Daily Notes: Three Important and Upcoming Dates
Table of Contents
Here’s the table of contents for today’s edition of Daily Notes.
1. Three Important and Upcoming Dates
2. Other Notable Games (Including MLB.TV Free Game)
3. Today’s Complete Schedule
Three Important and Upcoming Dates
Here are three essential dates for the reader’s impossibly stylish and totally leather-bound business agenda.
Tuesday, August 14th, Noon ET
According to the pitcher’s own father, 16th-overall pick Lucas Giolito makes his debut for the Washington Nationals Gulf Coast League affiliate — versus the Marlins affiliate in that same league. Giolito was considered a possible No. 1 pick in the 2012 draft until a sprained elbow this past spring complicated his status. The right-handed Giolito sat in the mid-90s with his fastball as a senior at Harvard-Westlake in Los Angeles, according to Baseball America’s Nathan Rode, even hitting 100 mph at one point.
Thursday, August 16th, 8:10pm ET
Oakland right-hander Dan Straily (10.2 IP, 106 xFIP-, -0.2 WAR) faces the Royals in Kansas City. “Straily? What do I care about that guy for?!? He gave up four home runs in his last start,” is precisely the thing a coward would say.
Tuesday, October 9th, 2:35pm ET
The Arizona Fall League, which features the very best prospects playing basically every day, begins. Per MLB.com, this year’s schedule stretches from October 9th until the November 17th championship game. Click this hyperlinked text to see AFL leaderboards from seasons past.
Today’s Notable Games
Milwaukee at Colorado | 20:40 ET ***MLB.TV Free Game***
Here are the players Milwaukee received from the Angels for Zack Greinke, each accompanied by their performances so far at their respective levels within the Brewers system:
• Johnny Hellweg: 2 GS, 10.0 IP, 10 K, 9 BB, 0 HR, 4.20 FIP at Double-A
• Ariel Pena: 3 GS, 15.2 IP, 12 K, 12 BB, 2 HR, 5.82 FIP at Double-A
• Jean Segura: 21 PA, 0 HR, 0 BB, 3 K, .333 BABIP at MLB
Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Milwaukee Radio.
Washington at San Francisco | 22:15 ET
Giants catcher Buster Posey has posted the highest WAR (2.5) in the majors over the last month. His season line to date: 429 PA, .332/.406/.547 (.355 BABIP), 158 wRC+, 5.0 WAR.
Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: San Francisco 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 4.0.
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 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Josh Beckett | BOS | 5 | 6 | 4 | 1 | 5 | BAL | Wei-Yin Chen | 19:05 |
| Chad Billingsley | LAN | 6 | 1 | 5 | 5 | 2 | PIT | Kevin Correia | 19:05 |
| Matt Harrison | TEX | 5 | 7 | 4 | 7 | 6 | NYA | Hiroki Kuroda | 19:05 |
| Jose Quintana | CHA | 5 | 5 | 4 | 6 | 4 | TOR | Hend. Alvarez | 19:07 |
| Chris Young | NYN | 0 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 8 | CIN | Mat Latos | 19:10 |
| Kyle Kendrick | PHI | 2 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 7 | MIA | Josh Johnson | 19:10 |
| Clayton Richard | SD | 4 | 6 | 3 | 7 | 4 | ATL | Tim Hudson | 19:10 |
| Lucas Harrell | HOU | 5 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 3 | CHN | Chris Volstad | 20:05 |
| Doug Fister | DET | 8 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 3 | MIN | Brian Duensing | 20:10 |
| Jarrod Parker | OAK | 6 | 6 | 4 | 8 | 2 | KC | Jeremy Guthrie | 20:10 |
| Ian Kennedy | AZ | 5 | 7 | 7 | 9 | 6 | STL | Joe Kelly | 20:15 |
| Randy Wolf | MIL | 3 | 8 | 3 | 8 | 4 | COL | Tyler Chatwood* | 20:40 |
| Ubaldo Jimenez | CLE | 1 | 3 | 5 | 7 | 9 | LAA | Zack Greinke | 22:05 |
| Matt Moore | TB | 6 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | SEA | Kevin Millwood | 22:10 |
| Jor. Zimmermann | WAS | 9 | 6 | 7 | 4 | 9 | SF | Mad. 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.
Was Chris Young’s NERD rounded down to 0 from 0.49 due to his wife, Elizabeth Patrick, being the granddaughter of Lester Patrick, namesake of the National Hockey League’s Patrick Division?
Pfft. Obviously.
Similarly, the Angels NERD score is rounded up because after Mike Trout was resurrected in April the Kings won the Stanley Cup. And the Lakers acquired Dwight Howard and Steve Nash. All things are possible in and with Michael Nelson Trout, except, possibly, a functional bullpen.