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

1. Table: Every Team’s Park-Adjusted Home-Run Rate
2. Today’s Notable Games (Including MLB.TV Free Game)
3. Today’s Complete Schedule

Table: Every Team’s Park-Adjusted Home-Run Rate
The reader might be surprised to learn — as the author was surprised to learn — that the Cleveland Indians currently lead the entire major leagues in home runs. Nor is their success merely an illusion of park factors. In fact, Cleveland’s Progressive Field allows home runs at a rate somewhat below league average.

Below are the raw and adjusted home runs totals and rates for every major-league team currently. Note that home-run park factors for Mariners, Mets, and Padres don’t reflect all recent structural changes to those teams’ respective home parks. Note also that park factors have already been halved for use on full season stats.

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Episode 335
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. In this edition of FanGraphs Audio, he answers questions provided by the Unwashed Masses.

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 55 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. Pitcher NERD, Now Featuring Pace
2. Today’s Notable Games (Including MLB.TV Free Game)
3. Today’s Complete Schedule

Pitcher NERD, Now Featuring Pace
What the Reader Needs to Know
A thing the reader might need to know — to benefit from the present discussion, at least — is that NERD is the very proprietary watchability metric crafted artisanally by the present author and found daily in these Notes. (Read more about NERD here.)

What Else the Reader Needs to Know
Another thing the reader should know — again, with a view to benefiting from the present discussion — is that Pitcher NERD is the version of NERD which applies to pitchers exclusively.

A Note Regarding Pitcher NERD, Its Improvement
It has recently and somewhat emphatically been brought to the author’s attention that, while widely (and correctly) regarded as infallible, that Pitcher NERD might also (paradoxically?) benefit from the inclusion of an additional variable — namely, from the addition of pitcher pace.

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

1. Featured Game: Seattle at Pittsburgh, 12:35 ET
2. Other Notable Games (Including MLB.TV Free Game)
3. Today’s Complete Schedule

Featured Game: Seattle at Pittsburgh, 12:35 ET
Regarding This Game, One of Its Virtues
One of the virtues of this game is how, in Felix Hernandez (50.2 IP, 65 xFIP-, 1.6 WAR) and A.J. Burnett (42.0 IP, 68 xFIP-, 1.2 WAR), it features two of the major leagues’ strongest pitchers.

Regarding This Game, Another of Its Virtues
Another of this game’s virtues is how, owing to Pittsburgh’s excellent center-field camera, it will facilitate a much better angle for watching Felix Hernandez than the right-hander’s home stadium and camera do.

By Way of Example, Harang at Safeco
By way of example, here’s a screenshot from the first inning of Aaron Harang’s May 1st start against Baltimore at Safeco:

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The Fringe Five is a weekly exercise (introduced last month) wherein the 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 this exercise, of course, is a working definition of fringe. Currently, for the purposes of this column, it’s any prospect who was absent from all of three notable preseason top-100 prospect lists. (A more robust meditation on the idea of fringe can be found here.)

Since last week’s edition, there have been four total changes to The Fringe Five. Following his promotion to the majors, Corban Joseph was omitted from consideration last week. In the wake of his recent demotion, however, he’s become eligible again for inclusion here, per the author’s mostly arbitrary rules governing the matter. New to The Five is Cleveland right-handed prospect Danny Salazar, who, following an eight-strikeout performance on Tuesday, now has 38 strikeouts in his last four Double-A starts.

Demoted from The Five — for reasons that require no elaboration, declares the present author — are right-handed Rockies prospect Chad Bettis and White Sox middle infielder Marcus Semien.

Those caveats made, let’s proceed to this week’s Fringe Five.

Wilmer Flores, 2B/3B, New York NL (Profile)
Only two qualified Pacific Coast League batters are younger than Flores: uber-prospect Jurickson Profar and other uber-prospect Oscar Taveras. Nor are Flores’ present offensive indicators considerably different than either of theirs. Regard, Profar’s line as of Tuesday: 117 PA, 2 HR, 17 BB, 19 K. And also Taveras’s: 99 PA, 3 HR, 6 BB, 11 K. And now Flores’s: 129 PA, 1 HR, 9 BB, 13 K.

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Episode 334
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 analyzes things, many of which pertain to baseball.

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 37 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. Featured Game: Detroit at Washington, 19:05 ET
2. Other Notable Games (Including MLB.TV Free Game)
3. Today’s Complete Schedule

Featured Game: Detroit at Washington, 19:05 ET
Regarding This Game, Who’s Starting It for Detroit
Starting this game for Detroit is the league leader in pitcher WAR as of Monday, right-hander Anibal Sanchez.

Regarding This Game, Who’s Not Starting It
Not starting this game for Detroit is other league leader in pitcher WAR as of Monday, different right-hander Justin Verlander.

Regarding Those WAR Figures, A Question the Reader Might Have
A question the reader might have with regard to how only Monday (and not Tuesday) WAR figures are cited above is, “Why is that the case?”

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Episode 333
Mike Shannon has been a radio broadcaster for the St. Louis Cardinals since 1972. 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 14 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. Three Notable Eastern League Performances
2. SCOUT Leaderboards: Double-A Eastern League
3. Today’s Notable Games (Including MLB.TV Free Game)
4. Today’s Complete Schedule

Three Notable Eastern League Performances
The leaderboards for the Double-A Eastern League are below. Here are brief notes on three players from those leaderboards.

• J.R. Murphy and Christian Vazquez are both (a) among the Eastern League’s top prospect-age hitters per SCOUT, and (b) 22-year-old catching prospects. The former is in the Yankees system; the latter, in the Red Sox system. They’ve both posted walk-to-strikeout ratios above 1.0 so far, while also showing above-average power relative to the league. Sox Prospects refers to Vazquez as an “excellent defensive catcher.” Murphy split time between catching and third base in the low minors, which could potentially stall his development, although reports suggest that he’s improving constantly.

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