Episode 185
Contributor to CBS Sports’ Eye on Baseball and author of two books (one of them decent) Dayn Perry makes his regular weekly appearance on FanGraphs Audio. Discussed: not so much wrestling in the 1980s as Perry’s memories of wrestling in the 1980s. Invoked: the phrase “crimson mask” over and over.

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

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Audio after the jump. (Approximately 49 min. play time.)

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NOTE: precisely 258 respondents to the poll below believe that 10.3 Nationals batters will strike out against Phillies pitching tonight. Standard deviation: 3.3.

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

1. Featured Game: Washington at Philadelphia, 19:05 ET
2. Shameless Poll Situation: National Strikeouts
3. Other Notable Games (Including MLB.TV Free Game)
4. Today’s Complete Schedule

Featured Game: Washington at Philadelphia, 19:05 ET
Regarding Who’s Pitching This Game
In terms of who’s pitching this game, it’s Edwin Jackson for Washington and Cole Hamels for Philadelphia.

Why Anyone Should Give a Care
A reader might be interested to know — apropos tonight’s starters Edwin Jackson and Cole Hamels — that they’ve both, generally speaking, been excellent this season. Like, how Jackson has posted this line: 51.2 IP, 88 xFIP-, 0.9 WAR. And how Hamels has posted this one: 54.1 IP, 78 xFIP-, 1.5 WAR.

Why Else Anyone Might Give a Care
A reader might also be interested to know that Jackson (at 13.1%) and Hamels (at 13.0% even) are ranked second and third, respectively, among 118 qualified starters in terms of swinging-strike rate.

What That Means, Generally
Generally speaking, a high swinging-strike rate leads to a high strikeout rate. (The two variables together have an r-squared of about 0.70.)

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Episode 184
Managing editor Dave Cameron makes his weekly appearance. Topics discussed: how Josh Hamilton‘s offensive approach sort of does — but also totally doesn’t — resemble Delmon Young’s; this week’s iteration of SI.com’s Power Rankings and the challenges of assessing team defense; and the Tampa Bay Rays’ sabermetric broadcast from Sunday.

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 34 min. play time.)

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

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

Featured Game: Washington at Philadelphia, 19:05 ET
Regarding a Thing Bill James Said
Bill James said — while promoting his true-crime book last year on Sounds of Young America, I think it was — Bill James said something to the effect that “People are interested in things that other people are interested in.”

An Example of That Phenomenon in Action
An example of that phenomenon is any article you’d read in the Daily News, probably. Like about the murders in the Daily News. Or about how a woman was fired from her job for being too busty in the Daily News.

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Episode 183
David Laurila (@DavidLaurilaQA), curator of FanGraphs’ Q&A Series, talks both to Indians rock-and-roll pitching coach Scott Radinsky and also closer Chris Perez.

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

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Audio after the jump. (Approximately 19 min. play time.)

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In the great American tradition of “belaboring the point,” the author presents here another installment in an ongoing consideration of baseball’s various radio and television broadcasts — a project, it should be said, that has been greatly aided by the efforts of our readership.

Against all odds, this post actually does add something to the conversation. In fact, it might be the most important addition, in that it comes closest to answering a question entirely relevant to consumers of over-the-air baseball — especially the sort who read FanGraphs.

On both the PC* and PlayStation 3 (and perhaps some other) versions of MLB.TV, it’s possible to select an audio feed to accompany the video of a selected game. The question that has often occured to the author — and very likely to many readers, as well — is, “Which audio feed is likely to best complement the video of this game?” Or, alternatively: “Which audio feed won’t compel me to perform acts of violence against my person?”

*Provided the NexDef plug-in — the efficacy of which is a different conversation — is installed.

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

1. Featured Game: Texas at Seattle, 22:10 ET
2. Other Notable Games (Including MLB.TV Free Game)
3. Today’s Complete Schedule

Featured Game: Texas at Seattle, 22:10 ET
An Unavoidable Fact Regarding This Game
An unavoidable fact regarding this game is that it features very famous right-handed pitchers Yu Darvish (52.0 IP, 88 xFIP-, 1.2 WAR) of Texas and Felix Hernandez (62.2 IP, 80 xFIP-, 1.7 WAR) of Seattle.

Regarding Where “Of Texas,” Specifically
The Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, specifically. The city of Arlington, even more specifically than that.

Regarding Where “Of Seattle,” Specifically
The SoDo neighborhood, specifically. (South of Dome or Downtown, that means.)

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

1. Featured Game: Boston at Philadelphia, 13:35 ET
2. Largely Superfluous Video: Cliff Lee’s May 15th Start
3. Other Notable Games (Including MLB.TV Free Game)
4. Today’s Complete Schedule

Featured Game: Boston at Philadelphia, 13:35 ET
Cliff Lee Status Update
Here’s a status update for 33-year-old left-hander Cliff Lee, who starts this afternoon for Philadelphia: 37.0 IP, 26.2% K, 3.1% BB, 61.1% GB, 2.09 SIERA, 61 xFIP-, 1.1 WAR.

Regarding Lee’s Strikeout Rate, Where It’d Rank in Terms of His Career
Regarding Lee’s present strikeout rate, it would represent the best mark of his career were the season to end today. (He posted a 25.9% strikeout rate last season.)

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

1. Featured Game: St. Louis at Los Angeles NL, 22:10 ET
2. Other Notable Games (Including MLB.TV Free Game)
3. Today’s Complete Schedule

Featured Game: St. Louis at Los Angeles NL, 22:10 ET
Status Update: St. Louis Offense
As of Friday, St. Louis continued to lead the majors both in batter WAR (13.3) and wRC+ (128).

Other Status Update: St. Louis Offense
On Friday, St. Louis scored four runs through the first three innings* of their game against Ted Lilly and the Dodgers (although, as their .322 wOBA through those first three innings indicates, it wasn’t necessarily a dominant performance early on).

*At which point, the author, who shares a great deal in common with America’s geriatric population, made his way bedward.

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Episode 182
David Laurila (@DavidLaurilaQA), curator of FanGraphs’ Q&A Series, talks both to Mariners catcher John Jaso and Seattle Times beat writer Geoff Baker.

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 28 min. play time.)

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