After months of hype, discussion, and lobbying, Jesus Montero has finally joined the New York Yankees. With rosters expanding for September, the Yankees have called their top prospect up to join the big club, and the rumblings are that he’ll be in the line-up tonight, serving as the DH against Jon Lester in Boston. That might seem like quite a way to make a debut, but Montero is viewed as quite a talent – as one team official told Joel Sherman, “By the playoffs, he will be our best DH option.”

Certainly, Montero is a talented kid. He’s been ranked as one of the sport’s 50 best prospects by Baseball America for each of the last three years, rising from #38 in 2009 to #4 in 2010 to #3 before this season began. He’s climbed the minor league ladder quickly – he’s already accumulated almost 1,000 plate appearances in Triple-A – despite the fact that he won’t turn 22 until November, and his career minor league line of .301/.366/.501 shows a hitter with significant promise.

However, despite the hype and the hope for the future, I’d suggest that Yankees fans be realistic in their expectations of what Montero can bring to the team this year – he’s probably not going to be the savior they’ve been looking for.

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The NL West race isn’t over yet, but unless the Giants can hit the turbo boosters soon, they’ll be left in the dust created by the Arizona Diamondbacks over the past week. After losing the first of a four-game set at Washington last Tuesday, the Diamondbacks swept the final three games, then swept three games against San Diego, and then swept another three game series against Colorado. The Diamondbacks began this stretch with a mere two game lead over San Francisco. They enter this weekend’s series in the Bay with a six game lead, and even if disaster strikes and the Giants sweep, the Diamondbacks will still hold a three game lead for the final month of the season.

It just feels as though — and I’m sure Giants fans agree — the Diamondbacks can do no wrong right now.

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The Texas Rangers just can’t stop making trades. After acquiring Mike Adams and Koji Uehera (yes, another Oriole) at the trade deadline, the Rangers went out yesterday and traded for pitcher Mike Gonzalez from the Orioles for a PTBNL.

On the surface, this is a relatively minor move. Ooo, the Rangers add another veteran arm to help them shore up their bullpen down the stretch — not such a big deal, right? For some reason, though, this move has sparked off about 10 different simultaneous thoughts in my head. So if you’re looking for gratuitous, over-the-top coverage of relatively small baseball moves, you’ve come to the right spot today.

I’ll run through this team by team, to help keep my thoughts from becoming too chaotic. First the Rangers, then the Orioles, and then…the Angels?

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Jokes.

Featured Game
St. Louis (3) at Milwaukee (7) | 16:10 ET
• Cardinal prospect Brandon Dickson makes his first major-league start tonight, is one reason to watch this game.
• Note, please, that the author made finger quotes while using the word prospect with regard to Dickson — on account of he’s 26, is why.
• His numbers at Triple-A Memphis this season: 157.1 IP, 7.09 K/9, 1.83 BB/9, 1.26 HR/9.
• Expect him to be a control-oriented pitcher with ground-ball rates in the high-40s.
• Also expect Bob Uecker to pleasure your ears and mind on the Brewers radio feed (a.k.a. the other reason to watch this game).

MLB.TV Audio Feed: Brewers Radio.

Also Playing
Here’s the complete schedule for all of today’s games, with our very proprietary watchability (NERD) scores for each one. Pitching probables and game times aggregated from MLB.com and RotoWire. The average NERD Game Score for today is 5.4.

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The knock on Clayton Kershaw was always his control. He couldn’t throw some of his pitches for strikes and was prone to wild spells. He has pitched so spectacularly this season that some may not remember that critique.

In 198 2/3 innings, Kershaw is still striking over a batter per inning, but his walk rate has dropped to slightly over six percent of opposing hitters. While that rate isn’t in the top ten of the National League right now, it represents a marked improvement. From 2008-10, Kershaw walked 11.1 percent of the opposition, ranging from 11-13 percent over the three year span. Among senior circuit pitchers with 400 innings pitched in the span, only Jonathan Sanchez issued free passes with a greater frequency.

Missing bats was never a problem, as his career 9.4 K/9 will attest, but his filthiness proved detrimental to his command. He had the stuff to succeed but had not yet harnessed it. Thus the walks. Now those walks are a thing of the past and is he surpassing what many believed to be his potential at the ripe age of 23 years old.

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Last week, baseball lost former Cy Young winner Mike Flanagan. This post is not a eulogy for Flanagan. I’ll leave that to writers more skilled than myself. One of those, Joe Posnanski, wrote a tribute to Flanagan in a column entitled “The Crafty Lefty Hall of Fame.”

I’ve always been fascinated by crafty lefties, and Posnanski’s story made me wonder: why don’t we ever hear about crafty righties? Perhaps “crafty” is an adjective that — due to some old baseball tradition — is used exclusively for southpaws. The other possibility is that there just aren’t as many crafty righties. It turns out, this is one historical baseball saying that holds up under statistical analysis.

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Craig Kimbrel continues to build on his ridiculous rookie season. While he’s been mentioned as a popular Rookie of the Year Award candidate, Kimbrel notched his 41st save last night — a rookie record — which should only increase his candidacy in the voters’ eyes. The save stat may be criticized in the advanced stats community, but the BBWAA voters still seem to hold the save in high regard. Last season, for example, Neftali Feliz won the award based on his high saves total despite finishing behind Brian Matusz in WAR. It wasn’t an egregious error, but it goes to show that the save still matters to the voters. With Kimbrel reaching heights no other rookie closer has reached before; has he all but locked up the National League Rookie of the Year Award?
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