Daily Notes: Early Returns on More First-Round Picks
Table of Contents
Here’s the table of contents for today’s edition of Daily Notes.
1. Early Returns on More First-Round Picks
2. Notable MLB Games (Including MLB.TV Free Game)
3. Today’s Complete Schedule
Early Returns on More First-Round Picks
What Happened Yesterday
In yesterday’s edition of the Notes, we looked at first-round picks from the recent draft who had 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.
Regarding the Public, Their Reaction to That Post Yesterday
The public reacted to yesterday’s post with praise, mostly. Effusive praise, one might say. Overwhelming praise, another one might say.
What’s Happening Today
What’s happening today is that same thing as yesterday — except, whereas yesterday we looked at picks from the top half of the first round, today we look at picks from the bottom half.
What the Public’s Reaction Is Likely to Be
More praise, one imagines. Fawning praise, perhaps. Unending praise, also perhaps.
Some Resources
In compiling both yesterday and today’s lists, the following sites have been helpful: Baseball America, Minor League Central, and Baseball Reference — and, of course, the present one.
More Notes on Signed Players
Below are more notes on signed players — in this case, from the bottom half of the first-round of the 2012 draft.
Player: D.J. Davis, TOR, 17th Overall
Team, League: GCL Blue Jays (Dunedin, FL), Gulf Coast League (Rookie)
Line: 26 PA, .250/.308/.250 (.462 BABIP), 3.8% BB, 42.3% K, 1-2 SB
Player: Deven Marrero, BOS, 24th Overall
Team, League: Lowell (MA) Spinners, New York-Penn League (Short-Season A)
Line: 5 PA, .500/.600/.500 (.667 BABIP), 20.0% BB, 20.0% K, 0-0 SB
Player: Stryker Trahan, ARI, 26th Overall
Team, League: AZL (Scottsdale, AZ) Diamondbacks, Arizona League (Rookie)
Line: 20 PA, .538/.650/1.077 (.556 BABIP), 30.0% BB, 15.0% K, 1-1 SB
Player: Clint Coulter, MIL, 27th Overall
Team, League: AZL Brewers (Phoenix, AZ), Arizona League (Rookie)
Line: 10 PA, .000/.000/.000 (.000 BABIP), 0.0% BB, 30.0% K, 0-0 SB
Player: Lewis Brinson, TEX, 29th Overall
Team, League: AZL Rangers (Surprise, AZ), Arizona League (Rookie)
Line: 20 PA, .294/.400/.529 (.500 BABIP), 15.0% BB, 35.0%, 0-0 SB
Notable MLB Games
Note: as of last night, the identity of today’s MLB.TV Free Game had not been revealed. Click here for would-be updates.
Arizona at Atlanta | 19:10 ET
Arizona right-hander Daniel Hudson (43.2 IP, 103 xFIP-, 0.3 WAR) faces Atlanta right-hander Tim Hudson (65.0 IP, 94 xFIP-, 1.4 WAR), creating the perfect excuse you’ve been waiting for to read British explorer Henry Hudson’s Wikipedia entry. Spoiler: he did not find a Northwest Passage. He did, however, die via mutiny.
Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Atlanta Radio.
Toronto at Boston | 19:10 ET
Think in your head about what percent of opposing batters Daisuke Matsuzaka, who starts tonight for the Red Sox, has probably walked so far this season. Did you think of a number yet? No? You walked to your refrigerator instead to grab a Shasta? That’s weird.
Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Toronto 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 4.9.
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 | Â | SP | Tm. | Gm. | Tm. | SP | Â | Home | Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| C.J. Wilson | LAA | 4 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 3 | BAL | Brian Matusz | 19:05 |
| Justin Masterson | CLE | 4 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 6 | NYA | Phil Hughes | 19:05 |
| Erik Bedard | PIT | 4 | 2 | 5 | 5 | 6 | PHI | Vance Worley | 19:05 |
| Daniel Hudson | AZ | 7 | 6 | 8 | 7 | 5 | ATL | Tim Hudson | 19:10 |
| Marco Estrada | MIL | 6 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 4 | CIN | Bronson Arroyo | 19:10 |
| Kyle Lohse | STL | 4 | 10 | 3 | 2 | 2 | MIA | Carlos Zambrano | 19:10 |
| Aaron Laffey* | TOR | 4 | 6 | 7 | 6 | 6 | BOS | D. Matsuzaka* | 19:10 |
| Drew Smyly | DET | 6 | 4 | 6 | 10 | 6 | TEX | Yu Darvish | 20:05 |
| Dillon Gee | NYN | 8 | 1 | 5 | 3 | 4 | CHN | Randy Wells* | 20:05 |
| Kip Wells* | SD | 3 | 5 | 2 | 5 | 3 | HOU | Jordan Lyles | 20:05 |
| Gavin Floyd | CHA | 5 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 4 | MIN | Liam Hendriks | 20:10 |
| Chris Archer* | TB | 10 | 4 | 6 | 5 | 3 | KC | Bruce Chen | 20:10 |
| Gio Gonzalez | WAS | 9 | 4 | 6 | 10 | 6 | COL | Chris. Friedrich | 20:40 |
| Travis Blackley | OAK | 4 | 4 | 2 | 5 | 2 | SEA | Jason Vargas | 22:10 |
| Clayton Kershaw | LAN | 9 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 2 | SF | Ryan Vogelsong | 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.
From the bottom half of the draft? Those guys are all first-rounders.
Indeed. As you say. Edited duly.
OMG A TYPO, i must report it before i even re-read the sentence to make sure it’s a typo
for reference, here’s the sentence you mean: “whereas yesterday we looked at picks from the top half of the first round, today we look at picks from the bottom half.”
and that’s because he already edited it, i suppose. apologies!
he meant the bottom half of the first round, i.e. picks 16-30.
The formula for NERD is broken. There’s no way Bronson Arroyo is worthy of a 4 NERD score.
The leg kick is worthy of bonus points.
bad pitchers get high scores too. Home runs are intriguing aren’t they? To soomeone who is just watching the game to pass time or watch some baseball, as much as a real fan should be fine with long ABs and little baserunners, unless there is a truly dominant performance, the utter failure is more watchable.
By the way, the Pitcher NERD on the Scoreboard page is broken – they look like old numbers?
http://www.fangraphs.com/livescoreboard.aspx?date=2012-06-26
Can you update the Team NERD table? A lot has happened since April. Like, for example, I’d like to see the backstory on how MIL is 2 points NERDier than CIN.
Rizzo starting at first tonight in an otherwise snooze fest of a game in NYM at CHN
The MLBTV free game is Dodgers-Giants. Kershaw!!
Kershaw vs Vogelson, a rivalry game between a hot team and not so hot team (or maybe just a team finally playing MLB quality teams) is rated lower than ATL vs ARZ? I’m a Braves fan, and HUDSON VS HUDSON has me intrigued, but come on now.
Dodgers swept both the Nationals and the Cardinals, for your information. They were just swept by the A’s. It’s more a case of a team of minor leaguers and utilitymen finally playing like a team of minor leaguers and utilitymen.
And the possibility of something like this happening should give every games Kershaw pitches a NERD score of 10 automatically.
By the way, the word “this” in the second paragraph is a link to this but the comment html apparently does nothing to distinguish links.