The Hardball Times

THT Daily: Here come the Tigers

by Dave Studeman
June 19, 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/
On this day at THT: Two years ago, I graphed the change in Carlos Beltran's batting style.

Player News
Player Headlines are courtesy of Rotoworld
image
Marlon Byrd makes a valiant try on Chipper Jones' first-inning home run yesterday. (Icon/SMI)

The Daily Herald reports that the Mariners plan on releasing Richie Sexson. Interim GM Lee Pelekoudas held meetings with club executives on Tuesday to discuss the final 3 1/2 months of the season, and according to one person familiar with the planned moves, Sexson will be let go within days. Miguel Cairo is Sexson's backup, but he's actually a downgrade. Kenji Johjima has been putting in work at first following the news that Jeff Clement will now catch most games.

Yankees signed RHP Sidney Ponson to a minor league contract and added him to the 40-man roster. Perhaps the immediate addition to the 40-man roster is what made him pick the Yankees over some other suitors. Ponson will make a couple of starts in the minors, but he'll probably replace Dan Giese in the rotation around the end of the month. Then Yankees fans will see if he can do any better for the team than he did in 2006, when he went 0-1 with a 10.32 ERA in three starts and two relief appearances.

The Cubs confirmed that Carlos Zambrano left Wednesday's game with shoulder discomfort. He'll be examined on Thursday. Zambrano wanted to continue to pitching, but he did indicate that shoulder was bothering him in the dugout after departing in the seventh. If the Cubs are forced to put him on the disabled list, they could put Jon Lieber back into the rotation. Neither Sean Marshall nor Rich Hill would seem to be an option right now.

Yesterday’s Results
InterLeague
BAL     2  HOU     1    (Recap and Boxscore)
NYA     8  SD      5    (Recap and Boxscore)
TB      5  CHN     4    (Recap and Boxscore)
CHA     8  PIT     2    (Recap and Boxscore)
MIN    11  WAS     2    (Recap and Boxscore)
NYN     5  LAA     4    (Recap and Boxscore)
FLA     8  SEA     3    (Recap and Boxscore)
ATL     5  TEX     2    (Recap and Boxscore)
BOS     7  PHI     4    (Recap and Boxscore)
MIL     5  TOR     4    (Recap and Boxscore)
KC      3  STL     2    (Recap and Boxscore)
ARI    11  OAK     1    (Recap and Boxscore)
COL     4  CLE     2    (Recap and Boxscore)
DET     7  SF      2    (Recap and Boxscore)

National League
LAN     6  CIN     1    (Recap and Boxscore)
You can download a compact version of yesterday's boxscores from Heater Magazine.

First Inning's Major and Minor League Daily Reports:
{embed="pageblocks/FirstInning_Team_Lookup"}

Today’s Games
National League
 ---------------
 Los Angeles Dodgers at Cincinnati Reds, 12:35 PM
  (L) Eric Stults (0-0) vs. (R) Aaron Harang (3-9)
 
 Inter-League
 ------------
 San Diego Padres at New York Yankees, 1:05 PM
  (R) Josh Banks (2-0) vs. (R) Joba Chamberlain (1-2)
 Washington Nationals at Minnesota Twins, 1:10 PM
  (R) Shawn Hill (1-3) vs. (L) Glen Perkins (2-2)
 Atlanta Braves at Texas Rangers, 2:05 PM
  (R) Charlie Morton (1-0) vs. (R) Scott Feldman (1-3)
 Toronto Blue Jays at Milwaukee Brewers, 2:05 PM
  (R) A.J. Burnett (6-6) vs. (R) Dave Bush (2-7)
 Pittsburgh Pirates at Chicago White Sox, 2:05 PM
  (L) Phil Dumatrait (3-3) vs. (R) Gavin Floyd (7-3)
 Kansas City Royals at St. Louis Cardinals, 2:15 PM
  (R) Zack Greinke (5-4) vs. (R) Anthony Reyes (2-1)
 Oakland Athletics at Arizona Diamondbacks, 3:40 PM
  (L) Greg Smith (4-5) vs. (L) Doug Davis (2-3)
 Houston Astros at Baltimore Orioles, 7:05 PM
  (R) Shawn Chacon (2-2) vs. (L) Brian Burres (5-5)
 Chicago Cubs at Tampa Bay Rays, 7:10 PM
  (R) Sean Gallagher (3-3) vs. (R) James Shields (4-5)
 Cleveland Indians at Colorado Rockies, 9:05 PM
  (L) Jeremy Sowers (0-1) vs. (L) Jorge De La Rosa (1-3)

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     46  29 .613    0.0   45     1    sparkline graph
TB      42  29 .592    2.0   38     4    sparkline graph
NYA     39  33 .542    5.5   38     1    sparkline graph
BAL     36  34 .514    7.5   34     2    sparkline graph
TOR     35  38 .479   10.0   38    -3    sparkline graph
American League Central     
CHA     40  31 .563    0.0   44    -4    sparkline graph
MIN     36  36 .500    4.5   34     2    sparkline graph
DET     34  38 .472    6.5   36    -2    sparkline graph
CLE     33  39 .458    7.5   37    -4    sparkline graph
KC      30  42 .417   10.5   30     0    sparkline graph
American League West        
LAA     43  30 .589    0.0   37     6    sparkline graph
OAK     39  32 .549    3.0   42    -3    sparkline graph
TEX     36  37 .493    7.0   35     1    sparkline graph
SEA     25  47 .347   17.5   28    -3    sparkline graph


National League East        Pwins  Diff
PHI     42  32 .568    0.0   46    -4    sparkline graph
FLA     39  33 .542    2.0   37     2    sparkline graph
ATL     36  37 .493    5.5   41    -5    sparkline graph
NYN     35  36 .493    5.5   36    -1    sparkline graph
WAS     29  44 .397   12.5   27     2    sparkline graph
National League Central     
CHN     45  27 .625    0.0   46    -1    sparkline graph
STL     42  31 .575    3.5   39     3    sparkline graph
MIL     38  33 .535    6.5   35     3    sparkline graph
PIT     34  38 .472   11.0   32     2    sparkline graph
HOU     33  39 .458   12.0   32     1    sparkline graph
CIN     33  40 .452   12.5   32     1    sparkline graph
National League West        
ARI     38  34 .528    0.0   38     0    sparkline graph
LAN     33  38 .465    4.5   36    -3    sparkline graph
SD      31  42 .425    7.5   29     2    sparkline graph
SF      31  42 .425    7.5   31     0    sparkline graph
COL     30  42 .417    8.0   30     0    sparkline graph

Game of the Day
NY METS (5) VS LA ANGELS (4) - FINAL IN 10 INNINGS 

NY METS                ab  r  h rbi bb so lob   avg
J Reyes ss              5  3  3  0   0  0   2  .297
M Anderson 1b           2  0  1  1   0  0   1  .200
 a-F Tatis ph-1b        2  0  0  0   0  1   1  .231
D Wright 3b             5  0  2  2   0  1   1  .278
C Beltran cf            3  0  0  0   2  1   2  .271
C Delgado dh            5  1  1  1   0  0   2  .237
T Nixon lf              5  0  0  0   0  2   0  .167
D Easley 2b             4  1  2  1   1  0   0  .254
E Chavez rf             4  0  2  0   0  0   1  .238
R Castro c              3  0  0  0   1  1   2  .262

Totals                 38  5 11  5   4  6  12

a-lined out to center for M Anderson in the 7th.

BATTING: 2B - E Chavez (5, J Garland); D Easley (7, S Shields). 3B - J Reyes 
(6, J Garland). HR - C Delgado (10, 4th inning off J Garland 0 on, 0 Out), D 
Easley (2, 10th inning off J Speier 0 on, 2 Out). S - E Chavez. SF - M 
Anderson. RBI - D Wright 2 (54), M Anderson (6), C Delgado (33), D Easley (14). 
2-out RBI - D Wright, D Easley. Runners left in scoring position, 2 out - E 
Chavez 1, R Castro 1, J Reyes 1. Team LOB - 9. 
 
BASERUNNING: SB - J Reyes (26, 2nd base off J Garland/J Mathis). CS - M 
Anderson (1, 2nd base by J Garland/J Mathis). 
 
FIELDING: DP: 2 (D Wright-R Castro-D Easley-J Reyes-D Wright-R Castro-D 
Easley-J Reyes-D Wright, D Easley-J Reyes-M Anderson). 
 
LA ANGELS              ab  r  h rbi bb so lob   avg
C Figgins 3b            5  1  2  0   0  1   1  .306
R Willits lf            3  1  0  0   2  1   1  .167
H Kendrick 2b           5  1  1  0   0  1   2  .311
V Guerrero dh           5  0  2  2   0  0   1  .279
T Hunter cf             5  1  2  1   0  1   1  .275
G Matthews rf           4  0  1  0   0  0   2  .244
R Quinlan 1b            2  0  0  0   1  0   3  .282
 C Kotchman 1b          1  0  0  0   0  0   0  .300
J Mathis c              4  0  1  1   0  2   1  .228
E Aybar ss              4  0  1  0   0  0   2  .269

Totals                 38  4 10  4   3  6  14

BATTING: RBI - J Mathis (17), V Guerrero 2 (37), T Hunter (37). 2-out RBI - J 
Mathis. Runners left in scoring position, 2 out - E Aybar 1. GIDP - C Figgins. 
Team LOB - 7. 
 
FIELDING: E - J Mathis (6, throw). DP: 1 (J Mathis-H Kendrick). 
 
----------------------------------------------------
    NY METS         - 101 100 001 1  --   5
    LA ANGELS       - 000 130 000 0  --   4
----------------------------------------------------

NY METS                      ip       h   r  er  bb  so  hr    era
O Perez                       6       9   4   4   3   2   0   5.06
J Smith                       1       1   0   0   0   2   0   3.67
S Schoeneweis                 1       0   0   0   0   0   0   2.43
D Sanchez (W, 3-0)            1       0   0   0   0   1   0   4.55
B Wagner (S, 16)              1       0   0   0   0   1   0   2.10

LA ANGELS                    ip       h   r  er  bb  so  hr    era
J Garland                     6       6   3   2   4   3   1   4.06
D Oliver (H, 8)                 1/3   0   0   0   0   0   0   2.94
J Arredondo (H, 6)              2/3   1   0   0   0   1   0   1.88
S Shields (H, 13)             1       1   0   0   0   0   0   2.57
F Rodriguez (B, 2)            1       2   1   1   0   1   0   2.25
J Speier (L, 0-4)             1       1   1   1   0   1   1   5.08

WP - F Rodriguez. Pitches-strikes: O Perez 104-69; J Smith 24-18; S 
Schoeneweis 10-6; D Sanchez 12-7; B Wagner 9-6; J Garland 104-68; D Oliver 4-2; 
J Arredondo 11-7; S Shields 11-10; F Rodriguez 21-15; J Speier 17-10. Ground 
balls-fly balls: O Perez 4-11; J Smith 1-0; S Schoeneweis 2-1; D Sanchez 2-0; B 
Wagner 1-1; J Garland 6-8; D Oliver 0-1; J Arredondo 0-1; S Shields 3-0; F 
Rodriguez 0-2; J Speier 2-0. Batters faced: O Perez 28; J Smith 4; S 
Schoeneweis 3; D Sanchez 3; B Wagner 3; J Garland 27; D Oliver 1; J Arredondo 
3; S Shields 4; F Rodriguez 5; J Speier 4. 
 
UMPIRES: HP--Doug Eddings. 1B--Ted Barrett. 2B--Dana Demuth. 3B--Lance 
Barksdale. 

T--3:13. Att--43,138. 
Weather: 80 degrees, clear. Wind: 10 mph, out to 
center.

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.

image

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
Brian Anderson        CWS     Tom Gorzelanny       PIT     379    399   3  PL
Jose Bautista         PIT     Mark Buehrle         CWS     393    416   7  ND
Lance Berkman         HOU     Jeremy Guthrie       BAL     414    397  20  ND
David DeJesus         KC      Kyle McClellan       STL     367    369   8  JE
J.D. Drew             BOS     Kyle Kendrick        PHI     398    396  13  PL
Edwin Encarnacion     CIN     Derek Lowe           LAD     406    391  12  PL/L
Brian Giles           SD      Edwar Ramirez        NYY     353    357   5  PL
Adrian Gonzalez       SD      Edwar Ramirez        NYY     409    413  19  PL
Alex Gordon           KC      Kyle McClellan       STL     411    415   8  ND
Toby Hall             CWS     Tom Gorzelanny       PIT     353    369   1  PL
Chase Headley         SD      Kyle Farnsworth      NYY     387    391   1  PL
Chipper Jones         ATL     Eric Hurley          TEX     411    417  16  PL
James Loney           LAD     Bronson Arroyo       CIN       0      0   6  0
Felipe Lopez          WAS     Kevin Slowey         MIN     360    355   2  PL
Mike Lowell           BOS     Kyle Kendrick        PHI     364    366  11  PL
Carlos Quentin        CWS     Tom Gorzelanny       PIT     381    397  17  JE
Alex Rodriguez        NYY     Jake Peavy           SD      429    425  14  PL
Luke Scott            BAL     Brian Moehler        HOU     421    419  12  PL
Geovany Soto          CHC     Troy Percival        TB      418    417  11  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
TEX AAA Nelson Cruz....... 5  4  1  0  1  0  1  3 R
ATL AA  Jordan Schafer.... 4  3  2  0  0  2  1  
TEX AAA C. Davis.......... 5  2  0  0  2  0  1  4 RBI
STL AA  Jonathan Jay...... 6  4  0  0  1  0  0  5 RBI !
COL AAA Jayson Nix........ 3  2  0  0  1  1  0  
WAN A+  C. Marrero........ 2  2  1  0  1  0  0  
MIL AA  Alcides Escobar... 5  3  1  0  0  0  0  
MIL AA  Angel Salome...... 4  3  1  0  0  0  0  3 R
SEA AA  Luis Valbuena..... 3  2  0  0  1  1  0  
FLA AA  C. Coghlan........ 5  4  1  0  0  0  0  
NYY AA  Jose Tabata....... 4  2  0  0  1  1  0  3 R
PHI AA  Jason Donald...... 5  2  2  0  0  0  0  

ORG LVL PLAYER            IP  H  R ER SO BB HR  Notes
OAK AAA Gio Gonzalez...... 8  1  0  0 12  0  0  
KC  AA  Daniel Cortes..... 7  3  1  1 10  1  0  
ARI AAA Yusmeiro Petit.... 7  6  1  1 10  2  0  
FLA AA  Rick Vanden Hurk.. 6  4  0  0  9  3  0  
LA  AA  James McDonald.... 7  3  0  0  4  0  0  12 OF
STL AAA P.J. Walters...... 6  5  1  0  8  2  0  
ARI A+  Wes Roemer........ 8  6  3  2  4  0  0  
BAL A+  Timothy Bascom.... 6  5  1  1  6  1  0  
KC  A+  Edward Cegarra.... 6  3  1  0  5  2  0  
OAK A+  H. Rodriguez...... 5  3  2  1  6  1  1  
BAL AA  C. Tillman........ 6  3  1  1  6  4  0  
ARI AA  Brooks Brown...... 6  7  4  3  4  1  0  

Access THT’s stats here…
{embed="content/2005stable"}


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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