Godzilla’s back, and there’s gonna be trouble.

Hideki Matsui, after a somewhat* underwhelming display in Triple-A, will join the Tampa Bay Rays tonight as they take on the Chicago White Sox at home. Some might suspect the move has to do with Monday afternoon’s outing against the White Sox in which Chris Sale struck out 15 Rays hitters — against a lineup featuring backup catcher Jose Lobaton as the DH, minor league veteran Rich Thompson playing left field, and a menagerie of infielders who started the season in the minors or the bench.

*I say somewhat because he was still hitting the ball well.

But the Rays front office rarely works hastily, and in fact Matsui’s callup is somewhat late. The team had previously suggested Matsui would arrive for the preceding Red Sox series, but instead delayed that transaction.

With the move, utility outfielder Stephen Vogt will likely return to the minors and will have to wait a little longer for his first major league hit or walk (he has 17 PAs but not yet reached even first base). How does Matsui fit on this Rays team — a team that already features five left-handed hitters? The answer is not fully clear, but there’s going to be a problem somewhere.
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Trevor Bauer, RHP, Arizona Diamondbacks
Current Level: AAA
2012 Top 15 Prospects Ranking: 1st
Current Value: Near MLB Ready

Bauer, 21, has been every bit as good as advertised. The third overall draft pick out of UCLA in 2011, the right-hander has reached triple-A in his first full pro season. Bauer began the year in double-A but was promoted after just eight starts. He struck out 60 batters and allowed just 33 hits in 48.1 innings of work. He’s made two starts in triple-A and has whiffed another 24 batters in 19.0 innings of work. Bauer’s advanced feel for pitching and diverse repertoire should allow him to develop into a No. 1 or 2 starter for the Diamondbacks; improved control is his biggest need right now. He could give Arizona’s starting rotation a boost in the second half of 2012 and should take a regular turn in the rotation beginning in 2013.

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The fact that Bryce Harper got to the Major Leagues at age 19 is pretty remarkable, as not many players are talented enough to earn the call to the bigs before they turn 20. The ones that do stick around usually don’t perform all that well, showing flashes of ability but getting overmatched on a more regular basis. Harper, though, is not only holding his own against big league pitchers, he’s threatening to put up the best offensive season by a 19-year-old in the history of baseball.

In his first 121 plate appearances of his career, Harper is hitting .286/.372/.514, good for a .376 wOBA and a 138 wRC+. Here’s where those numbers rank on the all-time top 10 for 19-year-olds:

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It was a minor swap made earlier this month, but Ernesto Frieri has already been a major contributor to the Angels’ bullpen. Since being acquired from the Padres for Alexi Amarista and Donn Roach more than three weeks ago, the 26-year-old right-hander has thrown 11 hitless innings for the Halos. With Jordan Walden stumbling out of the gate, Frieri has quickly assumed right-handed relief ace work while Scott Downs handles things from the left side.

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Table of Contents
Here’s the table of contents for today’s edition of Daily Notes.

1. Featured Game: Milwaukee at Los Angeles NL, 22:10 ET
2. Other Notable Games (Including MLB.TV Free Game)
3. Today’s Complete Schedule
4. Today’s Complete Schedule, With a Playoff-Odds Adjustment

Featured Game: Milwaukee at Los Angeles NL, 22:10 ET
What This Game Features
What this game features, in Brewers right-hander Michael Fiers and Dodgers right-hander Nathan Eovaldi, is a pair of starting pitchers with both (a) an above-average minor-league track record and also (b) limited major-league experience.

Also, What Else
Also, both pitchers are making their season debuts tonight.

Michael Fiers, In Brief
Fiers, in his age-27 season, has pitched very well in the minors (346.2 IP, 9.6 K/9, 2.4 BB/9, 0.8 HR/9) despite a pedigree (he was drafted in the 22nd round of the 2009 draft) and stuff (he has below-average fastball velocity) that might have originally suggested otherwise. According both to Baseball America’s Prospect Handbook and also John Sickels, Fiers’ best pitch is a changeup that one supposes will help him neutralize left-handed batters.

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Paul Konerko is one of the best hitters in baseball. While he’s rarely mentioned among players like Josh Hamilton, Matt Kemp or Ryan Braun, Konerko has been a an important presence in the middle of the Chicago White Sox lineup. In fact, this season, he leads the American League with a .489 wOBA and a .399 batting average.

What’s even more amazing about Konerko’s success is that he’s doing this as a  36-year-old. Conventional wisdom says that Konerko entered his decline phase years ago — but in 2010, something changed. At 34 years old, an age where most players are struggling to stay in the majors Konerko got better and has blossomed into one of the game’s best hitters.

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If the Detroit Tigers are to live up to expectations and capture the American League Central, they’ll need to get solid starting pitching from more than Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer. The hard-throwing duo leads the club in wins — as they did last season — but they can‘t carry the entire load. Doug Fister, Rick Porcello and Drew Smyly need to consistently put their names in the Win column as well.

Jeff Jones, the Tigers pitching coach, gave scouting reports on the complementary threesome prior to Monday’s game at Fenway Park.

——

Jones on Doug Fister: “Doug is really a complete pitcher. He has a lot of different pitches that he can throw for strikes. He changes speeds, he has a lot of movement on his fastball, and he has an outstanding changeup. He can also cut the ball. I’ve always felt that anybody who can make the ball move both ways has an advantage, and he can do that. He throws a two-seamer one way and a cutter the other. Doug also has a very good curveball that he can get some strikeouts with. We’ve gotten him to use it a little bit more. I thought he didn’t use it enough when he first got here.

“Doug uses reports, but he also has a very good ability to read swings and see what hitters are trying to do. Read the rest of this entry »

The Diamondbacks signed Miguel Montero to a five-year, $60 million extension over the weekend. The richest deal in Diamondbacks franchise history effectively keeps Montero in Arizona for the rest of his prime. It also ensures that the team has a very good player at an important position locked up at a fairly reasonable price.

Set to hit free agency after the season, the 28-year old Montero would have been the best full-time catcher on the market. Considering that Mike Napoli isn’t really an everyday backstop, that Yadier Molina signed a contract extension in March, and that the likes of David Ross, Yorvit Torrealba and Ronny Paulino are backups, Montero really wasn’t going to have much trouble signing a lucrative deal. The Diamondbacks were clearly interested in keeping Montero around, and both sides had engaged in negotiations since the offseason began. The contract extension was more a matter of when, than if, and no timeline was set by which a deal had to get done.

The deal will pay Montero $10 million in both 2013 and 2014, $12 million in 2015, and $14 million in both 2016 and 2017. The contract doesn’t seem to include any player or club options and lacks no-trade protection. Overall, this is a great deal for Montero, who gets long-term security at his approximate market value.

The deal makes plenty of sense for the Diamondbacks as well, but how much so depends on Montero’s ability to remain a catcher through his age-33 season and if he can sustain some semblance of last year’s production.

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Table of Contents
Here’s the table of contents for today’s edition of Daily Notes.

1. Reluctantly Featured Game: Houston at Colorado, 20:10 ET
2. MLB.TV Free Game
3. Today’s Complete Schedule
4. Today’s Complete Schedule, Adjusted for Playoff Odds

Reluctantly Featured Game: Houston at Colorado, 20:10 ET
What the Reader Is Likely Saying
The reader is likely saying — with regard to the selection of this game, featuring a pair of teams that are a total of ca. 20 games out of their respective division races — the reader is likely saying, “I protest!”

What a Different Sort of Reader Might Be Saying
A different sort of reader — one who’s not a member of England’s landed gentry, for instance — might be saying something more like, “I hate this author” or “This author’s an idiot” or “I hate this author’s face part of his face.”

Regarding All Those Comments
All those comments by all those fictional readers I just invented are probably reasonable.

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