Table of Contents
Here’s the table of contents for today’s edition of the Daily Notes.

1. Featured Game: Seattle at Pittsburgh, 12:35 ET
2. Other Notable Games (Including MLB.TV Free Game)
3. Today’s Complete Schedule

Featured Game: Seattle at Pittsburgh, 12:35 ET
Regarding This Game, One of Its Virtues
One of the virtues of this game is how, in Felix Hernandez (50.2 IP, 65 xFIP-, 1.6 WAR) and A.J. Burnett (42.0 IP, 68 xFIP-, 1.2 WAR), it features two of the major leagues’ strongest pitchers.

Regarding This Game, Another of Its Virtues
Another of this game’s virtues is how, owing to Pittsburgh’s excellent center-field camera, it will facilitate a much better angle for watching Felix Hernandez than the right-hander’s home stadium and camera do.

By Way of Example, Harang at Safeco
By way of example, here’s a screenshot from the first inning of Aaron Harang’s May 1st start against Baltimore at Safeco:

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Table of Contents
Here’s the table of contents for today’s edition of the Daily Notes.

1. Featured Game: Detroit at Washington, 19:05 ET
2. Other Notable Games (Including MLB.TV Free Game)
3. Today’s Complete Schedule

Featured Game: Detroit at Washington, 19:05 ET
Regarding This Game, Who’s Starting It for Detroit
Starting this game for Detroit is the league leader in pitcher WAR as of Monday, right-hander Anibal Sanchez.

Regarding This Game, Who’s Not Starting It
Not starting this game for Detroit is other league leader in pitcher WAR as of Monday, different right-hander Justin Verlander.

Regarding Those WAR Figures, A Question the Reader Might Have
A question the reader might have with regard to how only Monday (and not Tuesday) WAR figures are cited above is, “Why is that the case?”

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Table of Contents
Here’s the table of contents for today’s edition of the Daily Notes.

1. Three Notable Eastern League Performances
2. SCOUT Leaderboards: Double-A Eastern League
3. Today’s Notable Games (Including MLB.TV Free Game)
4. Today’s Complete Schedule

Three Notable Eastern League Performances
The leaderboards for the Double-A Eastern League are below. Here are brief notes on three players from those leaderboards.

• J.R. Murphy and Christian Vazquez are both (a) among the Eastern League’s top prospect-age hitters per SCOUT, and (b) 22-year-old catching prospects. The former is in the Yankees system; the latter, in the Red Sox system. They’ve both posted walk-to-strikeout ratios above 1.0 so far, while also showing above-average power relative to the league. Sox Prospects refers to Vazquez as an “excellent defensive catcher.” Murphy split time between catching and third base in the low minors, which could potentially stall his development, although reports suggest that he’s improving constantly.

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Table of Contents
Here’s the table of contents for today’s edition of the Daily Notes.

1. Featured Game: Boston at Texas, 15:05 ET
2. Other Notable Games (Including MLB.TV Free Game)
3. Today’s Complete Schedule

Featured Game: Boston at Texas, 15:05 ET
Regarding Texas, Who’s Starting for Them
Starting this game for Texas is talented right-hander Yu Darvish.

Regarding Yu Darvish, What He’s Done This Season
In terms of what Yu Darvish has done this season, here are numbers which tell much of that that story: 38.2 IP , 38.4% K, 8.6% BB, 51.9% GB, 2.18 SIERA, 56 xFIP-, 1.8 WAR, 1.6 RA9-Wins

Ranks: Darvish Relative to the League
Here are those same numbers as above, except also now with Darvish’s rank in each relative to the league’s 107 qualified starters: 38.2 IP (37th), 38.4% K (1st), 8.6% BB (74th), 51.9% GB (21st), 2.18 SIERA (1st), 56 xFIP- (2nd), 1.8 WAR (3rd), 1.6 RA9-Wins (12th).

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Table of Contents
Here’s the table of contents for today’s edition of the Daily Notes.

1. Discretionary NERD Scores by Robert J. Baumann
2. Today’s Notable Games (Including MLB.TV Free Game)
3. Today’s Complete Schedule

Discretionary NERD Scores by Robert J. Baumann
It has become customary in these Notes for the handsome author to assign NERD scores*, at his discretion, to those pitchers who’ve accumulated fewer than 20 innings as a starter — with a view, that is, to completing the day’s NERD Game Scores and, as a result, making all well within the Republic.

*NERD being the present site’s very proprietary watchability score.

It so happened, however, that the author composed today’s edition of the Notes both at a Milwaukee-area cafe and beside NotGraphs contributor/existential blunderbuss Robert J. Baumann. It was to Baumann whom the present author conceded his NERD privileges for the day.

Below are the five pitchers who are starting this afternoon/evening but who’ve also thrown fewer than 20 innings as a starter this season — each accompanied by Baumann’s discretionary NERD score and his justification of same (both, of course, being subject to the derision of the Outraged Public).

Pitcher: Tony Cingrani, LHP, Cincinnati
Discretionary NERD: 11
Baumann’s Explanation: He’s striking out batters at an amazing pace. Not really walking guys. And he looks a little bit like Bryce Harper. In the face, I mean. [Note: Baumann has celebrated Cingrani recently in the fire-hot pages of NotGraphs.]

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Table of Contents
Here’s the table of contents for today’s edition of the Daily Notes.

1. Featured Game: St. Louis at Milwaukee, 20:10 ET
2. Other Notable Games (Including MLB.TV Free Game)
3. Today’s Complete Schedule

Featured Game: St. Louis at Milwaukee, 20:10 ET
Regarding the Cardinals, Who’s Starting for Them
In terms of who’s starting for the Cardinals tonight, it’s young and prized right-hander Shelby Miller.

Regarding Shelby Miller, His Performance to Date
Regarding Shelby Miller’s performance to date, it wouldn’t be inaccurate at all to characterize it as excellent. To wit: 5 GS, 30.2 IP, 27.1% K, 8.2% BB, 45.5% GB, 3.24 SIERA, 83 xFIP-, 0.5 WAR.

Regarding Miller, His Approach
One thing regarding Shelby Miller’s approach is his reliance on just two pitches, his fastball and curve — which pitches he’s throwing a combined 99% of the time, according to PITCHf/x data.

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Table of Contents
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1. Featured Game: Tampa Bay at Kansas City, 14:10 ET
2. Other Notable Games (Including MLB.TV Free Game)
3. Today’s Complete Schedule

Featured Game: Tampa Bay at Kansas City, 14:10 ET
Firstly, Concerning the Title of This Post
With regard to the title of this post, it’s fair to say that the author was both pleased and very pleased with himself for having devised it.

Secondly, Concerning the Title of This Post
With regard to the title of this post, it’s also fair to say that, while in the midst of feeling pleased and very pleased with himself, that the author consulted Google to verify that no one else had produced the precise and amusing collection of words found in it before, and found actually that nearly everyone has produced the precise and amusing collection of words found in it before.

What One Learns
What one learns in cases like this — and, really, should have learned already — is that one is considerably less special than one’s mother had originally let on.

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Table of Contents
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1. Featured Game: Philadelphia at Cleveland, 19:05 ET
2. Other Notable Games (Including MLB.TV Free Game)
3. Today’s Complete Schedule

Featured Game: Philadelphia at Cleveland, 19:05 ET
A Fact Regarding Cleveland, The Baseball Team
After their 14-2 victory over Philadelphia on Tuesday (box), Cleveland now leads the majors in park-adjusted batting by a substantial margin, with a 120 wRC+.

A Fact Regarding Cleveland, The City
In Cleveland, all love is unrequited love.

A Fact Regarding Cleveland, The Baseball Team
In no small part due to the seven home runs they hit collectively on Tuesday, Cleveland now also leads the majors in park-adjusted home-run rate (4.0%) — at least by the author’s own hasty calculations.

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Table of Contents
Here’s the table of contents for today’s edition of the Daily Notes.

1. Featured Game: Chicago AL at Texas, 20:05 ET
2. Other Notable Games (Including MLB.TV Free Game)
3. Today’s Complete Schedule

Featured Game: Chicago AL at Texas, 20:05 ET
Regarding This Game, What Makes It Notable
In terms of what makes this game notable, that’s largely due to how Texas right-hander Yu Darvish is starting it for Texas.

Regarding This Game, What’d Make It Even More Notable
What’d make this game even more notable is if Texas right-hander Yu Darvish were somehow starting it for Chicago, instead.

Regarding Yu Darvish, What Makes Him Notable
When you talk about a pitcher, you’re talking about someone whose objective is to prevent runs. And when you talk about a pitcher’s ability to prevent runs, you’re generally talking about his ability to record strikeouts and induce ground balls while also limiting walks. Darvish has done those things to such a degree (39.8% K, 8.1% BB, 59.0% GB) as we would expect him to concede fewer than two earned runs for every nine innings.

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Table of Contents
Here’s the table of contents for today’s edition of the Daily Notes.

1. Announcement: NERD Scores Now Available
2. NERD for Pitchers: Leaderboards and Formula
3. NERD for Teams: Leaderboard and Formula
4. Today’s Complete Schedule

Announcement: NERD Scores Now Available
The purpose of this announcement is to inform the reader that NERD scores are now available and will be a fixture in the Daily Notes for the remainder of the season.

“What is a NERD score, even?” a reasonable person might ask. It’s this, in fact: an attempt to summarize, in one number (on a scale of 0-10), the watchability, for the learned fan, of a player or team or game. It’s also this: a response to a challenge issued by Rob Neyer to the author in May of 2010.

Below is a discussion of pitcher and team NERD, specifically — along with leaderboards for each and relevant current formulae.

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