Over the course of this week, we’ve been releasing the results of our radio broadcaster rankings — itself the product of reader crowdsourcing, and a logical companion to the television broadcaster rankings released in March.
Click the relevant links to read about radio broadcast Nos. 30 – 21, Nos. 20 – 11, and Nos. 10 – 1.
Below is a complete (and sortable) table of the radio broadcast rankings, followed by some notes on same.
Table of Contents
Here’s the table of contents for today’s edition of Daily Notes.
1. Featured Game: Baltimore at Washington, 19:05 ET
2. Other Notable Games (Including MLB.TV Free Game)
3. Today’s Complete Schedule
Featured Game: Baltimore at Washington, 19:05 ET
Regarding What Today Represents
Today represents the first slate of interleague games this season.
Regarding What Else Today Represents
Today also represents the first time various sportswriters will carry on at length concerning the value and/or meaning of interleague play this season.
Regarding What This Game, Specifically, Represents
This game, specifically, represents the first time that Mid-Atlantic half-rivals Baltimore and Washington have entered interleague play in something resembling “contention” since Pythodorus was archon of Athens.
At the beginning of March, we released the results of our television broadcaster rankings — itself the product of reader crowdsourcing that had started in late November. Since then, FanGraphs has asked readers to rate the radio broadcast teams (on a scale of 1-5 for charisma, analysis, and then overall) for all 30 major-league clubs — with the intention, ultimately, of determining which broadcasts might best reflect the sorts of inquiry and analysis performed here at the site.
Below are the 10th- through top-ranked radio broadcast teams, per the FanGraphs readership.
But first, three notes:
• Teams are ranked in ascending order of Overall rating. Overall ratings are not merely averages of Charisma and Analysis.
• I’ve attempted to choose reader comments that are either (a) illustrative of the team’s place in the rankings or (b) conspicuously amusing.
• A complete table of ratings and ballots cast will appear in these pages Friday.
10. Tampa Bay Rays
Broadcasters: Andy Freed and Dave Wills
Ratings (Charisma/Analysis/Overall): 4.1, 4.0, 4.2
Three Reader Comments
• Regarding a promotion on the White Sox feed for XM Radio: “[T]he flashback highlight would always be Mark Buehrle’s perfect game, thrown against the Tampa Bay Rays. However, the voice in the clip they play belongs to Dave Wills, not Ed Farmer (and the Rays were the visitors that day).”
• “They knew more about Twins players than the Twins broadcast team.”
• “Would like to hear these guys discretely split up calling the game while the other keeps quiet. They often sound so alike you can’t tell which is doing the talking.”
Notes
In the vein of that third note above, there are multiple comments to the effect that Freed and Wills have decidedly similar voices — to the point that even longtime listeners might have difficulty in distinguishing between them. Otherwise, most respondents regard the broadcast as technically competent and also personable.
Table of Contents
Here’s the table of contents for today’s edition of Daily Notes.
1. Featured Game: St. Louis at San Francisco, 15:45 ET
2. Other Notable Games (Including MLB.TV Free Game)
3. Today’s Complete Schedule
Featured Game: St. Louis at San Francisco, 15:45 ET
Regarding the St. Louis Offense, What All They Lead In
As of Wednesday, the St. Louis offense leads the majors both in park-adjusted offense (130 wRC+) and batter WAR (13.8) this season.
Regarding the St. Louis Offense, Their May So Far
The St. Louis offense has been particularly effective in May, leading the league in both park-adjusted offense (144 wRC+) and WAR (6.5).
Regarding If the Cardinals Were a Player
The Cardinals have accrued 169 player games and 577 plate appearances so far in May — or, roughly what one player might compile over the course of a season. Their batter WAR so far in May (again, 6.5) is higher than the total recorded by all but 12 major leaguers last season — most of whom accrued considerably more than 577 plate appearances.
At the beginning of March, we released the results of our television broadcaster rankings — itself the product of reader crowdsourcing that had started in late November. Since then, FanGraphs has asked readers to rate the radio broadcast teams (on a scale of 1-5 for charisma, analysis, and then overall) for all 30 major-league clubs — with the intention, ultimately, of determining which broadcasts might best reflect the sorts of inquiry and analysis performed here at the site.
Below are the 20th- through 11th-ranked radio broadcast teams, per the FanGraphs readership.
But first, three notes:
• Teams are ranked in ascending order of Overall rating. Overall ratings are not merely averages of Charisma and Analysis.
• I’ve attempted to choose reader comments that are either (a) illustrative of the team’s place in the rankings or (b) conspicuously amusing.
• A complete table of ratings and ballots cast will appear in these pages Friday.
20. Kansas City Royals
Broadcasters: Denny Matthews and Bob Davis
Ratings (Charisma/Analysis/Overall): 3.2, 3.1, 3.4
Three Reader Comments
• “Why shold I try to describe Denny Matthews, when I can let Bill James do it for me? ‘His voice has a pleasant timbre which suggests a cheerful occasion. His inflection varies naturally so it’s neither falsely enthusiastic nor boring. He has a dry, understated humor that drifts through much of his audience undetected. One cannot learn these things at a microphone; they are given.'”
• “Listened to them when taking a break from the Jays broadcast… They were a little dull, but I assume an 11-game losing streak will do that.”
• “Matthews sounds like a gruffer Sean Connery without the Scottish accent.”
Notes
Both the television and radio teams for the Royals were restructured over the offseason*, and the result seems to be that Matthews, Steve Physioc, and Ryan Lefebvre will receive the majority of time on radio. Among respondents, there appears to be above-average enthusiasm for Matthews. Finding a suitable partner for him seems to’ve been the problem.
*Credit to reader Brian for the alert.
Table of Contents
Here’s the table of contents for today’s edition of Daily Notes.
1. Featured Game: Oakland at Texas, 20:05 ET
2. Other Notable Games (Including MLB.TV Free Game)
3. Today’s Complete Schedule
Featured Game: Oakland at Texas, 20:05 ET
With Regard to Japanese Sensation Yu Darvish
With regard to Japanese sensation Yu Darvish, who starts tonight for Texas, here’s his line so far this season: 44.1 IP, 25.9% K, 12.2% BB, 47.0% GB, 3.64 SIERA, 88 xFIP-, 0.9 WAR.
At the beginning of March, we released the results of our television broadcaster rankings — itself the product of reader crowdsourcing that had started in late November. Since then, FanGraphs has asked readers to rate the radio broadcast teams (on a scale of 1-5 for charisma, analysis, and then overall) for all 30 major-league clubs — with the intention, ultimately, of determining which broadcasts might best reflect the sorts of inquiry and analysis performed here at the site.
Below are the 30th- through 21st-ranked radio broadcast teams, per the FanGraphs readership.
But first, three notes:
• Teams are ranked in ascending order of Overall rating. Overall ratings are not merely averages of Charisma and Analysis.
• I’ve attempted to choose reader comments that are either (a) illustrative of the team’s place in the rankings or (b) conspicuously amusing.
• A complete table of ratings and ballots cast will appear in these pages Friday.
30. New York Yankees
Broadcasters: John Sterling and Suzyn Waldman
Ratings (Charisma/Analysis/Overall): 2.3, 2.0, 2.1
Three Reader Comments
• “What can I say about John Sterling that hasn’t already been said about any of history’s greatest monsters?”
• “Ask John Sterling if you can predict baseball.”
• “My mother would never let us say anything bad about Suzyn Waldman because she is a cancer survivor. That said, her most memorable contribution to the broadcast, in my memory, was when she declared that she was going to challenge Kyle Farnsworth to a cookie baking contest. The results were not reported to my knowledge.”
Notes
When there’s praise among reader, it’s generally for what I’d guess you’d call the “timbre” of Sterling’s voice and for Waldman’s clubhouse reports. Such comments, however, are greatly outnumbered by criticisms — largely concerning Sterling’s belabored trademark calls and poor eyesight and the pitch of Waldman’s own voice.
Table of Contents
Here’s the table of contents for today’s edition of Daily Notes.
1. Featured Game: Milwaukee at New York NL, 19:10 ET
2. Other Notable Games (Including MLB.TV Free Game)
3. Largely Superfluous Video: Stephen Strasburg’s Last Start
4. Today’s Complete Schedule
Featured Game: Milwaukee at New York NL, 19:10 ET
On What the Reader Might Be Wondering
The reader might be wondering why a contest involving Dillon Gee is this evening’s featured game — in particular, that is, because Cliff Lee and CC Sabathia and Stephen Strasburg are all pitching in other, not featured games.
On What the Author Is Responding
The author is responding, first of all, that Gee opposes Brewers right-hander Zack Greinke, who has been excellent this season (43.0 IP, 67 xFIP-, 1.7 WAR).
On What the Author Is Also Responding
The author is also responding that Gee himself has been quite good. Consider, if you have a moment, staring deep into his season line to date: 37.2 IP, 20.0% K, 4.9% BB, 52.2% GB, 3.15 SIERA, 83 xFIP-, 0.6 WAR.
Of Particular Note Regarding Dillon Gee
Of particular note regarding Dillon Gee is that he’s currently 11th (among 116 qualified starters) with an 11.0% swinging-strike rate — and, on a likely related note, is first in opponent O-Swing%, at 36.8%.
2 homers and a triple for Carlos Beltran tonight.Basically matching Matt Kemp’s season production, just without any of the hype.
— David Cameron (@DCameronFG) May 12, 2012
Part One: Idle Thoughts
It has recently been discovered by, like, top-top literary critics that, when T.S. Eliot writes — in his long poem “The Waste Land” — when Eliot writes that “April is the cruellest month,” he’s referring not to the tumult and angst of spring that is also the tumult and angst of the human condition, but to an entirely different phenomenon altogether.
In fact, the thing to which Eliot is actually referring is the inordinate power and influence of April numbers over the minds of even those of us who attempt to actively avoid such biases.
The reader is surely able to remember examples from past seasons when a hitter or pitcher’s hot start led to an almost season-long narrative that portrayed said player in an unduly flattering light — or, conversely, those other situations in which a player, after a very poor start, slowly hit his way back to respectability without much in the way fanfare.
The pull of these April narratives is strong. It was not, for example, until I saw the above tweet from managing editor Dave Cameron regarding Carlos Beltran and Matt Kemp that I seriously entertained the notion that the former (i.e. Beltran) had approached the latter (i.e. Kemp) in terms of production on the young season.
Table of Contents
Here’s the table of contents for today’s edition of Daily Notes.
1. Featured Game: New York AL at Baltimore, 19:05 ET
2. Other Notable Games (Including MLB.TV Free Game)
3. Today’s Complete Schedule
Featured Game: New York AL at Baltimore, 19:05 ET
Of Particular Note Regarding This Game
Of particular note regarding this game is that right-hander Jason Hammel is starting it for Baltimore.
Of Particular Note Regarding Jason Hammel, Specifically
Of particular note regarding Jason Hammel, specifically, is that, after entering the season with a career ERA of 4.99 (about a 111 or 112 ERA-), he’s posted a 2.09 ERA so far this season (50 ERA-).
Also of Note Regarding Jason Hammel, Specifically
Also of note regarding Jason Hammel, specifically, is that he’s been excellent by the defense-independent numbers so far, too, posting a 60 FIP-, 67 xFIP-, and 1.3 WAR — on the strength, naturally, of excellent peripherals (25.5% K, 7.4% BB, 61.0% GB) — through his first six starts and 38.2 innings.
Regarding Those Strikeout and Walk Rates, Where They Rank
Here’s where Hammel’s strikeout and walk rates rank among the league’s 115 qualified starters: 12th and fifth, respectively.
A Short List of People Who Didn’t Foresee Hammel Doing That
The Oracle of Delphi, probably — and all the lesser oracles, too, probably.
Two Lesser Oracles
The Oracle of Schenectady, for example — and the Oracle of Fresno, for other example.
