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	0.69	0.43
Konerko	0.928	291	609	23	7	9	0	1	0	1.000	0.64	0.39
Thome	1.007	275	571	4	6	6	0	0	0	----	0.77	0.44
Guerrero	0.920	311	633	16	4	4	0	15	5	0.750	0.59	0.36
Ramirez	1.048	273	553	13	1	8	0	0	1	0.000	0.61	0.32
Tejada	0.871	297	657	28	9	6	0	6	2	0.750	0.63	0.38
Suzuki	0.768	258	695	2	5	2	1	39	2	0.951	0.64	0.38
Wells	0.915	314	625	13	3	8	0	15	4	0.789	0.59	0.37
Hafner	1.097	299	564	10	7	2	0	0	0	----	0.78	0.40
Guillen	0.910	258	571	16	4	4	0	18	8	0.692	0.65	0.41

 

AL MVP	RISP	SP2O	RO	NO	C&L	AB/HR	AB/K	AB/BB	K/PA	BB/PA
Mauer	0.365	0.426	0.378	0.315	0.292	43.55	10.41	6.22	12.26	7.32
Morneau	0.320	0.313	0.322	0.318	0.308	16.30	6.48	10.76	7.28	12.08
Jeter	0.386	0.367	0.369	0.319	0.308	41.64	6.01	8.83	6.92	10.17
Damon	0.276	0.208	0.292	0.295	0.361	25.68	7.15	8.69	8.71	10.58
Rodriguez	0.302	0.325	0.287	0.286	0.216	16.03	3.98	6.49	4.66	7.61
Giambi	0.273	0.250	0.267	0.240	0.226	12.06	4.17	4.02	5.42	5.22
Ortiz	0.281	0.266	0.291	0.273	0.305	10.67	4.84	4.89	5.92	5.97
Thomas	0.288	0.284	0.267	0.294	0.210	11.34	5.90	5.75	7.08	6.89
Dye	0.365	0.303	0.354	0.290	0.313	12.12	4.54	9.25	5.14	10.47
Konerko	0.356	0.302	0.342	0.285	0.239	16.69	5.45	9.05	6.21	10.32
Thome	0.327	0.255	0.332	0.243	0.190	11.55	3.42	4.76	4.23	5.89
Guerrero	0.308	0.391	0.336	0.320	0.266	19.90	8.74	12.02	9.59	13.19
Ramirez	0.323	0.352	0.327	0.310	0.250	13.12	4.37	4.55	5.42	5.64
Tejada	0.282	0.297	0.310	0.343	0.329	27.27	8.33	14.29	9.13	15.64
Suzuki	0.211	0.241	0.280	0.336	0.313	80.13	10.02	13.93	10.86	15.11
Wells	0.303	0.273	0.299	0.315	0.312	17.69	6.43	11.79	7.10	13.02
Hafner	0.305	0.283	0.324	0.294	0.411	10.81	4.09	4.54	5.08	5.64
Guillen	0.281	0.306	0.304	0.317	0.250	26.21	6.15	7.66	7.05	8.78

 

AL MVP	TM	W	L	ERA	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	K	WHIP	G	GS	CG	SO
Santana	Min	18	5	2.77	220.7	173	73	68	23	44	237	0.98	32	32	1	0

 

AL MVP	K/9	BB/9	H/9	HR/9	1ST 1/2	BAA	OBP	SLG	OPS	IP/GS	GB/FB	GDP	RS
Santana	9.67	1.79	7.06	0.94	2.95/1.00	0.213	0.256	0.358	0.614	6.90	1.04	10	5.22

 

Team W/L	W	L	%
Santana	26	6	0.813

 

NL MVP	TM	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	K	AVE	OBP	SLG
Pujols	StL	130	485	112	160	31	1	46	126	84	44	0.330	0.431	0.682
Howard	Phi	147	541	99	169	22	1	57	140	91	166	0.312	0.413	0.673
Beltran	NYM	133	491	121	136	38	1	40	114	85	94	0.277	0.383	0.603
Delgado	NYM	136	496	87	131	27	2	38	108	70	113	0.264	0.360	0.556
Cabrera	Fla	148	541	108	184	49	2	25	110	80	102	0.340	0.438	0.577
Garciaparra	LAD	112	436	78	133	30	2	18	84	40	29	0.305	0.371	0.507
A. Jones	Atl	144	527	93	136	28	0	35	114	72	121	0.258	0.355	0.510
Soriano	Wsh	149	608	112	173	38	2	45	91	63	147	0.285	0.357	0.576
Bonds	SF	122	340	69	89	20	0	24	68	112	46	0.262	0.456	0.532
Bay	Pit	148	531	95	151	28	3	34	106	94	146	0.284	0.392	0.540
Dunn	Cin	148	524	95	125	23	0	40	91	104	179	0.239	0.369	0.511
Berkman	Hou	139	489	86	152	26	0	41	122	87	101	0.311	0.413	0.616
Ramirez	ChC	148	559	86	164	35	4	35	110	48	59	0.293	0.354	0.558
Wright	NYM	144	543	90	167	40	4	24	110	64	109	0.308	0.381	0.529
Reyes	NYM	142	612	117	183	28	17	19	77	47	77	0.299	0.350	0.493
Utley	Phi	148	605	119	181	37	4	28	90	55	120	0.299	0.369	0.512
Holliday	Col	143	557	102	185	43	4	28	98	38	99	0.332	0.386	0.575
Sanchez	Pit	145	533	81	182	48	2	6	81	29	50	0.341	0.377	0.473

 

NL MVP	OPS	TB	TPA	DP	HBP	SF	SH	SB	CS	%	R/G	R/ToB
Pujols	1.113	331	576	17	4	3	0	6	2	0.750	0.86	0.45
Howard	1.086	364	644	7	6	6	0	0	0	----	0.67	0.37
Beltran	0.986	296	587	6	4	7	0	17	3	0.850	0.91	0.54
Delgado	0.917	276	586	11	10	10	0	0	0	----	0.64	0.41
Cabrera	1.015	312	633	17	17	3	0	9	6	0.600	0.73	0.38
Garciaparra	0.878	221	488	14	8	4	0	3	0	1.000	0.70	0.43
A. Jones	0.866	269	619	13	12	8	0	4	1	0.800	0.65	0.42
Soriano	0.933	350	682	2	7	2	2	40	16	0.714	0.75	0.46
Bonds	0.988	181	463	8	10	1	0	3	0	1.000	0.57	0.33
Bay	0.933	287	640	14	6	9	0	11	2	0.846	0.64	0.38
Dunn	0.880	268	638	8	6	3	1	6	0	1.000	0.64	0.40
Berkman	1.029	301	586	7	3	7	0	3	2	0.600	0.62	0.36
Ramirez	0.912	312	621	15	8	6	0	2	1	0.667	0.58	0.39
Wright	0.909	287	620	14	5	8	0	19	5	0.792	0.63	0.38
Reyes	0.843	302	662	6	1	0	2	57	17	0.770	0.82	0.51
Utley	0.881	310	678	9	14	4	0	13	4	0.765	0.80	0.48
Holliday	0.961	320	611	20	13	3	0	9	5	0.643	0.71	0.43
Sanchez	0.850	252	581	10	7	9	3	2	2	0.500	0.56	0.37

 

NL MVP	RISP	SP2O	RO	NO	C&L	AB/HR	AB/K	AB/BB	PA/K	PA/BB
Pujols	0.396	0.425	0.338	0.318	0.317	10.54	11.02	5.77	13.09	6.86
Howard	0.242	0.230	0.284	0.340	0.298	9.49	3.26	5.95	3.88	7.08
Beltran	0.325	0.308	0.321	0.240	0.293	12.28	5.22	5.78	6.24	6.91
Delgado	0.297	0.277	0.302	0.233	0.228	13.05	4.39	7.09	5.19	8.37
Cabrera	0.388	0.392	0.357	0.325	0.368	21.64	5.30	6.76	6.21	7.91
Garciaparra	0.359	0.264	0.326	0.282	0.281	24.22	15.03	10.90	16.83	12.20
A. Jones	0.273	0.267	0.274	0.241	0.364	15.06	4.36	7.32	5.12	8.60
Soriano	0.243	0.204	0.292	0.283	0.293	13.51	4.14	9.65	4.64	10.83
Bonds	0.400	0.375	0.336	0.208	0.244	14.17	7.39	3.04	10.07	4.13
Bay	0.252	0.246	0.270	0.299	0.151	15.62	3.64	5.65	4.38	6.81
Dunn	0.230	0.246	0.226	0.243	0.250	13.10	2.93	5.04	3.56	6.13
Berkman	0.380	0.421	0.363	0.267	0.263	11.93	4.84	5.62	5.80	6.74
Ramirez	0.286	0.234	0.290	0.288	0.200	15.97	9.47	11.65	10.53	12.94
Wright	0.382	0.373	0.332	0.287	0.353	22.63	4.98	8.48	5.69	9.69
Reyes	0.331	0.409	0.315	0.291	0.279	32.21	7.95	13.02	8.60	14.09
Utley	0.294	0.254	0.298	0.300	0.280	21.61	5.04	11.00	5.65	12.33
Holliday	0.290	0.204	0.327	0.337	0.333	19.89	5.63	14.66	6.17	16.08
Sanchez	0.394	0.434	0.361	0.325	0.300	88.83	10.66	18.38	11.62	20.03

All statistics through 9/18

 

Questions or comments for Richard? Richard Van Zandt is a staff writer for Baseball Evolution who lives in San Francisco, California. You can reach him at richard@baseballevolution.com.