The Hardball Times

THT Daily: Kickoff

by Matthew Carruth
September 07, 2008

Major League News for September 7

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/

Player News

Player Headlines are courtesy of Rotoworld
Jeff Clement will undergo season-ending arthroscopic surgery on his left knee, the Mariners announced after Saturday's game.
That explains why he wasn't playing against Sidney Ponson on Saturday. Clement was hitting quite a bit better of late, but he was still at .227/.295/.360 in 203 at-bats for the year. He'll be one of the Mariners' question marks heading into 2009. The team could commit to him at catcher or move him to first base and play him regularly there. It's also possible that he could be sent back to Triple-A for additional seasoning, with Kenji Johjima remaining the regular catcher. Rob Johnson could have some fantasy value over the rest of this month with Clement down. He and Johjima figure to share time.

Astros manager Cecil Cooper indicated that Ty Wigginton would likely miss at least 7-10 days with a groin strain suffered Saturday.
A tough break for Ty, who had been one of the NL's hottest hitters over the last five weeks. The Astros will go with Darin Erstad in left and Michael Bourn in center for now. Geoff Blum will keep playing third.

Alfonso Soriano had his third career three-homer game Saturday as the Cubs beat the Reds 14-9.
Soriano flied out in the first and then homered in his next three at-bats. The Cubs later got homers from Mark DeRosa and Jason Marquis to make it an 11-1 game. Soriano singled in his fifth at-bat and could have gotten one more try at a fourth homer in the ninth. However, he was replaced on defense in the bottom of the eighth. The Reds actually threatened to make a game of it by getting four runs in the eighth and four more in the ninth. However, Carlos Marmol was able to shut the team down after giving up a grand slam to Jolbert Cabrera.

Roy Oswalt tossed a one-hitter Saturday to beat the Rockies at Coors Field.
While Matt Holliday and Brad Hawpe, who had the lone hit tonight, are generally getting the job done, the Rockies as a whole just aren't hitting right-handers. Oswalt, who has had quite a bit more trouble against lefties this season, was able to run right though the lineup 3 1/2 times tonight, throwing 102 pitches in the process. He's allowed only one run over 24 1/3 innings in his last three starts.

Ben Sheets, who left his last start with groin tightness, felt well enough to throw a complete-game shutout against the Padres on Saturday.
Another hard-luck outing for Jake Peavy, who was on the wrong side of a 1-0 game today after having a 1-0 lead blown by the pen in his previous start. The Brewers got their run tonight when Prince Fielder doubled in Ryan Braun in the third. After that, it was all Sheets. He allowed five hits, walked one and struck out seven in a 120-pitch gem.

Yesterday’s Results

American League
OAK     5  BAL     1    (Recap and Boxscore)
TOR     7  TB      4    (Recap and Boxscore)
CHA     7  LAA     6    (Recap and Boxscore)
KC      3  CLE     1    (Recap and Boxscore)
DET     6  MIN     4    (Recap and Boxscore)
NYA     7  SEA     4    (Recap and Boxscore)
TEX    15  BOS     8    (Recap and Boxscore)

National League
WAS     8  ATL     5    (Recap and Boxscore)
CHN    14  CIN     9    (Recap and Boxscore)
MIL     1  SD      0    (Recap and Boxscore)
STL     5  FLA     3    (Recap and Boxscore)
HOU     2  COL     0    (Recap and Boxscore)
LAN     7  ARI     2    (Recap and Boxscore)
SF      7  PIT     6    (Recap and Boxscore)

Today’s Games

National League
 ---------------
 Chicago Cubs at Cincinnati Reds, 1:15 PM
  (L) Sean Marshall (3-4) vs. (R) Aaron Harang (4-15)
 Washington Nationals at Atlanta Braves, 1:35 PM
  (R) Collin Balester (3-6) vs. (L) Jo-Jo Reyes (3-10)
 San Diego Padres at Milwaukee Brewers, 2:05 PM
  (R) Chris Young (4-5) vs. (L) Manny Parra (10-6)
 Philadelphia Phillies at New York Mets, 2:15 PM
  (L) Jamie Moyer (12-7) vs. (R) Pedro Martinez (5-3)
 Florida Marlins at St. Louis Cardinals, 2:15 PM
  (R) Josh Johnson (4-0) vs. (R) Adam Wainwright (8-3)
 Houston Astros at Colorado Rockies, 3:05 PM
  (L) Wandy Rodriguez (8-6) vs. (L) Jorge De La Rosa (8-7)
 Pittsburgh Pirates at San Francisco Giants, 4:05 PM
  (R) Jeff Karstens (2-4) vs. (L) Jonathan Sanchez (8-10)
 Arizona Diamondbacks at Los Angeles Dodgers, 4:10 PM
  (R) Max Scherzer (0-2) vs. (L) Clayton Kershaw (3-5)
 Philadelphia Phillies at New York Mets, 8:05 PM
  (L) Cole Hamels (12-8) vs. (L) Johan Santana (12-7)
 
 American League
 ---------------
 Tampa Bay Rays at Toronto Blue Jays, 1:07 PM
  (R) Matt Garza (11-8) vs. (L) David Purcey (2-5)
 LA Angels of Anaheim at Chicago White Sox, 2:05 PM
  (L) Joe Saunders (14-7) vs. (L) John Danks (10-8)
 Cleveland Indians at Kansas City Royals, 2:10 PM
  (L) Cliff Lee (20-2) vs. (R) Zack Greinke (10-9)
 Detroit Tigers at Minnesota Twins, 2:10 PM
  (R) Chris Lambert (0-1) vs. (L) Glen Perkins (12-3)
 Boston Red Sox at Texas Rangers, 3:05 PM
  (R) Paul Byrd (10-11) vs. (R) Brandon McCarthy (1-0)
 New York Yankees at Seattle Mariners, 4:10 PM
  (R) Mike Mussina (17-7) vs. (R) Carlos Silva (4-14)

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      85  55 .607    0.0   79     6    
BOS     83  58 .589    2.5   85    -2    
NYA     76  66 .535   10.0   75     1    
TOR     75  66 .532   10.5   80    -5    
BAL     63  78 .447   22.5   66    -3    
American League Central     
CHA     80  61 .567    0.0   80     0    
MIN     78  64 .549    2.5   79    -1    
CLE     68  72 .486   11.5   74    -6    
DET     68  74 .479   12.5   69    -1    
KC      61  80 .433   19.0   58     3    
American League West        
LAA     85  56 .603    0.0   76     9    
TEX     70  73 .490   16.0   66     4    
OAK     65  77 .458   20.5   67    -2    
SEA     55  86 .390   30.0   59    -4    


National League East        Pwins  Diff
NYN     79  62 .560    0.0   79     0    
PHI     77  64 .546    2.0   80    -3    
FLA     72  70 .507    7.5   68     4    
ATL     62  81 .434   18.0   69    -7    
WAS     55  88 .385   25.0   56    -1    
National League Central     
CHN     86  56 .606    0.0   88    -2    
MIL     82  60 .577    4.0   79     3    
STL     76  66 .535   10.0   76     0    
HOU     75  67 .528   11.0   68     7    
CIN     63  79 .444   23.0   62     1    
PIT     60  81 .426   25.5   58     2    
National League West        
LAN     72  70 .507    0.0   74    -2    
ARI     71  70 .504    0.5   72    -1    
COL     67  76 .469    5.5   66     1    
SF      61  80 .433   10.5   58     3    
SD      54  88 .380   18.0   58    -4    

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.

ORG LVL PLAYER            AB  H 2B 3B HR BB SO  Notes
PIT A-  Quincy Latimore... 3  1  1  0  0  1  1  
STL A-  Shane Peterson.... 3  0  0  0  0  1  0  
STL A-  Scott Gorgen...... 0  0  0  0  0  0  0  
CLE A-  L. Chisenhall..... 3  0  0  0  0  0  0  

ORG LVL PLAYER            IP  H  R ER SO BB HR  Notes
STL A-  Scott Gorgen...... 5  3  0  0  5  1  0

Access all of THT’s stats here…



Matthew Carruth is an editor for The Hardball Times. He welcomes any and all sorts of communication at his email.

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