The Boston offense is indefatigable, whatever that word means.

Featured Game
Cleveland (9) at Boston (7) | 19:10 ET
• So, there are 25 qualified batters currently sporting a 140 wRC+ or better and five of them, turns out, are on the Red Sox.
• To wit: Adrian Gonzalez (166), Dustin Pedroia (151), Jacoby Ellsbury (146), David Ortiz (145), and Kevin Youkilis (143).
• Those also happened to be batters No. 1-5 (although not in that order) in the Red Sox lineup yesterday in the first game of this series — which, that doesn’t seem fair.
• But you know another thing that’s not fair? Life.
• And a third? My grandfather’s skin after standing out in the sun for, like, 30 seconds.*

*Denotes comedy joke.

Watch: NESN.

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.

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What the author talks about when he talks about Daniel Hudson.

Featured Game
Arizona (8) at San Francisco (5) | 22:15 ET
• The very slingy Daniel Hudson (8) faces the very Cy Young-y Tim Lincecum (also 8).
• After last night’s contest between these same teams, either one or three games separate them in the standings.
• I don’t know, though, because I wrote these words on Monday afternoon.
• Another thing I did on Monday was to look up new Arizona first baseman Paul Goldschmidt’s line at Double-A Mobile.
• Which, allow me to share that with you post-haste: 457 PA, .306/.435/.626 (.331 BABIP), 130 wOBA+.

Watch: Both Fox Sports Arizona and Comcast SportsNet Bay Area — to decide whose voice is man-ier, Mark Grace’s or Mike Krukow’s.

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.

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“Zack Greinke,” is probably the answer.

Featured Game
St. Louis (8) at Milwaukee (8) | 20:10 ET
• A number of readers noted (correctly), regarding the recent piece in which I named Clayton Kershaw the Boss of the Strike Zone that, were he qualified, Zack Greinke would actually have a better mark per strikeout differential (K% minus BB%, or K-BB) than Kershaw.
• Regard: Kershaw (28.6% K, 6.6% BB) versus Greinke (31.1% K, 5.3% BB).
• By way of an FYI, let it be known that Curt Schilling’s 2002 mark (31.1% K, 3.2% BB) is the best in the FanGraphs Era.
• Which, that’s the era right after Postmodernism and right before Hammer Time.
• Um, Neo-Hammer Time, I mean.

Watch: Fox Sports Wisconsin. (Although, listen to Bob Uecker and Cory Provus call the game on WTMJ, if possible.)

Also Playing
Here’s the complete schedule for all of today’s games, with our very proprietary watchability (NERD) scores for each one. The average NERD Game Score for today is 5.8.

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Each summer, baseball fans spend upwards of three or four hours per day with the broadcasters for their favorite teams. With the advent, and increasing ubiquity, of services such as Extra Innings and MLB.TV, fans have become acquainted with broadcasters from other markets, as well.

It’s not uncommon to come across exasperated tweets — or entire websites — dedicated to censuring the sometimes poor behavior of broadcasters. The present author has even attempted a couple reviews of baseballing broadcasts. But never (so far as I know of, at least) has an attempt been made to put a grade on each of the league’s 30 television broadcast teams.

The present post represents the beginning of an attempt to do just that. Much as we attempt, each winter, to facilitate fan projections for players stats here, we will also attempt to do the same for the league’s broadcasting teams.

The first step: to arrive at some understanding of who, exactly, we’re grading. The names you see below are intended to represent the main broadcast teams for each of the league’s 30 clubs. The information here is taken from a combination of Wikipedia and MLB.com, but would certainly benefit from readers who know and care about such things.

Again, the idea is to identify the broadcasters most frequently found in each team’s booth. Many clubs have occasional color commentators and guest announcers, but isolating the most regular contributors will make this process more streamlined, if slightly less nuanced.

So, how do these look?

Arizona: Daron Sutton, Mark Grace

Atlanta: Chip Caray, Joe Simpson

Baltimore: Gary Thorne, Jim Palmer

Boston: Don Orsillo, Jerry Remy

Chicago Americans: Ken Harrelson, Steve Stone

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When authors for, and readers of, FanGraphs gathered at Goodyear Park in Arizona this past March for a panel that included Chris Antonetti, it was apparent that, while the Cleveland GM had legitimate optimism regarding the club’s future, his expectations for the 2010 season were more muted.

Nor would anyone begrudge him this: the team’s two most well-compensated players (Grady Sizemore and Travis Hafner), each contending with lingering injuries, had combined for fewer than two wins in 2010. Hitting prodigy and 2010-callup Carlos Santana’s season had ended abruptly with a home-plate collision and subsequent knee surgery (particularly discouraging for a catcher); and the No. 1 starter for the team, Fausto Carmona, was probably more of a No. 3 or 4 starter for a contender. Really, Shin-Soo Choo appeared to be the only thing which one might call an “impact player.”

That, less than five months later, Antonetti and Co. would be making a deadline deal with a view towards securing a postseason berth, seemed improbable.

In fact, that’s precisely what’s happended, as, last night, Cleveland acquired Colorado ace Ubaldo Jimenez from the Rockies in exchange for minor-league pitchers Joe Gardner, Drew Pomeranz, and Alex White and catcher/first base-type Matt McBride.

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A recent photo of Cleveland manager Manny Acta.

Featured Game
Kansas City (7) at Cleveland (8) | 19:05 ET
This game has all the things to put a smile on your face — and also on other parts of your body, if that’s something you’re into.

To wit:
• Felipe Paulino, pitching for the Royals, has been excellent since joining said team’s rotation at the beginning of June, producing this exact line: 60.2 IP, 8.75 K/9, 2.23 K/9, 48.8% GB, 2.99 SIERA, 3.23 xFIP, 82 xFIP-.
• Justin Masterson, pitching for the Indians, can throw all fastballs if he wants — and he doesn’t care what you or anyone thinks.
• The Royals (average batter age of 26.5) and Indians (28.0) are the youngest and fifth-youngest teams, respectively, in the league.
• The Indians, despite their youth — and the fifth-lowest opening-day payroll, as well — are only 2.5 games out of first place.
• People will/have come! Average attendance at Cleveland’s Progressive Field this season (per Baseball Reference): 21,158. Attendance last night (per MLB.com): 35,390.

Watch: Fox Sports Kansas City. (I say this with little authority, however. I know I’ve watched before and haven’t been gravely offended. And, as an aside, Royal broadcaster Ryan Lefebvre cites both lectio divina and Thomas Merton in this article from the National Catholic Register — which, regardless of your thoughts on religion, organized or otherwise, this suggests Lefebvre is probably the thoughtful, curious sort.)

Also Playing
Here’s the complete schedule for all of today’s games, with our very proprietary watchability (NERD) scores for each one. The average NERD Game Score for today is 5.7.

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That footage you see there is of Chicago Cub outfielder and No. 8 hitter Tyler Colvin swinging and missing at a pitch from the newest of St. Louis Cardinals, Edwin Jackson, in the second inning of this evening’s Cubs-Cardinals matchup. More accurately, it’s Tyler Colvin swinging at (what appears to be) an 0-0 slider very much in the dirt with the bases loaded and no outs.

While, given all the variables at play, it’s difficult to say exactly how many runs Colvin cost his team with that one ill-advised hack, we do know — thanks to work from a combo package of Toms Tango and Tippett from 2006 — roughly what the difference in wOBA is given different counts.

Specifically (again, as of 2006), batters passing through a count of 1-0 had a collective wOBA of.371. Meanwhile, batters passing through a count of 0-1 had a collective wOBA of .283*. The difference between those two states, in a context-neutral environment, is about 0.1 runs — but that’s just on a single pitch, with literally no regard for the situation. Considering that, in a typical none on, none out scenario, generic run expectancy is 0.46 and that, in this situation, the (again, generic) run expectancy was 2.28, then we see that Colvin’s lack of discipline is magnified even more.

*The exact numbers are probably different this season given the deflated run environment, but the point remains.

Roy Halladay and Charlie Morton face each other tonight.

Featured Game
Pittsburgh (7) at Philadelphia (3) | 19:05 ET
• The attentive reader will be familiar with how Pirate Charlie Morton has co-opted entirely Roy Halladay’s delivery this season.
• The less attentive reader can use this time to read a note by Ken Rosenthal about how Charlie Morton has co-opted entirely Roy Halladay’s delivery this season.
• Or watch these YouTube videos.
• While that’s happening, the attentive reader can use his extra time to play Legos! Yay!
• Afterwards, we’ll all watch this Pirates-Phillies game, which marks the first time these pitchers will have met since Morton co-opted entirely Roy Halladay’s delivery.

Watch: ROOT (i.e. the Pittsburgh feed). Colorman Bob Walk is pretty responsible with most of his commentary, from what I’ve seen.

Also Playing
Here’s the complete schedule for all of today’s games, with our very proprietary watchability (NERD) scores for each one. The average NERD Game Score for today is 5.4.

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I’m sure I’m accidentally quoting dozens of able writers and analysts when I state that at the heart of a baseball game lies the pitcher-batter confrontation — and that, at the heart of that confrontation, is a power struggle over rights to the strike zone.

If, in some kind of alternate reality, a batter (for whatever reason) weren’t permitted to swing, it’s very possible that Josh Tomlin or Doug Fister or some other control artist would dominate the game. If, in a different reality from that, there were no such thing as a base on balls — that a pitcher just needed, say, to get three strikes — then Aroldis Chapman and his 13.9% swinging-strike percentage would be incredibly valuable (until such a time as his arm fell off, that is).

As it turns out, batters are allowed to swing and there are such things as four-ball walks — and it’s for these twin reasons that pitchers must employ all manner of spins and changes of speed and menacing scowls to defeat their opponents within the strike zone (or, if possible, tempt them out of it).

Currently — and somewhat unexpectedly, I’d suggest — the pitcher most frequently winning this battle for strike-zone supremacy is Dodger lefty Clayton Kershaw.

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Help FanGraphs help you help yourself.

Featured Game
Arizona (9) at San Diego (3) | 15:35
• Carlos Beltran will likely be making his Giant debut tonight (19:05), but watching that game would also entail watching a lot of Kyle Kendrick.
• Meanwhile, here, we have Daniel Hudson (8) and Mat Latos (7) — and a Diamondbacks team that’s very much in the NL West race (3.0 games back at game time).
• One player you might see is Collin Cowgill, who did this at Triple-A Reno: 456 PA, .354/.430/.554 (.397 BABIP), 11.2% BB, 13.8% K, 30-for-33 SB.
• That’s a 115 wOBA+ (i.e. park-adjusted wOBA, relative to league average), per StatCorner.

Watch: MLB.com. (The game appears to be unavailable locally in both markets.)

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