Daily Notes: Absolutely Concerning Danny Salazar’s Debut

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

1. Concerning Danny Salazar’s Debut
2. Today’s MLB.TV Free Game
3. Today’s Complete Schedule

Concerning Danny Salazar’s Debut
The Purpose of This Post
The purpose of this post is to announce how right-handed Cleveland prospect and fixture in the present author’s weekly Fringe Five column Danny Salazar is making his major-league debut at 12:05pm ET today against Toronto.

Regarding Salazar, What’s Compelling About Him
With regard to Salazar and what about him might appeal to a reader, here are three points for consideration:

(a) He’s recorded excellent minor-league numbers this season; and

(b) He has a plus fastball (and at least serviceable other pitches); and

(c) He was absent from most, or maybe all, notable prospect lists.

A Venn Diagram of a Compelling Prospect
Here are the same points for consideration as submitted above, but now in the form of a Venn diagram constructed by means of an online Venn diagram generator and using said generator’s default settings:

Action Footage: Danny Salazar’s Fastball
Here’s action footage of Salazar’s fastball from his most recent start for Triple-A Columbus (box) — in this case, at 95 mph for a swinging strike to Louisville’s Felix Perez:

Action Footage: Danny Salazar’s Changeup, Probably
Here’s action footage of a pitch that, given its vertical movement, is likely Salazar’s changeup — also from that game against Louisville, but in this case for a swinging strike against Henry Rodriguez:

Action Footage: Danny Salazar’s Slurve
For a number of reasons — most of them pertaining to the author’s “lack of industry” — there is no footage here of Salzar’s breaking pitch, which is something between a slider and curve, it seems. One assumes, however, that it’s also great and will suffice.

Today’s MLB.TV Free Game
Toronto at Cleveland | 12:05 ET
Salazar’s debut is actually the MLB.TV Free Game for today. Not free, but also compelling, is the Chicago Americans-Detroit game at 1:08pm — in which game Chris Sale (113.1 IP, 73 xFIP-, 3.4 WAR) faces Anibal Sanchez (86.2 IP, 66 xFIP-, 3.4 WAR).

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Cleveland Radio.

Today’s Complete Schedule
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 5.6.

Note: the following table is entirely sortable.

Away		SP	Tm.	Gm.	Tm.	SP		Home	Time
R.A. Dickey	TOR	9	6	9	8	10	CLE	Danny Salazar*	12:05
Mike Pelfrey	MIN	0	3	3	10	4	TB	Matt Moore	12:10
Ervin Santana	KC	7	6	6	3	5	NYA	Andy Pettitte	13:05
Chris Sale	CHA	10	1	9	7	10	DET	Anibal Sanchez	13:08
Ryan Dempster	BOS	3	9	5	5	5	SEA	Undecided	15:40
Undecided	TEX	5	4	5	8	3	BAL	Miguel Gonzalez	19:05
J. Zimmermann	WAS	9	2	5	1	3	PHI	Kyle Kendrick	19:05
Mat Latos	CIN	9	3	7	8	6	ATL	Tim Hudson	19:10
Jake Westbrook	STL	2	4	4	5	5	CHN	Edwin Jackson	20:05
Yovani Gallardo	MIL	4	4	5	2	6	AZ	Wade Miley	21:40
Drew Pomeranz*	COL	5	8	5	2	4	LAN	Chris Capuano	22:10
M. Bumgarner	SF	7	6	4	7	0	SD	Jason Marquis	22:10

To learn how Pitcher and Team NERD Scores are calculated, click here.
To learn how Game NERD Scores are calculated, click here.
* = Fewer than 20 IP, NERD at discretion of very handsome author.