Daily Notes: Largely Concerning Jenrry Mejia’s Start Today
Table of Contents
Here’s the table of contents for today’s edition of the Daily Notes.
1. Largely Concerning Jenrry Mejia’s Start Today
2. Today’s MLB.TV Free Game
3. Today’s Complete Schedule
Largely Concerning Jenrry Mejia’s Start Today
The Purpose of This Post
The purpose of this post is mostly to announce that Mets right-hander Jenrry Mejia both (a) has been excellent thus far in his return to the majors and (b) is pitching tonight (Saturday) at 8:40pm ET.
Regarding Mejia’s Performance to Date
Through four starts and over 24.1 innings, the 23-year-old Mejia has recorded strikeout and walk rates of 22.5% and 3.1%, respectively — marks which would place him 23rd and first overall, also respectively, among 91 qualified starters. His ground-ball rate of 57.5%, moreover, would be second-best among that same population.
A Haphazard Comparison Involving Jenrry Mejia
Here’s a haphazardly selected statistical comparison between Mejia and another pitcher (in this case, Adam Wainwright) whom the author noticed has a similar profile — in this case, featuring each pitcher’s defense-independent performance over the last month:
| Name | Team | IP | K% | BB% | GB% | vFA (pfx) | xFIP- |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jenrry Mejia | Mets | 24.1 | 22.5% | 3.1% | 57.5% | 92.3 | 65 |
| Adam Wainwright | Cardinals | 36.0 | 22.2% | 6.3% | 58.2% | 91.3 | 76 |
Mejia and Wainwright, Another Similarity
Beyond some statistical similarities over the past month, what Mejia and Wainwright also have in common is that each throws a fastball with cutting action about one-third of the time.
Action Footage: Jenrry Mejia’s Slider
Here’s action footage from Mejia’s August 8th start against Colorado of the right-hander striking out Corey Dickerson on an excellent slider:
Slower Action Footage: That Same Slider
And here’s slower action footage of that same pitch:
Today’s MLB.TV Free Game
Houston at Los Angeles AL | 21:05 ET
Dallas Keuchel (114.0 IP, 90 xFIP-, 0.4 WAR) faces Garrett Richards (93.2 IP, 88 xFIP-, 1.1 WAR).
Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Houston Radio, Perhaps?
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 5.8.
Note: the following table is entirely sortable.
| Away | SP | Tm. | Gm. | Tm. | SP | Home | Time | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Trevor Cahill | AZ | 5 | 3 | 4 | 7 | 3 | PIT | Jeff Locke | 16:05 |
| Hiroki Kuroda | NYA | 5 | 3 | 6 | 9 | 8 | BOS | John Lackey | 16:05 |
| Joe Kelly | STL | 4 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 3 | CHN | Travis Wood | 16:05 |
| Chad Bettis* | COL | 8 | 7 | 6 | 9 | 3 | BAL | Bud Norris | 19:05 |
| Clayton Kershaw | LAN | 10 | 3 | 5 | 0 | 3 | PHI | Kyle Kendrick | 19:05 |
| Wade Davis | KC | 4 | 7 | 6 | 7 | 7 | DET | Doug Fister | 19:08 |
| Chris Sale | CHA | 10 | 1 | 7 | 3 | 7 | MIN | Andrew Albers* | 19:10 |
| Mat Latos | CIN | 8 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 4 | MIL | Yovani Gallardo | 19:10 |
| Matt Cain | SF | 5 | 5 | 5 | 1 | 7 | MIA | Hend. Alvarez | 19:10 |
| J.A. Happ | TOR | 0 | 5 | 4 | 10 | 6 | TB | R. Hernandez | 19:10 |
| St. Strasburg | WAS | 10 | 2 | 8 | 8 | 8 | ATL | Mike Minor | 19:10 |
| Felix Hernandez | SEA | 10 | 4 | 8 | 3 | 8 | TEX | Martin Perez | 20:05 |
| Jenrry Mejia | NYN | 10 | 7 | 7 | 6 | 3 | SD | Edinson Volquez | 20:40 |
| Ubaldo Jimenez | CLE | 3 | 7 | 5 | 6 | 6 | OAK | Dan Straily | 21:05 |
| Dallas Keuchel | HOU | 7 | 4 | 7 | 7 | 7 | LAA | Garrett Richards | 21:05 |
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.
Carson Cistulli has published a book of aphorisms called Spirited Ejaculations of a New Enthusiast.
Jenrry Mejia Society
…is in mourning. Probably done for the season and surgery to get rid of those bone chips.