Daily Notes: Three Callups Who Aren’t Jurickson Profar

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

1. List: Three September Callups Who Aren’t Jurickson Profar
2. Today’s Notable Games (Including MLB.TV Free Game)
3. Today’s Complete Schedule

List: Three September Callups Who Aren’t Jurickson Profar
First of All, Regarding What Is a Callup
A callup is a call-up — as in, September call-up — with the hyphen removed, so’s to confine the entirety of this post’s title to a single line.

Second of All, Also Regarding the Title of This Post
Provided enough space, the author would likely have titled this post something to the effect of “Daily Notes, Featuring Three Notable September Call-Ups Who Aren’t Jurickson Profar,” with a view, that is, to emphasizing how the following prospects are notable in their own right — in addition, that is, to simply being not Jurickson Profar.

Regarding Jurickson Profar, Who That Even Is
In the event that the reader is unfamiliar with him, here’s who Jurickson Profar is: the shortstop prospect in the Rangers system who (a) was ranked first overall on our Marc Hulet’s midseason top-50 prospect list and (b) homered in his first major-league plate appearance (action video).

The Aforementioned Three Other Call-Ups
Here are three notable prospects to’ve been promoted in September so far who are not also Jurickson Profar:

Player: Didi Gregorius, SS, CIN
Line: 558 PA, .267/.325/.396 (.304 BABIP) at Double- and Triple-A
Notes: Gregorius has been overshadowed, probably, owing to the presence both of Zack Cozart (the young and current starting shortstop) and Billy Hamilton (the very fast, but perhaps defensively inadequate, shortstop prospect) in the Reds system. Reports suggestt that the latter of that tandem will play mostly outfield at the Arizona Fall League this, uh, fall — and, provided he acquits him decently, is maybe a better fit there for the long-term. Gregorius has reached Triple-A as a 22-year-old, which is generally a promising thing.

Player: Sandy Leon, C, WAS
Line: 231 PA, .322/.396/.460 (.363 BABIP)
Notes: Leon, who made 32 plate appearances earlier this season, is actually most highly praised among people who would know — our Marc Hulet, for example, and also Baseball America (in their annual handbook) — for his defense. Wunderkind isn’t a word I’ve seen used to describe his capacities as a receiver, but it seems appropriate, at least. Of note, however, is Leon’s hitting performance this year. More important than the slash-line above, perhaps, is Leon’s plate-discipline rates in those 231 minor-league PAs. To wit: 10.4% BB, 13.0% K.

Player: Shelby Miller, RHP, STL
Line: 136.2 IP, 10.54 K/9, 3.29 BB/9, 1.58 HR/9, 4.48 FIP at Triple-A
Notes: Miller was ranked fourth overall among all prospects by our Marc Hulet before the season and — likely owing to ineffectiveness during the first half — was ranked 20th on the midseason iteration of Hulet’s top-prospect list. Miller has been excellent of late, however. During his last 10 starts, he’s posted, as John Sickels of Minor League ball notes,

a spectacular 70/7 K/BB in 59 innings. His performance in August has been especially amazing, with a 53/4 K/BB ratio in 37 innings. The improvement is attributed to mechanical adjustments that improved his command, more willingness to use his curveball and changeup, and a better attitude overall.

As of Monday night, Miller hadn’t actually been promoted yet, but will be prior to Tuesday’s game, reports Joe Strauss of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Today’s Notable Games
Minnesota at Chicago AL | 20:10 ET ***MLB.TV Free Game***
Were one so inclined, one could amaze and astonish one’s friends by noting that tonight’s starter for Minnesota, left-hander Scott Diamond, has been solidly above average as a starter this year, largely due to his control and ability to induce ground balls. To wit: 137.1 IP, 13.0% K, 3.7% BB, 55.4% GB, 3.82 SIERA, 91 xFIP-, 2.1 WAR.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Minnesota Radio.

New York NL at St. Louis | 20:15 ET
For the same reasons that yesterday’s Mets-Cardinals game was promising, so is this here one. Once again, the Mets have an interesting young pitcher (Matt Harvey: 42.1 IP, 88 xFIP-, 1.0 WAR) starting for them. Also once again, the Cardinals are a team whose playoff fate is largely undecided.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: St. Louis Radio (because the Mets feed doesn’t appear to utilize Busch Stadium’s straight-on center-field camera).

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
Chris Rusin*	CHN	8	2	5	6	7	WAS	Edwin Jackson	19:05
Justin Masterson	CLE	5	2	5	4	7	DET	Rick Porcello	19:05
Jordan Lyles	HOU	6	4	4	4	4	PIT	Wandy Rodriguez	19:05
Zach Britton	BAL	6	2	5	5	5	TOR	Carlos Villanueva	19:07
Drew Pomeranz	COL	4	8	3	7	4	ATL	Tommy Hanson	19:10
Shaun Marcum	MIL	5	9	3	4	3	MIA	Wade LeBlanc	19:10
Freddy Garcia	NYA	5	6	6	5	7	TB	Alex Cobb	19:10
Kyle Kendrick	PHI	3	5	3	5	8	CIN	Mat Latos	19:10
Scott Diamond	MIN	6	5	4	4	5	CHA	Jose Quintana	20:10
Matt Harrison	TEX	5	8	2	6	2	KC	Jeremy Guthrie	20:10
Matt Harvey	NYN	10	2	7	9	8	STL	Jaime Garcia	20:15
Zack Greinke	LAA	8	8	7	6	6	OAK	Jarrod Parker	22:05
Jon Lester	BOS	7	5	3	4	3	SEA	Blake Beavan	22:10
Eric Stults	SD	3	6	6	1	10	LAN	Clayton Kershaw	22:10
Ian Kennedy	AZ	5	6	2	3	3	SF	Ryan Vogelsong	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.