Daily Notes: Very Early Returns on First-Round Picks

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

1. Very Early Returns on Some First-Round Picks
2. Notable MLB Games (Including MLB.TV Free Game)
3. Today’s Complete Schedule

Very Early Returns on Some First-Round Picks
What This Is
It has come to the attention of the author that a number of first-round picks from the recent draft have not only (a) already signed with the organizations by which they were selected, but also (b) been assigned to, and started playing for, minor-league teams within those organizations.

What This Is, Part II
With the above in mind, the author has made use of his Google machine — in addition to sites like Baseball America, Minor League Central, Baseball Reference, and (of course) the present one — with a view to compiling a list of signed draft picks, along with the minor-league clubs and levels to which they’ve been assigned, and also their very earliest statistical returns.

Regarding What Is the Point of This
To change the world, mostly.

Regarding What Else Is the Point of This
For reference sake, also.

Some Notes on Signed Players
Below are notes on signed players from the top half of the 2012 draft.

Player: Carlos Correa, HOU, 1st Overall
Team, League: GCL Astros (Kissimmee, FL), Gulf Coast League
Line: 21 PA, .105/.190/.105 (.154 BABIP), 9.5% BB, 28.6% K, 1-1 SB

Player: Byron Buxton, MIN, 2nd Overall
Team, League: GCL Twins (Fort Myers, FL), Gulf Coast League
Line: 8 PA, .000/.000/.000 (.000 BABIP), 0.0% BB, 12.5% K, 0-0 SB

Player: David Dahl, COL, 10th Overall
Team, League: Grand Junction (CO) Rockies, Pioneer League
Line: 16 PA, .214/.313/.286 (.214 BABIP), 6.3% BB, 0.0% K, 0-2 SB

Player: Addison Russell, OAK, 11th Overall
Team, League: AZL (Phoenix, AZ) Athletics, Arizona League
Line: 9 PA, .125/.222/.125 (.167 BABIP), 0.0% BB, 22.2% K, 0-0 SB

Player: Gavin Cecchini, NYN, 12th Overall
Team, League: Kingsport (TN) Mets, Appalachian League
Line: 13 PA, .091/.231/.091 (.125 BABIP), 15.4% BB, 23.1% K, 1-2 SB

Player: Courtney Hawkins, CHA, 13th Overall
Team, League: Bristol (VA) White Sox, Appalachian League
Line: 12 PA, .083/.083/.083 (.111 BABIP), 0.0% BB, 25.0% K, 1-1 SB

Player: Tyler Naquin, CLE, 15th Overall
Team, League: Mahoning Valley (OH) Scrappers, New York–Penn League
Line: 8 PA, .375/.375/.500 (.500 BABIP), 0.0% BB, 25.0% K, 1-1 SB

Notable MLB Games
Toronto at Boston | 19:10 ET
Right-hander Henderson Alvarez is decidedly not abiding by the narrative that the author had constructed for him entering the season. Despite a strong rookie season (63.2 IP, 84 xFIP-, 1.0 WAR) and above-average fastball (92.7 mph, on average), Alvarez has proven almost entirely incapable of inducing whiffs this season. For example, his swinging-strike rate: 4.2%. And his strikeout rate: 7.1%. And his strikeouts per nine: 2.70.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Toronto Radio.

San Diego at Houston | 20:05 ET ***MLB.TV Free Game***
Of note: Houston’s Jed Lowrie, 28, is currently second among all major-league shortstops per WAR, at 2.4 — as of Sunday night, at least.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Houston Television.

Detroit at Texas | 20:05 ET
Starting for the Rangers is right-hander Justin Grimm, 23, who was excellent last week in his major-league debut. Ahem: 6.0 IP, 23 TBF, 7 K, 0 BB, 7 GB on 16 batted-balls (43.8% GB), 1.69 xFIP.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Texas 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 4.8.

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 Tomlin	CLE	4	4	4	6	4	NYA	Hiroki Kuroda	19:05
Jeff Karstens*	PIT	4	2	6	6	8	PHI	Joe Blanton	19:05
Yovani Gallardo	MIL	5	7	6	4	7	CIN	Mat Latos	19:10
Jake Westbrook	STL	6	10	4	2	4	MIA	Ricky Nolasco	19:10
Henderso. Alvarez	TOR	4	7	7	5	8	BOS	Felix Doubront	19:10
Rick Porcello	DET	6	4	7	10	9	TEX	Justin Grimm*	20:05
Johan Santana	NYN	6	1	3	3	2	CHN	Travis Wood	20:05
Ross Ohlendorf*	SD	3	5	2	5	4	HOU	Wandy Rodriguez	20:05
Jake Peavy	CHA	5	6	4	3	5	MIN	Francisco Liriano	20:10
Alex Cobb	TB	7	4	6	5	5	KC	Luke Hochevar	20:10
Stephe. Strasburg	WAS	10	4	5	10	3	COL	Jeff Francis*	20:40
Tommy Milone	OAK	4	4	4	5	6	SEA	Erasmo Ramirez*	22:10
Nathan Eovaldi	LAN	6	3	4	4	0	SF	Barry Zito	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.