THT Links: Postponed

I heard back from some of you on Friday’s HGH article. Thank you all for writing. Some good points were brought up including questions about HGH’s ability to help repair injured muscle, but in the end, after speaking with some more medical and physical trainer personnel, I am pretty confident in two things. One, HGH’s benefits are overstated and not really applicable to performance-enhancement in baseball or any sport really. Two, if a baseball player was cheating, he wouldn’t be using HGH anymore, he would have moved on to something more advanced by now.

Carpenter’s Return in Doubt – Chris Carpenter woke up Sunday with swelling in his right elbow and is headed for an MRI, likely causing him to miss another start.

Third Time Not a Charm – The Mariners and Indians were snowed out again on Sunday, meaning that, even if the doubleheader goes off as planned on Monday (forecast doesn’t look good UPDATE: Monday’s doubleheader has just been canceled as well meaning all four games were wiped out by snow), they’ll have two games to make up at some point during a season which never sees the Mariners visit Cleveland again. Speaking of that Monday doubleheader, the Mariners have a 10:05am game at Boston, meaning MLB intends for the Mariners to start 3 games in a 22-hour span. Brilliant!

Speaking of Cleveland – MLB is looking into the possibility of moving the upcoming Angels-Indians series, slated to be played in Cleveland, over to California in order to escape the Great Lakes weather.

Hampton Suffers Set Back – Mike Hampton, rehabbing an arm injury, suffered pain in his left elbow during a bullpen session and had to be shut down.

Hanley Strains Hamstring – Marlins SS and reigning Rookie of the Year Hanley Ramirez strained his hamstring in a game Sunday and was removed. His status is day-to-day.

Giants Are Old, and so far, Not Good – Bruce Jenkins of the San Francisco Chronicle is not enamored with the future for the Giants.

The Return of the Closer – Eric Gagne says he feels ready to step back into the closer’s role after throwing on back-to-back days down in Double-A on rehab assignment.

More Trouble for the Yankees – On a day that saw Darrell Rasner of all people make a start for the Yankees (and Andy Pettitte come in in relief), the Yankees put Hideki Matsui onto the 15-day DL, pushing Melky Cabrera into a full-time role for the time being.

Stats Gone Wild – M Phillip Baudrand introduces us to a new stat powered by search engines and inspired by the Apollo Theater. It’s called the Player Likability Percentage.

Monday at THT

THT Predictions vs. the Market – THT’s division standings take on the wisdom of the crowd.

Soul of Baseball – A book review of Joe Posnanski’s new book about the one and only Buck O’Neil.

THT Mailbag: We’re Back – This week, we have some great questions left over from the end of the offseason, covering everything from a couple of the worst everyday hitters in the league to who’s going to win the AL Central.

THT Daily: April 9, 2007 – A Rodriguez strikes again!

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