Daily Notes, With Notes of Import™

July 4, 2012

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

1. Notes of Import™
2. Notable MLB Games (Including MLB.TV Free Game)
3. Today’s Complete Schedule

Notes of Import™
Need to know information for men and women who need to know.

Scouting Report of Cole’s July 2nd Start
Internetting Gentleman mattp31 attended top-ranked Pittsburgh prospect and right-hander Gerrit Cole’s start against the Binghamton Mets on Monday and has written a detailed report of same for Minor League Ball. Cole’s fastball seemed to sit at around 94-96 mph and, according to the aforementioned author, hit 96 or higher about a third of the time. The start was the 21-year-old Cole’s third at Double-A. Here’s his line from same: 5.2 IP, 25 TBF, 5 K, 1 BB, 0 HR, 7:3 GO:FO, 6 H.

Tabata Demoted
Pittsburgh outfielder Jose Tabata was optioned to Triple-A Indianapolis on Tuesday, reports Karen Price of the Tribune-Review. Tabata, who signed a six-year, $14.75 million deal last season — with three options that could make it nine years and $37.25 million — has done this so far in 2012: 280 PA, .230/.295/.341 (.267 BABIP), 69 wRC+, -0.5 WAR. The club promoted outfielder Gorkys Hernandez in a corresponding move, bypassing both Robbie Grossman (whom Marc Hulet ranked fifth this preseason among Pirates prospect) and Starling Marte (whom Hulet ranked sixth) in so doing. Drew Sutton (80 PA, 133 wRC+, .460 BABIP, 0.5 WAR) started in right field for Pittsburgh on Tuesday.

Mariners Introduce Zunino
The Mariners introduced third-overall pick Mike Zunino to an adoring public on Tuesday, a day after the University of Florida catcher signed with the club for $4.0 million, reports Tim Booth of the Associated Press. The allotted value for that third pick was actually $5.2 million this season, meaning yet another top draftee has signed at or (in this case) below MLB’s suggested slot valuation.

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Notable MLB Games
New York AL at Tampa Bay | 15:10 ET
Left-hander David Price (104.2 IP, 81 xFIP-, 2.0 WAR) starts for Tampa Bay. Here’s his average fastball velocity, per PITCHf/x: 95.6 mph. And here’s where that ranks among qualified starters: second (to Stephen Strasburg’s 96.1).

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Tampa Bay Radio.

Boston at Oakland | 16:05 ET
Left-hander Franklin Morales, who pitches for Boston this afternoon, continues to shock — if not the world — then at least the present author. His line as a starter so far this season: 18.0 IP, 71 TBF, 33.8% K, 4.2% BB, 50.0% GB, 2.28 xFIP.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Boston Radio.

Texas at Chicago AL | 20:10 ET ***MLB.TV Free Game***
As of Tuesday, Texas had the highest WAR winning percentage in the majors — at .670, or 53.6-26.4. The next-closest team: Washington — at .608, or 46.8-30.2.

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 4.3.

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
Mad. Bumgarner	SF	8	4	6	5	6	WAS	Edwin Jackson	11:05
Cliff Lee	PHI	9	6	4	2	1	NYN	Chris Young	13:10
Dallas Keuchel	HOU	0	4	0	4	1	PIT	Kevin Correia	13:35
David Phelps*	NYA	7	6	7	4	9	TB	David Price	15:10
Ervin Santana	LAA	4	5	3	4	1	CLE	Derek Lowe	16:05
Franklin Morales*	BOS	9	5	8	4	8	OAK	A.J. Griffin*	16:05
Chris Tillman*	BAL	6	2	3	3	3	SEA	Hector Noesi	16:10
Josh Johnson	MIA	7	2	3	7	2	MIL	Randy Wolf	16:10
Brian Duensing*	MIN	4	3	5	4	9	DET	Justin Verlander	19:05
Luis Mendoza	KC	2	5	4	7	4	TOR	Carlos Villanueva*	19:07
Paul Maholm	CHN	3	2	4	7	5	ATL	Randall Delgado	19:10
Scott Feldman	TEX	3	10	3	5	4	CHA	Dylan Axelrod*	19:10
Jeremy Guthrie	COL	1	10	5	9	8	STL	Adam Wainwright	19:15
Mike Leake	CIN	7	4	5	2	2	LAN	Aaron Harang	21:10
Jason Marquis	SD	3	5	5	7	6	AZ	Ian Kennedy	21:40

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.