THT Daily: 11 straight

Major League News for May 30

Player News
Yesterday’s Results
Today’s Games
Standings
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/

Player News

Player Headlines are courtesy of Rotoworld

Royals optioned first baseman-designated hitter Billy Butler to Triple-A Omaha. Butler can point out that Alex Gordon was hitting .185 at this time a year ago and got to keep his job. At .263/.330/.339, Butler wasn’t nearly that bad. However, the 22-year-old was doing almost all of his damage against lefties. Versus righties, he’s a .263/.313/.355 hitter in 372 at-bats. Butler still has a fantastic long-term outlook, and the odds are good that he’ll have considerable value in AL-only leagues after the All-Star break. However, sending him down isn’t a bad move. The Royals will give Mark Teahen more time at first and find additional at-bats for Joey Gathright and Ross Gload.

Rays placed RHP Troy Percival on the 15-day disabled list with a left hamstring strain. It’s not supposed to be a major injury, but shutting him down for a couple of weeks was still the smart play. Dan Wheeler will be the favorite for saves over Al Reyes until Percival returns.

Athletics placed designated hitter Frank Thomas on the 15-day disabled list, retroactive to May 28, with a strained quad tendon. The A’s will go with Mike Sweeney, Eric Chavez and Jack Cust at DH for the next two weeks. It’s a big loss for Oakland, as Thomas was hitting .319/.417/.516 in 91 at-bats since being picked up.

Yesterday’s Results

American League
CHA     5  TB      1    (Recap and Boxscore)
MIN     5  KC      1    (Recap and Boxscore)
TOR    12  OAK     0    (Recap and Boxscore)

National League
NYN     8  LAN     4    (Recap and Boxscore)
CHN     8  COL     4    (Recap and Boxscore)
PIT     7  CIN     2    (Recap and Boxscore)
ATL     8  MIL     1    (Recap and Boxscore)
STL     3  HOU     2    (Recap and Boxscore)
SF      4  ARI     3    (Recap and Boxscore)
SD      5  WAS     2    (Recap and Boxscore)

You can download a compact version of yesterday’s boxscores from Heater Magazine.

First Inning’s Major and Minor League Daily Reports:

{embed=”pageblocks/FirstInning_Team_Lookup”}

Today’s Games

National League
 ---------------
 Colorado Rockies at Chicago Cubs, 2:20 PM
  (R) Aaron Cook (7-3) vs. (L) Ted Lilly (5-4)
 Florida Marlins at Philadelphia Phillies, 7:05 PM
  (L) Mark Hendrickson (7-2) vs. (R) Brett Myers (2-6)
 Los Angeles Dodgers at New York Mets, 7:10 PM
  (L) Clayton Kershaw (0-0) vs. (R) John Maine (5-4)
 Atlanta Braves at Cincinnati Reds, 7:10 PM
  (L) Tom Glavine (2-2) vs. (R) Edinson Volquez (7-2)
 Houston Astros at Milwaukee Brewers, 8:05 PM
  (R) Brandon Backe (4-5) vs. (L) Manny Parra (2-2)
 Pittsburgh Pirates at St. Louis Cardinals, 8:15 PM
  (L) Zach Duke (2-3) vs. (R) Todd Wellemeyer (5-1)
 Washington Nationals at Arizona Diamondbacks, 9:40 PM
  (R) Tim Redding (6-3) vs. (R) Micah Owings (6-2)
 San Diego Padres at San Francisco Giants, 10:15 PM
  (R) Greg Maddux (3-4) vs. (R) Matt Cain (2-3)
 
 American League
 ---------------
 Boston Red Sox at Baltimore Orioles, 7:05 PM
  (R) Josh Beckett (5-4) vs. (R) Daniel Cabrera (5-1)
 Chicago White Sox at Tampa Bay Rays, 7:10 PM
  (R) Jose Contreras (5-3) vs. (R) James Shields (4-3)
 Oakland Athletics at Texas Rangers, 8:05 PM
  (R) Justin Duchscherer (4-3) vs. (R) Kevin Millwood (2-3)
 New York Yankees at Minnesota Twins, 8:10 PM
  (R) Mike Mussina (7-4) vs. (L) Glen Perkins (2-1)
 Cleveland Indians at Kansas City Royals, 8:10 PM
  (L) Cliff Lee (7-1) vs. (R) Gil Meche (3-7)
 Toronto Blue Jays at LA Angels of Anaheim, 10:05 PM
  (R) Dustin McGowan (3-4) vs. (R) Jered Weaver (4-5)
 Detroit Tigers at Seattle Mariners, 10:10 PM
  (L) Nate Robertson (2-5) vs. (R) Carlos Silva (3-4)

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      32  22 .593    0.0   30     2    
BOS     32  24 .571    1.0   31     1    
TOR     30  26 .536    3.0   31    -1    
BAL     26  26 .500    5.0   25     1    
NYA     26  27 .491    5.5   26     0    
American League Central     
CHA     30  23 .566    0.0   31    -1    
MIN     28  25 .528    2.0   25     3    
CLE     24  29 .453    6.0   28    -4    
DET     22  31 .415    8.0   25    -3    
KC      21  33 .389    9.5   21     0    
American League West        
LAA     32  23 .582    0.0   28     4    
OAK     29  25 .537    2.5   31    -2    
TEX     27  28 .491    5.0   26     1    
SEA     20  34 .370   11.5   21    -1    


National League East        Pwins  Diff
FLA     30  22 .577    0.0   27     3    
PHI     31  24 .564    0.5   33    -2    
ATL     29  25 .537    2.0   33    -4    
NYN     26  26 .500    4.0   27    -1    
WAS     23  32 .418    8.5   22     1    
National League Central     
CHN     33  21 .611    0.0   35    -2    
STL     32  23 .582    1.5   31     1    
HOU     30  25 .545    3.5   28     2    
MIL     26  28 .481    7.0   24     2    
PIT     25  28 .472    7.5   23     2    
CIN     25  29 .463    8.0   25     0    
National League West        
ARI     30  24 .556    0.0   32    -2    
LAN     26  27 .491    3.5   27    -1    
SF      23  31 .426    7.0   22     1    
SD      21  34 .382    9.5   20     1    
COL     20  34 .370   10.0   20     0    

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
Jason Bay             PIT     Aaron Harang         CIN     405    398  13  PL
Lance Berkman         HOU     Ryan Franklin        STL     435    430  17  PL
Russell Branyan       MIL     Jorge Campillo       ATL     435    437   1  ND
Joe Crede             CWS     Edwin Jackson        TB      403    402   9  PL
Blake DeWitt          LAD     Jason Vargas         NYM     367    333   5  PL/L
Jody Gerut            SD      Charlie Manning      WAS     379    374   2  ND
Jeff Kent             LAD     Jason Vargas         NYM     413    411   5  ND
Paul Konerko          CWS     Jason Hammel         TB      407    406   6  ND
Carlos Lee            HOU     Kyle Lohse           STL     427    422  12  PL
Derrek Lee            CHC     Jeff Francis         COL     397    399  13  PL
Xavier Nady           PIT     Jeremy Affeldt       CIN     356    351   9  JE
Albert Pujols         STL     Roy Oswalt           HOU     381    376  13  PL
Shannon Stewart       TOR     Lenny DiNardo        OAK     390    392   1  PL
Mark Teixeira         ATL     Seth McClung         MIL     351    353   6  JE
Justin Upton          ARI     Barry Zito           SF      435    419   7  PL
Randy Winn            SF      Randy Johnson        ARI     384    371   4  JE
Randy Winn            SF      Chad Qualls          ARI     374    364   3  JE/L
David Wright          NYM     Brad Penny           LAD     425    406  11  PL
David Wright          NYM     Brad Penny           LAD     384    358  10  JE/L

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
MIL A   Jonathan Lucroy... 3  3  1  0  1  1  0  
PHI AA  Jason Donald...... 4  3  2  0  0  1  0  
SD  A+  Kellen Kulbacki... 4  3  1  0  1  0  0  4 RBI
ATL A   F. Freeman........ 3  2  2  0  0  2  0  
FLA AA  Gaby Sanchez...... 5  2  1  0  1  0  0  
SD  AAA Nick Hundley...... 5  2  1  0  1  0  0  
LAA A+  Peter Bourjos..... 5  3  2  0  0  0  0  3 R
SD  A+  Cedric Hunter..... 5  2  1  0  1  0  0  
SF  A   C. Culberson...... 5  2  1  1  0  1  0  
CIN A   Brandon Waring.... 3  2  2  0  0  1  0  
PHI A   Michael Taylor.... 5  2  0  0  1  1  0  
OAK AAA Kevin Melillo..... 4  1  0  0  1  2  2  

ORG LVL PLAYER            IP  H  R ER SO BB HR  Notes
MIN AAA Kevin Mulvey...... 7  5  3  3  9  0  1  
COL AA  Brandon Hynick.... 7  4  3  3  7  1  0  
CHC AAA Kevin Hart........ 6  4  2  2  9  3  0  
ATL AAA Charlie Morton.... 7  4  0  0  7  2  0  12 GB
TB  A+  Lewis Rollins..... 7  3  1  0  4  0  0  
ATL AA  Thomas Hanson..... 6  3  1  1  6  1  0  
NYY AA  George Kontos..... 7  4  2  2  6  2  0  
MIN AA  Anthony Swarzak... 6  7  3  2 10  2  1  
BOS AA  Michael Bowden.... 7  3  0  0  5  2  0  
WAN AAA Collin Balester... 6  4  2  2  5  1  0  
ATL A   Jeffrey Locke..... 7  9  3  3  6  1  0  
SEA A   Phillippe Aumont.. 5  3  0  0  6  2  0  

Access THT’s stats here…