Devised originally in response to a challenge issued by viscount of the internet Rob Neyer, and expanded at the request of nobody, NERD scores represent an attempt to summarize in one number (and on a scale of 0-10) the likely aesthetic appeal or watchability, for the learned fan, of a player or team or game. Read more about the components of and formulae for NERD scores here.

Most Highly Rated Game
Minnesota at Seattle | 22:10 ET
Yohan Pino (21.2 IP, 105 xFIP-, 0.6 WAR) faces Tom Wilhelmsen (47.0 IP, 96 xFIP-, 0.1 WAR). Following the decision to move Felix Hernandez’s next start back to Friday and, simultaneously, to demote right-hander Taijuan Walker to Triple-A Tacoma, Seattle has decided to use only relief pitchers against Minnesota today. A half-hearted inspection of the internet reveals that the White Sox attempted a nearly similar thing on April 30th of this year (although Hector Noesi, who’d made only relief appearances until that point, has gone on to record only starts since then). Otherwise, the most recent example of such a strategy appears to be that instance last September 1st when Jamey Wright started for Tampa Bay — a game, however, which will have been played just after late-season roster expansion.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Seattle Radio.

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Just over a month has passed since baseball’s amateur draft in early June, and a majority of the players selected during the first round of same have now both (a) signed with the relevant selecting club and (b) recorded either a plate appearance or inning as an actual professional.

What the author has done for this edition of the Prospect Watch is to produce a pair of leaderboards (one for batters; one, pitchers) of the aforementioned first-round selections, with a view towards monitoring the early production of these players. Links to the relevant FanGraphs leaderboards are available here: Batters / Pitchers.

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Devised originally in response to a challenge issued by viscount of the internet Rob Neyer, and expanded at the request of nobody, NERD scores represent an attempt to summarize in one number (and on a scale of 0-10) the likely aesthetic appeal or watchability, for the learned fan, of a player or team or game. Read more about the components of and formulae for NERD scores here.

Most Highly Rated Game
Chicago AL at Boston | 19:10 ET
Chris Sale (87.1 IP, 72 xFIP-, 2.9 WAR) faces Rubby de la Rosa (32.1 IP, 75 xFIP-, 0.7 WAR). The former is the best pitcher in the baseball who also resembles a child’s stick-figure portrait of a baseball pitcher. The latter returns to the majors after having compiled a series of five starts in late-May and June over which he recorded strikeout and walk rates of 24.0% and 6.4%, respectively, while also producing an above-average ground-ball rate and while also-also producing one of the league’s highest average fastball velocities.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Boston Radio.

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Episode 460
Dave Cameron is both (a) the managing editor of FanGraphs and (b) the guest on this particular edition of FanGraphs Audio — during which edition he obviously discusses the A’s-Cubs trade that occurred this past week.

Don’t hesitate to direct pod-related correspondence to @cistulli on Twitter.

You can subscribe to the podcast via iTunes or other feeder things.

Audio after the jump. (Approximately 46 min play time.)

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Devised originally in response to a challenge issued by viscount of the internet Rob Neyer, and expanded at the request of nobody, NERD scores represent an attempt to summarize in one number (and on a scale of 0-10) the likely aesthetic appeal or watchability, for the learned fan, of a player or team or game. Read more about the components of and formulae for NERD scores here.

Most Highly Rated Game
Toronto at Los Angeles AL | 22:05 ET
R.A. Dickey (112.0 IP, 110 xFIP-, 0.6 WAR) faces Tyler Skaggs (84.1 IP, 94 xFIP-, 1.3 WAR). The former, despite continuing to produce less excellent defense-independent numbers than in 2012, still prevents sufficient runs by means of the knuckleball — which baseball pitch famous and droll American painter James McNeill Whistler likely would have praised (had he not died instead) on the grounds that it is equal parts beautiful and amusing.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Toronto Radio.

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Devised originally in response to a challenge issued by viscount of the internet Rob Neyer, and expanded at the request of nobody, NERD scores represent an attempt to summarize in one number (and on a scale of 0-10) the likely aesthetic appeal or watchability, for the learned fan, of a player or team or game. Read more about the components of and formulae for NERD scores here.

Most Highly Rated Game
Houston at Texas | 20:05 ET
Jarred Cosart (100.2 IP, 106 xFIP-, 1.2 WAR) faces Miles Mikolas (5.1 IP, 107 xFIP-, 0.0 WAR). Because he most probably resides within that bubbling cauldron of freedom called the United States, the reader is at liberty to watch, for example, Jake Odorizzi and James Shields face their respective former teams simultaneously in Tampa Bay or Washington-right-hander Stephen Strasburg treat with undue cruelty the Orioles lineup. What this particular game offers, however, is the opportunity to perform invaluable reconnaissance on Texas right-hander Miles Mikolas — which 25-year-old recorded strikeout and walk rates of 20.0% and just 1.6%, respectively, in the PCL this season and apparently also possesses a fastball that sits at 92-93 mph.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Texas Radio.

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Devised originally in response to a challenge issued by viscount of the internet Rob Neyer, and expanded at the request of nobody, NERD scores represent an attempt to summarize in one number (and on a scale of 0-10) the likely aesthetic appeal or watchability, for the learned fan, of a player or team or game. Read more about the components of and formulae for NERD scores here.

Most Highly Rated Game
Arizona at Atlanta | 13:35 ET
Wade Miley (113.1 IP, 90 xFIP-, 0.8 WAR) faces Alex Wood (73.1 IP, 80 xFIP-, 1.0 WAR). In addition to having recorded an above-average park-adjusted xFIP (90 xFIP-) and swinging-strike rate (9.8%) and overall strike rate (64.7%) relative to his starting peers, the former has also produced the third-fastest working rate (just 18.8 seconds between pitches, on average) among the 193 pitchers to’ve thrown 20-plus innings in a starting capacity. This isn’t to ignore Alex Wood’s virtues, of course — which pitcher (i.e. Wood) has also produced a working pace (20.1 sec) more than a standard deviation better than average while also recording a 82 xFIP- as a starter this season.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Atlanta Radio.

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Each week, we publish north of 100 posts on our various blogs. With this post, we hope to highlight 10 to 15 of them. You can read more on it here. The links below are color coded — green for FanGraphs, brown for RotoGraphs, purple for NotGraphs, dark red for The Hardball Times and blue for Community.

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Devised originally in response to a challenge issued by viscount of the internet Rob Neyer, and expanded at the request of nobody, NERD scores represent an attempt to summarize in one number (and on a scale of 0-10) the likely aesthetic appeal or watchability, for the learned fan, of a player or team or game. Read more about the components of and formulae for NERD scores here.

Most Highly Rated Game
Seattle at Chicago AL | 14:10 ET
Felix Hernandez (128.1 IP, 61 xFIP-, 4.8 WAR) faces Jose Quintana (104.2 IP, 88 xFIP-, 2.6 WAR). After his most recent appearance, the former has now produced the fifth-lowest park- and league-adjusted xFIP among qualified starters since 2002 (i.e. the earliest year for which that metric is available) — and the absolute lowest such mark since Randy Johnson recorded a 59 xFIP- with Arizona in 2004.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Seattle Radio.

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Episode 459
Jeff Sullivan is a frequent contributor to the electronic pages of FanGraphs. He’s also the guest on this edition of FanGraphs Audio.

Don’t hesitate to direct pod-related correspondence to @cistulli on Twitter.

You can subscribe to the podcast via iTunes or other feeder things.

Audio after the jump. (Approximately 1 hr 27 min play time.)

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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