Every player parking spot at San Francisco’s AT&T Park.

Featured Game
San Francisco (4) at Atlanta (4) | 19:10 ET
• Per their methodology, Cool Standings places the Giants’ postseason odds at 35.9%.
• Per their methodology, Baseball Prospectus places the Giants’ postseason odds at 65.1% — actually better than Arizona’s, whom they trail by 2.5 games in the NL West.
• Of course, neither system probably knows how the Giants have a team’s worth of disabled/injured players.
• Voila: Buster Posey (C), Pat Burrell (1B), Freddy Sanchez (2B), Jeff Keppinger (3B), Aaron Rowand (LF), Andres Torres (CF), Carlos Beltran (RF), Jonathan Sanchez or Barry Zito (SP), Sergio Romo and Brian Wilson (RP).
• Your mom can play shortstop, I guess.

MLB.TV Audio Feed: Giants Radio. (With the straight-on Atlanta camera — the best angle in baseball.)

Also Playing
Here’s the complete schedule for all of today’s games, with our very proprietary watchability (NERD) scores for each one. Pitching probables and game times aggregated from MLB.com and RotoWire. The average NERD Game Score for today is 6.2.

The following Game Scores include the new and improved playoff-odds adjustment, which you can learn about in your brain by clicking here.

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If there’s still such a thing as newstands anymore, the issue of Baseball America at your local one (i.e. your local newstand) is that publication’s annual “Tools” edition. No, it’s not (as you might suspect from the title) an issue dedicated entirely to relief pitchers with questionable taste in facial hair. Rather, it’s in this edition of the magazine that the editors of Baseball America attempt to isolate the players — major- and minor-leaguers — with the best baseballing tools (hitting for average, hitting for power, speed, etc.).

Beyond the results of a survey to which each of the league’s 30 managers responded, the issue also includes an attempt by author Matt Eddy to find five-tool players “by the numbers” (subscription required, I think).

After a brief discussion of what a “plus” tool might look like when quantified — and also some notes on the obvious limits of such an endeavor — Eddy suggsts this as a methodology:

For the sake of this exercise, let’s identify an above-average hitter as one who bats at least .285/.360/.460 with an isolated power of .175. That’s a 110 percent bump across the board (and then rounded down slightly to please the eye).

To this, Eddy also adds a speed component (more than 20 stolen bases) and runs his criteria through Baseball Reference’s Play Index for all player seasons 2000-10 — the results of which you can find here. (Note: it appears as though Eddy’s power criteria in that search is actually 20-plus homers and not a floor of a .175 ISO, but the results come out similarly.)

The big winner using this methodology is Bobby Abreu, who meets all of Eddy’s criteria in seven of 11 possible seasons. Hanley Ramirez qualifies in four seasons, while Alex Rodriguez finishes third with three “five-tool” seasons.

Eddy’s experiment is an interesting one, both in and of itself, and also for its potential to be nerd-ified — which, this being FanGraphs, that’s what I’ve endeavored to do in what follows.

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Featured Game
Cleveland (6) at Chicago Americans (3) | 20:10 ET
• If you access the part of your brain responsible for memory, you’ll likely recall that Indians-White Sox was yesterday’s featured game here, as well.
• Then that thing up above happened.
• Video of which you can see here.
• Note that Hawk Harrelson narrates a bunch of that.
• Note that Hawk Harrelson will now narrate your dreams.

Audio Feed: Suggestions? We discussed White Sox and Indian radio yesterday. Is one better, though?

Also Playing
Here’s the complete schedule for all of today’s games, with our very proprietary watchability (NERD) scores for each one. Pitching probables and game times aggregated from MLB.com and RotoWire. The average NERD Game Score for today is 5.1.

The following Game Scores include the new and improved playoff-odds adjustment, which you can learn about in your brain by clicking here.

Read the rest of this entry »

While certainly difficult to look at, white socks remain effective as ever.

Featured Game
Cleveland (6) at Chicago Americans (2) | 20:10 ET
• The White Sox currently have a winning percentage of exactly .500.
• The last time they were at .500 wasn’t so long ago — July 29th.
• After which they immediately proceeded to go 0-6… and then 8-2 right after that.
• The last time they were above .500 is longer ago, however — April 15th, when they owned a 7-6 record.
• Last note: Ubaldo Jimenez with Cleveland: 2 GS, 13.0 IP, 23.2% K, 7.1% BB, 48.7% GB, 3.12 SIERA, 3.13 xFIP, 79 xFIP-.

Audio Feed: White Sox Television. (Unless Hawk Harrelson makes you physically ill, that is — in which case, try Cleveland Radio probably.)

Also Playing
Here’s the complete schedule for all of today’s games, with our very proprietary watchability (NERD) scores for each one. Pitching probables and game times aggregated from MLB.com and RotoWire. The average NERD Game Score for today is 5.6.

The following Game Scores include the new and improved playoff-odds adjustment, which you can learn about in your brain by clicking here.

Read the rest of this entry »

Yonder Alonso helps Tony Campana ascend the NERD leaderboards.

Departing slightly from previous iterations of this column, in this week’s edition of Leaderboards of Pleasure we make sure to cast a gaze at the complete laggardboards, as well, for each of our totally proprietary and widely beloved stats.

Doing so, we learn that:

• Your irrational distaste for Jeff Mathis is also probably a rational distaste for Jeff Mathis.

• The Phillies have two players (Ryan Howard, Raul Ibanez) benefiting considerably from two other players (Chase Utley, Shane Victorino).

• Adam Dunn, while generally hilarious, might consider taking a break-ski.

• The author’s irrational taste for the Endy Chavez continues to be a rational taste for the Endy Chavez.

• Having just crossed the 100-plate appearance threshold, Tony Campana appears to be among the league’s most entertaining players so far. Is he too scrappy?

1. Team NERD Leaderboard
2. Underrated Player Leaderboard
3. Least Underrated Players
4. Player NERD Leaderboard
5. Player NERD Laggardboard
6. Pitcher NERD Leaderboard
7. Pitcher NERD Laggardboard

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Jose Constanza provides excellent return on your entertainment dollar.

Featured Game
San Francisco (4) at Atlanta (4) | 19:00 ET
• Behold! as one team (San Francisco) attempts furiously to claw itself back to the top of the NL West.
• Behold! as a second team (Atlanta) clings furiously to its Wild Card lead.
• Continue to behold!, as pitcher Madison Bumgarner (10) is good and young and due for, like, six kinds of regression.
• Provided you still have the strength, consider beholding! the Atlanta Braves’ right field area, where maybe Jose Constanza is instead of Jason Heyward.
• Which, “multiple and conflicting emotions” is a perfectly legitimate response to that.

Audio Feed: Giants Radio.

Also Playing
Here’s the complete schedule for all of today’s games, with our very proprietary watchability (NERD) scores for each one. Pitching probables and game times aggregated from MLB.com and RotoWire. The average NERD Game Score for today is 5.2.

The following Game Scores include the new and improved playoff-odds adjustment, which you can learn about in your brain by clicking here.

Read the rest of this entry »

Episode Eighty-Two
In which the guest does not, technically, have the beat.

Headlines
Drinking at a SABR Conference — Celebrated!
Stress on the Job — Stressed Over!
Ideas, Generally — Bandied About!

Featuring
Sam Miller, OC Register

Finally, you can subscribe to the podcast via iTunes or other feeder things.

Audio on the flip-flop. (Approximately 65 min play time.)

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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If a tree falls in Sun Life Stadium, you can hear it in every other part of Sun Life Stadium, probably.

Featured Game
San Francisco (4) at Florida (9) | 13:10 ET
• This game does well by NERD predominantly because (a) the Marlins are young and (b) the Giants are very much in a postseason race.
• It does well otherwise because Mike Stanton (.261/.347/.525, .315 BABIP, 133 wRC+) will play in it and Brandon Belt (recalled yesterday) might also play in it.
• The other thing, though, is how the Marlins are drawing a league-worst 18,244 per game in a stadium with a capacity of around 70,000 for baseball, meaning the stadium is generally three-quarters empty.
• As Bill James has said somewhere, at some point: “Things are generally interesting to us because they’re interesting to other people.” Something like that.
• Looking at Miami’s Sun Life Stadium, it appears as though few people consider the Marlins interesting.

Audio Feed: Giants Radio. (Featuring the dulcet tones of Jon Miller.)

Also Playing
Here’s the complete schedule for all of today’s games, with our very proprietary watchability (NERD) scores for each one. Pitching probables and game times aggregated from MLB.com and RotoWire. The average NERD Game Score for today is 5.7.

The following Game Scores include the new and improved playoff-odds adjustment, which you can learn about in your brain by clicking here.

Read the rest of this entry »

When you talk about talking people, you’re talking about these people talking.

Featured Game
Los Angeles Americans (5) at Toronto (6) | 13:07 ET
• When you’re talking about pitchers who’re third in the league in WAR, you’re talking about Jered Weaver (5.5).
• That’s provided, of course, that you’re talking about something as specific as that.
• Question: how long of a conversation would that be, though — the pitchers-who’re-third-in-the-league conversation?
• Thirty seconds?
• Or, because this is a Blue Jay game, 45 metric seconds?

Audio Feed: Blue Jays Radio.

Also Playing
Here’s the complete schedule for all of today’s games, with our very proprietary watchability (NERD) scores for each one. Pitching probables and game times aggregated from MLB.com and RotoWire. The average NERD Game Score for today is 5.3.

The following Game Scores include the new and improved playoff-odds adjustment, which you can learn about in your brain by clicking here.

Read the rest of this entry »

Poorly conceived, poorly executed.

Featured Game
Los Angeles Americans (5) at Toronto (6) | 19:07 ET
• On the one hand, David Price (10) and CC Sabathia (10) face each other in New York tonight.
• On the other hand, that game is largely meaningless as regards playoff implications.
• Meanwhile, the Angels are just two games behind the Rangers.
• And Brandon Morrow (10, as well) is pitching excellently this season.
• Like, the type of excellent where he has the seventh-best SIERA (3.02) among qualified pitchers — i.e. better (if only slightly) than both Price and Sabathia.

Audio Feed: Blue Jays Radio.

Also Playing
Here’s the complete schedule for all of today’s games, with our very proprietary watchability (NERD) scores for each one. Pitching probables and game times aggregated from MLB.com and RotoWire. The average NERD Game Score for today is 5.5.

The following Game Scores include the new and improved playoff-odds adjustment, which you can learn about in your brain by clicking here.

Read the rest of this entry »