THT Daily: Rays Clinch from The Hardball Times

THT Daily: Rays Clinch

by Matthew Carruth
September 27, 2008

Major League News for September 27

Player News
Yesterday’s Results
Today’s Games
Standings

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
According to the Toronto Star, the Blue Jays are preparing to offer A.J. Burnett a four-year contract extension that would tack two years and $30 million onto his current deal.
Burnett is in the third year of a five-year, $55 million contract, but he is eligible to opt out 10 days after the World Series. Much of the baseball world was expecting him to do just that. When asked if the offer will convince him to stay in Toronto, Burnett replied "We'll see... I'd have to talk to my agent about that." The new deal would lock him up until 2012. The Jays have about one month to get a contract finalized.

Mike Lowell isn't expected to play again this weekend after experiencing discomfort in his sore hip Friday.
"He's sore," manager Terry Francona said. "That was certainly discouraging tonight. From our side of it, and I spoke to him in the rain delay a little bit, he's certainly not ready to pull the plug or quit trying to play. So, we're kind of on board with him trying. The plan was to play him at third base Sunday. I don't think that's going to happen. We'll work our way the next two days here. And then Monday, Tuesday, we'll see how it goes. It was certainly discouraging tonight. Again, because of how tough he is and what he means to us and him still wanting to play, we don't want to pull the plug either. We'll just monitor the best we can, see what happens." Consider him more doubtful than questionable for the ALDS.

The Mets will start Johan Santana on three days' rest Saturday after losing Friday and falling a game back of the Brewers.
They might have made the switch even had they won. The plan is for Oliver Perez to follow on three days' rest on Sunday, but that could be scrapped if the Mets lose tomorrow and find themselves eliminated from contention. Santana will be pitching on short rest despite having thrown a career-high 125 pitches last time out.

Jeff Suppan allowed just a single run in five innings Friday in the Brewers' 5-1 defeat of the Cubs.
Milwaukee took a one-game edge over the Mets in the wild card. Suppan is essentially auditioning for a spot in the postseason rotation, if the Brewers can pull it out. He might have earned a look tonight. The veteran scattered eight hits while striking out five and lowered his ERA back under 5.00. He'll finish the regular season with a 10-10 record and 4.96 ERA in 33 games.

The Brewers have penciled in Ben Sheets as their scheduled starter for Saturday's game.
How he feels in pregame warmups may determine whether he goes. It's possible that Dave Bush will warm up right alongside him and then get the start if Sheets' elbow acts up on him.

Carl Crawford, who was activated from the DL today, has been cleared to take batting practice and will do so for the first time on Saturday.
If he's still feeling fine after batting practice, then the Rays likely would carry him on their postseason roster. Still, just penciling him in as the everyday left fielder and No. 2 hitter could prove to be a mistake. Of the 12 Rays players with at least 200 at-bats this year, Crawford ranks 11th in OPS, and he hasn't faced live pitching in seven weeks.

Yesterday’s Results

American League
TOR     3  BAL     0    (Recap and Boxscore)
NYA    19  BOS     8    (Recap and Boxscore)
CLE    11  CHA     8    (Recap and Boxscore)
DET     6  TB      4    (Recap and Boxscore)
KC      8  MIN     1    (Recap and Boxscore)
TEX    12  LAA     1    (Recap and Boxscore)
SEA    10  OAK     8    (Recap and Boxscore)

National League
FLA     6  NYN     1    (Recap and Boxscore)
PHI     8  WAS     4    (Recap and Boxscore)
HOU     5  ATL     4    (Recap and Boxscore)
MIL     5  CHN     1    (Recap and Boxscore)
STL     7  CIN     6    (Recap and Boxscore)
ARI     6  COL     4    (Recap and Boxscore)
PIT     6  SD      3    (Recap and Boxscore)
SF      6  LAN     5    (Recap and Boxscore)

Today’s Games

National League
 ---------------
 Florida Marlins at New York Mets, 1:10 PM
  (R) Ricky Nolasco (15-7) vs. (L) Johan Santana (15-7)
 Chicago Cubs at Milwaukee Brewers, 3:55 PM
  (L) Ted Lilly (16-9) vs. (R) Ben Sheets (13-8)
 Washington Nationals at Philadelphia Phillies, 3:55 PM
  (L) John Lannan (9-14) vs. (L) Jamie Moyer (15-7)
 Atlanta Braves at Houston Astros, 7:05 PM
  (R) James Parr (1-0) vs. (R) Brandon Backe (9-13)
 Cincinnati Reds at St. Louis Cardinals, 7:15 PM
  (R) Aaron Harang (7-16) vs. (R) Todd Wellemeyer (12-9)
 Colorado Rockies at Arizona Diamondbacks, 8:10 PM
  (L) Glendon Rusch (5-5) vs. (R) Brandon Webb (22-7)
 Los Angeles Dodgers at San Francisco Giants, 9:05 PM
  (R) Greg Maddux (7-13) vs. (R) Matt Cain (8-13)
 Pittsburgh Pirates at San Diego Padres, 10:05 PM
  (R) Jimmy Barthmaier (0-1) vs. (R) Chris Young (6-6)
 
 American League
 ---------------
 New York Yankees at Boston Red Sox, 3:55 PM
  (R) Sidney Ponson (8-5) vs. (R) Daisuke Matsuzaka (18-2)
 Kansas City Royals at Minnesota Twins, 3:55 PM
  (R) Gil Meche (13-11) vs. (L) Glen Perkins (12-4)
 Oakland Athletics at Seattle Mariners, 4:10 PM
  (L) Greg Smith (7-15) vs. (L) Ryan Rowland-Smith (4-3)
 Toronto Blue Jays at Baltimore Orioles, 7:05 PM
  (L) John Parrish (1-0) vs. (R) Brian Bass (3-4)
 Tampa Bay Rays at Detroit Tigers, 7:05 PM
  (R) Matt Garza (11-9) vs. (L) Dontrelle Willis (0-2)
 Cleveland Indians at Chicago White Sox, 7:05 PM
  (L) Zach Jackson (1-3) vs. (R) Javier Vazquez (12-15)
 Texas Rangers at LA Angels of Anaheim, 9:05 PM
  (R) Scott Feldman (5-8) vs. (R) Ervin Santana (16-6)

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      96  64 .600    0.0   91     5    
BOS     94  66 .588    2.0   95    -1    
NYA     88  72 .550    8.0   86     2    
TOR     85  75 .531   11.0   91    -6    
BAL     67  92 .421   28.5   72    -5    
American League Central     
MIN     87  73 .544    0.0   88    -1    
CHA     86  73 .541    0.5   87    -1    
CLE     80  80 .500    7.0   84    -4    
KC      74  86 .463   13.0   71     3    
DET     73  86 .459   13.5   77    -4    
American League West        
LAA     99  61 .619    0.0   87    12    
TEX     78  82 .488   21.0   75     3    
OAK     75  84 .472   23.5   75     0    
SEA     59 101 .369   40.0   65    -6    


National League East        Pwins  Diff
PHI     90  70 .563    0.0   92    -2    
NYN     88  72 .550    2.0   88     0    
FLA     83  76 .522    6.5   80     3    
ATL     71  89 .444   19.0   77    -6    
WAS     59 100 .371   30.5   61    -2    
National League Central     
CHN     96  63 .604    0.0   97    -1    
MIL     89  71 .556    7.5   87     2    
HOU     85  74 .535   11.0   77     8    
STL     84  76 .525   12.5   84     0    
CIN     74  86 .463   22.5   71     3    
PIT     66  94 .413   30.5   65     1    
National League West        
LAN     83  77 .519    0.0   86    -3    
ARI     80  80 .500    3.0   81    -1    
COL     74  86 .463    9.0   73     1    
SF      71  89 .444   12.0   67     4    
SD      62  98 .388   21.0   67    -5