Episode 455
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 discusses, in more or less depth, the surprising accuracy of baseball projections.

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 42 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
Milwaukee at Arizona | 21:40 ET
Wily Peralta (80.2 IP, 94 xFIP-, 0.7 WAR) faces Brandon McCarthy (85.0 IP, 76 xFIP-, 0.7 WAR). The latter, as the table below illustrates, has produced the largest difference between park-adjusted ERA and xFIP among the league’s 99 qualified starters — an indication, very probably, that Brandon McCarthy will prevent runs more effectively in the near future than he has in the not very distant past.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Milwaukee 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
Los Angeles NL at Colorado | 20:40 ET
Hyun-Jin Ryu (58.1 IP, 86 xFIP-, 1.5 WAR) faces Eddie Butler (68.2 IP, 14.1% K, 6.7% BB at Double-A). The latter was ranked first among Rockies prospects this preseason by Marc Hulet and 15th among all prospects everywhere by that same polite Canadian. One finds that he (i.e. Butler, not Marc Hulet) has produced less than elite fielding-independent numbers this season at Double-A Tulsa. Even so, praise for his fastball — both its velocity and movement — is ubiquitous.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Colorado 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
St. Louis at Kansas City | 20:10 ET
Michael Wacha (73.1 IP, 83 xFIP-, 1.7 WAR) faces Yordano Ventura (57.1 IP, 83 xFIP-, 1.1 WAR). In or around 1964, very good boxer Cassius Clay suggested that, among all the qualities he possessed, that probably his youth and speed and invincibility were the most notable. This evening’s starters share the first two traits in some quantity. As they’re facing each other, however, they will likely demonstrate more in the way of beated-ness than Clay himself might have.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: St. Louis Radio.

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The Fringe Five is a weekly regular-season exercise, introduced last April by the present author, wherein that same ridiculous author utilizes regressed stats, scouting reports, and also his own heart to identify and/or continue monitoring the most compelling fringe prospects in all of baseball.

Central to the exercise, of course, is a definition of the word fringe, a term which possesses different connotations for different sorts of readers. For the purposes of the column this year, a fringe prospect (and therefore one eligible for inclusion in the Five) is any rookie-eligible player at High-A or above both (a) absent from all of three notable preseason top-100 prospect lists* and also (b) not currently playing in the majors. Players appearing on the midseason prospect lists produced by those same notable sources or, otherwise, selected in the first round of the amateur draft will also be excluded from eligibility.

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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
Boston at Cleveland | 19:05 ET
Brandon Workman (16.2 IP, 101 xFIP-, 0.4 WAR) faces Corey Kluber (80.0 IP, 67 xFIP-, 2.8 WAR). The latter recorded 60 strikeouts and just eight walks in May, which achievement (according to pensive bullfighter Jason Lukehart) makes Kluber only the 10th pitcher since 1914 to compile at least 60 strikeouts in a single month while also conceding fewer than 10 walks. The lowest career WAR of the first nine pitchers to accomplish the feat: 57.9, care of Sandy Koufax. The worst career park-adjusted ERA: Jim Kaat’s 93 ERA-. (See the full list of players via this custom leaderboard.)

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Cleveland Radio.

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Episode 454
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 considers, (among other considerations, Jon Singleton’s sign-and-promote deal with Houston.

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 40 min play time.)

Read the rest of this entry »

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

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
Pittsburgh at San Diego | 22:10 ET
Gerrit Cole (71.0 IP, 94 xFIP-, 0.5 WAR) faces Jesse Hahn (32.2 IP, 20.9% K, 8.2% BB at Double-A). The former is a 23-year-old who has recorded thus far the fourth-highest average fastball velocity, at 95.7 mph, among 101 qualified pitchers. The latter, making his major-league debut, is a 22-year-old right-hander who — according to multiple reports — is likely to sit at something like 93-96 mph with his fastball.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: San Diego Television?

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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 Los Angeles NL | 19:10 ET
Jose Quintana (67.1 IP, 88 xFIP-, 1.6 WAR) faces Clayton Kershaw (35.1 IP, 50 xFIP-, 1.2 WAR). Among the 172 pitchers who qualify for NERD — which is to say, pitchers who’ve recorded 20 innings or more as a starter — the latter has produced the best park-adjusted xFIP. By definition, the left-handed Quintana hasn’t done that. “Such is life,” one is compelled to say — in a foreign language, if at all possible.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Los Angeles NL Television.

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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
Atlanta at Miami | 13:10 ET
Aaron Harang (65.2 IP, 85 xFIP-, 2.0 WAR) faces Nathan Eovaldi (67.0 IP, 95 xFIP-, 1.0 WAR). In addition to having recorded the second-highest average fastball velocity among 101 qualified pitchers (tied with Garrett Richards behind Yordano Ventura), the latter has also recorded above-average walk and ground-ball rates. Indeed, Eovaldi is the only qualifier to have produced thus far an average fastball velocity of 95 mph or higher and a walk rate of 2.0 BB/9 or lower.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Atlanta Radio.

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