THT Daily: Hot Hitting
Major League News for April 23
Player News
Yesterday’s Results
Standings
Game of the Day
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
Brandon Webb surrendered three runs over six innings against the Giants to become the majors’ first five-game winner on Tuesday. Webb was down 3-0 entering the bottom of the second, but he shut the Giants down from there and contributed to his cause with a two-run double. It was his sixth career extra-base hit in 332 at-bats. He already has four RBI on the season, matching the second-highest total of his career. He drove in three runs in 73 at-bats last season.
C.C. Sabathia tossed six scoreless innings and fanned 11 on Tuesday to beat the Royals and earn his first win of the season. It was only a matter of time. Sabathia’s awful start is going to make it nearly impossible for him to match his Cy Young statistics from a year ago, but there’s still good reason to think he’ll be one of the AL’s top pitchers the rest of the way. He’ll get the Yankees next, so he’ll need to be on top of his game again.
The Tigers announced that Miguel Cabrera will begin playing first base on a regular basis, with Carlos Guillen moving to third. If they weren’t trying to sign Cabrera to a long-term deal, there’s a good chance they would have arranged it this way in the first place. Now that Cabrera is signed for eight years, he won’t have to worry about a switch diminishing his value. As much of a liability as he was at third, he should prove to be quite a bit more valuable to the Tigers at first base. Fantasy leaguers, though, will be upset the team didn’t wait another week to make the switch. He’s played only 14 games at third, making it unlikely that he’ll qualify there next year in most leagues.
Mariners activated RHP J.J. Putz from the 15-day disabled list. Putz, who had been out since April 2, should go right back into the closer’s role immediately, allowing Mark Lowe and Ryan Rowland-Smith to return to setup duties.
Rays acquired outfielder Gabe Gross from the Brewers for RHP Josh Butler. The second left-handed hitter the Rays have added since Cliff Floyd went down, Gross figures to see fewer at-bats than Dan Johnson initially, though he might be the more likely of the two to stick for the long haul. He was hitting .209/.352/.279 this season, and while he had yet to go deep this year, he does have 20 homers in 655 at-bats as a major leaguer. Since he can handle center field on a limited basis, he’s a pretty good reserve. It’s likely that he’ll have a little value in deep AL-only leagues while Floyd is out.
The Red Sox haven’t decided yet whether Josh Beckett will have his turn skipped or if he’ll be reinserted into the rotation in a couple of days. The stiff beck that got Beckett scratched was a new issue that just emerged today. Beckett has also been dealing with flu-like symptoms, but he had recovered sufficiently from that to pitch tonight. David Pauley will start in Beckett’s place tonight against the Angels.
Albert Pujols made his major league debut at second base in the ninth inning of Tuesday’s game. The Cards, who demoted Rico Washington and went to 13 pitches on Monday, ran out of position players after Cesar Izturis got hurt. If Pujols’ arm was sound, we imagine he would have GONE to third, with Troy Glaus playing short and Aaron Miles at second. However, the Cards don’t want Pujols making that throw right now.
Chad Cordero will have his right shoulder examined by Dr. James Andrews on Wednesday. Cordero had better velocity last night and said after his appearance that he felt fine, but when he went back to the hotel, he felt a “clicking” in the shoulder. “We just want to make sure there really is nothing wrong,” Cordero said. “Just clicking. That’s all it was. No pain, nothing like that when I was throwing last night. When I got back in the room last night, I was moving my arm around, I had some clicking in the shoulder. I wasn’t really sure what it was.” This is probably what should have happened in the first place. Jon Rauch will continue to close while Cordero’s availability remains limited.
Indians placed RHP Jake Westbrook on the 15-day disabled list, retroactive to April 20, with a left intercostal strain. There was no indication Westbrook was hurt while he amassed a 2.76 ERA in his first four starts. Either Aaron Laffey or Jeremy Sowers will be called up to start in his place Saturday against the Yankees. Laffey especially would be a sleeper if he stuck around for a while, but the Indians will hope to have Westbrook back early next month.
Yesterday’s Results
American League BOS 7 LAA 6 (Recap and Boxscore) TB 6 TOR 4 (Recap and Boxscore) NYA 9 CHA 5 (Recap and Boxscore) DET 10 TEX 2 (Recap and Boxscore) CLE 15 KC 1 (Recap and Boxscore) MIN 5 OAK 4 (Recap and Boxscore) SEA 4 BAL 2 (Recap and Boxscore) National League WAS 6 ATL 0 (Recap and Boxscore) CHN 8 NYN 1 (Recap and Boxscore) CIN 8 LAN 1 (Recap and Boxscore) HOU 11 SD 7 (Recap and Boxscore) MIL 9 STL 8 (Recap and Boxscore) PIT 3 FLA 2 (Recap and Boxscore) ARI 5 SF 4 (Recap and Boxscore) PHI 8 COL 6 (Recap and Boxscore)
You can download a compact version of yesterday’s boxscores from Heater Magazine.
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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 15 7 .682 0.0 12 3BAL 11 9 .550 3.0 10 1
NYA 11 10 .524 3.5 10 1
TOR 10 11 .476 4.5 12 -2
TB 9 11 .450 5.0 11 -2
American League Central CHA 11 8 .579 0.0 12 -1
MIN 10 10 .500 1.5 9 1
KC 9 11 .450 2.5 7 2
CLE 8 12 .400 3.5 10 -2
DET 8 13 .381 4.0 8 0
American League West LAA 12 9 .571 0.0 11 1
OAK 12 9 .571 0.0 12 0
SEA 11 10 .524 1.0 12 -1
TEX 7 14 .333 5.0 7 0
National League East Pwins Diff FLA 12 8 .600 0.0 9 3
NYN 10 9 .526 1.5 11 -1
PHI 11 10 .524 1.5 11 0
ATL 10 10 .500 2.0 13 -3
WAS 6 15 .286 6.5 7 -1
National League Central CHN 14 6 .700 0.0 13 1
STL 13 8 .619 1.5 13 0
MIL 12 8 .600 2.0 11 1
CIN 9 12 .429 5.5 10 -1
HOU 9 12 .429 5.5 10 -1
PIT 8 12 .400 6.0 6 2
National League West ARI 15 5 .750 0.0 15 0
COL 9 11 .450 6.0 8 1
SD 9 12 .429 6.5 7 2
LAN 8 12 .400 7.0 10 -2
SF 8 13 .381 7.5 7 1
Game of the Day
The Red Sox are on a roll, having won six straight. They are now 15-7, thanks to their 7-6 win over the Angels yesterday. The hero of the game was Jacoby Ellsbury, who hit two solo home runs and scored the winning run. Dustin Pedroia also had a big game for the Sox, going 4 for 5 and doubling in Ellsbury in the eighth.
Red Sox 7, Angels 6 - FINAL
LA ANGELS ab r h rbi bb so lob avg
C Figgins 3b 4 0 1 0 1 1 2 .363
G Matthews dh 5 0 1 0 0 2 4 .235
V Guerrero rf 5 0 0 0 0 2 5 .275
G Anderson lf 5 0 2 2 0 0 2 .244
T Hunter cf 4 0 0 0 0 1 5 .301
C Kotchman 1b 4 1 1 1 0 0 0 .315
M Izturis 2b 2 2 1 0 2 0 0 .182
J Mathis c 4 2 2 3 0 0 0 .379
E Aybar ss 4 1 3 0 0 0 1 .356
Totals 37 6 11 6 3 6 19 ###
BOSTON ab r h rbi bb so lob avg
J Ellsbury cf 5 3 3 2 0 0 3 .308
D Pedroia 2b 5 1 4 1 0 1 0 .364
D Ortiz dh 4 1 1 1 1 1 2 .181
M Ramirez lf 5 0 2 0 0 1 2 .342
K Youkilis 3b-1b 5 1 1 2 0 0 5 .354
J Drew rf 4 1 1 0 0 1 3 .302
S Casey 1b 4 0 1 0 0 0 1 .340
J Lowrie pr-3b 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .375
K Cash c 4 0 1 0 0 3 2 .227
J Lugo ss 4 0 2 1 0 0 0 .324
Totals 40 7 16 7 1 7 18 ###
----------------------------------------------------
LA ANGELS - 003 200 010 -- 6 11 0
BOSTON - 100 131 01x -- 7 16 1
----------------------------------------------------
BATTING: 2B - M Izturis (1, D Pauley); E Aybar 3 (5, D Pauley 2, H Okajima); D
Pedroia 3 (11, J Weaver 2, S Shields); S Casey (5, D Oliver). HR - J Ellsbury 2
(3, 1st inning off J Weaver 0 on, 0 Out, 6th inning off D O'Day 0 on, 2 Out), J
Mathis (3, 4th inning off D Pauley 1 on, 1 Out), K Youkilis (2, 5th inning off
J Weaver 1 on, 1 Out), C Kotchman (5, 8th inning off H Okajima 0 on, 0 Out).
RBI - J Mathis 3 (7), G Anderson 2 (11), C Kotchman (13), J Ellsbury 2 (9), J
Lugo (4), D Ortiz (16), K Youkilis 2 (14), D Pedroia (12). 2-out RBI - G
Anderson 2, J Lugo, J Ellsbury. Runners left in scoring position, 2 out - C
Figgins 1, T Hunter 3, G Matthews 1, E Aybar 1, D Ortiz 1, J Drew 1, K Cash 2,
K Youkilis 1, J Ellsbury 1. GIDP - T Hunter. Team LOB - LA ANGELS 7, BOSTON 10.
BASERUNNING: SB - M Izturis (4, 2nd base off D Pauley/K Cash), D Pedroia (3,
2nd base off D O'Day/J Mathis). FIELDING: E - K Cash (2, throw). DP: (K
Youkilis-D Pedroia-S Casey).
LA ANGELS ip h r er bb so hr era
J Weaver 5 10 5 5 0 4 2 4.50
D O'Day 1 1/3 3 1 1 0 1 1 2.02
D Oliver (L, 1-1) 1 2 1 1 0 2 0 4.50
S Shields 2/3 1 0 0 1 0 0 1.12
BOSTON ip h r er bb so hr era
D Pauley 4 1/3 7 5 5 2 3 1 10.38
J Tavarez 1 2/3 2 0 0 1 0 0 5.79
H Okajima (B, 1) 1 2/3 2 1 1 0 1 1 1.08
M Timlin (W, 2-1) 1/3 0 0 0 0 0 0 14.54
J Papelbon (S, 8) 1 0 0 0 0 2 0 2.45
J Tavarez pitched to 2 batters in the 7th.
Pitches-strikes: J Weaver 105-72; D O'Day 26-16; D Oliver 19-15; S Shields
13-6; D Pauley 89-56; J Tavarez 24-16; H Okajima 21-16; M Timlin 4-2; J
Papelbon 11-9. Ground balls-fly balls: J Weaver 6-5; D O'Day 3-0; D Oliver 1-0;
S Shields 1-1; D Pauley 4-6; J Tavarez 5-0; H Okajima 2-2; M Timlin 1-0; J
Papelbon 0-1. Batters faced: J Weaver 25; D O'Day 7; D Oliver 5; S Shields 4; D
Pauley 22; J Tavarez 7; H Okajima 7; M Timlin 1; J Papelbon 3. IRS - S Shields.
UMPIRES: HP--Jim Wolf. 1B--Ed Montague. 2B--Jerry Layne. 3B--Phil Cuzzi.
T--3:21. Att--37,982. Weather: 64 degrees, cloudy. Wind: 13 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.
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 COL AAA Ian Stewart....... 5 4 0 1 1 0 0 5 RBI ! PIT AAA Andrew McCutchen.. 4 2 2 0 0 1 1 2 SB NYM AA F. Martinez....... 6 2 1 0 0 0 0 KC A Jason Taylor...... 2 2 0 0 2 1 0 2 SB TOR AA Ryan Patterson.... 4 3 3 0 0 0 0 HOU AA Drew Sutton....... 4 2 2 0 0 3 0 CLE AAA Brad Snyder....... 4 2 1 0 1 0 0 COL AAA Joseph Koshansky.. 5 3 1 0 0 0 2 STL AAA Colby Rasmus...... 4 1 0 0 1 1 0 TEX AA M. Ramirez........ 3 2 1 0 1 1 0 TB AAA Reid Brignac...... 5 2 1 0 0 0 0 CHW AAA Josh Fields....... 4 2 0 0 0 1 1 ORG LVL PLAYER IP H R ER SO BB HR Notes CHC AAA Sean Gallagher.... 8 3 1 1 12 1 1 PIT AA Jimmy Barthmaier.. 6 2 1 1 5 1 0 BAL AA Jason Berken...... 6 5 3 2 8 1 0 BAL A+ Brandon Erbe...... 7 3 1 1 3 1 0 WAN AAA Collin Balester... 6 4 3 3 8 1 2 OAK A+ Trevor Cahill..... 5 6 5 5 6 3 0 11 GB CHC AA Mitch Atkins...... 7 4 3 2 6 1 1 BOS AA Kris Johnson...... 6 4 2 1 6 3 0 DET AAA F. Cruceta........ 3 0 0 0 6 1 0 BAL A+ Pedro Beato....... 5 6 1 1 5 1 0 OAK AA Andrew Bailey..... 5 6 2 2 5 2 0 WAN A+ Craig Stammen..... 3 1 0 0 2 0 0 3 infield flies
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