THT Daily: Sox over Twins
by Dave StudemanJune 09, 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/
On this day at THT: I looked at some freaky batting leaderboards three years ago, using stats that are referred to daily these days.
Player News
Player Headlines are courtesy of Rotoworld |
| Lastings Milledge just misses this double off the bat of Aaron Rowand. (Icon/SMI) |
18-year-old Cuban third baseman Dayan Viciedo arrived in the United States at the end of May and is now living with friends and family, his agent, Jaime Torres, revealed Sunday. If Torres is establishing residency in the U.S., rather than going to the Dominican Republic or another country as many Cuban defectors have, then he's going to be subject to the MLB draft, rather than a bidding war. Viciedo isn't as highly regarded as Yulieski Gourriel, but he was one of Cuba's top prospects. He particated in the Cuban League's All-Star Game as a 16-year-old in 2006. It's uncertain whether he has much chance of lasting at third base, but he should be able to hit in the majors.
Mike Sweeney will undergo arthroscopic surgery on his troublesome left knee Wednesday and is expected to miss four to six weeks. Sweeney should prove to be completely obsolete by the time he's ready to return, if he's not already. He's hit .292/.338/.400 with 12 RBI in 120 at-bats this season. Frank Thomas replaced him as Oakland's primary DH, though he joined Sweeney on the disabled list last month.
Chipper Jones was out of the lineup Sunday with a slight tear in his right quadriceps. Jones believes the injury won't keep him out more than two or three days. He suffered the strain coming out of the batter's box after a single in the seventh inning Saturday, but managed to finish the game. The soreness this morning must have been pretty severe.
Yesterday’s Results
Game recaps courtesy of Craig Calcaterra.
Yankees 6, Royals 3: Nerves settled, Joba pitches much better this time out. Of course, having the Royals in the batter's box does have a calming effect. And while I realize that Chamberlain's workloads have been painstakingly calculated by the world's foremost musculoskeletal experts, Deep Blue, and a Papal conclave, would it have killed Girardi to let Joba get the last two outs in the fifth to pick up the win? Instead the W awkwardly goes to Dan Giese -- his first win by the way -- after a 2.3 inning bridge job to the rest of the bullpen. No matter what they say to the press, Joba is probably let down that his first good start didn't lead to his first win as a starter, and Giese probably feels embarrassed that his first big league win had training wheels on it.
Blue Jays 5, Orioles 4: Of course, if Chamberlain was on the money like Roy Halladay usually is (7.2, 100 pitches even, seven strikeouts, no walks, the win) he could go deeper into games.
Marlins 9, Reds 2: Dan Tucker makes his Major League debut. From the game story:
After learning of his promotion Friday night, Tucker said he spent Saturday trying to corral his nerves and listening to his minor league teammates warning him about pitching to Griffey."They were saying, 'Don't give it up, don't give it up,' " Tucker said. "I just tried to let that go. As awesome as it would have been for him to get No. 600, I didn't want to be the one to give it up.Tucker obviously misunderstood. They weren't warning him about giving up an historic home run. They were warning him about giving up a home run, no matter what number it was, to a guy who has no business batting third in a Major League lineup.
Tigers 5, Indians 2: Detroit wins the rubber match in this crucial early June series, leaving the Tribe a mere 1.5 games ahead of the Tigers! How exciting would that sentence have been if they weren't fighting it out for third place?
Phillies 6, Braves 3: Ryan Howard gets the press here (3-5, 3 2B, 4 RBI), but the win may be more the doing of Bobby Cox's insistence on shredding Blaine Boyer's arm. Before this season, Boyer had never pitched in more than 43 games in a season. Yesterday's implosion (0.1 IP, 4 H, 3 ER, BB) was his 34th already. We saw this last year too, when Cox leaned heavily on Soriano, Gonzales and Yates. Yates survived 2007 and is pitching more or less decently this year for Pittsburgh, but he definitely ran out of gas as the weather got hot last year. Soriano and Gonzales have both seen extended time on the DL. Blaine Boyer? Here are the hotel listings for Birmingham, Alabama. You may need them when you go visit these guys. By the way, how many gabillions of dollars do you suppose James Andrews gets from Major League Baseball? A lot, I'm sure, which makes me wonder why they have such a low-rent website.
Red Sox 2, Mariners 1: J.D. Drew is 14 for his last 27 with four homers and 10 RBIs. Vertigo appears to agree with him.
Giants 6, Nats 3: Barry Zito, happy to see an offense more hapless than his own, walks away with the victory. Speaking of the Giants' offense, they are still third to last in runs per game in the NL and that's all that really matters, but did you know that they are in the top half of the league (7 out of 16 entering play yesterday) in batting average? That says worse things about batting average than it does good things about the Giants, but I bet you wouldn't have guessed that.
White Sox 12, Twins 2: Given the week his team -- specifically his hitters -- have had post-ranting and raving, expect a rash of "crazy, like a fox!" stories about Ozzie Guillen in the coming days.
Pirates 6, Diamondbacks 4: A long game on a hot, humid day that, according to the Arizona Republic "felt interminable at times." But, hey, the Dbacks won the previous two, so they get to take off after a loss on a Sunday afternoon feeling good about the series win, freshen up in the new hotel, get the usual Monday off, and start with a clean slate against the Mets on Tuesday. Oh, wait, they don't, because this is yet the latest of those four game wraparound series that seem ubiquitous this year. So instead of that cleansing Sunday evening routine, they get a long afternoon and night in Pittsburgh, followed by an early wake up call and then another hot day game tomorrow. Are these new, or was I just not noticing them before I started recapping all the games this year?
A's 7, Angels 3: Mark Ellis is such a showoff. The bases were loaded with two out in a tie game in the bottom of the 12th. All he really needed to do was to walk or hit a single, but he goes and hits a home run. Such a stunning example of inefficiency by the A's second baseman.
Cardinals 5, Astros 4: I just feel like I need to mention this once a month or so, but Kyle Lohse was available to anyone who wanted him for about $4M three-quarters of the way through spring training. He's 7-2 with a 3.92 ERA. At the moment I'm struggling to think of a team that couldn't use that about now.
Rangers 6, Rays 3: Matt Garza and Dioner Navarro get to shoving in the dugout after the fourth inning. Manager Joe Maddon says "It was nothing, in-house kind of stuff, things that happen on occasion and we took care of it." That may be true regarding the shoving (note how most everyone has already moved on from Manny and Youkilis the other day). But the on-the-mound jawing that preceded the fight? To me that's uglier than the actual scuffle. It's one thing to lose your cool in the theoretical privacy of the dugout following a bad inning. That could be about anything. Maybe someone calls someone a jackass or something random and isolated. But fighting like that on the mound? That can only be about baseball, and it's indicative of a team that has some potentially deeper issues. If I had to bet, though, I'd say it was Garza's fault and had to do with pitch selection, because he's had issues with that sort of thing in the past.
Brewers 3, Rockies 2: Prince Fielder has started June hot: .300/.417/.650, and goes 2-4 against the Rockies. 6.5 games is still a lot to make up -- the frickin' Giants are only 6 back in their division -- but things are looking up for Milwaukee lately.
Padres 8, Mets 6: Has to suck to be Billy Wagner right now. I mean, if there was ever a day when you would just want to shower, dress, and get the hell out the back door, it would be a day when you give up the game winning home run to a guy like Tony Clark. Except after that blowup a couple of weeks ago, he has no choice but to hang around and take whatever the press throws at him. Scanning the box score I noticed that the Padres have a pitcher named C. Guevara. I hope he turns out to be good, because the marketing opportunities would be fantastic.
Cubs 3, Dodgers 1: With Smoltz out for the year and Atlanta sinking 6.5 games back of the Phillies, it's been a pretty bad week or two for Braves fans. Then we look at a box score that shows the best damn team in baseball being led to victory by Mark DeRosa (3-5, HR, 2 RBI) and Jason Marquis (6.1 IP, 3 H, 0 ER) and we just want to cry. The only thing that would make things worse right now would be for Mike Hampton to be DFA'd, get signed by the Marlins, and go on a 12-2, 1.74 ERA run, supported by a Wes Helms run at the triple crown, of course.
You can download a compact version of yesterday's boxscores from Heater Magazine.
| First Inning's Major and Minor League Daily Reports: |
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Today’s Games
National League --------------- Arizona Diamondbacks at Pittsburgh Pirates, 12:35 PM (L) Randy Johnson (4-2) vs. (L) Zach Duke (3-4) Cincinnati Reds at Florida Marlins, 7:10 PM (R) Edinson Volquez (8-2) vs. (L) Mark Hendrickson (7-3) San Francisco Giants at Washington Nationals, 7:10 PM (R) Matt Cain (2-4) vs. (R) Tyler Clippard (0-0) American League --------------- Kansas City Royals at New York Yankees, 1:05 PM (R) Luke Hochevar (3-5) vs. (R) Mike Mussina (9-4) Minnesota Twins at Chicago White Sox, 2:05 PM (L) Glen Perkins (2-2) vs. (L) John Danks (4-4) Cleveland Indians at Detroit Tigers, 7:05 PM (L) Cliff Lee (9-1) vs. (L) Dontrelle Willis (0-0) Seattle Mariners at Toronto Blue Jays, 7:07 PM (L) Jarrod Washburn (2-7) vs. (R) Jesse Litsch (7-2) Tampa Bay Rays at LA Angels of Anaheim, 10:05 PM (R) Edwin Jackson (3-5) vs. (L) Joe Saunders (9-2)
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 40 26 .606 0.0 39 1TB 37 26 .587 1.5 34 3
NYA 32 31 .508 6.5 31 1
TOR 33 32 .508 6.5 35 -2
BAL 31 31 .500 7.0 30 1
American League Central CHA 36 26 .581 0.0 39 -3
MIN 31 32 .492 5.5 28 3
CLE 28 35 .444 8.5 32 -4
DET 26 36 .419 10.0 29 -3
KC 24 39 .381 12.5 24 0
American League West LAA 39 25 .609 0.0 33 6
OAK 34 29 .540 4.5 37 -3
TEX 32 33 .492 7.5 31 1
SEA 22 41 .349 16.5 25 -3
National League East Pwins Diff PHI 39 26 .600 0.0 40 -1
FLA 34 28 .548 3.5 31 3
ATL 32 32 .500 6.5 37 -5
NYN 30 32 .484 7.5 31 -1
WAS 25 39 .391 13.5 23 2
National League Central CHN 40 24 .625 0.0 41 -1
STL 38 27 .585 2.5 36 2
MIL 33 30 .524 6.5 31 2
HOU 32 32 .500 8.0 31 1
PIT 30 33 .476 9.5 29 1
CIN 30 34 .469 10.0 30 0
National League West ARI 34 29 .540 0.0 35 -1
LAN 30 33 .476 4.0 33 -3
SF 28 35 .444 6.0 28 0
SD 28 37 .431 7.0 26 2
COL 24 39 .381 10.0 25 -1
Game of the Day
Padres 8, Mets 6 - FINAL
NY METS ab r h rbi bb so lob avg
J Reyes ss 4 1 1 0 1 0 0 .286
L Castillo 2b 3 1 1 2 1 1 2 .259
D Wright 3b 3 1 0 0 2 0 1 .281
C Beltran cf 5 0 0 0 0 3 4 .257
D Easley lf 5 1 2 1 0 1 0 .238
C Delgado 1b 5 1 3 2 0 1 1 .245
R Casanova c 3 0 1 0 1 0 1 .273
E Chavez rf 4 1 2 1 0 0 2 .218
P Martinez p 2 0 0 0 0 1 2 .333
C Vargas p 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000
va-A Nunez ph 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 .000
S Schoeneweis p 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000
D Sanchez p 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000
B Wagner p 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000
Totals 35 6 10 6 5 7 14 ###
SAN DIEGO ab r h rbi bb so lob avg
J Gerut cf 5 1 3 2 0 1 0 .272
E Gonzalez 2b 4 0 1 0 0 1 4 .261
C Guevara p 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000
hb-T Clark ph 1 1 1 3 0 0 0 .245
T Hoffman p 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000
B Giles rf 5 1 3 0 0 1 3 .308
A Gonzalez 1b 4 1 1 0 0 0 2 .292
K Kouzmanoff 3b 3 1 0 0 0 0 1 .263
P McAnulty lf 3 0 2 2 0 0 1 .234
C Meredith p 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000
C Stansberry 2b 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 1.000
K Greene ss 4 0 1 0 0 1 3 .211
L Carlin c 3 2 0 0 1 1 1 .167
W Ledezma p 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 .000
ha-J Huber ph 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 .212
J Hampson p 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000
S Hairston lf 2 0 0 0 0 2 2 .233
Totals 37 8 14 7 1 8 17 ###
----------------------------------------------------
NY METS - 310 100 100 -- 6 10 1
SAN DIEGO - 300 100 04x -- 8 14 0
----------------------------------------------------
ha-singled to left for W Ledezma in the 4th; va-popped out to shortstop for C
Vargas in the 7th; hb-homered to center for C Guevara in the 8th.
BATTING: 2B - D Easley (5, W Ledezma); J Reyes (16, W Ledezma); C Delgado (11,
C Meredith); C Stansberry (1, D Sanchez). 3B - C Delgado (1, W Ledezma). HR - T
Clark (1, 8th inning off B Wagner 2 on, 2 Out). S - P Martinez. SF - L
Castillo. RBI - D Easley (12), C Delgado 2 (29), L Castillo 2 (21), E Chavez
(4), P McAnulty 2 (12), J Gerut 2 (8), T Clark 3 (6). 2-out RBI - D Easley, C
Delgado 2, E Chavez, P McAnulty 2, J Gerut, T Clark 3. Runners left in scoring
position, 2 out - E Chavez 1, P Martinez 2, R Casanova 1, C Beltran 1, D Wright
1, B Giles 1, E Gonzalez 1. GIDP - A Gonzalez. Team LOB - NY METS 9, SAN DIEGO
7. BASERUNNING: SB - E Chavez (2, 3rd base off W Ledezma/L Carlin), J Reyes 2
(23, 2nd base off W Ledezma/L Carlin, 3rd base off W Ledezma/L Carlin), L
Castillo (11, 2nd base off W Ledezma/L Carlin), J Gerut (4, 2nd base off P
Martinez/R Casanova). FIELDING: E - C Delgado (7, ground ball). Outfield
assists - E Chavez (E Gonzalez at 3rd base). DP: (L Castillo-J Reyes-C
Delgado).
NY METS ip h r er bb so hr era
P Martinez 5 10 4 4 0 4 0 6.91
C Vargas (H, 1) 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 3.64
S Schoeneweis (H, 8) 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 2.39
D Sanchez (H, 8) 2/3 1 2 2 1 2 0 4.32
B Wagner (L, 0-1; B, 3) 1/3 2 2 2 0 1 1 1.08
SAN DIEGO ip h r er bb so hr era
W Ledezma 4 6 5 5 4 4 0 5.04
J Hampson 1 2/3 2 0 0 0 2 0 4.91
C Meredith 1 1/3 2 1 1 1 0 0 4.02
C Guevara (W, 1-0) 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 6.75
T Hoffman (S, 14) 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 4.70
BALK - P Martinez. HBP - K Kouzmanoff (by P Martinez). Pitches-strikes: P
Martinez 97-62; C Vargas 17-10; S Schoeneweis 8-6; D Sanchez 20-10; B Wagner
11-8; W Ledezma 84-51; J Hampson 32-21; C Meredith 30-22; C Guevara 10-6; T
Hoffman 10-7. Ground balls-fly balls: P Martinez 1-9; C Vargas 1-1; S
Schoeneweis 2-1; D Sanchez 0-0; B Wagner 0-0; W Ledezma 3-5; J Hampson 3-0; C
Meredith 3-1; C Guevara 0-3; T Hoffman 0-2. Batters faced: P Martinez 25; C
Vargas 4; S Schoeneweis 3; D Sanchez 4; B Wagner 3; W Ledezma 22; J Hampson 7;
C Meredith 7; C Guevara 3; T Hoffman 3. IRS - B Wagner 2. UMPIRES: HP--Laz
Diaz. 1B--Wally Bell. 2B--Paul Schrieber. 3B--Mike Winters. T--3:15.
Att--31,992. Weather: 73 degrees, sunny. Wind: 6 mph, out to 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.
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 Bobby Abreu NYY Zack Greinke KC 413 418 8 ND Lance Berkman HOU Kyle Lohse STL 470 468 18 ND John Bowker SF Joel Hanrahan WAS 390 380 6 PL Tony Clark SD Billy Wagner NYM 417 424 1 PL Mark DeRosa CHC Brad Penny LAD 392 392 8 JE J.D. Drew BOS Sean Green SEA 420 383 8 NQ German Duran TEX Matt Garza TB 417 406 2 PL Mark Ellis OAK Chris Bootcheck LAA 383 385 6 ND Jason Giambi NYY Zack Greinke KC 403 395 14 PL Curtis Granderson DET Jeremy Sowers CLE 389 378 8 JE/L Vladimir Guerrero LAA Rich Harden OAK 387 383 8 PL Jose Guillen KC Joba Chamberlain NYY 418 412 11 ND Jason Kubel MIN Gavin Floyd CWS 349 350 7 JE Lastings Milledge WAS Barry Zito SF 384 356 4 JE/L David Murphy TEX Matt Garza TB 388 379 8 PL Corey Patterson CIN Justin Miller FLA 367 376 5 PL Alexei Ramirez CWS Juan Rincon MIN 384 385 4 PL Hanley Ramirez FLA Aaron Harang CIN 367 370 14 PL Hanley Ramirez FLA Aaron Harang CIN 385 383 13 PL Mark Reynolds ARI Phil Dumatrait PIT 403 375 13 PL/L Mark Reynolds ARI Franquelis Osoria PIT 408 382 12 PL/L Luke Scott BAL Roy Halladay TOR 384 381 9 ND Luke Scott BAL Roy Halladay TOR 410 406 8 PL Nick Swisher CWS Kevin Slowey MIN 381 378 6 PL Mark Teixeira ATL Adam Eaton PHI 445 428 10 PL B.J. Upton TB Doug Mathis TEX 388 373 5 PL/L Ramon Vazquez TEX Jason Hammel TB 385 375 2 PL Vernon Wells TOR Matt Albers BAL 363 360 6 JE
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 PIT AA Shelby Ford....... 6 5 1 1 0 0 0 SD A+ Kellen Kulbacki... 5 3 0 0 2 1 1 3 R DET AAA Matthew Joyce..... 4 3 0 0 2 0 1 4 RBI PIT AAA Neil Walker....... 5 2 0 0 2 0 1 4 RBI HOU AAA Justin Towles..... 4 3 1 0 1 0 1 NYM AA Mike Carp......... 5 2 0 0 2 0 0 6 RBI ! BAL AA Nolan Reimold..... 3 2 1 0 1 1 0 SEA AAA Jeff Clement...... 4 2 1 0 1 1 0 SF AAA Nate Schierholtz.. 5 4 1 1 0 0 0 3 LD MIL A Jonathan Lucroy... 3 2 0 0 1 1 0 2 SB MIL A Steffan Wilson.... 4 2 0 0 2 0 0 BOS AAA Chris Carter...... 4 2 1 0 1 0 0 ORG LVL PLAYER IP H R ER SO BB HR Notes TB A+ Lewis Rollins..... 9 3 0 0 10 0 0 BOS AA Michael Bowden.... 6 5 3 3 8 1 0 TOR AA Brett Cecil....... 6 3 1 1 6 0 1 11 GB NYM A Scott Moviel...... 7 3 2 1 6 1 1 KC AA Julio Pimentel.... 7 7 3 3 6 1 0 BAL AA David Hernandez... 5 6 3 3 8 0 1 NYY AAA Alan Horne........ 4 3 1 1 7 2 0 SF A Daryl Maday....... 7 5 0 0 4 1 0 MIN A David Bromberg.... 7 5 4 4 5 2 0 FLA AAA Dallas Trahern.... 7 4 1 1 4 2 0 ATL A Jeffrey Locke..... 7 4 1 1 4 2 0 NYY AAA David Robertson... 3 1 0 0 4 0 0
Access THT’s stats here…
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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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