THT Daily: Feats of Hitting
by Matthew CarruthJune 05, 2007
Major League News for June 5
Today’s LinksPlayer 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
Draft day - Baseball Analysts interviews top prospect Phillippe Aumont. Some real interesting nuggets here about the draft process and the world of prep baseball.
Genius - The New York Times publishes a profile of Mets general manager Omar Minaya that's so hagiographic that I thought Michael Lewis wrote it.
Relief Ace - Perhaps with visions of Kerry Wood in their heads, the A's plan to test out Rich Harden as a reliever when he returns from injury in a couple weeks. On the A's radio broadcast yesterday, either Kuiper or Fosse mentioned that the A's planned on doing so because they didn't want to waste his time in the minors as he got stretched out. The implication, as in the article, is that he would eventually return to starting, but don't be surprised if this lasts at least the rest of the season.
Crazy manager - Not much else to say. Check out the linked Youtube video.
20/20 hindsight - ESPN's Keith Law reflects on the 2002 draft and ranks the best and worst hauls. I still think after you take away the Moneyball hype, the A's had a very good draft with Nick Swisher, Joe Blanton and Mark Teahen already in the bigs.
Road to recovery - Red Sox pitcher Jon Lester dominated in a rehab start at Triple-A Pawtucket last night, allowing just four hits in seven innings. I've been tracking this story in the Links since its inception, and I'm going to see this baby through.
Feel good story - Continuing the run is Josh Hamilton, who is apparently being recalled from the disabled list.
THT Links represents the best efforts of our editors in scouring the various tubes of the interweb for both relevant and irrelevant news items. If you have happened upon a story that we have overlooked or wish to give feedback of any sort, please notify us at .
Player News
Player Headlines are courtesy of RotoworldMark Ellis hit for the cycle and Eric Chavez hit a walkoff homer in the bottom of the 11th as the A's edged the Red Sox 5-4 on Monday. The A's couldn't lose this one, as they had their ace going against Boston's fifth starter with the Red Sox's two best relievers pretty much unavailable and four regulars out of the lineup. Ellis had center fielder Wily Mo Pena turn a double into a triple for him in his first at-bat, and he delivered a 340-foot homer down the left-field line in the second. A legitimate double followed in the sixth, and Ellis got a bloop single in the 10th to finish the cycle. Chavez's homer came off Kyle Snyder with two outs in the 11th. It made up for him striking out with the bases loaded and none out in a fruitless bottom of the ninth. Bobby Crosby followed him by grounding into a double play.
Alfonso Soriano went 5-for-5 with a three-run homer to propel the Cubs to a 7-2 win in Milwaukee on Monday night. An infield single in the ninth gave him his first five-hit game since 2002. Besides the homer, which came off Matt Wise in the seventh and broke a 2-2 tie, all of his hits were singles. It's the first time all year he's had an three-RBI game. He's now homered in three straight.
Derek Lowe took a no-hitter into the seventh Monday and picked up a win after giving up four runs in 7 2/3 innings against the Pirates. Freddy Sanchez broke up the no-hitter and Xavier Nady homered as part of a three-run seventh. Lowe came back out for the eighth anyway -- it might not have happened had Takashi Saito been healthy -- and gave up another homer, this one to Jose Bautista, before Joe Beimel came in. The Dodgers ended up winning 6-5. It was just the second time this season Lowe has allowed more than one run and won. He's 6-5 with a 3.44 ERA.
An MRI showed that Roger Clemens had disrupted scar tissue in his sore right groin. They're calling it disrupted because it sounds better than torn scar tissue. Either way, it's not a big setback for Clemens, who played catch today and will throw in the bullpen Wednesday. If that goes well, he'll likely start Saturday.
Yesterday’s Results
American League TB 4 KC 2 (Recap and Boxscore) CHA 6 NYA 4 (Recap and Boxscore) LAA 16 MIN 3 (Recap and Boxscore) OAK 5 BOS 4 (Recap and Boxscore) SEA 7 BAL 4 (Recap and Boxscore) National League FLA 6 ATL 4 (Recap and Boxscore) SF 8 PHI 1 (Recap and Boxscore) CHN 7 MIL 2 (Recap and Boxscore) LAN 6 PIT 5 (Recap and Boxscore)
Today’s Games
National League --------------- Florida Marlins at Atlanta Braves, 2:35 PM (R) Sergio Mitre (2-2) vs. (R) Buddy Carlyle (0-1) Pittsburgh Pirates at Washington Nationals, 7:05 PM (R) Shawn Chacon (1-0) vs. (L) Mike Bacsik (1-1) Philadelphia Phillies at New York Mets, 7:10 PM (L) Jamie Moyer (5-4) vs. (L) Tom Glavine (5-3) Florida Marlins at Atlanta Braves, 7:35 PM (R) Rick Vanden Hurk (0-1) vs. (R) John Smoltz (7-2) Chicago Cubs at Milwaukee Brewers, 8:05 PM (L) Ted Lilly (4-3) vs. (R) Claudio Vargas (3-1) Cincinnati Reds at St. Louis Cardinals, 8:10 PM (R) Aaron Harang (6-2) vs. (R) Todd Wellemeyer (1-0) Houston Astros at Colorado Rockies, 9:05 PM (L) Wandy Rodriguez (2-5) vs. (R) Jason Hirsh (2-5) San Francisco Giants at Arizona Diamondbacks, 9:40 PM (R) Matt Cain (2-5) vs. (L) Randy Johnson (3-2) Los Angeles Dodgers at San Diego Padres, 10:05 PM (R) Jason Schmidt (1-2) vs. (R) Chris Young (6-3) American League --------------- Kansas City Royals at Cleveland Indians, 7:05 PM (L) Jorge De La Rosa (4-5) vs. (L) CC Sabathia (8-1) Tampa Bay Devil Rays at Toronto Blue Jays, 7:07 PM (R) Andrew Sonnanstine (0-0) vs. (R) Roy Halladay (5-2) New York Yankees at Chicago White Sox, 8:11 PM (R) Tyler Clippard (2-1) vs. (L) Mark Buehrle (2-2) Detroit Tigers at Texas Rangers, 8:35 PM (L) Nate Robertson (4-5) vs. (R) Vicente Padilla (2-8) Baltimore Orioles at Seattle Mariners, 10:05 PM (L) Brian Burres (3-2) vs. (R) Cha Seung Baek (3-2) Minnesota Twins at LA Angels of Anaheim, 10:05 PM (R) Scott Baker (1-0) vs. (R) Kelvim Escobar (6-3) Boston Red Sox at Oakland Athletics, 10:05 PM (R) Daisuke Matsuzaka (7-3) vs. (L) Lenny DiNardo (1-2)
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 37 19 .661 0.0 36 1TOR 27 29 .482 10.0 28 -1
BAL 27 31 .466 11.0 30 -3
NYA 24 31 .436 12.5 30 -6
TB 24 31 .436 12.5 21 3
American League Central CLE 34 21 .618 0.0 31 3
DET 32 24 .571 2.5 32 0
MIN 28 28 .500 6.5 29 -1
CHA 26 27 .491 7.0 23 3
KC 21 37 .362 14.5 21 0
American League West LAA 37 22 .627 0.0 35 2
SEA 29 25 .537 5.5 28 1
OAK 29 27 .518 6.5 32 -3
TEX 20 37 .351 16.0 24 -4
National League East Pwins Diff NYN 35 20 .636 0.0 34 1
ATL 32 25 .561 4.0 30 2
PHI 28 29 .491 8.0 28 0
FLA 28 30 .483 8.5 29 -1
WAS 23 34 .404 13.0 21 2
National League Central MIL 32 26 .552 0.0 30 2
STL 24 30 .444 6.0 21 3
CHN 24 31 .436 6.5 30 -6
PIT 24 33 .421 7.5 24 0
HOU 23 33 .411 8.0 24 -1
CIN 22 36 .379 10.0 25 -3
National League West LAN 34 23 .596 0.0 31 3
SD 33 23 .589 0.5 35 -2
ARI 34 24 .586 0.5 31 3
SF 27 29 .482 6.5 31 -4
COL 27 30 .474 7.0 24 3
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 CLE AAA Andy Marte........ 3 2 0 0 1 1 0 STL A+ Mark Hamilton..... 4 3 0 0 3 1 0 6 RBI ! ARI AA Carlos Gonzalez... 4 2 0 1 0 0 1 ATL AA Brandon Jones..... 4 4 1 0 0 1 0 3 LD LA AAA Matt Kemp......... 6 3 1 0 0 0 0 OAK A J. Mitchell....... 4 2 1 0 0 0 1 WAN A Justin Maxwell.... 5 3 0 0 1 1 0 4 R BOS A+ Aaron Bates....... 5 4 1 0 1 0 1 TEX AAA Jason Botts....... 3 1 0 1 0 3 1 CHC A+ Tyler Colvin...... 6 3 2 0 0 0 1 TB AA Chris Nowak....... 5 3 0 0 1 0 1 BOS AAA David Murphy...... 4 3 0 0 1 0 0 ORG LVL PLAYER IP H R ER SO BB HR Notes FLA A+ Ryan Tucker....... 7 6 2 1 5 0 0 OAK A Trevor Cahill..... 4 6 2 1 7 3 0 7 GB FLA AA G. Hernandez...... 6 4 1 1 6 3 0 PHI AA Fabio Castro...... 3 0 0 0 4 0 0 BAL A+ Jason Berken...... 6 5 1 1 6 2 0 11 GB LAA A+ Stephen Marek..... 7 11 5 5 5 0 0 13 GB CHW A+ Kyle McCulloch.... 6 5 3 3 3 1 0 12 GB CHW A Justin Edwards.... 5 3 3 3 8 4 1 CHC A+ Mitch Atkins...... 5 4 5 4 7 3 1 LA AA Jonathan Meloan... 2 0 0 0 2 0 0 CIN A Rafael Gonzalez... 6 3 1 1 4 2 1 BOS A+ Kris Johnson...... 5 3 1 1 3 2 0
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Matthew Carruth is an editor for The Hardball Times. He welcomes any and all sorts of communication at his email.