Daily News

 

Congratulations to the Rocket from DN&N as Roger Clemens on Tuesday was named the 2006 winner of the Roberto Clemente award which recognizes the player who best exemplifies the game of baseball, sportsmanship, community involvement and the individual's contribution to the team.  Clemens takes the ball against the Reds today in a matinee contest matched up against Bronson Arroyo (14-9) and then has perhaps just two more starts (?) in his illustrious major league career.

 

After taking part in fielding drills at first base and taking Ron Guidry deep three times in a simulated game, Gary Sheffield was activated off the disabled list on Tuesday.  The Yankees will use him at both first base and designated hitter in the final days of the regular season.  Meanwhile closer Mariano Rivera reported feeling “real good” after throwing 30 pitches from a mound on Tuesday and could pitch as soon as Friday.

 

Royal Watching

 

Kansas City lost 5-2 to the Angels on Tuesday, their second straight defeat.  The loss leaves the Royals with a 58-93 record, and they must now go no worse than 5-6 in their last 11 games to avoid losing 100 for the 3^rd straight year and fourth in the last five.  They will likely have to do it without Mark Grudzielanek, who left Tuesday’s game with a strained groin and they will also have to do it while playing their final 10 games of the season against the Tigers (6) and Twins (4).  With just one more loss, however, the Royals will have lost 94 or more games in a season for the 7^th time in the last 10 years, finishing with a winning record just once during that span (83-79 in 2002). 

 

On Deck – On tap for Wednesday - Roger Clemens (347 career wins), Greg Maddux (331 wins), David Wells (229) and Curt Schilling (206). 

 

Quick Hits

 

Free swinger Anderson Hernandez entered Tuesday’s game batting .113 (6-for-53) for the season and .099 (7-for-71) in his career.  He had not drawn a walk in 57 plate appearances entering the game and had just 1 BB in 76 career PA.  He upped those averages to .143 and .122 by going 2-for-3 in the Mets win and also drew his first walk of the season.

 

After slugging .445 before the all-star break with 9 HR in 353 AB, Mark Teixeira is slugging .552 with 19 HR in 237 AB since the break. 

 

After watching his average drop to .301 while going 1-for-5 on September 5 – his lowest mark since falling to .298 on May 30 – Gary Matthews Jr. has gotten hits in his next 12 games to extend his hitting streak to 13 straight and bump his average back up to .319 while going 26-for-his-last-51 (.510). 

 

The Chase is Wild

 

Minnesota continued to put the pressure on both the White Sox and Tigers as they knocked off the Red Sox 7-3 on Tuesday in Boston behind rookie Matt Garza’s pitching (5.2 IP, 3 ER), Torii Hunter’s 27^th home run and MVP candidate Justin Morneau’s five hits.  The win helped the Twins pull to within a half a game of the Central leading Tigers and kept their lead over Chicago at 4.5 with the win as the Sox blanked Detroit 7-0 backed by 8 one-hit innings from Freddy Garcia.  Rookie Justin Verlander gave up 6 runs in 4 2/3 innings to take the loss for the Tigers and upped his ERA over his last 9 starts to 6.04.  Jermaine Dye hit his 43^rd home run of the season in the win and Jim Thome hit his 41^st while A.J. Pierzynski and Tadahito Iguchi each hit their 16^th of the year.

 

Jeremy Bonderman (12-8, 4.14) goes in the finale of the Tigers/White Sox series on Wednesday against Jon Garland (17-5, 4.30) while Boof Bonser (5-5, 4.52) takes the hill against the Red Sox, who will counter with Curt Schilling (14-7, 4.13).  Curt will be making his first start since August 30.

 

AL Wild Card

Minnesota        – 89-61 –

Chicago            – 85-66 4.5

 

The wild, wild west got a little wilder on Tuesday, as the Padres and Dodgers – a day after their wild finish in L.A. – flip flopped in the standings once again with San Diego knocking off the D’Backs 5-2 at home.  Mark Cameron hit a three-run homer in the first and ROY candidate Clay Hensley (10 wins – 4.37 run support) made it stand up with help from Trevor Hoffman (476^th career save) while the Pirates beat the Dodgers 10-6 at Dodger Stadium to help knock the boys in blue out of back out of the division lead.  As a consolation with the loss, L.A. now leads the Wild Card race by a single game over the Phillies, who were 4-1 winners over the Cubs.  Jaime Moyer allowed just 1 run in 7 strong innings to get the win.  

 

The pack of contenders for the WC got a bit slimmer on Tuesday with losses by both the Marlins (3-2 to the Mets and Tom Glavine, their fourth straight loss and sixth in their last 7 games) and Giants (12-4 to Colorado – 52 runs allowed in their last 4 games).  The two teams aren’t mathematically eliminated from the chase, but have likely begun to schedule October tee times.

 

David Wells (2-4, 4.71) goes on Wednesday for the Padres against Arizona which sends Edgar Gonzalez (1-3, 5.26) to the hill to face him.  The Dodgers will look to try to regain first place in the West with Greg Maddux going against Shawn Chacon of the Pirates.  Rookie Les Walrond (0-0, 7.59) will toe the slab for the Cubs in his second major league start, in an attempt to put a dent in Philadelphia’s WC hopes.  The Phillies counter with Brett Myers (11-6, 4.04)

 

NL Wild Card

Los Angeles     – 79-72 –

Philadelphia      – 78-73 1.0

 

2006 Most Valuable Player Award Preview

 

In the past two weeks, DN&N has given you a preview of both the candidates for the 2006 Rookie of the Year Award as well as the ’06 Cy Young Award contenders.  This week we present to you the top contenders for the most prestigious prize of all, the Most Valuable Player Award. 

 

In the American League, Derek Jeter goes into the final week and a half of the season as the perceived favorite for the award no matter what Big Papi thinks about it.  The question, though, is should he be?  In Minnesota, there are no shortage of worthy players with Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau leading the charge from the plate while Johan Santana adds fuel to the debate of whether or not a pitcher should even be allowed to win the MVP.   And forget Big Papi; if MVP’s are made in September, then the Big Hurt must get due consideration for leading the A’s playoff charge.  And hasn’t Jermaine Dye had some pretty big moments of his own this year for the defending champs?

 

In the NL, Albert Pujols and Ryan Howard seem the obvious choices but where would Florida have been if not for the “veteran” presence of Miguel Cabrera?  Would the Dodgers still be in it without Nomar Garciaparra?  And would the Giants have contended so late into the year without, yup you guessed it, Barry Bonds?  Cincinnati might have been able to withstand the loss of an Adam Dunn, but could the Astros have made it as far as they did without Lance Berkman?  Don’t these intangibles deserve some weight? 

 

DN&N thinks so and knows that all the numbers in the world won’t give you the complete picture.  But for now, we’ll give you plenty of ‘em to graze over and help you make your own decision.  Then check back next week as DN&N unveils its picks for all three of the major awards. 

 

All statistics through 9/18

AL MVP	TM	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	K	AVE	OBP	SLG
Mauer	Min	130	479	79	165	32	4	11	79	77	46	0.344	0.431	0.497
Morneau	Min	144	538	88	172	34	1	33	123	50	83	0.320	0.376	0.571
Jeter	NYY	144	583	109	198	36	3	14	95	66	97	0.340	0.414	0.484
Damon	NYY	141	565	111	166	35	5	22	77	65	79	0.294	0.363	0.490
Rodriguez	NYY	145	545	106	157	23	1	34	116	84	137	0.288	0.387	0.521
Giambi	NYY	134	434	88	109	24	0	36	109	108	104	0.251	0.411	0.555
Ortiz	Bos	139	523	107	148	28	2	49	129	107	108	0.283	0.405	0.625
Thomas	Oak	126	431	73	121	10	0	38	105	75	73	0.281	0.391	0.568
Dye	ChW	137	509	95	163	27	3	42	117	55	112	0.320	0.387	0.633
Konerko	ChW	143	534	91	167	28	0	32	105	59	98	0.313	0.383	0.545
Thome	ChW	133	462	103	132	23	0	40	101	97	135	0.286	0.412	0.595
Guerrero	LAA	148	577	87	189	33	1	29	110	48	66	0.328	0.381	0.539
Ramirez	Bos	128	446	78	142	27	1	34	101	98	102	0.318	0.436	0.612
Tejada	Bal	150	600	94	196	35	0	22	94	42	72	0.327	0.376	0.495
Suzuki	Sea	150	641	96	203	19	6	8	43	46	64	0.317	0.366	0.402
Wells	Tor	142	566	84	174	36	4	32	101	48	88	0.307	0.360	0.555
Hafner	Cle	129	454	100	140	31	1	42	117	100	111	0.308	0.439	0.659
Guillen	Det	141	498	91	155	38	4	19	75	65	81	0.311	0.392	0.518

 

AL MVP	OPS	TB	TPA	DP	HBP	SF	SH	SB	CS	%	R/G	R/ToB
Mauer	0.928	238	564	20	1	7	0	8	3	0.727	0.61	0.33
Morneau	0.946	307	604	10	5	11	0	3	3	0.500	0.61	0.39
Jeter	0.898	282	671	13	11	4	7	32	3	0.914	0.76	0.40
Damon	0.854	277	688	5	2	9	0	25	10	0.714	0.79	0.48
Rodriguez	0.908	284	639	21	6	4	0	14	4	0.778	0.73	0.43
Giambi	0.967	241	564	10	15	7	0	2	0	1.000	0.66	0.38
Ortiz	1.031	327	639	12	4	5	0	1	0	1.000	0.77	0.41
Thomas	0.959	245	517	13	6	5	0	0	0	----	0.58	0.36
Dye	1.020	322	576	15	5	7	0	7	3	0.700