Daily Notes: Very Compelling Prospect Chad Bettis to Debut

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

1. Very Compelling Prospect Chad Bettis to Debut
2. Today’s MLB.TV Free Game
3. Today’s Complete Schedule

Very Compelling Prospect Chad Bettis to Debut
The Purpose of This Post
The purpose of this post is to announce how talented right-handed Colorado prospect Chad Bettis is making his debut today (Thursday) against Atlanta at 7:10pm ET.

Regarding Chad Bettis, Who That Is
Bettis was a second-round selection by the Rockies out of Texas Tech in 2010 — and an (unsigned) eighth-round selection before that by Houston out of a Texas high school in 2007.

Regarding Chad Bettis, His Prospect Status
Before the 2012 season, Bettis appeared at the bottom of some notable top-100 prospect lists (like 86th overall, for example, on Baseball America’s rankings) but was absent from others (like our own Marc Hulet’s, for other example). After missing all of 2012 with arm troubles, however, Bettis was absent from every notable list entering the present season, so far as the author is aware.

Regarding Chad Bettis, What He Throws
The right-hander has received considerable praise both for his fastball (which sits at 93-95 mph) and slider. As the very dark footage below suggests (taken from recent editions of the Fringe Five) Bettis’s changeup might also be quite excellent — despite concerns having been expressed about the pitch before. The quality of Bettis’s changeup will likely serve as the barometer for how well he’ll fare as a starter, as it will help him neutralize the left-handed platoon advantage.

Very Dark Footage: Bettis’s Changeup
Here’s very dark footage of Bettis’s changeup from a recent Texas League start:

Other Very Dark Footage: Bettis’s Changeup
Here’s other very dark footage of what is also likely Bettis’s changeup — in this case, from a slightly less recent Texas League start:

Regarding Chad Bettis, His Numbers This Season
Bettis has recorded nearly the same rates this year at Double-A as he did in 2011 while playing in the High-A California League. To wit, from 2011: 169.2 IP, 26.7% K, 6.5%. And now, from 2013: 63.0 IP, 26.3% K, 5.0% BB.

But Actually One More Comment About Bettis’s Changeup
From the video the author has watched of Bettis this year, the changeup isn’t a weakness. It’s at least an average pitch. Considered within the context of his repertoire as a whole, it might be a plus pitch.

Today’s MLB.TV Free Game
Chicago AL at Cleveland | 12:05 ET
Chris Sale (137.0 IP, 71 xFIP-, 3.8 WAR) faces Justin Masterson (150.0 IP, 81 xFIP-, 3.0 WAR). “A quality and totally free game,” the cry goes round.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Cleveland 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 6.2.

Note: the following table is entirely sortable.

Away		SP	Tm.	Gm.	Tm.	SP		Home	Time
Chris Sale	CHA	10	1	8	7	8	CLE	Justin Masterson	12:05
Matt Harvey	NYN	10	6	7	2	5	MIA	Tom Koehler	12:40
James Shields	KC	6	7	4	2	2	MIN	Scott Diamond	13:10
Zeke Spruill*	AZ	5	2	6	3	10	TEX	Yu Darvish	19:05
Jordan Lyles	HOU	5	3	4	8	3	BAL	Bud Norris*	19:05
Matt Cain	SF	5	5	6	1	8	PHI	Cole Hamels	19:05
Joe Kelly	STL	6	3	6	7	6	PIT	Charlie Morton	19:05
Chad Bettis*	COL	11	8	9	7	7	ATL	Julio Teheran	19:10
Felix Hernandez	SEA	10	5	7	8	3	BOS	Ryan Dempster	19:10
Ricky Nolasco	LAN	5	3	4	4	4	CHN	Chris Rusin*	20:05
Josh Johnson	TOR	8	7	7	7	7	LAA	Garrett Richards	22:05

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.