Table of Contents
Here’s the table of contents for today’s edition of the Daily Notes.

1. A Brief Guide to Yusmeiro Petit’s Start Today
2. Today’s Complete Schedule

A Brief Guide to Yusmeiro Petit’s Start Today
Introduction
In his most recent start, on September 6th against Arizona, 28-year-old Giants right-hander and former half-prospect Yusmeiro Petit retired the first 26 opposing batters he faced en route to a one-hit shutout of the Diamondbacks (box). Notably, this wasn’t even Petit’s most impressive recent start, so far his defense-independent marks are concerned: on September 1st, also against Arizona, he produced a 1.59 single-game xFIP in 6.0 innings (box).

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Introduction
The Fringe Five has been a weekly exercise (introduced in April) conducted by the author this year with a view to identifying the most compelling of those rookie-eligible minor leaguers excluded from three notable preseasoon top-100 prospect lists: Baseball America’s, Bullpen Banter’s, and FanGraphs’. Each week, the author submitted the names of five “compelling” minor leaguers, each name attended by a brief summary of that prospect’s most relevant credentials.

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Table of Contents
Here’s the table of contents for today’s edition of the Daily Notes.

1. A Graph Regarding Baserunning vs. Defense
2. Today’s MLB.TV Free Game
3. Today’s Complete Schedule

A Graph Regarding Baserunning vs. Defense
Introduction
Last (Monday) night, while inspecting the team leaderboards available at the present site, the author noted to his own self how the Seattle Mariners, while having produced a not entirely woeful batting line this season, had also recorded very much one of the league’s worst cumulative position-player WARs.

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Episode 379
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 largely discusses Mike Trout’s age-21 season, but also Mike Trout’s age-20 season, too.

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 41 min play time.)

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Table of Contents
Here’s the table of contents for today’s edition of the Daily Notes.

1. A Leaderboard with Yusmeiro Petit’s Name in It
2. Today’s MLB.TV Free Game
3. Today’s Complete Schedule

A Leaderboard with Yusmeiro Petit’s Name in It
Belabored Introduction
At a point in the not very distant past, right-hander Yusmeiro Petit was an actual, if slightly confounding, prospect, having compiled a 429:75 strikeout-to-walk ratio and 2.76 ERA in 346.0 minor-league innings through his age-20 season, during which season he recorded the large majority of his innings at Double-A. That he produced such high strikeout rates with a fastball that sat at 88-90 mph (or perhaps even lower) was regarded as a minor mystery. In any case, he appeared on Baseball America’s top-100 prospect list in both 2005 and 2006 — itself no small accomplishment.

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Table of Contents
Here’s the table of contents for today’s edition of the Daily Notes.

1. Top Games for All the People
2. Today’s Complete Schedule

Top Games for All the People
Introduction
Nothing debilitates the bespectacled reader like serious bodily injury. Beyond that, however, nothing debilitates like the prospect of having to choose which game to watch leisurely from one’s couch. The author has hopefully done something to combat these grievous conditions by providing below the curated list of today’s top games.

New York NL at Cleveland, 1:05pm ET
Last Saturday, Cleveland had something not unlike a 10-15% chance of making the playoffs in some capacity (i.e. by winning the division or qualifying for the wild-card game). Science informs us that those odds are much closer to 50% at the moment. “Life can change by upwards of 40 percentage points,” is the universal message one derives from these recent events. Impossible to ignore with regard to this game is how young and hard-throwing Danny Salazar is starting it for Cleveland.

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Table of Contents
Here’s the table of contents for today’s edition of the Daily Notes.

1. Much-Awaited Return of the Corey Kluber Society
2. Today’s MLB.TV Free Game
3. Today’s Complete Schedule

Much-Awaited Return of the Corey Kluber Society
The Purpose of This Post
The purpose of this post is to announce a meeting — in this case, at 6:05pm ET today (Saturday) — of the Corey Kluber Society.

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Episode 378
Dayn Perry is a contributor to CBS Sports’ Eye on Baseball and the author of three books, now — one of them serviceable and one of them, against all odds, something more than serviceable. He’s also the guest on this interminable 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 56 min play time.)

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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Table of Contents
Here’s the table of contents for today’s edition of the Daily Notes.

1. Statistical Update on 2013’s First-Round Picks
2. Today’s MLB.TV Free Game
3. Today’s Complete Schedule

Statistical Update on 2013’s First-Round Picks
The Purpose of This Post
The purpose of this post is to announce that the author has updated the custom leaderboard featuring every first-round pick from the most recent draft both to have signed and also played for an affiliate of the relevant drafting team.

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Cleveland right-hander Corey Kluber entered the 2013 season as a 27-year-old with fewer than 70 major-league innings. He’s departing it, however, having established himself as one of the club’s — and perhaps the league’s — most effective starters, having recorded strikeout and walk rates of 23.3% and 5.2%, respectively, and a 74 xFIP- that’s fifth among pitchers with 100-plus innings.

Nor does Kluber’s success appear to be founded upon deception alone. His two-seam fastball sits at 93-95 mph. He has command of a cutter, which he throws around 90 mph, to either side of the plate. His slider has excellent two-plane break.

In summary, Kluber’s career arc is an unusual one: he’s in what’s typically a player’s peak-age season, entered that season with little in the way of major-league experience, is having great success in the majors presently, and appears to have the armspeed/command capable of sustaining that success.

While the understated right-hander isn’t inclined to meditate at length on the significance of his achievement (“That’s external to what I’m trying to focus on,” he says), he did consent — while rehabbing from a sprained middle finger — to provide briefly for the present author a biography of sorts for each of his four pitches, which appears below.

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