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
 |
| Evan Longoria makes a great play, stabbing Alex Cora’s hot grounder and throwing him out from his knees. Yes, the Rays are on a roll. (Icon/SMI) |
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: |
| {embed=”pageblocks/FirstInning_Team_Lookup”} |
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 3BOS 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
Access THT’s stats here…