Episode 576
Len Kasper is currently in his 11th year as the play-by-play announcer for Chicago Cubs telecasts. He’s also the very patient guest on this edition of the program.
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 15 min play time.)
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: RSS
| 11:58 |
: I am here. Chat has begun. I need to expel some urine before we start, so please fill up the chat with some valuable questions.
|
| 11:59 |
: If I come back and there are 8 questions “Pick 4 players from my fantasy team to keep” I will be very disappointed and there may be punitive results.
|
| 12:01 |
Is this the 5:00 Free Crack Giveaway? |
| 12:01 |
: No, because I am in Eastern time zone.
|
| 12:01 |
: Even if I were to be giving away crack — which I am not — this would be the noon giveaway.
|
| 12:02 |
: And given my round, beer-inflated stomach, it ought to be clear that I am not a user of crack or cocaine.
|
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
Kansas City at Houston | 20:10 ET
Blanton (26.0 IP, 75 xFIP-) vs. McCullers (46.1 IP, 86 xFIP-)
Reason dictates that the most recent three or four years of Joe Blanton’s career are more representative of his true talent than a small collection of appearances — including merely two starts — over the first three months of the current season. What one notes, however, is that Blanton has been particularly effective in those same recent appearances, producing a 75 xFIP- over 26.0 innings — and, indeed, has recorded even better numbers in a starting capacity, striking out nearly a third of the 39 batters he’s faced while walking none.
The most probable cause for Blanton’s uncharacteristic success is, naturally, randomness — or at least something like randomness. That said, were one in the mood for mounting a case against the merely random, one might note that Blanton both (a) has thrown his fastball harder this season (even as a starter) by 1-2 mph in each outing, and also that he (b) has almost always recorded above-average fielding-independent numbers, even if he’s conceded runs at a rate less stellar than that. What this encounter represents — in addition to another game featuring that flawed and compelling bande à part the Houston Astros — is an opportunity to re-assess Joe Blanton based on his most recent track record.
Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Houston Radio.
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 composnents of and formulae for NERD scores here.
Most Highly Rated Game
New York AL at Houston | 14:10 ET
Pineda (84.2 IP, 70 xFIP-) vs. McHugh (93.2 IP, 102 xFIP-)
As noted below, this afternoon represents the debut of left-handed Mets prospect Steven Matz. As a spectacle in itself, that’s noteworthy. That said, Matz is likely to record only about a third of the game’s pitches, and the other two-thirds — per the definitely flawed methodology utilized by the author — would appear to offer distinctly less in the way of aesthetic possibility. More likely to facilitate constant pleasure is this Yankees-Astros contest, which features two of the majors’ top-five most productive offenses, including Houston’s flawed and beautiful bande à part.
Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Houston Radio.
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
Texas at Toronto | 13:07 ET
Gallardo (87.2 IP, 95 xFIP-) vs. Boyd (N/A)
The author has exercised his world-famous discretion this morning and assessed to left-handed Toronto prospect Matt Boyd a NERD score of 14 — with a view, that maneuver, to giving this Rangers-Blue Jays contest the highest game score of the day. With regard to Boyd, one finds his name currently third among all prospects on the Fringe Five Scoreboard, which fact reveals simultaneously that (a) Boyd was omitted from Kiley McDaniel’s preseason top-200 prospect list (as well as all other similar lists), but (b) has exhibited some combination of performance and talent worthy of recognition. Indeed, concerning that performance, a brief inspection of the leaderboards reveals that Boyd has produced one of the top strikeout- and walk-rate differentials among all starters in the high minors. And concerning that talent, the author himself has observed Boyd sitting at 92-93 mph while periodically touch 95. A formula, that, for achieving what the Germans likely refer to as not-failure.
Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Texas Radio.
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
Cleveland at Baltimore | 19:05 ET
Kluber (103.2 IP, 71 xFIP-) vs. Chen (81.0 IP, 98 xFIP-)
According to the hastily arranged computer math devised by the author, there are actually three games of similar hypothetical interest today: Reds at Mets (featuring Johnny Cueto and Noah Syndergaard), Yankees at Astros (featuring Nathan Eovaldi and Vincent Velasquez), and this one. The reader could choose any one of them, theoretically, and experience roughly similar levels of pleasure — pleasure which, it goes without saying, will dissipate shortly after the conclusion of said game, thus depositing the reader back into the ongoing production of Sartre’s No Exit to which life amounts.
Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Cleveland Radio.
Note: this edition of the Fringe Five contains no illustrative video footage, on account of it was largely composed by an author en route from New England to Chicago and by means of the fragile internet connections along that journey.
The Fringe Five is a weekly regular-season exercise, introduced a couple years ago by the present author, wherein that same author utilizes regressed stats, scouting reports, and also his own fallible intuition to identify and/or continue monitoring the most compelling fringe prospects in all of baseball.
Central to the exercise, of course, is a definition of the word fringe, a term which possesses different connotations for different sorts of readers. For the purposes of the column this year, a fringe prospect (and therefore one eligible for inclusion in the Five) is any rookie-eligible player at High-A or above both (a) absent from the most current iteration of Kiley McDaniel’s top-200 prospect list and (b) not currently playing in the majors. Players appearing on any of McDaniel’s updated prospect lists or, otherwise, selected in the first round of the current season’s amateur draft will also be excluded from eligibility.
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 Houston | 20:10 ET
Warren (77.0 IP, 111 xFIP-) vs. Keuchel (107.1 IP, 77 xFIP-)
A flawed algorithm constructed by the author indicates that this game is today’s most compelling one for much the same reason that other recent games have been designated as those other days’ most compelling ones — namely, because of how it features the Houston Astros. As a club, Houston possesses the fourth-highest odds of qualifying for the divisional series among all major-league clubs — this, despite also possessing the league’s youngest collection of batters. Famously, American boxer Muhammad Ali announced at a press conference that he was young, handsome, fast, pretty, and couldn’t possibly be beat. At least one — but probably also fewer than all — of those descriptive elements apply to the current incarnation of the Astros.
Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Houston Radio.
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
McCullers (40.1 IP, 81 xFIP-) vs. Shoemaker (72.2 IP, 100 xFIP-)
The haphazardly constructed algorithm used by the author to measure watchability indicates that today’s Astros-Angels game is of some interest in no small part due to the Houston ball club’s unusual combination of youth and strength. The Astros feature simultaneously the lowest average batter age and also the highest park-adjusted home-run rate among all major-league teams — greater than two standard deviations from the mean in each case. Of shortstop Carlos Correa, one might reasonably say that he possesses youth and strength. Of George Springer, one might say the same thing. With regard to Evan Gattis, meanwhile, one is inclined to make a different sort of observation — namely, that he resembles a 19th century longshoreman. A longshoreman not just with a troubled past, but also a troubled present.
Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Houston Radio.
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
Toronto at Tampa Bay | 19:10 ET
Dickey (89.0 IP, 120 xFIP-) vs. Archer (95.0 IP, 60 xFIP-)
If the numbers possess any manner of legitimacy, it would appear as though America ought to begin acquainting itself with a new fact — namely, that Tampa Bay right-hander Chris Archer is among all the major leagues’ top-five pitchers in terms of preventing runs. Only the Dodgers’ Clayton Kershaw, for example, has produced a better park-adjusted expected FIP (xFIP-) — and only three pitchers have recorded a better strikeout- and walk-rate differential.
Of course, this won’t be the case for very long. Provided Archer declines at a similar rate to other pitchers, he’s unlikely to continue exerting such considerable influence over opposing batters. Fortunately for both the viewer and Archer himself, the deleterious influence of time likely won’t be felt so acutely on Tuesday night.
Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Toronto Radio.
