The Hardball Times

THT Daily: Damn Red Sox

by Matthew Carruth
May 29, 2007

Major League News for May 29
Today’s Links
Player 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/

THT Links

Coming soon.

Player News
Player Headlines are courtesy of Rotoworld

Adrian Beltre homered twice and doubled twice to lead the Mariners to a 12-5 defeat of the Angels on Saturday. Beltre has 11 hits, four doubles and three homers in four games. It's probably time to pick him up in mixed leagues and see if he can stay hot for a while. Ideally, the Mariners will move him up in the lineup, giving him a chance to drive in more runs like he did in April.

A CT scan revealed only a head and neck contusion after Ryan Freel was taken to the hospital on Monday. Maybe Freel will avoid the disabled list after all. Still, he's going to need at least a few days off, putting Norris Hopper into the starting lineup. If Freel goes on the DL, the Reds could call up Dewayne Wise until Josh Hamilton is eligible to return on Sunday.

Chipper Jones had to cut short a batting practice session on Monday and may end up on the DL because of his bruised hands. Manager Bobby Cox indicated that Jones would sit out the entire series against the Brewers before a decision is made on the DL. Martin Prado will get more starts than either Chris Woodward or Pete Orr while Chipper is out.

Jason Schmidt (shoulder) will make his first rehab start Wednesday for Single-A Inland Empire. Schmidt was supposed to throw a simulated game first, but that kept getting pushed back by flu-like symptoms. He'll likely make at least three and maybe four or five starts before returning to the majors.

Roger Clemens threw six scoreless innings Monday for Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre in his third minor league start. Clemens needed just 89 pitches versus Toledo today after throwing 102 in 5 1/3 innings against Double-A Portland last week. He focused more on his offspeed pitches, though that didn't stop the Mud Hens from making some quick outs. He was clocked at 89-91 mph. Clemens' next start almost certainly will come in the majors. The disappointing thing is that it looks like he'll face the White Sox next Monday and not the Red Sox over the weekend.

Indians optioned third baseman Andy Marte to Triple-A Buffalo. If the Indians don't want Marte to develop into their long-term third baseman, then they just need to keep jerking him around like this. With Casey Blake clearly manager Eric Wedge's preferred choice at third, the smart move would have been to send Marte down rather than activate him from the disabled list nine days ago. Marte had appeared in just three games since, going 2-for-11, and when he didn't play against a lefty last night, the writing was on the wall. He'll be back when an injury to Blake, Trot Nixon or David Dellucci opens up playing time.

Kyle Lohse, coming off three straight very poor outings, pitched a complete-game shutout Monday against the Pirates. Thanks to perhaps the team's best pitching performance this year, the Reds managed to avoid a four-game sweep at home. Lohse allowed six hits, walked none and struck out two while throwing 105 pitches. Despite his struggles of late, he's been an adequate bottom-of-the-rotation starter since joining the Reds last year and that doesn't figure to change.

Yesterday’s Results
 American League
BOS     5  CLE     3    (Recap and Boxscore)
TB      6  DET     5    (Recap and Boxscore)
TOR     7  NYA     2    (Recap and Boxscore)
BAL     9  KC      1    (Recap and Boxscore)
MIN    10  CHA     4    (Recap and Boxscore)
SEA    12  LAA     5    (Recap and Boxscore)
OAK     5  TEX     3    (Recap and Boxscore)

National League
ARI     5  PHI     4    (Recap and Boxscore)
FLA     5  CHN     3    (Recap and Boxscore)
CIN     4  PIT     0    (Recap and Boxscore)
ATL     2  MIL     1    (Recap and Boxscore)
COL     6  STL     2    (Recap and Boxscore)

Today’s Games
National League
 ---------------
 San Diego Padres at Pittsburgh Pirates, 7:05 PM
  (L) David Wells (2-2) vs. (L) Tom Gorzelanny (5-3)
 Arizona Diamondbacks at Philadelphia Phillies, 7:05 PM
  (R) Micah Owings (3-1) vs. (R) Jon Lieber (2-2)
 Los Angeles Dodgers at Washington Nationals, 7:05 PM
  (R) Brad Penny (6-1) vs. (R) Jason Simontacchi (2-2)
 San Francisco Giants at New York Mets, 7:10 PM
  (R) Tim Lincecum (2-0) vs. (L) Oliver Perez (6-3)
 Cincinnati Reds at Houston Astros, 8:05 PM
  (R) Matt Belisle (4-4) vs. (R) Jason Jennings (0-1)
 Atlanta Braves at Milwaukee Brewers, 8:05 PM
  (R) John Smoltz (7-2) vs. (R) Ben Sheets (4-3)
 Florida Marlins at Chicago Cubs, 8:05 PM
  (L) Dontrelle Willis (6-3) vs. (R) Jason Marquis (5-1)
 St. Louis Cardinals at Colorado Rockies, 9:05 PM
  (R) Braden Looper (6-3) vs. (R) Rodrigo Lopez (1-0)
 
 American League
 ---------------
 Cleveland Indians at Boston Red Sox, 7:05 PM
  (L) Jeremy Sowers (1-4) vs. (R) Josh Beckett (7-0)
 New York Yankees at Toronto Blue Jays, 7:07 PM
  (L) Andy Pettitte (3-3) vs. (R) Shaun Marcum (2-2)
 Detroit Tigers at Tampa Bay Devil Rays, 7:10 PM
  (R) Jeremy Bonderman (3-0) vs. (L) Casey Fossum (3-4)
 Chicago White Sox at Minnesota Twins, 8:10 PM
  (L) John Danks (3-4) vs. (R) Boof Bonser (3-1)
 Baltimore Orioles at Kansas City Royals, 8:10 PM
  (R) Jeremy Guthrie (2-1) vs. (L) Jorge De La Rosa (4-4)
 Texas Rangers at Oakland Athletics, 10:05 PM
  (R) Mike Wood (0-1) vs. (L) Lenny DiNardo (1-1)
 Seattle Mariners at LA Angels of Anaheim, 10:05 PM
  (L) Ryan Feierabend (0-0) vs. (R) Ervin Santana (3-6)

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     35  15 .700    0.0   33     2    sparkline graph
BAL     24  27 .471   11.5   26    -2    sparkline graph
TOR     23  27 .460   12.0   25    -2    sparkline graph
NYA     21  28 .429   13.5   26    -5    sparkline graph
TB      21  28 .429   13.5   19     2    sparkline graph
American League Central     
CLE     31  18 .633    0.0   29     2    sparkline graph
DET     29  21 .580    2.5   28     1    sparkline graph
CHA     24  22 .522    5.5   21     3    sparkline graph
MIN     25  25 .500    6.5   26    -1    sparkline graph
KC      19  33 .365   13.5   19     0    sparkline graph
American League West        
LAA     31  21 .596    0.0   29     2    sparkline graph
SEA     25  22 .532    3.5   24     1    sparkline graph
OAK     25  25 .500    5.0   28    -3    sparkline graph
TEX     18  33 .353   12.5   22    -4    sparkline graph


National League East        Pwins  Diff
NYN     32  17 .653    0.0   31     1    sparkline graph
ATL     29  22 .569    4.0   27     2    sparkline graph
PHI     26  25 .510    7.0   27    -1    sparkline graph
FLA     24  27 .471    9.0   24     0    sparkline graph
WAS     21  30 .412   12.0   20     1    sparkline graph
National League Central     
MIL     28  23 .549    0.0   27     1    sparkline graph
CHN     22  27 .449    5.0   27    -5    sparkline graph
PIT     22  28 .440    5.5   22     0    sparkline graph
HOU     21  29 .420    6.5   21     0    sparkline graph
STL     20  28 .417    6.5   18     2    sparkline graph
CIN     19  33 .365    9.5   23    -4    sparkline graph
National League West        
LAN     29  21 .580    0.0   27     2    sparkline graph
SD      29  21 .580    0.0   30    -1    sparkline graph
ARI     30  23 .566    0.5   27     3    sparkline graph
SF      24  25 .490    4.5   26    -2    sparkline graph
COL     24  27 .471    5.5   21     3    sparkline graph

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
ARI AA  Justin Upton...... 5  3  0  1  1  0  1  
KC  AAA Billy Butler...... 5  3  0  0  1  0  0  
LA  AAA Matt Kemp......... 4  3  2  1  0  1  0  3 R
STL AA  Colby Rasmus...... 4  2  0  0  2  1  1  
CHC AAA Felix Pie......... 4  4  0  1  1  0  0  
OAK AAA Daric Barton...... 4  4  0  1  0  1  0  
PIT AA  Neil Walker....... 4  3  1  0  1  1  0  3 R
ARI AA  Carlos Gonzalez... 5  1  1  0  0  0  1  
NYM AA  F. Martinez....... 2  0  0  0  0  3  1  
TB  AAA Ben Zobrist....... 4  2  1  0  1  0  0  
TB  AAA Elliot Johnson.... 4  2  0  0  1  0  0  
OAK AAA Kevin Melillo..... 3  1  1  0  0  3  2  

ORG LVL PLAYER            IP  H  R ER SO BB HR  Notes
CIN AAA Homer Bailey...... 7  5  1  1  9  0  0  
BOS AA  Clay Buchholz..... 6  2  0  0  8  3  0  
CLE AA  Chuck Lofgren..... 5  8  5  5  8  1  1  
NYY AA  Alan Horne........ 6  7  4  1  7  2  0  
ARI AAA Dustin Nippert.... 5  1  0  0  7  2  0  
HOU A+  Brian Bogusevic... 6  6  1  1  5  1  0  
ARI A+  Matthew Torra..... 7  5  4  4  5  1  1  13 GB
MIN A   Alex Burnett...... 6  4  1  1  5  2  0  
STL A   Tyler Herron...... 5  3  0  0  3  1  0  
SEA AA  Justin Thomas..... 6  5  3  3  4  3  0  
CIN AA  Richie Gardner.... 5  3  0  0  5  3  0  
LA  AA  Jonathan Meloan... 1  0  0  0  2  0  0  2 GB

Access THT’s stats here…
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Matthew Carruth is an editor for The Hardball Times. He welcomes any and all sorts of communication at his email.

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