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 Los Angeles AL | 22:05 ET
Dallas Keuchel (53.0 IP, 73 xFIP-, 1.2 WAR) faces Garrett Richards (52.0 IP, 81 xFIP-, 1.5 WAR). The former has produced surprisingly excellent numbers largely owing to his slider, the virtues of which pitch Eno Sarris documented recently at RotoGraphs. The latter has begun to record the sort of numbers one might expect given the quality of his repertoire — a trend which Jeff Sullivan recently examined at FanGraphs.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Houston 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
Tampa Bay at Los Angeles AL | 15:35 ET
David Price (62.2 IP, 67 xFIP-, 1.4 WAR) faces Matt Shoemaker (11.2 IP, 105 xFIP-, -0.1 WAR). After his most recent start, during which he recorded a 12:0 strikeout-to-walk over 9.0 innings while also conceding just a single run at Seattle (box), Price’s run-prevention numbers now more closely resemble his excellent fielding-independent ones. Of note with regard to his opponents, the Angels have thus far produced a park-adjusted batting line, park-adjusted home-run rate, base-running runs total, and defensive-runs figure all about a standard deviation or better than league average.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Tampa Bay Radio.

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Episode 449
Jeff Sullivan is a frequent contributor to the electronic pages of FanGraphs. He’s also the guest on this edition of FanGraphs Audio — in which edition is explored Sullivan’s deep depths.

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 17 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
Los Angeles NL at Arizona | 20:10 ET
Clayton Kershaw (20.2 IP, 41 xFIP-, 0.8) faces Chase Anderson (5.1 IP, 62 xFIP-, 0.1 WAR). The virtues of the former are manifest. The virtues of the latter aren’t entirely, but largely, summarized by means of the animated GIF below, which animated GIF depicts Chase Anderson’s fantastic changeup.

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 St. Louis | 20:15 ET
Ervin Santana (40.2 IP, 68 xFIP-, 1.1 WAR) faces Lance Lynn (47.0 IP, 91 xFIP-, 0.6 WAR). The former has produced the fifth-best park-adjusted xFIP among the league’s qualified starters thus far, while also having produced the third-most linear-weight runs by means of his slider.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Atlanta or St. Louis 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
San Diego at Cincinnati | 12:35 ET
Ian Kennedy (49.0 IP, 71 xFIP-, 1.3 WAR) faces Johnny Cueto (63.0 IP, 71 xFIP-, 1.1 WAR). In addition to having produced uncharacteristically excellent defense-independent numbers, the latter has also recorded a 99.5% left-on-base rate. By comparison, league average typically sits at ca. 73%. For further comparison, the best single-season mark among qualified starters since 2002 is 85.2%, care of then-Philadelphian J.A. Happ.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Cincinnati Radio.

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Each weekday during the minor-league season, FanGraphs is providing a status update on multiple rookie-eligible players. Note that Age denotes the relevant prospect’s baseball age (i.e. as of July 1st of the current year); Top-15, the prospect’s place on Marc Hulet’s preseason organizational list; and Top-100, that same prospect’s rank on Hulet’s overall top-100 list.

The New York Mets and also Yankees play each other today at 7:10pm ET. Both clubs feature a right-hander making his major-league debut. What follows is a brief report on both of them.

Jake deGrom, RHP, New York Mets (Profile)
Level: MLB   Age: 26   Top-15: 7th   Top-100: N/A
Line: 38.1 IP, 6.8 K/9, 2.4 BB/9, 0.5 HR/9, 3.72 FIP at Triple-A

Summary
Despite his age, deGrom has demonstrated promise, if also a lack of true swing-and-miss secondary pitches.

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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
New York AL at New York NL | 19:10 ET
Masahiro Tanaka (49.0 IP, 58 xFIP-, 1.2 WAR) faces Rafael Montero (41.2 IP, 24.1% K, 10.6% BB at Triple-A). The latter, who has typically produced more excellent numbers than one might otherwise expect from his armspeed and build, makes his major-league debut. The former has recorded both the second-best xFIP- and best overall swinging-strike rate among qualified starters.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: New York NL Television.

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What follows is an exercise not very different than that one performed on a slightly larger scale by the author at the very beginning of the season. As was the case with that post, this one represents an attempt to identify the rookie-eligible players* who are most ready to produce wins at the major-league level (regardless of whether they’re likely to receive the opportunity to do so). What it is not is an attempt to account for any kind of future value — for which reason it’s unlikely to resemble very closely those prospect lists which are typically released by more qualified writers at the beginning and middle of the season.

*In this case, defined as any player who’s recorded fewer than 130 at-bats or 50 innings — which is to say, there’s been no attempt to identify each player’s time spent on the active roster, on account of that’s a super tedious endeavor.

To assemble the following collection of 10 prospects, what I’ve done first is to calculate prorated rest-of-season WAR figures for all players for whom either the Steamer or ZiPS projection systems have produced such a forecast. Hitters’ numbers are normalized to 550 plate appearances; starting pitchers’, to 150 innings — i.e. the playing-time thresholds at which a league-average player would produce approximately a 2.0 WAR. Catcher projections are prorated to 415 plate appearances to account for their reduced playing time.

Owing to how the two systems are structured, the majority of the numbers which follow represent only the relevant prospect’s Steamer projection. Players eligible for the list either (a) enter their age-26 season or lower in 2014 or, alternatively, (b) were signed as international free agents this offseason.

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