Daily Notes, Featuring Daniel Straily Information News
Table of Contents
Here’s the table of contents for today’s edition of Daily Notes.
1. All the Important Daniel Straily News
2. Today’s Notable Games (Including MLB.TV Free Game)
3. Today’s Complete Schedule
All the Important Daniel Straily News
Regarding What the People Want, Very Obviously
Despite the proximity of the trade deadline and, in fact, the myriad rumors concerning same, it’s obvious that what the people want is more Daniel Straily — that is, 23-year-old Oakland right-handed pitching prospect Daniel Straily — more Daniel Straily information news.
Daniel Straily Information News
In terms of Daniel Straily-related information news, here’s some of that: Straily pitched last night for Triple-A Sacramento against San Diego affiliate Tucson.
Straily’s Line from Said Start
Here’s Straily’s line from that start last night against Tucson (box): 6.0 IP, 22 TBF, 9 K, 1 BB, 0 HR, 3 H, 6:1 GO:AO.
A Quote from Straily Regarding His Monday Start
Here’s a thing that Straily said following his six pretty dominant innings (excerpted from Danny Wild’s game report):
“Today, I didn’t have all my stuff today, it didn’t even make sense that I had nine strikeouts.”
Another Quote from Straily Regarding His Monday Start
Here’s another thing Straily said in Danny Wild’s presence on Monday night — in this case regarding Straily’s own claim that he doesn’t purposely look for strikeouts.
“Absolutely not, I refuse to… It’s just a product of making pitches, developing pitches, throwing swing-and-miss pitches. Every pitch has purpose, and I’m just trying to get some rollovers. I can’t help if they miss it.”
Regarding the Adjective Most Relevant to the Author’s Heart
Aflutter, is probably what.
Today’s Notable Games
Oakland at Toronto | 19:07 ET ***MLB.TV Free Game***
Depending on how the Royals-Angels game finished Monday night — and the author wouldn’t know because he keeps hours befitting a gentleman — Oakland might be entering tonight’s game with the Blue Jays in a virtual tie for the AL wild-card lead. Of even more pressing note: because left-hander Brett Cecil is scheduled for Toronto, the very powerful Chris Carter (44 PA, .297/.409/.730, .250 BABIP, 15.9% BB, 18.2% K, 0.4 WAR) is very probably starting for the A’s tonight at first base.
Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Toronto Radio.
Other Notable Games
Believe our managing editor Dave Cameron when he says this thing via Twitter about today’s other notable games (click to embiggen):
One Other Note
Consider also believing our managing editor Dave Cameron when he makes this totally unaltered claim via Twitter about the state of sportswriting today (click to embiggen):
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 4.7.
Note: the following Game Scores include the poorly conceived playoff-odds adjustment discussed in a recent edition of Daily Notes. Also note: the following table is entirely sortable.
| Away | SP | Tm. | Gm. | Tm. | SP | Home | Time | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Paul Maholm | CHN | 3 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 5 | PIT | James McDonald | 19:05 |
| Doug Fister | DET | 8 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 0 | CLE | Ubaldo Jimenez | 19:05 |
| Zack Greinke | MIL | 9 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 9 | PHI | Cliff Lee | 19:05 |
| Jeremy Hellickson | TB | 1 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 4 | BAL | Wei-Yin Chen | 19:05 |
| Travis Blackley | OAK | 5 | 4 | 5 | 7 | 3 | TOR | Brett Cecil | 19:07 |
| Tim Hudson | ATL | 5 | 8 | 4 | 3 | 4 | MIA | Mark Buehrle | 19:10 |
| Gio Gonzalez | WAS | 9 | 8 | 8 | 3 | 10 | NYN | R.A. Dickey | 19:10 |
| Clay Buchholz | BOS | 4 | 5 | 6 | 8 | 7 | TEX | Martin Perez* | 20:05 |
| Mike Leake | CIN | 7 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 5 | HOU | Lucas Harrell | 20:05 |
| Cole DeVries | MIN | 3 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 6 | CHA | Jose Quintana | 20:10 |
| Clayton Kershaw | LAN | 10 | 1 | 9 | 9 | 9 | STL | Adam Wainwright | 20:15 |
| Undecided | COL | 5 | 9 | 4 | 7 | 2 | AZ | Joe Saunders | 21:40 |
| Will Smith | KC | 5 | 7 | 4 | 6 | 4 | LAA | Garrett Richards | 22:05 |
| Freddy Garcia | NYA | 4 | 6 | 4 | 4 | 9 | SEA | Felix Hernandez | 22:10 |
| Edinson Volquez | SD | 4 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 9 | SF | Ma. Bumgarner | 22:15 |
To learn more about Pitcher and Team NERD scores click here.
To learn how Game NERD Scores are calculated, click here.
* = Fewer than 20 IP, NERD at discretion of very handsome author.
Carson Cistulli has published a book of aphorisms called Spirited Ejaculations of a New Enthusiast.
Attitude toward Daniel Straily before reading above quotations: meh
Attitude toward Daniel Straily after reading above quotations: <3 <3
Just imagine If I would have out-bid Cistulli for Straily in the Staff League. These posts would be going an entirely different direction.
DAN STRAILY!!! <3 <3
I don’t want to piss on the parade, but Straily’s minor league run reminds me a little of Andy Sonnanstine. Sonnanstine had average stuff but elite control — his command of the zone allowed him to abuse minor league hitters, but in the show, big league hitters destroyed his fastball. Straily, likewise, has been noted to have a fairly flat fastball and low GB% (like Sonnanstine) that may hint at some weaknesses at the MLB-level. Its entirely possible, that like Sonnanstine and maybe Brian Matusz, Straily’s polish is playing well in the minors, but will fade in the senior circuit.
That said, I get Straily’s numbers outclass Sonnanstine and his fastball is closer to 93 mph than Andy’s 87 mph offering, but I’ve yet to find a scouting report on Straily that says any of his pitches are plus.
I have no doubt that my estimation of Straily and his talents is, at the very least, 50% irrational.
On the other hand, there’s this — regarding Straily — from Baseball America’s most recent Prospect Hot Sheet: “He now has plus stuff.”
Link: http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/prospects/prospect-hot-sheet/2012/2613746.html
Well thats good to hear. For what its worth, I’m holding on to Straily over Matt Harvey….
Tommy Milone also fit your profile? Average stuff, elite control?
Milone doesn’t have average stuff. His fastball is slightly below-average, but his changeup and cutter are solid-average, and his changeup is plus-plus.
Mike Leake in 2 years anong the best 10 in the game–right now he has 2 problems the Reds park and inexperience.