Daily Notes: Phil Irwin Mostly, Considered for Your Pleasure

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

1. Featured Game: Cincinnati at Pittsburgh, 13:35 ET
2. Today’s MLB.TV Free Game
3. Today’s Game Odds, Translated into Winning Percentages

Featured Game: Cincinnati at Pittsburgh, 13:35 ET
Regarding This Game, Who’s Starting It for Pittsburgh
In terms of who’s starting this game for Pittsburgh, right-hander Phil Irwin is starting it for Pittsburgh and making his major-league debut while so doing.

Regarding Phil Irwin, A Notable Thing
A notable thing in terms of Phil Irwin is how, after posting merely above-average numbers (104.1 IP, 19.5% K, 4.0% BB, 3.40 FIP) in 16 starts last season at Double-A Altoona, how he posted elite numbers (21.0 IP, 31.5% K, 7.9% BB, 2.30 FIP) following a mid-August promotion to Triple-A Indianapolis — which elite numbers don’t even include a glorious start (7.0 IP, 24 TBF, 11 K, 1 BB, 0 HR, 2 H) in the International League playoffs.

Regarding Phil Irwin, Another Notable Thing
Another notable thing regarding Phil Irwin is his curveball — to which curveball one might theoretically refer as a “12-to-6” sort, but only on a clock face that was crafted by the all the gods together from all the world’s different spiritual traditions and then presented to Phil Irwin whilst he was losing his virginity.

Action Footage: Phil Irwin’s Curveball
Here is action footage of Phil Irwin’s curveball (to Detroit minor-leaguer John Lindsey from last year):

More Action Footgae: Phil Irwin’s Curveball
Here’s more action footage of Phil Irwin’s curveball (in this case to Danny Worth, from that same game as above):

A Caveat
The author would like to note that it’s entirely possible that Phil Irwin, despite his obvious charms, will not become a glorious or elite or even above-average major-league pitcher. His fastball, for example, does not distinguish itself in terms of velocity. And while his command appears to be above-average, he doesn’t have a lot beyond the curveball in terms of impressive individual offerings.

An Addendum to That Caveat
The author would like to continue noting that Irwin — owing to his rise from relative obscurity and to the brilliance of his curveball — is the sort of pitcher ones wants to have success. The author would also like to note that he has activated Phil Irwin on his (i.e. the author’s own) ottoneu fantasy team.

More Reading
Tim Williams of Pirates Prospects has an updated scouting report on Irwin. John Sickels has published the note on Irwin from his (i.e. Sickels’) most recent Prospect Handbook.

Today’s MLB.TV Free Game
Milwaukee at St. Louis | 14:15 ET ***MLB.TV Free Game***
Given the starting time of this game, starters Marco Esrada (12.0 IP, 3.32 xFIP) and Jaime Garcia (12.1 IP, 3.50 xFIP) — along with their Brewer and Cardinal teammates — will have about 40 minutes to watch Phil Irwin’s major-league debut.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Milwaukee Radio.

Today’s Game Odds, Translated into Winning Percentages
Note: the very proprietary and also critically acclaimed NERD game scores will become available again at the end of April/beginning of May.

Here — for purposes entirely of entertainment and not for gambling, which is a Scourge of Propriety — are all of today’s games with moneyline odds (from relatively “sharp” sportsbook Pinnacle Sports) translated into projected winning percentages (and adjusted to account for the vigorish).

Games are listed in Eastern Time, as the author has recently bothered to learn how to convert time zones in Excel. Game presented in order of (a) National League and then (b) American League and, finally, then (c) interleague play.

***Note: omitted from the following — because no odds were available on Sunday morning — is the Baltimore-New York AL (20:05 ET, Wei-Yin Chen vs. Hiroki Kuroda) game.***

Game	Teams	Starters	Line	Win%
13:10	Philadelphia Phillies	Roy Halladay	1.77	55.4%
ET	Miami Marlins	Kevin Slowey	2.20	44.6%
—	—	—	—	—
13:35	Atlanta Braves	Paul Maholm	2.34	41.9%
ET	Washington Nationals	Gio Gonzalez	1.69	58.1%
—	—	—	—	—
13:35	Cincinnati Reds	Mat Latos	1.66	59.0%
ET	Pittsburgh Pirates	Phil Irwin	2.39	41.0%
—	—	—	—	—
14:15	Milwaukee Brewers	Marco Estrada	2.44	40.2%
ET	St. Louis Cardinals	Jaime Garcia	1.64	59.8%
—	—	—	—	—
14:20	San Francisco Giants	Tim Lincecum	1.89	52.0%
ET	Chicago Cubs	Edwin Jackson	2.04	48.0%
—	—	—	—	—
16:10	Colorado Rockies	Jorge de la Rosa	1.92	51.2%
ET	San Diego Padres	Clayton Richard	2.01	48.8%
—	—	—	—	—
16:10	Los Angeles Dodgers	Josh Beckett	2.12	46.3%
ET	Arizona Diamondbacks	Trevor Cahill	1.83	53.7%
—	—	—	—	—
13:05	Chicago White Sox	Jake Peavy	1.80	54.4%
ET	Cleveland Indians	Brett Myers	2.15	45.6%
—	—	—	—	—
13:35	Tampa Bay Rays	Alex Cobb	2.21	44.4%
ET	Boston Red Sox	Clay Buchholz	1.76	55.6%
—	—	—	—	—
14:10	Toronto Blue Jays	Brandon Morrow	2.02	48.6%
ET	Kansas City Royals	Ervin Santana	1.91	51.4%
—	—	—	—	—
15:35	Houston Astros	Philip Humber	2.92	33.6%
ET	LAA Angels	C.J. Wilson	1.48	66.4%
—	—	—	—	—
16:05	Detroit Tigers	Anibal Sanchez	1.85	53.1%
ET	Oakland Athletics	Jarrod Parker	2.09	46.9%
—	—	—	—	—
16:10	Texas Rangers	Nick Tepesch	1.77	55.4%
ET	Seattle Mariners	Brandon Maurer	2.20	44.6%