THT Daily: Free Falling
by Dave StudemanJune 25, 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 |
| Brian Buscher hits a solo home run off Trevor Hoffman in the ninth to cap the Twins' come-from-behind victory. (Icon/SMI) |
Nick Johnson will miss the remainder of the season after undergoing surgery Tuesday to repair a tear in a ligament on the ulnar side of his wrist. Johnson was initially expected to miss 4-6 weeks when he suffered the injury back in mid-May, but as has been the case throughout his career weeks turned into months and months turned into a lost season. He's expected to be fully healthy for spring training, but those hopes have proven far too optimistic for Johnson in the past. Dmitri Young will continue to start at first base for the Nationals.
Josh Hamilton is listed as day-to-day after leaving Tuesday's game with left knee inflammation. He was taken out in the fourth inning tonight. With Milton Bradley unlikely to play Wednesday, the Rangers will probably have both Brandon Boggs and Milton Byrd in the outfield.
Astros placed infielder Kaz Matsui on the 15-day disabled list, retroactive to June 21, with a strained right hamstring. Matsui goes on the DL for the second time this season, this time with a more conventional injury. He's been on the DL each of the last five years, yet the Astros still saw fit to give him a three-year deal over the winter. They'll go with Mark Loretta and Geoff Blum at second base for now. Ty Wigginton should have a little more value since he won't have to worry about losing starts to Blum.
Yesterday’s Results
Game recaps are provided by Craig Calcaterra.Giants 3, Indians 2: I had kind of a rough day yesterday. Things just weren't working right. Computer trouble. Client trouble. Kid trouble. By around 9:15PM or so, I had pretty much had it with the world. Before slipping into a nice cozy glass of scotch, I decided to turn on the end of this game. Though they're on every night here, the Indians do nothing for me. The Giants -- at least the current incarnation --do even less. But then, in the top of the ninth, San Francisco gets Rich Aurilia over to third with Omar Vizquel at the plate. They put the squeeze on and, Casey Blake's bobble aside, it's a thing of beauty. Good timing. Good execution. Great camera work by the STO team. It was the kind of thing that can make a pretty crummy day brighter.
Mariners 11, Mets 0: Getting pounded by the worst team in the game is bad, but letting Richie Sexson go 2-3 with 3 RBI off of you is even worse. Of course doing those things while getting shutout by a knuckleballer missing a normally essential ligament in his arm takes things to a whole new level. For what it's worth, Tim Wakefield's career ERA against the Mets is 2.43; Charlie Hough: 2.67; Phil Niekro: 3.02; Steve Sparks: 9.00, but that was only two innings.
Blue Jays 14, Reds 1: On Sunday the Daily News ran a story about trade rumors allegedly swirling around Bronson Arroyo. I wasn't buying it on Sunday, and after pinching off a one inning, ten-run, 11-hit loaf against the Jays last night, I don't think anyone else is buying it either. He's 0-for-June and is sporting 6.52 ERA overall. He's going to make over $20M between 2009-10. No one trades for a guy like that. They call in Exorcists to rid themselves of his unholy presence.
Pirates 12, Yankees 5: Bill Mazeroski threw out the first pitch. Two innings later he suited up and hit a two-run double off of Darrell Rasner because, hey, everyone else was doing it.
Astros 4, Rangers 3: Josh Hamilton left the game early with a gimpy knee. He's hitting .285 over his last ten games. As slumps go that's pretty minor, but you have to think that the heat and the fact that he doesn't get rested much could be catching up with him. While we're talking about Hamilton, I wanted to reprint a comment an anonymous commenter recently made in that "to boo or not to boo Hamilton" thread from the other day:
At Spring Training in Surprise this year, the Giants blew off my kids, age 9 & 11 when they went autograph hunting on Easter Sunday after the Giants/Rangers played. Josh Hamilton watched it happen, then ran over to where my kids were, introduced himself and signed baseballs, caps, bats and tickets until everyone left in the park had an autograph. He asked kids what positions they played, acted interested when they answered and probably saved my vacation by connecting with the kids. When we see Josh on TV now, we cheer - and you should too.No one's life is so simple and straightforward that we can tell whether they are good guys or bad guys based on a single observation, but as single observations go, this is a pretty big one in Hamilton's favor.
Brewers 4, Braves 3: The good news: Jeff Francoeur's contact lenses may be working, as he went 2-4. The bad news: He's still killing the Braves, this time with two errors in the first inning which led to two unearned runs. Not that anything was going to stop the Brewers last night anyway, as they've won eight of nine.
Rays 6, Marlins 4: The top of the eighth was a study in mutual futility. First up were the Marlins, who gave up three rinky dink hits to the first three batters to load the bases. Then it was the Rays turn. Bases loaded and nobody out and they hit into two consecutive fielders choices in which the lead runner was forced out at home. Then the anti-momentum swung back to the Marlins, as reliever Joe Nelson walked in two guys in a row to give the Rays the lead for good.
Angels 8, Nats 3: If you Google "woeful" and "Nationals" you get 681,000 hits. That's not as bad as the Reds' 751,000, but it's far worse than the Mariners' 130,000 and the Royals' 29,500. And if you think for a second that my saying this is not about me playing the Joker to Chris Needham's Batman in an effort to lure him back onto the cruel streets to start blogging about the Nats again, well, you're just not familiar with my work.
Cardinals 8, Tigers 4: Hey, it's the 1934, 1968, and 2006 World Series! Feel the excitement! Less exciting but probably more relevant was Gary Sheffield's return after a month or so away. He went 1-4 with a homer. In other news, the National Association of Smoke Producers and Mirror Manufacturers has announced historically-low inventories among its members by virtue of an unusually large order placed by a customer from the Greater St. Louis area.
Red Sox 5, Diamondbacks 4: According to the game story, David Ortiz may hit off a tee today. My boy might too if I can get home from work before it rains.
Royals 7, Rockies 3: Until Alex Gordon's homer in the 7th, the Royals' runs all came on four singles and a fielder's choice. Not the most intimidating display of power the world has ever seen, but it was made up for quite nicely by Zach Greinke's ten strikeouts in six innings.
Orioles 7, Cubs 5: Chicago used 19 players in a game that was 7-1 at the seventh inning stretch. Yeah, it got a little closer after that, but from the box score it doesn't exactly look like the kind of game that would inspire someone to go all La Russa on us and empty the benches with double switches and all of that nonsense. Anybody see this? What was the deal? Did Piniella put in a bunch of bench warmers thinking the game was out of hand in the seventh?
A's 5, Phillies 2: Two big blasts -- by Emil Brown and Jack Cust -- put this one out of reach. Is it just me or does it seem like Emil Brown has had an inordinate number of huge, game-changing hits this year for a guy hitting .246/.288/.375? Maybe it is just me, but I feel like I've written some variation of "big hit from Emil Brown!" quite a few times this year.
Twins 3, Padres 1: Hells Bells! Hoffman gives up back-to-back homers to Brendan Harris and Brian Buscher in the ninth inning. If it makes him feel better, it wasn't a blown save because the game was tied. Probably doesn't make Jake Peavy (6 IP, 1 ER) and the rest of the Padres feel any better, though.
White Sox 6, Dodgers 1: Mark Buehrle (8 IP, 6 H, 1 ER) makes quick work ( 2:05) of the punchless Dodgers. Of course, he makes quick work out of just about anyone.
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 --------------- Milwaukee Brewers at Atlanta Braves, 1:10 PM (R) Jeff Suppan (4-5) vs. (R) Jorge Campillo (2-2) Inter-League ------------ New York Yankees at Pittsburgh Pirates, 7:05 PM (R) Joba Chamberlain (1-2) vs. (L) Zach Duke (4-4) St. Louis Cardinals at Detroit Tigers, 7:05 PM (R) Kyle Lohse (9-2) vs. (R) Armando Galarraga (7-2) San Francisco Giants at Cleveland Indians, 7:05 PM (L) Barry Zito (2-11) vs. (L) Jeremy Sowers (0-2) Arizona Diamondbacks at Boston Red Sox, 7:05 PM (L) Randy Johnson (4-5) vs. (R) Tim Wakefield (4-5) Cincinnati Reds at Toronto Blue Jays, 7:07 PM (R) Aaron Harang (3-10) vs. (R) Roy Halladay (8-6) LA Angels of Anaheim at Washington Nationals, 7:10 PM (R) Ervin Santana (9-3) vs. (R) Tim Redding (6-3) Tampa Bay Rays at Florida Marlins, 7:10 PM (R) James Shields (4-5) vs. (R) Ryan Tucker (2-1) Seattle Mariners at New York Mets, 7:10 PM (R) Miguel Batista (3-9) vs. (R) John Maine (7-5) Baltimore Orioles at Chicago Cubs, 8:05 PM (L) Brian Burres (6-5) vs. (L) Ted Lilly (7-5) Texas Rangers at Houston Astros, 8:05 PM (R) Scott Feldman (1-3) vs. (R) Roy Oswalt (6-7) Colorado Rockies at Kansas City Royals, 8:10 PM (R) Aaron Cook (10-4) vs. (R) Luke Hochevar (4-5) Philadelphia Phillies at Oakland Athletics, 10:05 PM (R) Kyle Kendrick (6-3) vs. (L) Greg Smith (4-5) Minnesota Twins at San Diego Padres, 10:05 PM (L) Glen Perkins (3-2) vs. (R) Greg Maddux (3-5) Chicago White Sox at Los Angeles Dodgers, 10:10 PM (R) Gavin Floyd (8-3) vs. (L) Eric Stults (1-0)
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 48 32 .600 0.0 47 1TB 45 31 .592 1.0 42 3
NYA 41 36 .532 5.5 40 1
BAL 39 36 .520 6.5 37 2
TOR 37 41 .474 10.0 41 -4
American League Central CHA 42 34 .553 0.0 47 -5
MIN 41 36 .532 1.5 38 3
DET 36 40 .474 6.0 37 -1
CLE 35 42 .455 7.5 40 -5
KC 35 43 .449 8.0 34 1
American League West LAA 48 30 .615 0.0 41 7
OAK 42 34 .553 5.0 45 -3
TEX 39 39 .500 9.0 38 1
SEA 28 49 .364 19.5 32 -4
National League East Pwins Diff PHI 42 36 .538 0.0 47 -5
FLA 40 36 .526 1.0 38 2
NYN 37 39 .487 4.0 37 0
ATL 38 41 .481 4.5 44 -6
WAS 30 49 .380 12.5 28 2
National League Central CHN 48 29 .623 0.0 49 -1
STL 45 33 .577 3.5 42 3
MIL 43 34 .558 5.0 39 4
PIT 37 40 .481 11.0 35 2
HOU 36 41 .468 12.0 35 1
CIN 35 43 .449 13.5 33 2
National League West ARI 40 38 .513 0.0 40 0
LAN 35 41 .461 4.0 37 -2
SF 33 44 .429 6.5 34 -1
COL 32 46 .410 8.0 32 0
SD 32 46 .410 8.0 31 1
Game of the Day
Twins 3, Padres 1 - FINAL
MINNESOTA ab r h rbi bb so lob avg
C Gomez cf 4 0 0 0 0 2 1 .266
A Casilla 2b 4 1 1 0 0 0 1 .301
J Mauer c 4 0 0 0 0 1 1 .325
J Morneau 1b 3 0 2 0 1 0 0 .309
M Cuddyer rf 4 0 2 1 0 1 2 .260
J Kubel lf 4 0 0 0 0 1 3 .260
B Harris ss 4 1 1 1 0 2 3 .250
B Buscher 3b 4 1 2 1 0 0 0 .368
K Slowey p 2 0 0 0 0 1 1 .250
va-M Lamb ph 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 .223
J Crain p 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000
M Guerrier p 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000
D Reyes p 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000
vb-C Monroe ph 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 .210
J Nathan p 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000
Totals 35 3 8 3 1 8 12 ###
SAN DIEGO ab r h rbi bb so lob avg
J Gerut cf 4 0 1 0 0 3 2 .288
E Gonzalez 2b 4 0 1 0 0 1 2 .307
B Giles rf 4 0 1 0 0 1 3 .296
A Gonzalez 1b 4 1 2 0 0 1 0 .296
K Kouzmanoff 3b 4 0 1 0 0 0 2 .263
C Headley lf 4 0 0 1 0 1 1 .250
K Greene ss 3 0 0 0 0 1 1 .232
M Barrett c 2 0 0 0 1 1 0 .182
J Peavy p 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 .286
ha-P McAnulty ph 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 .213
B Corey p 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000
H Bell p 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000
hb-C Stansberry ph 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 .364
T Hoffman p 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000
Totals 32 1 7 1 1 9 11 ###
----------------------------------------------------
MINNESOTA - 100 000 002 -- 3 8 0
SAN DIEGO - 000 000 100 -- 1 7 1
----------------------------------------------------
ha-popped out to third for J Peavy in the 6th; va-grounded to first for K
Slowey in the 7th; hb-singled to left for H Bell in the 8th; vb-flied out to
left for D Reyes in the 9th.
BATTING: 2B - A Casilla (7, J Peavy); M Cuddyer (12, J Peavy). HR - B Harris
(3, 9th inning off T Hoffman 0 on, 2 Out), B Buscher (1, 9th inning off T
Hoffman 0 on, 2 Out). RBI - M Cuddyer (35), B Harris (20), B Buscher (13), C
Headley (3). 2-out RBI - M Cuddyer, B Harris, B Buscher. Runners left in
scoring position, 2 out - J Kubel 2, B Harris 3, B Giles 1, K Kouzmanoff 1.
GIDP - K Greene. Team LOB - MINNESOTA 6, SAN DIEGO 5. BASERUNNING: SB - M
Cuddyer (5, 2nd base off J Peavy/M Barrett). CS - J Morneau (1, 2nd base by H
Bell/M Barrett), J Gerut (3, 2nd base by K Slowey/J Mauer). FIELDING: E - A
Gonzalez (3, throw). DP: (J Crain-B Harris-J Morneau).
MINNESOTA ip h r er bb so hr era
K Slowey 6 4 0 0 0 7 0 3.96
J Crain (B, 2) 1 2 1 1 0 0 0 3.03
M Guerrier 2/3 1 0 0 1 1 0 3.07
D Reyes (W, 2-0) 1/3 0 0 0 0 0 0 2.35
J Nathan (S, 20) 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 1.42
SAN DIEGO ip h r er bb so hr era
J Peavy 6 5 1 1 1 6 0 2.77
B Corey 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 3.05
H Bell 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 2.27
T Hoffman (L, 1-5) 1 2 2 2 0 2 2 4.85
WP - J Crain. Pitches-strikes: K Slowey 92-64; J Crain 17-13; M Guerrier
22-13; D Reyes 1-1; J Nathan 11-7; J Peavy 106-72; B Corey 14-10; H Bell 14-9;
T Hoffman 14-10. Ground balls-fly balls: K Slowey 2-8; J Crain 3-0; M Guerrier
0-1; D Reyes 1-0; J Nathan 0-2; J Peavy 3-9; B Corey 2-1; H Bell 2-0; T Hoffman
0-1. Batters faced: K Slowey 21; J Crain 4; M Guerrier 4; D Reyes 1; J Nathan
3; J Peavy 25; B Corey 3; H Bell 3; T Hoffman 5. UMPIRES: HP--Jim Wolf.
1B--Jerry Layne. 2B--Phil Cuzzi. 3B--Ed Montague. T--2:48. Att--36,948.
Weather: 70 degrees, clear. Wind: 7 mph, out 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 Bobby Abreu NYY Franquelis Osoria PIT 410 409 9 PL Brian Barton STL Kenny Rogers DET 385 385 2 PL Jose Bautista PIT Darrell Rasner NYY 401 400 9 PL Lance Berkman HOU Joaquin Benoit TEX 409 407 21 PL Emil Brown OAK Jamie Moyer PHI 376 371 6 JE/L Pat Burrell PHI Joe Blanton OAK 405 395 19 PL Brian Buscher MIN Trevor Hoffman SD 402 406 1 PL Miguel Cabrera DET Braden Looper STL 359 367 11 JE Jack Cust OAK J.C. Romero PHI 368 372 12 JE Ryan Doumit PIT Darrell Rasner NYY 391 376 10 JE/L Elijah Dukes WAS Jon Garland LAA 409 399 2 ND Jermaine Dye CWS Derek Lowe LAD 383 390 17 JE Jim Edmonds CHC Jeremy Guthrie BAL 369 365 6 PL Kosuke Fukudome CHC Jeremy Guthrie BAL 419 417 6 PL Alex Gordon KC Ryan Speier COL 404 384 9 JE/L Brendan Harris MIN Trevor Hoffman SD 406 410 3 PL Matt Holliday COL Zack Greinke KC 389 369 10 JE/L Raul Ibanez SEA Oliver Perez NYM 376 351 9 PL/L Akinori Iwamura TB Scott Olsen FLA 379 387 5 PL Kenji Johjima SEA Oliver Perez NYM 0 0 3 0 Mike Napoli LAA Shawn Hill WAS 403 376 11 PL Dustin Pedroia BOS Doug Davis ARI 0 0 7 0 Wily Mo Pena WAS Jon Garland LAA 439 424 2 ND Alex Rios TOR Bronson Arroyo CIN 421 421 4 PL Ivan Rodriguez DET Braden Looper STL 424 428 3 PL Scott Rolen TOR Bronson Arroyo CIN 414 413 5 JE Gary Sheffield DET Braden Looper STL 391 390 4 PL Mark Teixeira ATL Salomon Torres MIL 398 388 14 PL Chad Tracy ARI Justin Masterson BOS 415 402 4 PL Ramon Vazquez TEX Jose Valverde HOU 407 405 4 ND Delwyn Young LAD Mark Buehrle CWS 409 417 1 PL Gregg Zaun TOR Bronson Arroyo CIN 367 362 5 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 LAA AAA Sean Rodriguez.... 4 3 0 0 2 1 0 DET AAA Matthew Joyce..... 5 3 0 0 2 0 0 7 RBI ! BAL AAA Michael Costanzo.. 4 3 0 0 2 0 0 OAK A Corey Brown....... 5 3 3 0 0 0 2 FLA AAA Dallas McPherson.. 3 2 0 0 1 1 0 2 SB CIN AAA Adam Rosales...... 4 2 0 0 2 0 0 5 RBI ! FLA AA Cameron Maybin.... 4 3 2 0 0 1 0 SF AAA Travis Ishikawa... 5 2 1 0 1 0 1 STL AAA Joe Mather........ 5 4 0 0 1 0 1 TB AAA Fernando Perez.... 4 2 1 0 1 0 2 TB AA Sergio Pedroza.... 3 2 2 0 0 1 0 PIT AA Shelby Ford....... 5 2 1 0 1 0 0 ORG LVL PLAYER IP H R ER SO BB HR Notes CIN AAA Matthew Maloney... 7 4 0 0 7 0 0 MIL A+ Jeremy Jeffress... 7 3 0 0 8 2 0 NYY A+ Michael Dunn...... 7 6 1 1 7 0 0 CHC A Dae-Eun Rhee...... 6 2 1 1 7 1 0 BAL AA Jason Berken...... 7 2 0 0 7 2 0 HOU AAA Chad Reineke...... 6 3 1 1 9 1 1 MIN AA Jeffrey Manship... 6 5 1 1 5 0 0 BOS AA Michael Bowden.... 7 5 3 3 6 0 1 TB A+ Lewis Rollins..... 6 5 0 0 7 2 0 LA A Justin Miller..... 9 6 1 1 6 4 0 MIN A M. McCardell...... 8 9 5 5 6 0 1 MIN A+ Anthony Slama..... 3 1 0 0 5 0 0
Access THT’s stats here…
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Dave was called a "national treasure" by Rob Neyer. Seriously. Comments about this article can be sent to him through the miracle of e-mail.
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