THT Daily: Is it over yet?

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/ and an archive at http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/thtdaily_index/
On this day at THT: Four years ago, Larry Mahnken penned a review of one of the best games of the year. The Wall Street Journal called it “the perfect game description.” Or something like that.

Player News

Player Headlines are courtesy of Rotoworld

Phillies optioned RHP Brett Myers to Triple-A Lehigh Valley. Myers has 88 strikeouts in 101 2/3 innings and his .284 average against is hardly that bad, but he was still ineffective because of all of the homers he allowed and he seemed to be scared of contact in his last start. Myers agreed to accept the assignment even though he could have refused because he has more than five years of service time. “I can’t say enough about Brett’s willingness to accept this assignment,” GM Pat Gillick said. “He understood and is eager to get back on track again. He’s struggling right now, but he is a quality major league pitcher who we are going to need in the second half of the season.” The Phillies will replace him on the roster on Wednesday. J.A. Happ could be on the way up to take the rotation opening. Moving Chad Durbin from the bullpen is the other option.

Rays placed RHP Troy Percival on the 15-day disabled list with a left hamstring strain. Percival should be back right after the All-Star break. Dan Wheeler is likely to close in his place, though the Rays may be less afraid to give opportunities to Grant Balfour after tonight.

Chipper Jones (quad) won’t only avoid the disabled list, but he’s expected to start at third base for Tuesday’s game. Quite a surprise. Manager Bobby Cox said today that he fully expected Chipper to land on the disabled list.

Yesterday’s Results

Game recaps provided by Craig Calcaterra of Shysterball.

Yesterday, July 1st, was my 13th wedding anniversary. Without going into too much detail, allow me to say that I had better things to do than watch the evening box scores roll in, so today’s recaps may be a bit more abbreviated than normal.

Orioles 7, Royals 5: On July 1, 1995, as I was saying “I do” to Mrs. Shyster, Tom Gordon was getting rocked by a White Sox lineup featuring Ozzie Guillen, Tim Raines, and, John Kruk. Gary Gaetti and Vince Coleman figured prominently for the Royals. The lessons here: (1) I really couldn’t think of anything interesting to say about the Roylas-Orioles game; and (2) I’ve been married a long time.

Rays 3, Red Sox 1: The Sox only draw two walks for the second night in a row. Meanwhile, the Rays’ confidence grows stronger and stronger. The more I see of these guys, the more they resemble the 1991 Braves to me. As a fellow traveler to many a sabermetrician I’m supposed to be smarter than this, but I’m just going to say it: good defense, good pitching, and no fear goes a long damn way in this league, and the that describes the Rays pretty well right now.

Phillies 8, Braves 3: Morton. Carlyle. Acosta. Ohman. Boyer. Ring. Those are the names which strike fear in lineups that dare oppose the Atlanta Braves.

Nationals 9, Marlins 6: For as much as we all kinda wish he’d disappear, Elijah Dukes is turning into a pretty darn useful player. June line: .291/.395/.481. Last night 3-5, 3 RBI, 3 R.

Rangers 3, Yankees 2: The Yankees have been utterly vexed by the Rangers’ mighty pitching staff. Joba, on the other hand, needs to find a way to throw strikes, because this 90+ pitches in four innings business just isn’t going to cut it. No one reasonably expects him to be an ace yet, but he should at least be expected not to be a drain on the bullpen and everyone’s patience.

Twins 6, Tigers 4: Nate Robertson seems not to have gotten the “Tigers no longer stink” memo, as he’s still pitching like it was April (4 IP, 11 H, 6 ER).

Rockies 4, Padres 0: Aaron Cook throws a 78-pitch shutout which lasts 1:58. The Padres, it seems, aren’t even trying anymore.

White Sox 3, Indians 2: Yet another excellent Cliff Lee performance (8 IP, 6 H, 1 ER) is wasted by the Tribe, as Joe Borowski does his thing (i.e. coughs up a lead in a critical situation) in the bottom of the tenth to hand the game over to Chicago.

Mets 7, Cardinals 4: Wright and Delgado power a 14 hit attack as the Mets bounce back to beat the Cardinals.

Pirates 6, Reds 5: A wild one in the Queen City, as the teams score five of the games’ 11 runs in extra innings. Matt Capps blows yet another save — he’s been doing that a lot lately — but vultures a win as David Weathers gives up two in the top of the 11th.

Angels 5, A’s 3: Seems that Garret Anderson (2-4, decisive HR) was only mostly dead.

Brewers 8, Diamondbacks 6: Seeing Randy Johnson get smacked around like this (3.2 IP, 8 H, 7 ER) is like watching Ali vs. Holmes.

Giants 2, Cubs 1: Matt Cain had been struggling, but he figured something out last night, blanking the Cubbies over 8 innings (8 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 10K).

Dodgers 7, Astros 6: The Dodgers scored almost as many runs last night as they have in the past week.

Mariners 7, Blue Jays 6: The Mariners treated the Blue Jays pretty poorly considering it was Canada Day and all.

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
 ---------------
 Washington Nationals at Florida Marlins, 12:10 PM
  (L) Odalis Perez (2-5) vs. (R) Ricky Nolasco (8-4)
 Pittsburgh Pirates at Cincinnati Reds, 7:10 PM
  (R) John Van Benschoten (1-2) vs. (R) Daryl Thompson (0-1)
 Philadelphia Phillies at Atlanta Braves, 7:10 PM
  (R) Adam Eaton (2-6) vs. (R) Jorge Campillo (3-2)
 Los Angeles Dodgers at Houston Astros, 8:05 PM
  (R) Hiroki Kuroda (3-6) vs. (R) Runelvys Hernandez (0-1)
 New York Mets at St. Louis Cardinals, 8:15 PM
  (R) Pedro Martinez (2-2) vs. (R) Joel Pineiro (2-4)
 San Diego Padres at Colorado Rockies, 9:05 PM
  (L) Randy Wolf (5-7) vs. (R) Ubaldo Jimenez (2-8)
 Milwaukee Brewers at Arizona Diamondbacks, 9:40 PM
  (R) Seth McClung (5-3) vs. (R) Micah Owings (6-7)
 Chicago Cubs at San Francisco Giants, 10:15 PM
  (R) Ryan Dempster (9-3) vs. (R) Kevin Correia (1-5)
 
 American League
 ---------------
 Detroit Tigers at Minnesota Twins, 1:10 PM
  (R) Eddie Bonine (2-0) vs. (R) Nick Blackburn (6-4)
 Oakland Athletics at LA Angels of Anaheim, 3:35 PM
  (L) Dana Eveland (6-5) vs. (L) Joe Saunders (11-4)
 Kansas City Royals at Baltimore Orioles, 7:05 PM
  (R) Gil Meche (6-8) vs. (R) Daniel Cabrera (5-4)
 Texas Rangers at New York Yankees, 7:05 PM
  (R) Luis Mendoza (1-2) vs. (R) Sidney Ponson (5-1)
 Boston Red Sox at Tampa Bay Rays, 7:10 PM
  (R) Daisuke Matsuzaka (9-1) vs. (L) Scott Kazmir (7-3)
 Cleveland Indians at Chicago White Sox, 8:11 PM
  (L) C.C. Sabathia (6-8) vs. (R) Jose Contreras (7-6)
 Toronto Blue Jays at Seattle Mariners, 10:10 PM
  (R) Dustin McGowan (6-6) vs. (L) Jarrod Washburn (3-7)

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      51  32 .614    0.0   48     3    
BOS     50  36 .581    2.5   50     0    
NYA     44  40 .524    7.5   44     0    
BAL     42  40 .512    8.5   41     1    
TOR     41  44 .482   11.0   46    -5    
American League Central     
CHA     48  35 .578    0.0   51    -3    
MIN     46  38 .548    2.5   43     3    
DET     42  41 .506    6.0   42     0    
KC      38  46 .452   10.5   37     1    
CLE     37  47 .440   11.5   43    -6    
American League West        
LAA     50  34 .595    0.0   43     7    
OAK     45  38 .542    4.5   48    -3    
TEX     44  41 .518    6.5   42     2    
SEA     32  51 .386   17.5   35    -3    


National League East        Pwins  Diff
PHI     45  39 .536    0.0   50    -5    
FLA     43  40 .518    1.5   40     3    
NYN     41  42 .494    3.5   41     0    
ATL     40  44 .476    5.0   46    -6    
WAS     34  51 .400   11.5   31     3    
National League Central     
CHN     50  34 .595    0.0   52    -2    
STL     48  37 .565    2.5   46     2    
MIL     45  38 .542    4.5   41     4    
HOU     40  44 .476   10.0   39     1    
PIT     39  44 .470   10.5   37     2    
CIN     39  46 .459   11.5   37     2    
National League West        
ARI     42  42 .500    0.0   43    -1    
LAN     39  44 .470    2.5   42    -3    
SF      37  47 .440    5.0   37     0    
COL     33  51 .393    9.0   34    -1    
SD      33  52 .388    9.5   33     0    

Game of the Day

White Sox 3, Indians 2 - FINAL

CLEVELAND              ab  r  h rbi bb so lob   avg
G Sizemore cf           3  0  0  0   1  1   0  .261
J Carroll 2b            4  0  0  0   0  1   1  .287
B Francisco lf          4  0  0  0   0  1   0  .280
J Peralta ss            4  0  0  0   0  3   0  .253
C Blake 3b              4  1  3  1   0  0   0  .287
S Choo dh               4  0  1  0   0  2   2  .278
R Garko 1b              4  0  1  0   0  0   2  .242
K Shoppach c            4  1  2  1   0  1   0  .255
F Gutierrez rf          4  0  0  0   0  2   2  .222

Totals                 35  2  7  2   1 11   7   ###

CHI WHITE SOX          ab  r  h rbi bb so lob   avg
O Cabrera ss            5  0  1  1   0  0   1  .273
A Pierzynski c          4  0  2  0   0  0   0  .299
C Quentin lf            4  0  1  0   0  1   1  .284
J Dye rf                4  0  0  0   0  1   1  .301
J Thome dh              4  1  1  0   0  1   1  .232
J Crede 3b              4  0  1  0   0  0   0  .268
N Swisher 1b            3  0  0  0   1  2   0  .237
A Ramirez 2b            3  1  1  2   0  0   1  .295
B Anderson cf           3  0  1  0   0  1   2  .230
 ha-D Wise ph           1  1  1  0   0  0   0  .323

Totals                 35  3  9  3   1  6   7   ###

----------------------------------------------------
    CLEVELAND       - 000 001 000 1  --   2  7 0
    CHI WHITE SOX   - 010 000 000 2  --   3  9 0

Two outs when winning run scored.
----------------------------------------------------

ha-singled to right for B Anderson in the 10th.

BATTING: 2B - C Blake (20, J Danks). HR - K Shoppach (6, 6th inning off J Danks 
0 on, 0 Out), C Blake (8, 10th inning off M Thornton 0 on, 1 Out), A Ramirez 
(6, 10th inning off J Borowski 0 on, 2 Out). SF - A Ramirez. RBI - K Shoppach 
(18), C Blake (47), A Ramirez 2 (26), O Cabrera (33). 2-out RBI - A Ramirez, O 
Cabrera. Runners left in scoring position, 2 out - F Gutierrez 1, R Garko 1, J 
Thome 1, B Anderson 1. GIDP - C Quentin, J Dye. Team LOB - CLEVELAND 4, CHI 
WHITE SOX 5. BASERUNNING: SB - D Wise (4, 2nd base off J Borowski/K Shoppach). 
CS - S Choo (1, 2nd base by J Danks), G Sizemore (3, 2nd base by J Danks). 
FIELDING: DP:  (C Blake-J Carroll-R Garko 2). 

CLEVELAND                    ip       h   r  er  bb  so  hr    era
C Lee                         8       6   1   1   1   3   0   2.26
R Betancourt                    2/3   0   0   0   0   1   0   6.03
R Perez                         1/3   0   0   0   0   1   0   3.44
J Borowski (L, 1-3; B, 4)       2/3   3   2   2   0   1   1   7.56

CHI WHITE SOX                ip       h   r  er  bb  so  hr    era
J Danks                       8       4   1   1   1   8   1   2.50
S Linebrink                   1       0   0   0   0   0   0   1.32
M Thornton                      2/3   3   1   1   0   2   1   2.51
A Russell (W, 1-0)              1/3   0   0   0   0   1   0   2.08

Pitches-strikes: C Lee 106-70; R Betancourt 10-7; R Perez 6-3; J Borowski 
20-12; J Danks 98-63; S Linebrink 12-7; M Thornton 24-17; A Russell 6-4. Ground 
balls-fly balls: C Lee 11-10; R Betancourt 0-1; R Perez 0-0; J Borowski 1-0; J 
Danks 6-8; S Linebrink 0-3; M Thornton 0-0; A Russell 0-0. Batters faced: C Lee 
29; R Betancourt 2; R Perez 1; J Borowski 5; J Danks 27; S Linebrink 3; M 
Thornton 5; A Russell 1. UMPIRES: HP--Marty Foster. 1B--Derryl Cousins. 
2B--Angel Hernandez. 3B--Eric Cooper.   T--2:44. Att--25,502. Weather: 80 
degrees, partly cloudy. Wind: 10 mph, out to left.

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
Garret Anderson       LAA     Alan Embree          OAK     382    381   7  PL
Rick Ankiel           STL     Tony Armas           NYM     414    405  16  PL
Ronnie Belliard       WAS     Mark Hendrickson     FLA     364    368   7  PL
Adrian Beltre         SEA     Jesse Carlson        TOR     340    340  17  JE
Casey Blake           CLE     Matt Thornton        CWS     394    382   8  ND
Pat Burrell           PHI     Charlie Morton       ATL     402    392  20  PL
Joe Dillon            MIL     Randy Johnson        ARI     382    370   1  PL
Elijah Dukes          WAS     Mark Hendrickson     FLA     410    414   4  ND
Mark Ellis            OAK     Scot Shields         LAA     394    387   9  PL
Alex Gordon           KC      Radhames Liz         BAL     416    414  11  ND
J.J. Hardy            MIL     Randy Johnson        ARI     423    410   8  JE
J.J. Hardy            MIL     Randy Johnson        ARI     399    388   7  JE
Conor Jackson         ARI     Jeff Suppan          MIL     406    393   8  JE
Jeff Kent             LAD     Wesley Wright        HOU     344    343   9  PL
Russell Martin        LAD     Wandy Rodriguez      HOU     379    378   9  ND
Craig Monroe          MIN     Nate Robertson       DET     421    416   8  PL
Brandon Phillips      CIN     Damso Marte          PIT     413    403  13  PL
Alexei Ramirez        CWS     Joe Borowski         CLE     350    340   6  JE/L
Hanley Ramirez        FLA     Steven Shell         WAS     376    379  20  JE
Brian Roberts         BAL     Jimmy Gobble         KC      381    381   6  PL
Richie Sexson         SEA     Scott Downs          TOR     388    389  10  PL
Kelly Shoppach        CLE     John Danks           CWS     369    357   6  PL
Mark Teahen           KC      Radhames Liz         BAL     428    428   8  PL
Marcus Thames         DET     Scott Baker          MIN     377    373  16  JE
Shane Victorino       PHI     Charlie Morton       ATL     351    344   3  JE
Ty Wigginton          HOU     Brian Falkenborg     LAD     349    349   6  JE
David Wright          NYM     Brad Thompson        STL     397    390  16  PL

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
LAA AAA Sean Rodriguez.... 5  4  2  0  2  0  0  3 R
BAL AA  Nolan Reimold..... 4  4  1  0  2  1  0  
OAK AA  Aaron Cunningham.. 5  4  1  0  2  0  1  
OAK AAA Landon Powell..... 3  2  1  0  1  2  0  4 RBI
STL AA  Allen Craig....... 4  2  0  0  2  1  1  4 RBI
SD  A+  Mitch Canham...... 5  3  3  0  0  0  0  3 LD
ARI AAA Josh Whitesell.... 4  3  2  0  0  1  1  
CIN AA  Daniel Dorn....... 4  2  0  1  1  1  1  4 RBI
MIL AA  Alcides Escobar... 4  3  2  0  0  0  1  3 R
MIN A   Deibinson Romero.. 4  3  1  0  1  0  0  
TOR A   Justin Jackson.... 5  2  1  0  1  0  1  
STL AAA J. Hoffpauir...... 4  3  2  0  0  0  0  

ORG LVL PLAYER            IP  H  R ER SO BB HR  Notes
OAK A+  H. Rodriguez...... 5  1  0  0 11  1  0  
COL A+  Jhoulys Chacin.... 8  5  0  0  8  1  0  
CLE AAA David Huff........ 6  3  2  2  9  1  1  
CHC A+  Hung-Wen Chen..... 6  6  3  3  9  0  1  
LAA A   Trevor Reckling... 7  6  3  3  7  1  0  
CHW AA  Aaron Poreda...... 7  4  1  1  5  1  0  
PHI A+  Joe Savery........ 7  4  2  0  6  2  0  
MIN A+  Deolis Guerra..... 9  3  0  0  4  3  0  
ATL A   Jeffrey Locke..... 7  4  2  2  5  2  0  12 GB
OAK AA  Andrew Carignan... 3  0  0  0  5  0  0  
COL A   Bruce Billings.... 6  8  3  3  7  1  0  
SD  AA  Steve Garrison.... 7  5  2  2  5  0  1  

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