THT Daily: Let’s play two
by Dave StudemanMay 13, 2008
Major League News for May 13
Player NewsYesterday’s Results
Today’s Games
Standings
Game of the Day
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 RotoworldThe Dodgers have reportedly placed Rafael Furcal on the 15-day disabled list, retroactive to May 6, with a strained lower back. The Dodgers are trying to acquire a replacement for Furcal. If they can't pull it off, they'll call up Luis Maza from Triple-A on Tuesday. Even if the Dodgers do pick up a veteran, Chin-Lung Hu figures to get most of the starts at shortstop. Juan Pierre will probably continue to play a lot more than Andre Ethier, as manager Joe Torre simply can't bare the thought of playing without a "true" leadoff hitter.
Fausto Carmona hurled his second career shutout as the Indians beat the Blue Jays 3-0 in the first game of Monday's doubleheader. The Blue Jays have gone 22 innings without scoring and now get to face Cliff Lee tonight. Carmona walked four batters for the seventh time in eight starts this season, but he still managed to get through the game using just 108 pitches. Even with his bizarre 18/35 K/BB ratio, he's third in the American League with a 2.40 ERA. Of course, the WHIP crown is going to be out of reach.
The MRI taken on Alex Rodriguez's strained right quad didn't show enough healing to get him cleared to play in rehab games. A return this week has been ruled out. A-Rod was hoping to return from the DL when eligible on Thursday, but he won't play against the Mets this weekend. It's still possible that he'll return next week, but the Yankees will be extra careful since he's already aggravated the strain once. "We can’t afford to have him come back for two days then lose him for six weeks," manager Joe Girardi said. "We want to have him fully healed."
Mark Teixeira left Monday's game in the fourth inning due to back spasms. Greg Norton replaced him at first base in the first game of the doubleheader versus the Pirates.
Yesterday’s Results
American League TB 7 NYA 1 (Recap and Boxscore) TOR 3 CLE 0 (Recap and Boxscore) CLE 3 TOR 0 (Recap and Boxscore) MIN 7 BOS 3 (Recap and Boxscore) LAA 10 CHA 7 (Recap and Boxscore) TEX 13 SEA 12 (Recap and Boxscore) National League WAS 10 NYN 4 (Recap and Boxscore) CHN 12 SD 3 (Recap and Boxscore) CIN 8 FLA 7 (Recap and Boxscore) MIL 8 STL 3 (Recap and Boxscore) ATL 8 PIT 1 (Recap and Boxscore) PIT 5 ATL 0 (Recap and Boxscore) HOU 7 SF 3 (Recap and Boxscore)You can download a compact version of yesterday's boxscores from Heater Magazine.
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Today’s Games
National League --------------- Atlanta Braves at Philadelphia Phillies, 7:05 PM (L) Jo-Jo Reyes (1-0) vs. (R) Kyle Kendrick (2-2) Florida Marlins at Cincinnati Reds, 7:10 PM (L) Mark Hendrickson (5-1) vs. (R) Edinson Volquez (5-1) Washington Nationals at New York Mets, 7:10 PM (L) John Lannan (3-3) vs. (R) John Maine (4-2) Los Angeles Dodgers at Milwaukee Brewers, 8:05 PM (R) Brad Penny (5-3) vs. (R) Carlos Villanueva (1-4) San Diego Padres at Chicago Cubs, 8:05 PM (L) Shawn Estes (0-0) vs. (R) Jason Marquis (1-2) Pittsburgh Pirates at St. Louis Cardinals, 8:15 PM (L) Phil Dumatrait (1-1) vs. (R) Kyle Lohse (3-2) Colorado Rockies at Arizona Diamondbacks, 9:40 PM (L) Jeff Francis (0-3) vs. (L) Randy Johnson (2-1) Houston Astros at San Francisco Giants, 10:15 PM (R) Brandon Backe (2-4) vs. (R) Matt Cain (1-3) American League --------------- Oakland Athletics at Cleveland Indians, 7:05 PM (R) Justin Duchscherer (3-1) vs. (R) Paul Byrd (1-3) Boston Red Sox at Baltimore Orioles, 7:05 PM (R) Josh Beckett (4-2) vs. (R) Jeremy Guthrie (1-3) New York Yankees at Tampa Bay Rays, 7:10 PM (R) Chien-Ming Wang (6-1) vs. (R) Edwin Jackson (2-3) Seattle Mariners at Texas Rangers, 8:05 PM (R) Felix Hernandez (2-3) vs. (L) Kason Gabbard (1-0) Toronto Blue Jays at Minnesota Twins, 8:10 PM (R) Jesse Litsch (4-1) vs. (R) Kevin Slowey (0-2) Detroit Tigers at Kansas City Royals, 8:10 PM (L) Nate Robertson (1-4) vs. (R) Zack Greinke (4-1) Chicago White Sox at LA Angels of Anaheim, 10:05 PM (L) John Danks (3-3) vs. (R) Jered Weaver (2-5)
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 24 17 .585 0.0 23 1TB 22 16 .579 0.5 21 1
BAL 19 19 .500 3.5 18 1
NYA 19 20 .487 4.0 19 0
TOR 18 22 .450 5.5 19 -1
American League Central MIN 20 17 .541 0.0 18 2
CLE 19 19 .500 1.5 22 -3
CHA 18 19 .486 2.0 21 -3
KC 16 21 .432 4.0 15 1
DET 16 22 .421 4.5 16 0
American League West OAK 23 16 .590 0.0 24 -1
LAA 23 17 .575 0.5 20 3
TEX 19 21 .475 4.5 17 2
SEA 15 25 .375 8.5 17 -2
National League East Pwins Diff FLA 23 15 .605 0.0 20 3
PHI 21 18 .538 2.5 21 0
NYN 19 17 .528 3.0 19 0
ATL 19 18 .514 3.5 23 -4
WAS 16 23 .410 7.5 16 0
National League Central CHN 23 15 .605 0.0 25 -2
STL 23 17 .575 1.0 22 1
HOU 22 17 .564 1.5 22 0
MIL 19 19 .500 4.0 17 2
PIT 18 20 .474 5.0 17 1
CIN 16 23 .410 7.5 17 -1
National League West ARI 23 15 .605 0.0 23 0
LAN 19 18 .514 3.5 20 -1
SF 16 23 .410 7.5 14 2
COL 15 23 .395 8.0 16 -1
SD 14 25 .359 9.5 14 0
Game of the Day
The second game of yesterday’s Toronto/Cleveland doubheader was a beaut. Shaun Marcum and Cliff Lee exchanged goose eggs for most of the game, with Marcum pitching eight shutout inning and Lee going nine (and lowering his ERA to 0.67!). The highlight was Asdrubal Cabrera’s unassisted triple play off Lyle Overbay’s line drive in the fifth. The Blue Jays finally won it in the tenth, 3-0, with three singles, an intentional walk, a sacrifice and a sacrifice fly off Rafael Betancourt.Blue Jays 3, Indians 0 - FINAL
TORONTO ab r h rbi bb so lob avg
S Stewart lf 3 0 1 1 1 0 1 .220
J Inglett ss 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .278
A Hill 2b 3 0 2 2 1 1 1 .264
A Rios cf 5 0 0 0 0 0 4 .270
S Rolen 3b 4 0 2 0 0 1 0 .316
K Mench rf 4 0 1 0 0 1 3 .200
M Scutaro dh 3 0 1 0 0 1 1 .244
va-M Stairs ph-dh 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 .299
L Overbay 1b 4 1 1 0 0 0 2 .270
G Zaun c 3 0 1 0 0 0 0 .281
J Velandia ss 3 0 0 0 0 1 1 .000
vb-B Wilkerson ph-lf 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 .209
Totals 33 3 10 3 3 5 13 ###
CLEVELAND ab r h rbi bb so lob avg
G Sizemore cf 4 0 0 0 0 1 0 .273
A Cabrera 2b 4 0 0 0 0 1 0 .190
J Peralta ss 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 .208
V Martinez 1b 4 0 1 0 0 1 0 .342
F Gutierrez rf 4 0 1 0 0 1 1 .252
T Hafner dh 3 0 1 0 0 0 0 .214
K Shoppach c 4 0 0 0 0 2 3 .235
J Tyner lf 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000
hb-B Francisco ph 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 .280
A Marte 3b 2 0 0 0 0 0 3 .091
ha-C Blake ph-3b 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 .227
Totals 33 0 3 0 0 8 8 ###
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TORONTO - 000 000 000 3 -- 3 10 1
CLEVELAND - 000 000 000 0 -- 0 3 0
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ha-struck out swinging for A Marte in the 8th; va-singled to right for M
Scutaro in the 10th; vb-intentionally walked for J Velandia in the 10th;
hb-struck out swinging for J Tyner in the 10th.
BATTING: 2B - S Rolen (6, C Lee); F Gutierrez (7, S Marcum); V Martinez (7, S
Marcum); T Hafner (8, S Downs). S - G Zaun , A Hill. SF - S Stewart. RBI - S
Stewart (7), A Hill 2 (17). 2-out RBI - A Hill 2. Runners left in scoring
position, 2 out - M Scutaro 1, K Mench 1, K Shoppach 1, A Marte 2, B Francisco
1. GIDP - A Rios 2. Reached via catcher's interference - T Hafner 1. Team LOB -
TORONTO 6, CLEVELAND 5. FIELDING: E - G Zaun (4, catchers interference). DP:
(J Peralta-A Cabrera-V Martinez 2). TP: (A Cabrera).
TORONTO ip h r er bb so hr era
S Marcum 8 2 0 0 0 5 0 2.22
B Ryan (W, 1-0) 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0.00
S Downs (S, 4) 1 1 0 0 0 2 0 2.87
CLEVELAND ip h r er bb so hr era
C Lee 9 7 0 0 2 5 0 0.67
R Betancourt (L, 1-2) 1 3 3 3 1 0 0 6.89
WP - S Marcum. IBB - B Wilkerson (by R Betancourt). HBP - J Tyner (by S
Marcum). Pitches-strikes: S Marcum 114-75; B Ryan 7-5; S Downs 18-13; C Lee
117-78; R Betancourt 19-11. Ground balls-fly balls: S Marcum 7-12; B Ryan 0-2;
S Downs 1-0; C Lee 13-7; R Betancourt 1-2. Batters faced: S Marcum 28; B Ryan
3; S Downs 4; C Lee 32; R Betancourt 7. UMPIRES: HP--Mike Reilly. 1B--Bob
Davidson. 2B--Alfonso Marquez. 3B--James Hoye. T--2:53. Att--16,045. Weather:
55 degrees, cloudy. Wind: 12 mph, in from 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.
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 CHC AA Tyler Colvin...... 4 4 2 0 2 0 0 5 RBI ! CIN AAA Jay Bruce......... 4 4 2 0 1 0 0 3 LD FLA AA C. Coghlan........ 3 3 0 1 0 2 0 WAN A Michael Burgess... 4 3 1 0 1 0 1 CHC AAA Matt Murton....... 4 2 2 0 0 1 0 BOS AAA Jed Lowrie........ 3 2 0 0 1 2 1 OAK A+ J. Mitchell....... 4 2 1 0 0 2 0 OAK A+ Sean Doolittle.... 3 1 0 0 1 3 2 4 RBI HOU A+ Koby Clemens...... 4 2 1 0 1 0 1 TB AAA Reid Brignac...... 4 3 1 0 0 0 0 PIT AAA Andrew McCutchen.. 3 2 1 0 0 1 0 NYY AAA Brett Gardner..... 4 2 1 1 0 0 2 ORG LVL PLAYER IP H R ER SO BB HR Notes ATL AA Todd Redmond...... 6 5 2 2 9 1 0 CIN AAA Matthew Maloney... 7 2 0 0 7 2 0 KC A+ Blake Wood........ 7 3 3 3 7 1 1 SF A M. Bumgarner...... 6 5 1 0 7 1 0 SF A+ Benjamin Snyder... 7 7 0 0 5 0 0 12 GB TEX A Kennil Gomez...... 5 3 2 1 7 3 0 CHW A+ Aaron Poreda...... 6 3 0 0 5 2 0 ARI AAA Yusmeiro Petit.... 5 5 4 4 7 0 1 NYY A+ Michael Dunn...... 6 2 0 0 3 1 0 CLE A Ryan Miller....... 6 2 1 1 6 3 1 LA AAA Jonathan Meloan... 6 5 1 1 6 4 0 OAK AAA Dallas Braden..... 3 2 0 0 4 1 0
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Dave is the manager of the Baseball Graphs website.. Comments about this article can be sent to him through the miracle of e-mail.