Justin Verlander notched win No. 20 this past weekend. With the victory, he became the season’s first to reach the milestone, and perhaps most impressively, the first AL pitcher to hit the 20-win mark through August since Roger Clemens did it in 1997 with Toronto.

Combine factoids like this with his tremendous numbers so far, and it’s easy to see why many are boarding the Verlander-for-Cy Young Award bandwagon. And that might just be the start: Verlander now has emerged as a legitimate candidate for the American League’s Most Valuable Player award. But should be considered for the honor? In fact, should any pitcher win an MVP? Heck, is Verlander even a lock for the Cy Young?

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Like Paul Scheer on that one episode of Parks and Rec, the Angels KaBoom-ed It last night.

Featured Game
Los Angeles Americans (6) at Texas (7) | 20:09 ET
• After last night’s Angel victory — which included five Angel home runs — these two teams are separated by just two games in the AL West.
• Per Cool Standings, the Angels’ and Rangers’ odds of making the postseason are 29.7% and 71.0%, respectively.
• Notable thing: of all the players from last night’s game, Ranger (and former Angel) Mike Napoli actually had the highest WPA, at .137.
• He did also have an error and passed ball, too.
• Finally, Mike Trout Watch. Last night: 5 PA, 0 K, 0 BB, 1 HR. Since re-recall: 20 PA, 2 K, 1 BB, 2 HR.

Also Playing
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.

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Back on July 30, the New York Yankees shelled Baltimore Orioles’ rookie Zach Britton. The 23-year-old lefty struck out Derek Jeter to lead off the bottom of the first, but then gave up seven hits, a walk and nine runs — six of which were earned. Forty-three pitches later, Britton was done — and the Jeter K was his lone out.

Fast forward to Sunday, when Britton was going against nearly the same lineup — plus a healthy Alex Rodriguez — and tossed seven shutout innings en route to his eighth victory of the season. After such an abysmal outing last month, he allowed just four hits and a walk, while striking out five. None of Britton’s five Yankee baserunners reached second base. In fact, even after his exit, the Yankees failed to move a runner in to scoring position as Jim Johnson and Kevin Gregg worked the final two innings to preserve the combined shutout.

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Photo courtesy author’s personal space camera.

Featured Game
Los Angeles Americans (5) at Texas (7) | 20:05 ET
• AL West Watch: after last night’s game between the two teams (an 11-7 Ranger win), the Angels are 3.0 games behind the Rangers in the AL West.
• Playoff Odds Watch: per Cool Standings, the Angels’ and Rangers’ postseason odds are at 79.6% and 21.2%, respectively.
• Mike Trout Watch: (since his recent promotion) 16 PA, 2 K, 1 BB, 1 HR.
• Hurricane Watch: hurricane-y?
• Author Watch: generally vertical.

MLB.TV Audio Feed: Rangers Radio.

Also Playing
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 5.9.

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We’re pleased to announce today that FanGraphs is now hiring, and we’re looking for talented writers with interesting things to say about the sport. While this is FanGraphs and an analytical bent will certainly be of good use here, we also employ Carson Cistulli – writers of all shades are welcome to apply.

If you’re a writer looking for a paid, part-time position and a chance to show the world what you’ve got, drop us a line at wanted@fangraphs.com with the subject line “FanGraphs Writer Application – 2011” (note – this is very helpful to us. Please do this.) Resumes and/or samples of your prior writings are strongly encouraged. Applications will be accepted for positions with FanGraphs, RotoGraphs, and NotGraphs, though Carson suggests that NotGraphs applicants should “have a working knowledge both of the WAR leaderboards and the collected works of PG Wodehouse.”

Strong applicants will be able to write in a clear and concise manner, provoke interesting discussion with original thoughts, and work within a regular schedule to produce content on a consistent basis. A solid understanding of how to work with the data here on the site is also going to be necessary. If that describes you, feel free to drop us a line, and we’ll review your application and see if you’d be a good fit to join the site.

Most contenders didn’t get a shot at some of the biggest bats to hit the waiver wire. Earlier this week the Twins placed two desirable hitters, Jim Thome and Jason Kubel, on trade waivers, and both were claimed by teams on the fringe of contention. Kubel will stay put, while Thome heads to Cleveland. Left in the dust were teams such as the Angels, Rangers, Yankees, Red Sox, Tigers, and the entire National League. Yet if any of these teams want to add a left-handed bench hitter there is one readily available.

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St. Louis Cardinals general manager John Mozeliak recently told a reporter that the team has “unofficially” decided to pick up Adam Wainwright’s team option. That might have seemed like a foregone conclusion before the season, but Wainwright has missed the entire 2011 season with Tommy John surgery. The option isn’t just a one-year option, either. It is an option for both 2012 and 2013 worth a total of $21 million. Wainwright has been an outstanding pitcher in the past, and we’ve seen pitchers come back from Tommy John successfully before. Assuming the Cardinals make the decision “official,” it is interesting to speculate not only on what Wainwright has to do to make the contract “worth it,” but also on what it means for how the Cardinals perceive their near future.

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This morning, Buster Olney took to twitter to offer some more thoughts on WAR, which I think we can surmise is not his favorite statistic. At the risk of making a habit out of responding to Buster’s twitter messages with FanGraphs posts, I did have some thoughts about a few of the things he mentioned, and those thoughts are longer than 140 characters, so I’m putting them here. The subject is worth discussing anyway, and hopefully we can articulate some points about WAR and various other metrics in a way that helps bridge gaps that may currently exist. At least, that’s my goal.

Let’s start off with Buster’s comments:

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“What is art?” no tolerable person ever asks.

Featured Game
Los Angeles Americans (5) at Texas (7) | 20:05 ET
• A lot of people don’t know that, when he wrote the first draft of his “Drugs sell themselves” joke, Chris Rock actually first used “Friday night’s Angels-Rangers game” instead.
• He was like, “Angels-Rangers sells itself.”
• “It’s not an encyclopedia. It’s not an effing vacuum cleaner.”
• “You don’t really gotta try to sell Angels-Rangers,” etc.
• I mean, why would I lie about this?

MLB.TV Audio Feed: Rangers Radio.

Also Playing
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.

Read the rest of this entry »