Daily Notes, With the Best Pitching Call-Ups So Far

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

1. Three Best September Call-Ups So Far: Pitchers
2. Today’s Notable Games (Including MLB.TV Free Game)
3. Today’s Complete Schedule

Three Best September Call-Ups So Far: Pitchers
Regarding the People, What They Were Wondering Yesterday
Unless the author is gravely mistaken, what the people were wondering about yesterday is which — of the hitters among this September’s call-ups, that is — is which among them had performed mostly ably so far this month.

Regarding the People, What They’re Likely Wondering Today
Given the people’s concerns on Tuesday, it stands to follow that today (Wednesday) what the people are wondering is which of the pitchers among this September’s call-ups has performed mostly ably so far.

Regarding the People, What They Can Find Below
Among the many splendors that are to be found below, one of them is a brief list of the best performances by pitchers who’ve been promoted this Septmeber.

Three Best September Call-Ups: Pitchers
Here are the three best pitchers among the league’s recently promoted. Each of the following both (a) entered 2012 with rookie eligibility and (b) has (mostly) recorded pitching appearances in September only. Note that “best” is defined not by WAR or xFIP alone, but also, owing to the paucity of the samples, by regressed pitching (represented by SCOUT-, where 100 is average and lower than 100 is better than average).

Player: Tony Cingrani, LHP, CIN
MiLB Line: 146.0 IP, 10.6 K/9, 3.3 BB/9, 0.38 HR/9, 2.53 FIP at High- and Double-A
MLB Line: 4.1 IP, 47.1% K, 5.9% BB, 62.5% GB, 0.85 SIERA, 29 xFIP-, 91 SCOUT-
Note: Even in just two relief appearances, Cingrani has managed to distinguish himself from his peers, striking out roughly half the 17 batters he’s faced. It hasn’t been a particularly suprising debut from the left-hander, who managed to strike out roughtly 30% of opposing batters in the minors this season while working in a starting capacity.

Player: Christian Garcia, RHP, WAS
MiLB Line: 51.1 IP, 11.2 K/9, 3.0 K/9, 0.00 HR/9, 1.70 FIP at Double- and Triple-A
MLB Line: 8.0 IP, 33.3% K, 6.1% BB, 16.7% GB, 2.49 SIERA, 94 xFIP-, 91 SCOUT-
Note: Mike Axisa recently wondered (in these same electronic pages) whether Garcia, who’s struck out precisely a third of the 33 major-league batters he’s faced, might become the Nationals’ answer to the version of Francisco Rodriguez who was so dominant for the 2002 iteration of the the Angels. The comp isn’t entirely fitting: Garcia actually both (a) throws harder than Rodriguez and (b) uses his changeup much more frequently — even if his breaking ball isn’t quite so effective as K-Rod’s was, then.

Player: Tyler Cloyd, RHP, PHI
MiLB Line: 167.0 IP, 6.0 K/9, 2.2 BB/9, 0.81 HR/9, 3.80 FIP at Double- and Triple-A
MLB Line: 28.0 IP, 22.6% K, 4.4% BB/9, 30.9% GB, 3.60 SIERA, 105 xFIP-, 92 SCOUT-
Note: Tyler Cloyd wasn’t particularly dominant in the minors — nor, as one might expect, has he dominated major leaguers, in particular. He does, however, possess the advantage of having (a) pitched decently, at least, as a major leaguer and (b) contributed offensively, which isn’t a thing to be overlooked.

Today’s Notable Games
Milwaukee at Cincinnati | 19:10 ET ***MLB.TV Free Game***
Here’s a thing that might happen: Tony Cingrani, celebrated above as one of this September’s great pitching call-ups, might pitch tonight.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Milwaukee Radio.

Kansas City at Detroit | 19:05 ET
Cleveland at Chicago AL | 20:10 ET
After Tuesday’s various results, the Tigers and White Sox begin today tied for first place in the AL Central. Rick Porcello (167.1 IP, 93 xFIP-, 3.0 WAR) starts tonight for the former; Hector Santiago (60.0 IP, 110 xFIP-, -0.2 WAR), for the latter.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: All the Good Ones.

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 3.6.

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
CC Sabathia NYA 9 7 3 4 1 MIN Samuel Deduno 13:10
Aaron Harang LAN 1 1 1 7 4 SD Clayton Richard 18:35
Jeremy Guthrie KC 2 7 4 5 7 DET Rick Porcello 19:05
Carlos Villanueva TOR 5 4 2 3 3 BAL Miguel Gonzalez 19:05
John Lannan WAS 1 7 2 6 4 PHI Kyle Kendrick 19:05
Josh Johnson MIA 6 4 3 6 4 ATL Paul Maholm 19:10
Shaun Marcum MIL 5 9 3 4 4 CIN Bronson Arroyo 19:10
Jeff Locke PIT 8 4 4 2 5 NYN Jeremy Hefner 19:10
Alex Cobb TB 7 6 6 5 7 BOS Jon Lester 19:10
Jarrod Parker OAK 6 6 4 6 3 TEX Martin Perez 20:05
Chris Carpenter* STL 7 9 5 4 6 HOU Bud Norris 20:05
Justin Masterson CLE 5 2 5 4 8 CHA Hector Santiago* 20:10
Jason Berken* CHN 4 2 2 6 4 COL Drew Pomeranz 20:40
Felix Hernandez SEA 9 4 6 8 4 LAA C.J. Wilson 22:05
Wade Miley AZ 7 7 4 4 6 SF Matt Cain 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.

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Anon
11 years ago

Hector Santiago with a higher discretionary NERD than Chris Carpenter?