THT Daily: Sac Flies in Chicago from The Hardball Times

THT Daily: Sac Flies in Chicago

by Matthew Carruth
May 09, 2007

Major League News for May 9

Links
Player News
Yesterday’s Results
Today’s Games
Standings
Stats

Links

Another K - Florida Marlins hitters are on pace to set a major league record for strikeouts in a season. Also, they lead the NL in runs, slugging and total bases. But, yeah, strikeouts are bad.

Wells has Good Humor - Vernon Wells signed a lengthy message on a baseball for a heckler. Well played, Vernon.

Ho-rrible - This about sums up Mariner fans' thoughts on Horacio Ramirez.

No Surgery for You - Orioles LHP Adam Loewen recieved a second opinion that rest and rehab would be enough for the stress fracture in his elbow. Loewen will be sidelined about 10 weeks.

You Can Leave Your Glove at Home - David Appelman looks at the approximate odds of a fan catching a ball during a game.

Pitchers are Soft - At least Al Doyle thinks they might be. Doyle thinks that farm life could have helped contribute to more durable pitchers back in the day.

Fast Acting Relief - Mike Pindelski counts off the 10 best bullpens so far in 2007 according to WXRL.

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Player News

Player news items are provided by Rotoworld
Cliff Lee pitched a three-hitter Tuesday in the Indians' 5-1 win over the Angels.
Only Reggie Willits, who singled in a run and drew both of the Angels' walks, gave Lee much trouble in his second start back from the DL. It was the third career complete game for Lee, who earned his 50th victory. He's never recorded a shutout.

Jason Giambi had X-rays after Tuesday's game that revealed a bone spur in his left foot.
Giambi expects to play through the problem and be in the lineup for Wednesday's game. "It's manageable," Giambi said. "It's not to the point where I can't stand on it." It probably is going to be a problem if he's asked to play first base, though, and with interleague play coming up, he could be looking at some time off.

Justin Morneau's second homer of the game was a walkoff, three-run shot off Nick Masset in the bottom of the 10th as the Twins beat the White Sox 7-4 on Tuesday.
Morneau had a solo homer off Javier Vazquez before the game-winner was launched into the upper deck. Morneau was hardly looking like an MVP candidate at this time last year, as he was hitting .206/.270/.402 on May 8. He's currently at .274/.355/.524, and there's little doubt that he can do better.

Josh Beckett won a seventh straight start by allowing one run over seven innings Tuesday against the Blue Jays.
Beckett gave up a homer to Alex Rios on his very first pitch of the night, but that was all the damage the Jays would do on their way to a seventh straight loss. Beckett allowed five hits, walked one and struck out five. He's the first pitcher this year to seven wins.

The Royals have opted to send Zack Greinke to the pen after seven starts with a 1-4 record and a 5.71 ERA.
A 5.71 ERA? Three starts in seven tries in which he didn't give up more than one earned run? In most years, that'd make him Kansas City's ace. The Royals keep making moves as if 2007 is the priority, even though the team is obviously destined for last place. Sending Greinke to the pen for a month isn't really a big deal, but replacing him with Luke Hudson when the team could just demote Brian Bannister doesn't seem like a great bet to help in the short- or long-term.

The Phillies are planning on holding Ryan Howard out of the starting lineup until Friday in an effort to get him healthy.
"We want to give him a rest to see if we can get his aches and pains well," manager Charlie Manuel said. "Things that have been bothering him like his quad and knee. We want to get him 100 percent." Howard was still used as a pinch-hitter on Monday, so it wasn't a complete day off. The same figures to happen the next couple of days.

Yesterday’s Results

American League
BAL     8  TB      3    (Recap and Boxscore)
NYA     8  TEX     2    (Recap and Boxscore)
BOS     9  TOR     2    (Recap and Boxscore)
DET     9  SEA     7    (Recap and Boxscore)
OAK     6  KC      1    (Recap and Boxscore)
MIN     7  CHA     4    (Recap and Boxscore)
CLE     5  LAA     1    (Recap and Boxscore)

National League
ATL     3  SD      2    (Recap and Boxscore)
FLA     6  LAN     5    (Recap and Boxscore)
PIT     4  CHN     3    (Recap and Boxscore)
HOU     7  CIN     6    (Recap and Boxscore)
MIL     6  WAS     4    (Recap and Boxscore)
STL     4  COL     1    (Recap and Boxscore)
ARI     3  PHI     2    (Recap and Boxscore)
NYN     4  SF      1    (Recap and Boxscore)

Today’s Games

National League
 ---------------
 Washington Nationals at Milwaukee Brewers, 1:05 PM
  (R) Jason Bergmann (0-3) vs. (R) Claudio Vargas (3-0)
 Colorado Rockies at St. Louis Cardinals, 1:10 PM
  (R) Jason Hirsh (2-2) vs. (R) Adam Wainwright (2-2)
 New York Mets at San Francisco Giants, 3:35 PM
  (R) John Maine (5-0) vs. (R) Matt Morris (4-1)
 Philadelphia Phillies at Arizona Diamondbacks, 6:40 PM
  (L) Jamie Moyer (3-2) vs. (L) Randy Johnson (0-2)
 Los Angeles Dodgers at Florida Marlins, 7:05 PM
  (R) Brett Tomko (0-3) vs. (L) Dontrelle Willis (5-1)
 Houston Astros at Cincinnati Reds, 7:10 PM
  (R) Woody Williams (0-5) vs. (R) Matt Belisle (3-1)
 San Diego Padres at Atlanta Braves, 7:35 PM
  (R) Greg Maddux (2-2) vs. (R) John Smoltz (4-1)
 Pittsburgh Pirates at Chicago Cubs, 8:05 PM
  (L) Tom Gorzelanny (4-1) vs. (R) Jason Marquis (4-1)
 
 American League
 ---------------
 Texas Rangers at New York Yankees, 7:05 PM
  (R) Robinson Tejeda (3-2) vs. (R) Mike Mussina (1-1)
 Tampa Bay Devil Rays at Baltimore Orioles, 7:05 PM
  (R) James Shields (3-0) vs. (L) Erik Bedard (3-2)
 Seattle Mariners at Detroit Tigers, 7:05 PM
  (R) Cha Seung Baek (0-0) vs. (L) Nate Robertson (3-1)
 Boston Red Sox at Toronto Blue Jays, 7:07 PM
  (R) Daisuke Matsuzaka (3-2) vs. (R) Tomo Ohka (2-3)
 Oakland Athletics at Kansas City Royals, 8:10 PM
  (R) Danny Haren (3-2) vs. (R) Gil Meche (3-1)
 Chicago White Sox at Minnesota Twins, 8:10 PM
  (L) John Danks (0-4) vs. (R) Ramon Ortiz (3-2)
 Cleveland Indians at LA Angels of Anaheim, 10:05 PM
  (R) Paul Byrd (2-1) vs. (R) Jered Weaver (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     21  10 .677    0.0   21     0    
NYA     15  16 .484    6.0   18    -3    
BAL     15  18 .455    7.0   16    -1    
TB      14  18 .438    7.5   12     2    
TOR     13  19 .406    8.5   15    -2    
American League Central     
CLE     20  10 .667    0.0   18     2    
DET     20  11 .645    0.5   18     2    
MIN     17  15 .531    4.0   18    -1    
CHA     14  15 .483    5.5   13     1    
KC      10  23 .303   11.5   12    -2    
American League West        
OAK     16  15 .516    0.0   17    -1    
LAA     17  16 .515    0.0   17     0    
SEA     14  14 .500    0.5   12     2    
TEX     13  19 .406    3.5   13     0    


National League East        Pwins  Diff
ATL     20  12 .625    0.0   18     2    
NYN     20  12 .625    0.0   22    -2    
FLA     15  17 .469    5.0   16    -1    
PHI     14  19 .424    6.5   16    -2    
WAS      9  24 .273   11.5    9     0    
National League Central     
MIL     23  10 .697    0.0   20     3    
CHN     15  15 .500    6.5   19    -4    
HOU     15  17 .469    7.5   16    -1    
PIT     14  17 .452    8.0   11     3    
CIN     14  19 .424    9.0   17    -3    
STL     13  18 .419    9.0   10     3    
National League West        
LAN     19  14 .576    0.0   19     0    
SD      18  15 .545    1.0   19    -1    
ARI     19  16 .543    1.0   17     2    
SF      17  15 .531    1.5   17     0    
COL     14  19 .424    5.0   14     0