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

1. Today’s Notable Games (With a Note on Free MLB.TV Games)
2. Potentially Useful Video: John Lackey’s Season Debut
3. Today’s Game Odds, Translated into Winning Percentages

Today’s Notable Games (With a Note on Free MLB.TV Games)
Note: on what MLBAM is calling Free Preview Sunday, all of today’s games besides the Atlanta-Detroit ESPN Sunday Night one are available for free on MLB.TV.

Cincinnati at Washington | 13:35 ET
After an excellent performance in his first major-league start, Tony Cingrani was even better in his second one, striking out nine of 25 Cubs batters while walking none (box). Notable is this: Cingrani compiled 12 swinging-strikes among the 72 fastballs he threw, or ca. 17%. League average, meanwhile, is about 6%.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Washington Radio

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

1. Today’s Notable Games (Including MLB.TV Free Game)
2. Barely Helpful Footage: Ervin Santana’s Slider
3. Today’s Game Odds, Translated into Winning Percentages

Today’s Notable Games (Including MLB.TV Free Game)
Cleveland at Kansas City | 19:10 ET ***MLB.TV Free Game***
Dayton Moore’s somewhat mysterious confidence in Ervin Santana has been justified thus far, as the right-hander has posted an 86 xFIP- and 0.5 WAR and 0.9 RA/9 WAR (that is, WAR based not on FIP but on runs allowed) through four starts. Santana’s swinging-strike rate has been about two percentage points above his career average so far — and much of that seems due to his slider. Always his best pitch by pitch-type value, Santana’s slider has been even better than usual, worth about 3.5 runs above league average for every hundred thrown. He’s also throwing it 40% of the time, which is rather often, actually.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Cleveland Radio

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

1. Three Notable Pacific Coast League Peformances
2. SCOUT Leaderboards: Triple-A Pacific Coast League
3. Today’s Notable Games (Including MLB.TV Free Game)
4. Today’s Game Odds, Translated into Winning Percentages

Three Notable Pacific Coast League Peformances
The leaderboards for the Triple-A Pacific Coast League are below. Here are brief notes on three players from those leaderboards.

• On Wednesday, the author sang the body Wilmer Flores (currently fifth on the prospect-age batting leaderboard below) as part of the second installment of a weekly column called The Fringe Five. In summary: he (i.e. Flores) is only 21 and controls the hell out of the strike zone.

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

1. Three Notable International League Peformances
2. SCOUT Leaderboards: Triple-A International League
3. Today’s Notable Games (Including MLB.TV Free Game)
4. Today’s Game Odds, Translated into Winning Percentages

Three Notable International League Peformances
The leaderboards for the Triple-A International League are below. Here are brief notes on three players from those leaderboards.

• This season is likely to mark the third consecutive one in which Chris Marrero, in his age-24 season, makes the majority of his plate appearances at Triple-A. Either a return to health or exposure to the level has allowed him to flourish early on. Generally speaking, it’s to the hitter’s advantage to walk and strikeout and homer all at the same rate — a thing which Marrero is more or less doing at the moment. Still, his currently major-league prospects rely on an injury to Adam LaRoche or trade.

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

1. Three Notable Florida State League Peformances
2. SCOUT Leaderboards: High-A Florida State League
3. Today’s Notable Games (Including MLB.TV Free Game)
4. Today’s Game Odds, Translated into Winning Percentages

Three Notable Florida State League Peformances
The leaderboards for the High-A Florida State League are below. Here are brief notes on three players from those leaderboards — like who they are mostly, for example.

• Out-performing the rest of the FSL at the moment is Toronto infield prospect Andrew Burns. An 11th-round pick in 2011 by the Blue Jays out of the University of Arizona, Burns has posted an impressive 13:6 walk-to-strikeout ratio, while also hitting two home runs, for Dunedin. The plate-discipline figures represent a marked improvement over his previously established levels. While little digital ink has been spilled with regard to Burns, John Sickels did note in his top-20 prospect list for Toronto that “[i]f you want a sleeper, keep an eye on infielder Andy Burns, who showed a potent power/speed combo in Low-A before getting injured in July. He’s under the radar but he’s got tools and some skills to go with them.”

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

1. Three Notable California League Peformances
2. SCOUT Leaderboards: High-A California League
3. Today’s Notable Games (Including MLB.TV Free Game)
4. Today’s Game Odds, Translated into Winning Percentages

Three Notable California League Peformances
The leaderboards for the High-A California League are below. Here are brief notes on three players from those leaderboards — like who they are mostly, for example.

• “But that was in the California League” is a reasonable comment to append to any statement one might make with regard to a particularly promising line from a hitting prospect. It’s a comment one might reasonably append, as well, to the observation that Oakland first-base prospect Max Muncy’s has eight home runs in his first 85 plate appearances this season — especially in light of how Muncy hit only four of them in 274 plate appearances last season in the Midwest League. One might say all of this with one caveat: Muncy’s raw numbers are excellent so far, but so are his numbers/rates relative to league average. He’s both hitting home runs and controlling the strike zone better than his peers in the California League.

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

1. Three Notable Carolina League Peformances
2. SCOUT Leaderboards: High-A Carolina League
3. Today’s Notable Games (Including MLB.TV Free Game)
4. Today’s Game Odds, Translated into Winning Percentages

Three Notable Carolina League Peformances
The leaderboards for the High-A Carolina League are below. Here are brief notes on three players from those leaderboards — like who they are mostly, for example.

• In addition to being on of the Carolina League’s youngest players, Baltimore infield prospect Nick Delmonico has also been one of its most offensively productive. Taken in the sixth round of the 2011 draft by Baltimore out of a Tennessee high school, Delmonico has produced an excellent slash-line (.325/.471/.600) thus far which, despite rather a high .407 BABIP, is supported by the regressed numbers, too. After splitting time between first and second base last season, he’s played mostly third base so far in this one.

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

1. Today’s Notable Games (Including MLB.TV Free Game)
2. Today’s Notable Minor-League Games
3. Today’s Game Odds, Translated into Winning Percentages

Today’s Notable Games (Including MLB.TV Free Game)
Oakland at Tampa Bay | 13:40 ET ***MLB.TV Free Game***
Tommy Milone (18.2 IP, 97 xFIP-) faces Roberto Hernandez (18.2 IP, 92 xFIP-). Regarding the latter: he’s posted a 21.2% strikeout rate and 10.6% swinging-strike rate thus far, both figures considerably better than his previously established levels. A brief inspection of his PITCHf/x data reveals that, rather than having demonstrated improvement with any one pitch, that all of Hernandez’s pitches are currently eliciting more whiffs than in 2011, for example, when he last pitched significant innings.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Tampa Bay Radio.

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

1. Today’s Notable Games (Including MLB.TV Free Game)
2. Today’s Notable Minor-League Games
3. Today’s Game Odds, Translated into Winning Percentages

Today’s Notable Games (Including MLB.TV Free Game)
Kansas City at Boston | 13:10 ET ***MLB.TV Free Game***
One assumes that this game will have something of the celebratory feel after Friday night’s nearly ideal resolution to an otherwise startling series of events. That will make Fenway Park and its occupants a compelling spectacle in and of themselves. Incidentally, there’s also rather a promising pitching matchup between James Shields (21.0 IP, 74 xFIP-) and Clay Buchholz (22.0 IP, 86 xFIP-). Regarding Buchholz: he’s posted a 27.4% strikeout rate so far, about 10 percentage points above his career average. That’s encouraging. Less encouraging is how his swinging-strike rate — which correlates very highly with strikeout rate — is basically the same (8.5%) as in previous seasons.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Boston Radio or Television.

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

1. No Fewer Than Two Caveats
2. Today’s Notable Games (Including MLB.TV Free Game)
3. Today’s Game Odds, Translated into Winning Percentages

No Fewer Than Two Caveats
Here are at least two caveats — or something not unlike caveats — regarding today’s edition of the Notes.

Caveat No. 1
While the author is typically dissatisfied until every American, each day, has both (a) read completely that morning’s edition of the Daily Notes and then (b) sent to the author a personal note of congratulations, he (i.e. that same author) understands if the readership — owing to Events Most Grievous currently unfolding in Boston, and the Haunted Appeal of those events to the public’s mind (the author’s own mind included) — is distracted.

Caveat No. 2
In decidedly less fraught news, note that the author has added — to the game odds below, with the translations to projected winning percentages — has added pitcher innings totals and xFIP- figures for the 2013 season so far.

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