Devised originally in response to a challenge issued by viscount of the internet Rob Neyer, and expanded at the request of nobody, NERD scores represent an attempt to summarize in one number (and on a scale of 0-10) the likely aesthetic appeal or watchability, for the learned fan, of a player or team or game. Read more about the components of and formulae for NERD scores here.

Most Highly Rated Game
New York AL at New York NL | 19:10 ET
Tanaka (143.0 IP, 81 xFIP-) vs. Matz (24.0 IP, 103 xFIP-)
None of today’s games — nor likely the larger series of which their part — feature the sort of consequences offered by either the recent Houston-Texas series nor the New York-Toronto one just before that. What this encounter does represent, however, is an opportunity to observe both a Yankees club not statistically eliminated from winning the division and also young Mets left-hander Steven Matz. The latter is scheduled to record just his fifth major-league start tonight. Over the first four starts, he’s produced an average fastball of 94.5 mph — the highest such mark (tied with Chris Sale) among all left-handed starters this entire season. In few instances does a young pitcher suffer from being mentioned in the same sentence as Chris Sale. Unless, that is, it were an instance like “Chris Sale informed Steven Matz that the latter would be the subject of an audit by the IRS.” Why Chris Sale would be serving as an intermediary for a government agency, this is unclear. That it would be unpleasant for Matz, this is obvious.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: New York NL Television.

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Devised originally in response to a challenge issued by viscount of the internet Rob Neyer, and expanded at the request of nobody, NERD scores represent an attempt to summarize in one number (and on a scale of 0-10) the likely aesthetic appeal or watchability, for the learned fan, of a player or team or game. Read more about the components of and formulae for NERD scores here.

Most Highly Rated Game
Houston at Texas | 20:05 ET
McCullers (101.2 IP, 89 xFIP-) vs. Lewis (184.0 IP, 115 xFIP-)
It’s very possible that Houston both was and also remains a more talented ball club than division rival Texas. What they’ve done over the first three games of this series, however, is lose all of them. The result: a serious decline in the probability of winning that division, as illustrated by the following table.

AL West Division Odds, 2015

Club	Before Series	Now	Diff
Texas	22.0%	58.1%	+36.1%
Houston	73.7%	39.2%	-34.5%

The lesson: talent — and even talent applied earnestly — isn’t sufficient for success. Whether this is reassuring for the reader or disappointing reveals the camp with which he or she most clearly identifies.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Texas Radio.

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Introduction
The Fringe Five has been a weekly regular-season exercise (introduced two Aprils ago) conducted by the author this year with a view to identifying the most compelling of those rookie-eligible minor leaguers excluded from Kiley McDaniel’s preseason top-200 prospect list and also absent from the midseason prospect lists produced by Baseball America, Keith Law, John Sickels, and McDaniel himself. Every week during the minor-league season, the author submitted the names of five “compelling” minor leaguers, each name attended by a brief summary of that prospect’s most relevant credentials.

Generally speaking, compelling in this context meant that the prospect in question possessed some combination of the following:

1. Notable regressed stats; and

2. The ability to play on the more challenging end of the defensive spectrum; and

3. Youth relative to minor-league level; and

4. A curious biographical or statistical profile.

With minor-league regular seasons having all been completed, the author presents here a summary and discussion of the Fringe Five for 2015.

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Devised originally in response to a challenge issued by viscount of the internet Rob Neyer, and expanded at the request of nobody, NERD scores represent an attempt to summarize in one number (and on a scale of 0-10) the likely aesthetic appeal or watchability, for the learned fan, of a player or team or game. Read more about the components of and formulae for NERD scores here.

Most Highly Rated Game
Houston at Texas | 20:05 ET
Keuchel (206.2 IP, 67 xFIP-) vs. Perez (54.2 IP, 102 xFIP-)
There are arguments you could make, probably, in support of watching a different game tonight besides this one between Houston and Texas, but all of them are likely to get you laughed off the playground. And getting laughed off the playground as a 35-year-old — and actually you weren’t even playing or anything, you were just walking back from the store, okay, so shut up Keenan — is an indignity few should suffer. In either case, following their victory yesterday, the Rangers now lead the division by half a game. But also, despite that lead, the Astros are sill slight favorites to win the division according to this playoff graph available now at the site:

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Texas Radio.

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Devised originally in response to a challenge issued by viscount of the internet Rob Neyer, and expanded at the request of nobody, NERD scores represent an attempt to summarize in one number (and on a scale of 0-10) the likely aesthetic appeal or watchability, for the learned fan, of a player or team or game. Read more about the components of and formulae for NERD scores here.

Most Highly Rated Game
Houston at Texas | 20:05 ET
McHugh (178.1 IP, 98 xFIP-) vs. Holland (37.1 IP, 91 xFIP-)
With the victory by the Rangers last night in the first game of this series, that club and the Astros are now separated by a mere half game atop the American League’s westernmost division. Of some interest regarding that westernmost division: one finds that the Houston and Texas clubs (the latter located in Arlington, TX) are actually situated to the east of what is generally recognized as the geographic center of the contiguous United States. “Unsettling,” might be one’s response to that sort of revelation. Or perhaps even: “worrisome.” One might begin to suspect that nothing is what it seems. Of course, that’s probably also not the case.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Texas Radio.

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Episode 595
Dave Cameron is both (a) the managing editor of FanGraphs and (b) the guest on this particular edition of FanGraphs Audio, during which edition he discusses Angels left-hander Andrew Heaney‘s decision to offer a stake in his future earnings, St. Louis third baseman Matt Carpenter’s efforts sacrifice contact in favor of power, and also Ruben Amaro’s (now complete) tenure as general manager of the Phillies.

This edition of the program is sponsored by Draft, the first truly mobile fantasy sports app. Compete directly against idiot host Carson Cistulli by clicking here.

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 51 min play time.)

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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Devised originally in response to a challenge issued by viscount of the internet Rob Neyer, and expanded at the request of nobody, NERD scores represent an attempt to summarize in one number (and on a scale of 0-10) the likely aesthetic appeal or watchability, for the learned fan, of a player or team or game. Read more about the components of and formulae for NERD scores here.

Most Highly Rated Game
Houston at Texas | 20:05 ET
Kazmir (164.1 IP, 96 xFIP-) vs. Hamels (177.1 IP, 86 xFIP-)
What this game represents is an encounter between the two clubs in all of baseball most closely situated atop their respective division’s standings. Had the pair met a month ago, meanwhile, that’s not at all what this game would have represented — owing, that is, to how Texas was five games behind Houston and the Los Angeles Angels were also in second place. What one learns is that circumstances can change dramatically in a month. Like how they can change dramatically for an animal which endures a gestation period of a month or less. Or like how they can change for someone who has a single life-changing day, but for some reason — due probably to a neurological disorder about which Oliver Sacks has written — experiences time at roughly 1/30th the rate of the typical human.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Texas Radio.

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Episode 594
Jeff Sullivan is a senior editor at FanGraphs. He’s also the hugely woebegone guest on this edition of FanGraphs Audio.

This edition of the program is sponsored by Draft, the first truly mobile fantasy sports app. Compete directly against idiot host Carson Cistulli by clicking here.

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 1 hr 24 min play time.)

Read the rest of this entry »

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Devised originally in response to a challenge issued by viscount of the internet Rob Neyer, and expanded at the request of nobody, NERD scores represent an attempt to summarize in one number (and on a scale of 0-10) the likely aesthetic appeal or watchability, for the learned fan, of a player or team or game. Read more about the components of and formulae for NERD scores here.

Most Highly Rated Game
Houston at Los Angeles AL | 15:35 ET
Fiers (155.0 IP, 103 xFIP-) vs. Heaney (84.1 IP, 105 xFIP-)
This game represents an opportunity not only to survey, in Houston, a club currently involved in the league’s tightest divisional race — not only that, but also the first occasion on which to observe Angels left-hander Andrew Heaney since he became the first major leaguer to offer publicly a chance to invest in his success. Following an agreement with Fantex, Heaney will receive “$3.34 million in exchange for 10 percent of all future earnings,” according to Ken Rosenthal. Whether the same opportunity will be made available for major-league webloggers, the company remains not so much quiet as they don’t ever return your phone calls even though you left probably seven or ten messages on their voicemail last week and sent several emails with the word “Urgent” in the subject.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Houston Television.

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