Daily Notes: Detroit Prospect Crosby to Debut
Table of Contents
Here’s the table of contents for today’s edition of Daily Notes.
1. Actual Transaction News: Yesterday’s Three Promotions
2. Featured Game: New York AL at Detroit, 19:05 ET (Free Game)
3. One Other Notable Game
4. Today’s Complete Schedule
Actual Transaction News: Yesterday’s Three Promotions
Yesterday’s Promotions
Three notable players were promoted to the majors yesterday: Atlanta shortstop Andrelton Simmons, Dodgers outfielder Alex Castellanos, and Cardinals right-hander Maikel Cleto.
For More Information on Two of Those Players
For more information on Simmons, read Ben Duronio’s piece from yesterday. For more on Castellanos, read this piece by Jackie Moore — also from yesterday.
For More Information on Cleto
For more information on Cleto, regard these three bullet points.
• Has a fastball that sits — in relief, at least — at around 98 mph.
• Control was an issue (13.8% BB in 71.1 IP) following promotion to Triple-A last season, but less so in lower minors (ca. 8% BB in 63.1 IP) before that.
• Has pitched very well at Triple-A Memphis this season. Line: 26.0 IP, 11.77 K/9, 3.12 BB/9, 0.69 HR/9, 2.85 FIP.
Cleto’s Role
Cleto will pitch in relief for the Cardinals.
Featured Game: New York Americans at Detroit, 19:05 ET
The Notable Thing That’s Happening
The notable thing that’s happening in this game is that 23-year-old left-handed pitching prospect Casey Crosby is making his major-league debut for Detroit.
Regarding Who Is Casey Crosby
Crosby is a pitcher who was ranked fourth overall among Detroit prospects by our Marc Hulet before for the season. And third by John Sickels. And fourth by Baseball America, in their preseason Prospect Handbook.
Notes on Crosby, Courtesy Marc Hulet
“Crosby has three promising pitches in a 90-95 mph fastball, curveball, and changeup but he needs to improve his command of all three. His control has also suffered from his aggressive timetable and missed development.”
Notes on Crosby, Courtesy John Sickels
“High ceiling, could develop into a number two starter if he can resolve control/command problems. Needs a good dose of Triple-A.”
Notes on Crosby, Courtesy Baseball America
“Crosby throws two- and four-seam fastballs, working at 92-94 mph with the ability to hit 96. His size helps him get good downhill plane, which leads to swings and misses and ground outs. His curveball flashes plus potential with sharp bite and depth, though at times it can get slurvy. He throws his changeup with good arm speed and sink. Crosby still needs to make significant strides with throwing strikes.”
Regarding What I Added to Hulet’s Notes Above
An Oxford comma, is what, between the words curveball and and — because, all things being equal, I endeavor to use punctuation named after important world universities.
Like What Else
Like the noted Bologna ellipsis and equally noted Sorbonne guillemets.
Like What Not Else
Like not the Mercer County dash.
Crosby’s Numbers
Here are Crosby’s numbers at Triple-A this season (through nine starts, it would seem): 50.2 IP, 10.13 K/9, 4.62 BB/9, 0.71 HR/9, 3.52 FIP.
Readers’ Preferred Broadcast
Per the results of our offseason crowdsourcing project, FanGraphs readers prefer Detroit Radio (link).
Other Notable Games
Atlanta at Washington | 19:05 ET
Stephen Strasburg — scientifically proven by science to be baseball’s most interesting pitcher — starts for Washington. Some of Strasburg’s numbers so far this season: 58.0 IP, 29.9% K, 7.3% BB, 45.4% GB, 2.61 SIERA, 72 xFIP-, 1.7 WAR. Some other of his numbers, too: 96.0 mph average four-seam fastball, 11.2% swinging-strike rate, 23 years old.
Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Washington 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 5.1.
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 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mike Minor | ATL | 5 | 7 | 8 | 5 | 10 | WAS | St. Strasburg | 19:05 |
| Mark Buehrle | MIA | 3 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 3 | PHI | Kyle Kendrick | 19:05 |
| Carl Pavano | MIN | 4 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 1 | CLE | Derek Lowe | 19:05 |
| CC Sabathia | NYA | 8 | 5 | 9 | 4 | 10 | DET | Casey Crosby* | 19:05 |
| Clay Buchholz | BOS | 2 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 4 | TOR | Hend. Alvarez | 19:07 |
| Wei-Yin Chen | BAL | 3 | 5 | 7 | 5 | 8 | TB | David Price | 19:10 |
| Adam Wainwright | STL | 7 | 10 | 7 | 1 | 7 | NYN | Johan Santana | 19:10 |
| Mike Leake | CIN | 6 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 6 | HOU | J.A. Happ | 20:05 |
| Bartolo Colon | OAK | 4 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 7 | KC | Felipe Paulino | 20:10 |
| Kevin Correia | PIT | 0 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 0 | MIL | Randy Wolf | 20:10 |
| Felix Hernandez | SEA | 7 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | CHA | Jake Peavy | 20:10 |
| Chris Capuano | LAN | 6 | 5 | 6 | 8 | 7 | COL | Josh Outman* | 20:40 |
| Wade Miley | AZ | 3 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 4 | SD | Clayton Richard | 22:05 |
| Colby Lewis | TEX | 5 | 10 | 5 | 3 | 4 | LAA | Jerome Williams | 22:05 |
| Paul Maholm | CHN | 2 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 7 | SF | Mad. Bumgarner | 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.
How much of Josh Outman’s discretionary NERD comes from his name being “Out Man?” 4/7?
Allow me to ignore that question in the service of a more important gesture — namely, to thank you for coining the phrase “discretionary NERD.”
The other three points are from Jamie Moyer.
Your next post will be your 800th on FanGraphs proper, the most of anyone in the non-Dave Cameron division. Does it amaze you how quickly you went from the outsider literary guy here to a featured author and editor?
Marc Hulet better post something quick before he is consumed by hell fire.
If nothing else, it certainly appears to suggest that quantity is preferable to quality, wherein internetting journalism is concerned.
Oxford is right about the comma! Compare: “My heroes are my parents, Magglio Ordonez, and Alan Trammell.” with “My heroes are my parents, Magglio Ordonez and Alan Trammell.” The latter contains an odd implication about the identiy of my parents . . .
I also saw that example on wikipedia
The Oxford comma is good shit.
How does Strasburg’s hitting affect his NERD? You have “Pitcher” NERD and not “Pitching” NERD, so the NERD score should reflect not just the pitcher’s pitching. Strasburg should get bonus points for his “Do you seriously think Rick Ankiel should pinch hit for me when I have an OPS > 1.100″ contribution to the offense.
I can’t stand when the Oxford comma is not utilized.
well, sit down
I love how even though the Mets are +5 in wins based on luck, and even though they’re somewhat close to 33% for their playoff odds (at around 19 right now), their team NERD is still 1. That’s what awful fielding, awful speed, a payroll very close to average, a horrendous bullpen, and a complete inability to hit home runs will get you. It’s amazing that they win games.
Not sure about this, but it seemed like the playoff adjustments were not factored into the NERD scores for the individual teams, but rather into the overall game score. So the Mets could have a NERD of 1, but their playoff odds near 33% could add a point or so to the overall game score.
Crosby/Sabathia. Ugh. I’m gonna say the Yankees beat the Tigers, oh, about 10-3 tonight.
It’s either going to be that or a 3-0 Tiger win (actually, I think the Tigers get to CC tonight in their first game back from the trip, so let’s say 6-0). Crosby is likely either getting shelled or looking dominant. At the risk of summoning Joe Morgan, consistency really is this guy’s problem. The walks come in bunches, and his past 15 innings have contained exactly one base on balls (to go along with 16 strikeouts).
So a guy with about a 5 BB/9 is going to dominate the Yankees? I guess it’s possible, but probably not. The lineup tonight is Berry, Danny Worthless, Cabrera, Fielder, and then 5 just about automatic outs. When you say they’re going to “get to” Sabathia, do you mean emotionally, like with biting comments from the dugout about his weight?
this is just a suggestion, but you know how everyone was complaining that jamie moyer did not get enough NERD love? what about if, instead of doing straight age, players got credit for the absolute value of their age away from 30? so 20 and 40 would be the same. and jamie moyer would be as interesting as an 11 year old in the majors. side note: can you imagine an 11 year old pitching in the majors?!
No, I can’t. But I also can’t really imagine a 49-year-old pitcher in the majors.
i’d say age away from 32 or so. because 25 is much more exciting than 35, but 25 is similar to 39 in terms of excitement.
How are Felix and Peavy so low???
Gotta catch that big game between milwaukee and pittsburgh
Wow. That was one of the worst performances I’ve seen in a long, long time. The Tigers MLB best K/9 and BB/9 from the rotation is probably gone after that ****show.
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