Table of Contents
Here’s the table of contents for today’s edition of Daily Notes.
1. Featured Game: Colorado at San Diego, 15:35 ET
2. Other Notable Games (Including MLB.TV Free Game)
3. Today’s Complete Schedule
Featured Game: Colorado at San Diego, 15:35 ET
Regarding Colorado’s Starting Pitcher
Making his major-league debut this afternoon for Colorado is left-handed and 25-year-old pitcher Christian Friedrich.
Regarding Who Is Christian Friedrich
Christian Friedrich was, at one point, a relatively celebrated prospect in the Rockies system — ranking third among Colorado minor leaguers, for example, in Baseball America‘s 2009 Prospect Handbook.
Regarding Who Is Christian Friedrich, Part II
Entering the 2012 season, Friedrich was decidedly less celebrated, ranking 14th in the Colorado system, per Baseball America. And 15th, per our Marc Hulet. And 14th, according to John Sickels. And 17th, according to Rockies SB Nation blog Purple Row.
Regarding What Maybe Made Friedrich Less Interesting
Injuries, a little bit. Loss of velocity, a little. Lack of command.
Regarding What Friedrich Is Doing So Far This Season
So far this season — his first in Triple-A — Friedrich has been excellent, actually, having posted this line through five starts: 30.0 IP, 8.10 K/9, 1.20 BB/9, 0.30 HR/9, 2.33 FIP.
Regarding What Friedrich Is Doing So Far This Season, Part II
Another thing Friedrich is doing this season, according to Bryan Kilpatrick of Purple Row, is commanding his pitches better and throwing his fastball at around 90 mph — which, both appear to be good signs for his future success.
In Terms of Who’s Facing Friedrich
In terms of who’s facing Friedrich tonight, it’s right-hander Anthony Bass (33.1 IP, 87 xFIP-, 0.5 WAR).
Readers’ Preferred Broadcast
Per the results of our offseason crowdsourcing project, FanGraphs readers prefer San Diego Television (link).
Other Notable Games
New York NL at Philadelphia | 19:05 ET
Mets right-hander Dillon Gee (starting tonight) has been decidedly ace-like through five starts. Line: 32.0 IP, 21.0% K, 5.8% BB, 53.8% GB, 3.17 SIERA, 84 xFIP-, 0.4 WAR. He faces real-live ace Cliff Lee (23.0 IP, 66 xFIP-, 0.6 WAR), although the latter will be limited to just 75-80 pitches as he returns from an oblique injury.
Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: New York NL.
San Francisco at Los Angeles NL | 22:10 ET ***MLB.TV Free Game***
It’s a broadcast-off between Dave Flemming and Jon Miller (on San Francisco radio) and Duane Kuiper and Mike Krukow (on San Francisco television) and Vin Scully (in the part of your brain responsible for producing feelings of nostalgia).
Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Los Angeles NL.
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 5.4.
Regard, a magnificent and sortable table:
Away SP Tm. Gm. Tm. SP Home Time Johnny Cueto CIN 5 4 6 5 9 MIL Zack Greinke 13:10 Tim Hudson* ATL 7 8 4 3 1 CHN Paul Maholm 14:20 Christian Friedrich* COL 9 9 8 5 8 SD Anthony Bass 15:35 Brandon Morrow TOR 6 6 5 3 3 OAK Brandon McCarthy 15:35 Jake Peavy CHA 6 5 6 5 6 CLE Jeanmar Gomez 19:05 Dillon Gee NYN 9 1 7 2 9 PHI Cliff Lee 19:05 Jeff Niemann TB 4 7 6 7 6 NYA David Phelps* 19:05 Colby Lewis TEX 4 10 4 5 2 BAL Wei-Yin Chen 19:05 Ross Detwiler WAS 6 1 5 1 6 PIT Erik Bedard 19:05 Josh Johnson MIA 7 4 5 7 2 HOU Lucas Harrell 20:05 Ervin Santana LAA 4 3 4 2 4 MIN Carl Pavano 20:10 Jon Lester BOS 4 5 5 9 4 KC Bruce Chen 20:10 Kyle Lohse STL 4 10 6 6 6 AZ Wade Miley* 21:40 Drew Smyly DET 8 2 5 4 3 SEA Jason Vargas 22:10 Tim Lincecum SF 6 4 5 5 5 LAN Chad Billingsley 22:10
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.
