Daily Notes: Zack Wheeler Debuts Today, For Your Information
Table of Contents
Here’s the table of contents for today’s edition of the Daily Notes.
1. Featured Game: New York NL at Atlanta, 19:10 ET
2. Today’s MLB.TV Free Game
3. Today’s Complete Schedule
Featured Game: New York NL at Atlanta, 19:10 ET
The Purpose of This Post, Predominantly
The purpose of this post predominantly is to prolong the author’s employment with FanGraphs, Inc., by another day.
The Purpose of This Post, Less Predominantly
The purpose of this post less predominantly is to announce how largely celebrated right-handed prospect Zack Wheeler is starting this game for the Mets.
Regarding Wheeler, Very Basic Information Concerning Him
Wheeler was drafted sixth overall by the San Francisco Giants out of a Georgia high school in 2009. He was acquired by the Mets in the trade that sent Carlos Beltran to San Francisco in 2011. His stuff is considered to be rather excellent. He’s posted more strikeouts (420) than innings (391.1) as a minor leaguer.
Regarding Wheeler, More Advanced Information Concerning Him
More advanced information concerning Wheeler will appear later today, courtesy real-live prospect analyst Marc Hulet.
Regarding Wheeler, His Place Among Different Prospect Lists
Here’s where Wheeler ranked on assorted notable prospect lists this preseason:
Baseball America: 11th.
Baseball Prospectus: 5th.
Bullpen Banter: 7th.
Marc Hulet: 9th.
Keith Law: 13th.
John Sickels: 15th.
Action Footage: Wheeler’s Curveball
Here’s footage of Wheeler’s curveball to former minor-league teammate Gary Brown from a June 1st game between Mets Triple-A affiliate Las Vegas and Giants affiliate Fresno:
Action Footage: Wheeler’s Changeup, Maybe
Here’s footage of Wheeler’s changeup, maybe — or, of a fastball with considerable run and depth — to Fresno’s Todd Linden, also from that June 1st game:
Today’s MLB.TV Free Game
Chicago AL at Minnesota | 20:10 ET
Dylan Axelrod (74.0 IP, 124 xFIP-, 0.5 WAR) faces Mike Pelfrey (64.2 IP, 123 xFIP-, 0.7 WAR). Insofar as any baseball game could potentially offer Entertainment Nonpareil, so could this game between the White Sox and Twins potentially offer Entertainment Nonpareil. Insofar as the game features two below-average pitchers and two below-average offenses, however, it’s not particularly likely.
Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Minnesota 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 6.1.
Note: the following table is entirely sortable.
| Away | SP | Tm. | Gm. | Tm. | SP | Home | Time | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chris Archer* | TB | 6 | 9 | 5 | 9 | 0 | BOS | Alfredo Aceves | 13:05 |
| Matt Harvey | NYN | 10 | 6 | 9 | 8 | 8 | ATL | Alex Wood* | 13:10 |
| Ervin Santana | KC | 7 | 4 | 6 | 7 | 5 | CLE | Ubaldo Jimenez | 19:05 |
| Hyun-Jin Ryu | LAN | 7 | 2 | 5 | 4 | 5 | NYA | Phil Hughes | 19:05 |
| Ross Detwiler | WAS | 4 | 2 | 5 | 2 | 8 | PHI | Cliff Lee | 19:05 |
| Jeff Francis | COL | 6 | 10 | 6 | 5 | 4 | TOR | Esmil Rogers* | 19:07 |
| Zach Britton* | BAL | 4 | 8 | 7 | 7 | 9 | DET | Jus. Verlander | 19:08 |
| Zack Wheeler* | NYN | 14 | 6 | 9 | 8 | 4 | ATL | Paul Maholm | 19:10 |
| Charlie Morton* | PIT | 6 | 6 | 6 | 4 | 7 | CIN | Mat Latos | 19:10 |
| Jake Odorizzi* | TB | 7 | 9 | 7 | 9 | 5 | BOS | Felix Doubront | 19:10 |
| Jarrod Parker | OAK | 3 | 7 | 6 | 3 | 10 | TEX | Yu Darvish | 20:05 |
| Dylan Axelrod | CHA | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 0 | MIN | Mike Pelfrey | 20:10 |
| Alfredo Figaro* | MIL | 8 | 4 | 6 | 3 | 6 | HOU | Jordan Lyles | 20:10 |
| Jeff Samardzija | CHN | 10 | 5 | 8 | 3 | 9 | STL | Ad. Wainwright | 20:15 |
| Nathan Eovaldi* | MIA | 6 | 1 | 5 | 3 | 7 | AZ | Randall Delgado* | 21:40 |
| Jer. Bonderman* | SEA | 5 | 4 | 6 | 6 | 7 | LAA | Joe Blanton | 22:05 |
| Andrew Cashner | SD | 6 | 8 | 6 | 6 | 5 | SF | Matt Cain | 22:15 |
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.
Carson Cistulli has published a book of aphorisms called Spirited Ejaculations of a New Enthusiast.
That Mets-Brave doubleheader is must-watch baseball. Unfortunately Paul Maholm brings it down a little bit, but the first game is also Harvey vs. the major league debut of Alex Wood!
I’m sure you mean 1st MLB start for Wood, he has 6 bullpen appearances.
It’s his debut as a starter, then.
more editing:
“He’s posted more strikeouts (420) than innings (391.1) as a major leaguer.”
pretty sure you mean minor leaguer…
Indeed. Duly edited. Thanks.
Just saw the starting lineups for the Harvey game. Looks like Fredi is using it as a spring training game. Wood is on an 80 pitch limit. Vegas has it a even money.
Fredi the Tinkerer, at work again. Might as well feed the backups to Harvey rather than the new guy, right? I mean, it’s a double header and all so people are going to sit. But why sit 3 of your best 5 hitters in the same game? I’d AT LEAST like to see McCann replace Laird in the early lineup. Gattis caught last night and McCann is fresh. But Fredi would rather give away entire games than a few PA. But we should all know by now that Fredi gonna Fredi.
I think there was an article on Hardball times where they analyzed if it made sense to match up your worst pitcher vs. the other team’s best pitcher, so you would have a bigger edge in the other games of the series.
From memory, the answer was a resounding NO, it was a lemon strategy.
Probably a coincidence, but it did cross my mind when seeing today’s Braves/Mets lineups as something Fredi would try to do…
The Nets are playing baseball? And what’s more, they have two stud starters??? AM I TAKING CRAZY PILLS???????
How does a team with Yasiel Puig only have a 2 NERD. He’s at least 5 NERD on his own.
maths. that’s how.
Upvoted for spelling of “maths”
Yes but have you seen that infield?
If MLB was really smart, they would broadcast that Minnesota/Chicago game to you unless you pay them not to.
On a day where every other game NERD is at least 5, the free game has a NERD of 1. Thanks alot MLB.
Wheeler has a NERD of 14? I thought the highest you could get was 10.
Cistulli does that a lot with pitchers below the inning threshold. “Nerd at discretion of very handsome author.”
The orange-clad woman in the front row has SCANT apparent interest in base-ball.