THT Daily: Baseball and flying Junebugs
by THT StaffAugust 04, 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/ and an archive at http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/thtdaily_index/
Player News
Player Headlines are courtesy of Rotoworld |
| One of Manny's two hair-flowing home runs yesterday. (Icon/SMI) |
Francisco Liriano tossed six innings of shutout ball to beat the Indians in his much anticipated return to the majors on Sunday. Liriano struck out five and walked three while allowing just three hits, all of which were singles, in the 96-pitch outing. The biggest threat of the day came in the third inning, but Liriano struck out Ben Francisco to leave the bases loaded. Obviously Liriano needs to be owned in every league after dominating Triple-A with a 2.67 ERA over his last 11 starts.
Xavier Nady went 4-for-5 with a homer and six RBI as the Yankees defeated the Angels 14-9 on Sunday. It was a big day for the Yankees' new acquisitions, as Ivan Rodriguez also added a solo homer in the contest. Nady hit a two-run double in the sixth, a three-run homer in the seventh, and an RBI single in the eighth. He now has three homers and 10 RBI in eight games since joining the Yankees.
Yesterday’s Results
Game recaps provided by Craig Calcaterra of ShysterballI'm not sayin' I was far away from baseball when I was down in West Virginia over the weekend, but I will say the best entertainment I got was when my brother-in-law came over to the house and taught my kids how to make bug kites. What's that? You've never made a bug kite? Well, then, you ain't lived. Instructions:
1. Find a Junebug. If you're having trouble, go down to my mother-in-law's place. They're everywhere.
2. Tie some string onto the leg of the Junebug. This is hard. My brother-in-law is real good at it, though.
3. Hold string, let Junebug fly around.
That's pretty much it. ShysterDaughter and ShysterBoy thought that this was the greatest thing in the history of things.
The point of all of that is to say that when I sat down to write this, I had no idea what had happened in baseball since Thursday night, so if I missed something major in these recaps, by all means, let me know.
Dodgers 9, Diamondbacks 3: Manny went 8-13 with 5 RBI in his first weekend in Los Angeles, and the Dodgers won two of the three games after the trade. Hey, that's great. What's not so great? The fact that Torre decided that the guy to lose playing time in that outfield logjam is Andre Ethier, who had a single at bat in the whole series, while Andruw Jones and Juan Pierre combined for 17 ineffective ones. Does Torre really think that Pierre and Jones are better options than Eithier in the lineup? If he does, he's wrong.
Cubs 8, Pirates 5: Some strangeness as Carlos Zambrano was lifted early -- he threw only 82 pitches over five innings -- because Piniella wanted to lighten his load following a couple of longish outings. It worked for a couple of innings until the bullpen coughed up the lead, but the Cubs obviously prevailed. It may not have made any difference because Zambrano may have been gone by then anyway, but I don't like the move. Why? Because I think Zambrano is one of the 60s guys. By that I mean one of those guys who, were he to have pitched in the 1960s, would have gladly thrown his 275 innings and been more or less fine.
This doesn't mean I'm all for abusing arms. Quite the contrary. I think you have to be really careful with guys for most of their development. But those guys who used to throw 275-300 innings a while back weren't freaks of nature. They were simply the ones who could handle it. The problem back then was that so many couldn't handle it that their arms were blown out before you could figure out if they were ever going to be worth a damn. There weren't as many teams and roster spots then, so you could do brutal things like that and it wouldn't matter as much.
There's no reason to think that there aren't a handful of guys who could handle that kind of workload today, but you don't want to blow out ten arms to find the one who can take that kind of work. But if you could figure out who could do it without killing the careers of 5-10 other prospects, wouldn't you want to? Wouldn't you want to give 70-80 more innings to an ace or at least a workhorse than to a fifth starter? I suppose it's too much to ask that the Cubs experiment with what could be their best chance at a championship in a century to test my theory on Zambrano, but someone somewhere probably should, because if you can figure out who on a staff can be a 1960s-style uber-workhorse, you could really give your team a leg up.
Nationals 4, Reds 2: This passage from the game story made me laugh: "The Reds lost for the eighth time in nine games and fell to a season-worst 10 games under .500, having failed to gain any noticeable edge from a 20-minute players-only meeting prior to batting practice." I'm not suggesting that trading away Ken Griffey makes any difference for this team from a competitive point of view, but who other than Griffey leads a players-only meeting for the Reds? Hell, Griffey was the only guy on that team who you'd even allow at the grownup table for Thanksgiving dinner. There's no one on that roster possessing the gravitas to lead a classroom full of preschoolers to potty time let alone lead a team to victory, so what on Earth did they talk about in that meeting?
Padres 4, Giants 1: The season is utterly lost in San Diego, so if they want to do anything other than play out the string in a meaningless fashion, they can concentrate on making damn sure that Greg Maddux gets the three more wins he'll need to pass Clemens on the all time list. History will remember them well for such a deed.
Twins 6, Indians 2: Francisco Liriano is finally a free man, and he rewards the Twins for their belated decision to promote him.
Royals 14, White Sox 3: An ugly loss marred by a mound charge and some pushing and shoving sends the White Sox into second place for the first time in over two months.
Astros 4, Mets 0: Randy Wolf puts up five scoreless innings, which is exactly why a team rolling to the playoffs like Houston is picks him up for the stretch run. [snicker]. I'm sorry, I am simply not willing to take this Astros-as-contenders thing seriously, and that stands no matter how many veteran acquisitions they make. Call me when they're within a game or two of the second place team and we'll talk, but until then, forget it.
Rays 6, Tigers 5: Fernando Rodney walks in the winning run. Good thing Todd Jones is hurt, or else the decision to demote him in favor of Rodney -- who has blown four of his five save opportunities -- would be awkward.
Braves 5, Brewers 0: In 1988 Atlanta was on its way to losing 106 games, and that was too much for even Braves fans to bear. Braves' Brass felt that they needed to do something, so they brought in a guy from the Mexican League named German Jimenez, hoping he would make a difference. Jimenez was a fat soft tosser for whom it was apparent, oh, about seven pitches into his Braves career that he had no business on a Major League roster. Skip Caray drank the Kool Aid for all of five minutes before turning on the guy I came to call El Nada Grande, openly opining that no one in the front office had a clue. I bring this up only to note just how utterly screwed Atlanta would be without another Mexican League import -- Jorge Campillo -- this season. Campillo has been brilliant when not fighting with pesky blisters, and he's finally changing my impression of the Mexican Leagues for the better some 20 years after Jimenez initially sullied it.
Red Sox 5, A's 2A businesslike three game sweep of the A's, and a respectable start by new acquisition Jason Bay has the Red Sox talking about a relaxed approach and a new attitude and all of that. But tell me, am I the only one who thinks it will be back to strife, drama, and dysfunction the minute they hit a mild skid? I say this because the Sox have become such a closely-watched phenomenon in the past few years that they're starting to experience what the Yankees have experienced for so long, and that's bored beat reporters. Guys so used to feeding the insatiable maw of Red Sox demand that they're compelled to play up the smallest bit of information into "story lines" that take on lives of their own. Whose DL stint will spur suspicion of malingering? Whose innocuous comment will be misconstrued into controversy? It's going to happen. It's inevitable. And when it does, will anyone think to get a microphone in front of Manny Ramirez's face to ask him what he thinks about it all?
Yankees 14, Angels 9: This one was a thumpin', but the rest of the AL should take notice that the Angels just took 5 of 7 on the road from the Sox and Yankees, and they have two months of basically zero-stress ahead of them to prepare for the playoffs.
Rockies 3, Marlins 2: Florida can be excused if they were looking ahead during this contest, because as the bulldog goes to press, they are a half game ahead of the Mets and two and a half behind the Phillies, with both of those teams on deck this week. While I suppose it's possible that these three teams will spend August and September beating each others' brains out in a round robin of ineptitude, I think it's more likely that one of them will fade, and the Marlins are my candidate.
Rangers 8, Blue Jays 4: Gerald Laird goes 2-4 with a couple of homers and 4 RBI to lead the charge for Texas. You know, people always talk about the winners and losers of the trade deadline in terms of what teams made good trades and what teams made bad trades, but I didn't read anyone who took the Rangers to task for failing to leverage their catching surplus into anything they could use more.
Phillies 5, Cardinals 4: I still tend to talk about the Cardinals as a contender because they've been contenders for most of my baseball-watching life. But at some point even apologists like me are going to have to accept the fact that they don't have the bullpen of a contender, and winnable games like this one are going to slip through their fingers all season because of it.
Mariners 8, Orioles 4: The All-Star break is the traditional, well, break in every baseball season, but in this day and age it feels like an unnatural break. It's the non-waiver trade deadline that seems like the natural line of demarcation, as the teams who are buying buy, the teams who are selling sell, and things move on in a much more decisive fashion when it's all over. There's no more pretending after the trading deadline, as the teams who unloaded talent can simply ease into playing out the string. Neither Seattle nor Baltimore sold off anything -- they didn't have much to sell -- but this is certainly a series that embodies that post-deadline feeling. J.J. Putz gets a win, and that's great. Cabrera showed some momentary flash, but ultimately turned in the kind of bad games he turns in all too often. Can't get worked up too much either way.
The thing is, I love it when baseball gets to this point because you can enjoy these kinds of games for their own sake. Nothing these two teams are going to do from here on out is going to matter much, and that's great, because over the next month or two, most of the rest of baseball will morph into a quasi-football state in which individual games will matter an awful lot, players will talk about silly things like "making statements," and commentators will analyze everything to the nth degree. If I were in Baltimore or Seattle, however, I could get great tickets no matter what and just enjoy some baseball that won't matter a hell of a lot by the time I wake up the next morning, and there's something very refreshing about that.
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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Today’s Games
National League --------------- Houston Astros at Chicago Cubs, 7:05 PM (R) Brian Moehler (6-4) vs. (R) Ryan Dempster (12-4) Milwaukee Brewers at Cincinnati Reds, 7:10 PM (L) Manny Parra (9-4) vs. (R) Bronson Arroyo (9-8) Washington Nationals at Colorado Rockies, 9:05 PM (R) Tim Redding (7-6) vs. (R) Aaron Cook (14-6) Pittsburgh Pirates at Arizona Diamondbacks, 9:40 PM (R) Yoslan Herrera (1-1) vs. (R) Dan Haren (11-5) Atlanta Braves at San Francisco Giants, 10:15 PM (R) Jair Jurrjens (10-6) vs. (R) Matt Cain (6-9) American League --------------- Oakland Athletics at Toronto Blue Jays, 6:07 PM (R) Sean Gallagher (1-0) vs. (R) Roy Halladay (12-8) Cleveland Indians at Tampa Bay Rays, 7:10 PM (L) Cliff Lee (14-2) vs. (R) Matt Garza (9-6) New York Yankees at Texas Rangers, 8:05 PM (R) Joba Chamberlain (4-3) vs. (R) Vicente Padilla (12-5) Boston Red Sox at Kansas City Royals, 8:10 PM (R) Clay Buchholz (2-6) vs. (R) Gil Meche (9-9) Baltimore Orioles at LA Angels of Anaheim, 10:05 PM (R) Dennis Sarfate (4-2) vs. (L) Joe Saunders (14-5) Minnesota Twins at Seattle Mariners, 10:10 PM (L) Glen Perkins (8-3) vs. (R) Miguel Batista (4-11)
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 TB 66 44 .600 0.0 60 6BOS 64 48 .571 3.0 66 -2
NYA 61 50 .550 5.5 61 0
TOR 55 56 .495 11.5 59 -4
BAL 53 57 .482 13.0 54 -1
American League Central MIN 62 49 .559 0.0 59 3
CHA 61 49 .555 0.5 62 -1
DET 55 56 .495 7.0 57 -2
KC 52 60 .464 10.5 50 2
CLE 48 62 .436 13.5 55 -7
American League West LAA 69 42 .622 0.0 60 9
TEX 58 54 .518 11.5 53 5
OAK 53 57 .482 15.5 58 -5
SEA 42 69 .378 27.0 48 -6
National League East Pwins Diff PHI 61 50 .550 0.0 63 -2
FLA 59 53 .527 2.5 54 5
NYN 58 53 .523 3.0 59 -1
ATL 51 60 .459 10.0 57 -6
WAS 41 70 .369 20.0 43 -2
National League Central CHN 67 45 .598 0.0 69 -2
MIL 62 50 .554 5.0 58 4
STL 62 52 .544 6.0 60 2
HOU 53 57 .482 13.0 50 3
PIT 51 60 .459 15.5 49 2
CIN 51 61 .455 16.0 48 3
National League West ARI 57 54 .514 0.0 58 -1
LAN 56 55 .505 1.0 58 -2
COL 51 62 .451 7.0 51 0
SF 46 64 .418 10.5 46 0
SD 43 69 .384 14.5 44 -1
Game of the Day
DETROIT (5) VS TAMPA BAY (6) - FINAL IN 10 INNINGS
DETROIT ab r h rbi bb so lob avg
C Granderson cf 6 1 1 1 0 1 4 .304
P Polanco 2b 5 2 3 0 0 0 0 .311
C Guillen 3b 5 0 1 0 0 1 1 .283
M Ordonez rf 5 0 2 2 0 0 1 .321
M Cabrera 1b 5 1 1 1 0 2 3 .298
M Joyce lf 4 0 1 0 1 2 1 .279
G Sheffield dh 4 1 2 1 1 0 1 .230
B Inge c 2 0 0 0 2 2 1 .221
R Santiago ss 4 0 1 0 0 0 4 .344
a-M Thames ph 1 0 0 0 0 0 2 .246
E Renteria ss 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .253
Totals 41 5 12 5 4 8 18
a-lined out to left for R Santiago in the 10th.
BATTING: 2B - P Polanco 2 (26, J Shields 2). HR - G Sheffield (9, 8th inning
off G Balfour 0 on, 2 Out), C Granderson (12, 9th inning off T Percival 0 on, 0
Out), M Cabrera (20, 10th inning off T Percival 0 on, 0 Out). RBI - M Ordonez 2
(65), G Sheffield (31), C Granderson (38), M Cabrera (82). 2-out RBI - G
Sheffield. Runners left in scoring position, 2 out - R Santiago 2, M Ordonez 1,
C Granderson 2. Team LOB - 11.
BASERUNNING: SB - G Sheffield (7, 2nd base off T Percival/D Navarro).
FIELDING: E - A Galarraga (2, ground ball). DP: 1 (M Cabrera-R Santiago-A
Galarraga).
TAMPA BAY ab r h rbi bb so lob avg
A Iwamura 2b 4 1 1 0 0 0 0 .275
B Upton cf 4 2 2 2 1 1 0 .269
C Crawford lf 5 0 1 1 0 1 1 .271
E Longoria 3b 5 0 1 0 0 2 4 .279
C Pena 1b 4 0 1 2 1 2 1 .235
C Floyd dh 3 0 1 0 0 1 0 .252
a-J Gomes ph-dh 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 .187
D Navarro c 4 0 0 0 0 0 3 .304
E Hinske rf 3 1 1 1 0 0 0 .256
G Gross rf 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .219
b-W Aybar ph 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 .220
J Bartlett ss 3 0 0 0 0 1 0 .256
c-S Riggans ph 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 .244
Totals 36 6 8 6 3 9 9
a-struck out looking for C Floyd in the 9th; b-walked for G Gross in the 10th;
c-hit by pitch for J Bartlett in the 10th.
BATTING: 2B - B Upton (25, A Galarraga). HR - E Hinske (16, 8th inning off K
Farnsworth 0 on, 0 Out), B Upton (7, 8th inning off K Farnsworth 1 on, 1 Out).
S - A Iwamura. RBI - C Pena 2 (58), E Hinske (48), B Upton 2 (49), C Crawford
(55). 2-out RBI - C Pena 2. Runners left in scoring position, 2 out - D Navarro
1. GIDP - C Pena. Team LOB - 6.
FIELDING: DP: 1 (J Bartlett-A Iwamura).
----------------------------------------------------
DETROIT - 001 010 011 1 -- 5
TAMPA BAY - 000 000 130 2 -- 6
Two outs when winning run scored.
----------------------------------------------------
DETROIT ip h r er bb so hr era
A Galarraga 7 4 1 1 0 4 0 3.23
K Farnsworth (B, 1) 1 3 3 3 0 2 2 4.08
B Seay 1 0 0 0 0 2 0 2.41
F Rodney (L, 0-3; B, 4) 2/3 1 2 2 3 1 0 6.38
TAMPA BAY ip h r er bb so hr era
J Shields 6 1/3 9 2 2 1 4 0 3.63
G Balfour 1 1/3 1 1 1 1 3 1 1.44
J Howell 1/3 0 0 0 0 0 0 2.45
T Percival (B, 3) 1 1/3 2 2 2 2 0 2 3.86
T Miller (W, 1-0) 2/3 0 0 0 0 1 0 5.00
HBP - B Inge (by J Shields); S Riggans (by F Rodney). Pitches-strikes: A
Galarraga 100-67; K Farnsworth 28-18; B Seay 16-10; F Rodney 33-18; J Shields
111-73; G Balfour 34-20; J Howell 4-3; T Percival 31-15; T Miller 10-6. Ground
balls-fly balls: A Galarraga 11-6; K Farnsworth 0-1; B Seay 0-1; F Rodney 1-0;
J Shields 8-6; G Balfour 0-1; J Howell 1-0; T Percival 0-4; T Miller 0-1.
Batters faced: A Galarraga 25; K Farnsworth 6; B Seay 3; F Rodney 7; J Shields
29; G Balfour 6; J Howell 1; T Percival 8; T Miller 2.
UMPIRES: HP--Jim Joyce. 1B--Jeff Nelson. 2B--Adrian Johnson. 3B--Tim Tschida.
T--3:45. Att--33,438.
Weather: INDOORSThe 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 Mike Aviles KC Clayton Richard CWS 376 344 7 JE/L Daric Barton OAK Daisuke Matsuzaka BOS 387 413 4 JE Miguel Cabrera DET Troy Percival TB 431 431 20 ND Chris Davis TEX David Purcey TOR 409 392 11 PL Stephen Drew ARI Jason Johnson LAD 384 369 13 PL Ben Francisco CLE Matt Guerrier MIN 394 388 11 PL Troy Glaus STL Brad Lidge PHI 371 362 19 PL Curtis Granderson DET Troy Percival TB 398 398 12 PL Jose Guillen KC Clayton Richard CWS 455 412 17 ND Brendan Harris MIN Matt Ginter CLE 404 398 6 PL Eric Hinske TB Kyle Farnsworth DET 407 406 16 PL Matt Holliday COL Doug Waechter FLA 426 422 20 JE/L Mike Jacobs FLA Glendon Rusch COL 380 379 23 JE Reed Johnson CHC Sean Burnett PIT 404 373 6 PL Matt Kemp LAD Jon Rauch ARI 415 396 13 PL Kevin Kouzmanoff SD Osiris Matos SF 421 422 15 PL Gerald Laird TEX David Purcey TOR 382 373 6 JE/L Gerald Laird TEX David Purcey TOR 394 379 5 PL/L Andy LaRoche PIT Chad Gaudin CHC 386 353 3 PL/L Jose Lopez SEA Daniel Cabrera BAL 357 368 9 PL/L Ryan Ludwick STL Brett Myers PHI 418 411 27 PL Lastings Milledge WAS Johnny Cueto CIN 400 395 9 PL Brandon Moss PIT Carlos Zambrano CHC 421 387 3 PL/L Xavier Nady NYY Jose Arredondo LAA 392 389 16 PL Corey Patterson CIN Joel Hanrahan WAS 358 353 7 JE/L A.J. Pierzynski CWS Robinson Tejeda KC 431 390 8 PL/L Aramis Ramirez CHC T.J. Beam PIT 369 346 19 JE/L Manny Ramirez LAD Billy Buckner ARI 416 398 21 ND Brian Roberts BAL Carlos Silva SEA 372 369 8 PL Ivan Rodriguez NYY John Lackey LAA 378 373 6 ND Gary Sheffield DET Grant Balfour TB 423 423 8 PL Alfonso Soriano CHC Sean Burnett PIT 376 343 19 PL/L Denard Span MIN Juan Rincon CLE 364 360 2 JE Mark Teixeira LAA Edwar Ramirez NYY 361 343 21 PL B.J. Upton TB Kyle Farnsworth DET 421 421 7 PL Chase Utley PHI Todd Wellemeyer STL 382 375 28 PL Shane Victorino PHI Russ Springer STL 403 395 10 ND Joey Votto CIN Collin Balester WAS 421 426 14 PL Ty Wigginton HOU Oliver Perez NYM 417 410 10 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 FLA AA Gaby Sanchez...... 5 3 1 0 2 1 1 6 RBI ! FLA A+ Logan Morrison.... 5 4 1 0 2 0 1 5 RBI ! SF AAA Travis Ishikawa... 4 3 0 1 2 0 1 5 RBI ! CHC AA Tyler Colvin...... 5 3 0 1 2 0 0 6 RBI ! TOR A+ Brian Dopirak..... 5 3 1 0 2 0 1 3 R NYY A Jesus Montero..... 5 4 2 0 1 0 0 CHC A- Ryan Flaherty..... 4 2 2 0 0 2 0 CHC AAA Micah Hoffpauir... 4 2 1 0 1 0 1 5 RBI ! LAA AAA Sean Rodriguez.... 4 2 1 0 1 0 1 PIT AAA Andrew McCutchen.. 4 3 1 0 0 1 1 3 R MIL AA Lorenzo Cain...... 5 4 1 0 0 0 1 3 LD STL A+ Daniel Descalso... 4 3 0 0 1 1 0 ORG LVL PLAYER IP H R ER SO BB HR Notes SF A M. Bumgarner...... 7 4 0 0 9 0 0 SEA A Michael Pineda.... 7 8 2 1 11 0 0 CHW AA Aaron Poreda...... 7 4 0 0 7 0 0 STL AAA P.J. Walters...... 7 1 0 0 10 5 0 BAL AA David Hernandez... 5 3 1 1 8 1 0 SF A+ Tim Alderson...... 6 2 0 0 4 0 0 CHW A+ John Ely.......... 6 4 0 0 5 0 0 CHC A+ Hung-Wen Chen..... 6 2 0 0 6 2 0 PIT AAA Ross Ohlendorf.... 8 6 3 3 9 1 2 PHI AA Fabio Castro...... 8 9 4 4 6 1 0 WAN A+ Ross Detwiler..... 6 6 3 3 7 2 0 LAA A Trevor Reckling... 6 2 0 0 5 2 0
Access THT’s stats here…
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