Ralph Waldo Emerson writes in Spiritual Laws that “only in our easy, simple, spontaneous action we [are] strong.”

Please believe that this edition of One Night Only was composed as easily, simply, and spontaneously as possible.

As usual, the reader can find here our very proprietary watchability (NERD) scores for every one of today’s games.

Featured Game
San Francisco (5) at Philadelphia (3) | 19:05 ET
• Tim Lincecum (8) was scratched from Tuesday’s start with the “flu,” but I think we all know what “flu” means, right?*
• Influenza, is the answer. We just say “flu” because “influenza”‘s a long word.
• Lincecum faces Cole Hamels (10), currently fourth among qualifiers, and third on his own team, by xFIP and SIERA.
• Question: if some combination of Philly starters are the Tenenbaum children, who, do you think, is Eli Cash?
• Maybe Answer: Joe Blanton?

*Note: Matt Cain (7) would pitch tonight if Lincecum’s still sick. Manage your life decisions accordingly.

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Like every edition of One Night Only, this one is an experiment. Below, you will find tonight’s Featured Game, with some brief notes on same. Below that, you find the full schedule of tonight’s games, with our very proprietary watchability (NERD) scores for each one.

Featured Game
Detroit (6) at Chicago Americans (6) | 20:10 ET
Neither of these teams rate well in terms of pure watchability. The White Sox have one of the better bullpen xFIPs in the league (3.49); as for the Tigers, they actually have one of the league’s better offenses (+37.0 weighted runs above average, good for sixth in the majors). That’s about it. Still, they’re division rivals, one (Detroit) in first place; the other, only 3.5 games back… Apropos that final point, it’s a fact: the White Sox were 11.0 games back on May 7th and had only a 5.0% chance (per Cool Standings) of making the postseason that day — a number that now stands at 20.6% (also per Cool Standings)… Justin Verlander (10) faces Jake Peavy (8). The latter has a 5.19 ERA but only 3.57 SIERA and 3.52 xFIP (89 xFIP-).

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Both the New York Post’s Joel Sherman and ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick tweeted yesterday that they believe the Texas Rangers are the most — or, at least, one of the most — active teams in pursuit of the excellent, and likely available, Carlos Beltran.

In a vacuum, acquiring Beltran makes total sense. Despite concerns about his knee (not something to be overlooked) and the possible limits it’s placed on his defensive range (which appears to have declined from “excellent in center” to merely “good enough for right”), Beltran remains an offensive force. In fact, so far as the numbers indicate, Beltran is having the best offensive season of his career, his line of .289/.389/.514 (.309 BABIP) good for a 151 wRC+ in this season’s deflated run environment.

In the context of the Rangers, however, the pursuit of Beltran is a bit puzzling. If we assume that the optimal use of deadline trading is to improve a team’s present talent as much as possible (something that’s accomplished most easily by addressing weaknesses) then the Rangers stand little to gain by adding Beltran — or any outfield-type, really. Last year’s MVP Josh Hamilton is healthy again and manning left field. After dealing with his own injuries, Nelson Cruz is back, too, and ensconced in right. Michael Young, meanwhile, has basically locked down the everyday DH role, hitting .333/.369/.494 (.361 BABIP) with a 135 wRC+.

This, of course, leaves center field.

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If Matt Holliday hits awesomely near a stock photo of the woods, does anyone notice?

Generally speaking, the Leaderboards of Pleasure represent an attempt to isolate those qualities which most appeal to the learned baseballing fan and to identify which players, teams, etc. possess them most bountifully.

Specifically speaking, this weeks’s edition of the LOP proves three (if not more) points irrefutably:

Yes, Paul Swydan, the Angels are worth a damn.
After I submitted last week’s life-changing edition of Leaderboards of Pleasure, Power Rankings-er Paul Swydan had the temerity (that’s right, I said temerity) to question (via Twitter) the Angels’ relatively high ranking on the NERD charts. Besides informing him that my seconds will call on his seconds, I’d like to use this space to suggest, briefly, two reasons why the Angels might actually be watchable. For one, the Angels are only three games out of first place in the NL West AL West*. Accordingly, each of their games is more important — essentially, has a higher baseline Leverage Index — than games other teams are playing. For two, according to the Base Runs standings on my tiny, little computer here, the Angels have actually scored 22 fewer runs than one would generally expect given the number of total bases and home runs, etc., that they’ve had.

*Divisions, schmivisions.

Matt Holliday is maybe, somehow, underrated.*
Per wRC+, Matt Holliday — the same Matt Holliday who, for example, has a career line of .319/.389/.543 — is having the best offensive season of his career. Entering play Monday, Holliday has a 164 wRC+, to be precise — considerably better (given park and league environment) than his second-best season, 2007, when he slashed .340/.405/.607 for the Colorado Rockies. Yet, Holliday’s above-average defense doesn’t show up in fantasy-type stats. And his lack of steals, though having little bearing on his real-life value, might give the impression that he’s less valuable.

*In fact, our own Matt Klaassen made a similar point with different data this most recent May.

You can officially enjoy Dustin Ackley and Josh Reddick now.
Rookies Dustin Ackley and Josh Reddick crossed the 100-plate-appearance threshold this week, qualifying them for Position Player NERD — and both appear on this week’s top-20 list by that measure. Between them, the pair have been worth 3.1 WAR in just 209 PA. Also, they’re still young. And pretty fast. And make contact.

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The author’s heart, under the influence of Felipe Paulino’s player page.

This edition of One Night Only contains:

1. Expanded previews for five weekend games: San Diego at Philadelphia on Friday, St. Louis at Pittsburgh and Chicago AL at Cleveland on Saturday, and Tampa Bay at Kansas City and Atlanta at Cincinnati on Sunday.

2. Our very proprietary watchability (NERD) scores for every one of this weekend’s games.

3. Feelings and/or emotions.

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Just minutes ago, during the Cardinals-Mets game currently unfolding in Queens, Albert Pujols hit a home run off of Jonathon Niese. The home run is notable because (a) it came at the end of a nine-pitch at-bat and (b) SNY’s Gary Cohen noted after the foul ball you see GIF’d and expertly embedded above that good hitters are good at fouling off two-strike pitches.

In fact, Cohen’s words were prescient, as, two pitches later, Pujols did this to the baseball:

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This inkblot is giving two thumbs up.

This edition of One Night Only contains:

1. All of the news that’s fit to print, if by “news” you mean “game previews” and by “print” you mean “publish on the internet or whatever.”

2. Our very proprietary watchability (NERD) scores for every one of this mid-week’s games.

3. JeterYankeesMcCourtScandalSteroidsStrauss-KahnEconomyBadonkadonk.

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This sunset has a pretty high Glory Factor (GF).

The attentive reader will note that FanGraphs Dark Overlord David Appelman has recently descended from atop his inlaid throne and made some changes to the way that strikeouts are presented in these pages. For batters now, strikeout percentage (K%) uses plate appearances, and not at-bats, in the denominator. While this creates pretty substantial (ca. 6%) movement for Three True Outcome-ist Adam Dunn, most players exhibit a fairly uniform decrease of about 2%, meaning that readers are able to mentally convert to the new format with some ease.

The addition of strikeout percentage (also K%) for pitchers, however — while glorious as the sunset over Quetena Chico — makes for a slightly more challenging mental covnersion, as readers will undoubtedly have become quite accustomed to assessing pitchers using strikeouts per nine innings (K/9).

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When you talk about great discoveries, you talk some of the time about the discovery of King Tut’s tomb by Howard Carter and George Herbert in 1922. Other of the time, you maybe talk about the first polio vaccine, first developed by Jonas Salk in 1952. Most of the time, though, when you talk about great discoveries, what you talk about is the Leaderboards of Pleasure at FanGraphs.

What are the Leaderboards of Pleasure? They’re the thing that Winston Churchill has described as “a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside the internet.” They’re also the thing that the present author has himself described as “an attempt to isolate those traits which most appeal to the learned baseballing fan and to identify which players, teams, etc possess them most bountifully.”

In this edition, reader, prepare to learn that:

• Something is brewing in Milwaukee.*
• The Twins maybe aren’t the most depressing team in all of baseball.
• Anaheim is home to the two most underrated players in the majors, according to science!
• Cory Luebke is good in a bunch of different ways.
• Endy Chavez won’t stop to the tick-tock — or any other kind of signal, either.

*Note: wocka, wocka.

1. Team NERD Leaderboard
2. Underrated Player Leaderboard
3. Pitcher NERD Leaderboard
4. Player NERD Leaderboard

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During last week’s Very Important Event at SABR 41, Sam Miller of the OC Register noted that one of the deficiencies of the current Angels team is the abundance of average-ish players on the roster. Despite the fact that the Anaheimers sit only a single game out of first place at the All-Star break, their playoff chances are impaired by a lack of obviously upgradeable positions: seven Angels are on pace for (or have already reached) a WAR of 2.0 or better — i.e. league average — while Bobby Abreu (who’s not going anywhere) and the catcher spot are the other two relevant slots.

Turning our attention to the Middle West, however, we see a team in the Milwaukee Brewers that has very clear deficiencies. One of these — third base — I have no intention of addressing here. The other, however — namely, shortstop — has been a conspicuous weakness from the very second Brewer GM Doug Melvin traded away Alcides Escobar et al. for Zack Greinke.

Please note that it’s not my intention whatsoever to suggest that the Greinke deal was a poor one. Very much to the contrary, Greinke appears to be an essential part of a vastly improved Brewer club. Rather, the point of this post is to note that there has never been much reason to assume that Yuniesky Betancourt, who has been a replacement-level player since 2008, would prove to be anything but a replacement-level player in 2011.

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