2 2 0 0 2 0 0 NYY AAA Eric Duncan....... 5 2 0 0 1 1 1 CLE AAA Asdrubal Cabrera.. 5 2 1 0 1 0 2 TOR AA Travis Snider..... 4 3 2 0 0 0 0 3 LD OAK A+ Chris Carter...... 5 2 1 0 1 0 0 6 RBI ! TEX A Cristian Santana.. 4 3 1 1 0 0 1 DET A+ James Skelton..... 4 2 1 0 0 2 0 TB AAA Fernando Perez.... 4 2 0 1 0 1 1 TB AAA Elliot Johnson.... 4 3 1 0 0 0 0 3 LD KC AAA Ryan Shealy....... 4 2 0 0 1 1 0 SF A+ Travis Denker..... 4 2 0 0 1 1 0 ORG LVL PLAYER IP H R ER SO BB HR Notes NYM A- Bradley Holt...... 7 5 0 0 10 2 0 CLE A K. De La Cruz..... 7 4 2 2 7 0 0 PHI A+ Joe Savery........ 8 4 0 0 8 2 0 MIL A+ A. Periard........ 7 4 0 0 6 1 0 DET A Alfredo Figaro.... 7 3 2 1 5 1 0 KC AAA Carlos Rosa....... 6 3 0 0 6 2 0 FLA A+ Anibal Sanchez.... 6 3 0 0 6 2 0 LAA A Robert Fish....... 6 5 2 2 9 3 1 NYM A Scott Moviel...... 6 3 0 0 3 0 0 13 GB KC AA Blake Wood........ 6 7 3 1 6 1 0 12 GB BOS AAA Charlie Zink...... 7 6 1 1 5 2 0 TOR A Chi-Hung Cheng.... 6 6 2 2 6 2 0
Access THT’s stats here…
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