Daily Notes, Featuring What Some Might Call “News”

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

1. What Some Might Call “News”
2. Notable MLB Games (Including MLB.TV Free Game)
3. Today’s Complete Schedule

What Some Might Call “News”
Regarding This So-Called News, What It Is
The news today is that — according to (a) the entire internet and, specifically, (b) the Associated Press — is that Jim Thome has been traded from Philadelphia to Baltimore in exchange for minor leaguers Kyle Simon and catcher Gabriel Lino.

That News, What It Means for Baltimore
For Baltimore, what the trade means is — or, what the present author assumes it means — is that Thome will play a lot of DH for the Orioles, effective immediately.

Who’s DH’d for Baltimore This Season
Here’s who’s DH’d for Baltimore to date (courtesy Baseball Reference): Nick Johnson (19 times), Chris Davis (19 times), Mark Reynolds (12 times), assorted others (the rest of the times).

What They’ve Hit
Here’s what those DHs have hit, collectively: 282 PA, .255/.348/.433 (.319 BABIP). Per Baseball Reference, that gives them an OPS+ of 105 relative to other DHs, who’ve batted .256/.330/.434.

What Thome Will Hit
As a regular-ish DH for Baltimore, Thome will probably hit slightly better than Baltimore’s DHs this season — something not very different than the .245/.344/.491 line ZiPS has projected for him.

Those Minor Leaguers, Scouting Reports on Them
Both John Sickels and Jordan Tuwiner have scouting reports on Simon and Lino — at Minor League Ball and Orioles Nation, respectively.

Those Scouting Reports, Condensed
For readers who have no intention of following the aforelinked scouting reports, here’s what they say about Kyle Simon: he throws from a low-ish arm slot and could induce ground balls, if not swings and misses, at the major-league level. And Lino: is a young (19) catcher with power upside, but has limited plate discipline at this point.

Other Notable Games
Philadelphia at Miami | 13:10 ET ***MLB.TV Free Game***
Chase Utley Status Update: 14 PA, .385/.429/.615 (.500 BABIP).

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Philadelphia Radio.

Washington at Atlanta | 13:35 ET
This game will feature Gio Gonzalez (90.2 IP, 76 xFIP-, 3.1 WAR) on Atlanta’s excellent center-field camera.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Atlanta Radio.

New York NL at Los Angeles NL | 20:00 ET
Real-Live Ace Clayton Kershaw (108.1 IP, 85 xFIP-, 2.1 WAR) faces Secret Ace Dillon Gee (95.2 IP, 87 xFIP-, 1.2 WAR).

Broadcast Information: ESPN.

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 4.9.

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
Joe Blanton	PHI	8	6	4	2	3	MIA	Ricky Nolasco	13:10
Justin Masterson	CLE	4	4	3	3	3	BAL	Brian Matusz	13:35
Gio Gonzalez	WAS	9	5	8	7	6	ATL	Tim Hudson	13:35
Drew Smyly	DET	6	4	7	4	7	TB	Alex Cobb	13:40
Gavin Floyd	CHA	6	6	5	6	6	NYA	Phil Hughes	14:05
Josh Collmenter	AZ	7	7	6	6	5	MIL	Yovani Gallardo	14:10
Bruce Chen	KC	3	5	3	2	5	MIN	Francisco Liriano	14:10
Erik Bedard	PIT	4	3	6	9	5	STL	Jake Westbrook	14:15
Wandy Rodriguez	HOU	5	5	2	3	3	CHN	Travis Wood	14:20
C.J. Wilson	LAA	4	5	6	7	4	TOR	Aaron Laffey*	15:07
Kip Wells*	SD	3	5	3	10	5	COL	Undecided	15:10
Bronson Arroyo	CIN	4	4	4	4	2	SF	Ryan Vogelsong	16:05
Felix Doubront	BOS	8	6	4	3	2	SEA	Jason Vargas	16:10
Travis Blackley	OAK	4	4	5	10	7	TEX	Yu Darvish	19:05
Dillon Gee	NYN	8	2	8	2	9	LAN	Clayton Kershaw	20:00

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.