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

1. Featured Game: New York NL at St. Louis, 14:15 ET
2. Today’s MLB.TV Free Game
3. Today’s Complete Schedule

Featured Game: New York NL at St. Louis, 14:15 ET
Regarding This Game, Why It’s Notable
One reason why this game is notable, is on account of right-hander Collin McHugh is making his second major-league start in it for the Mets — and his first major-league start in front of one of the league’s finer cameras.

Regarding McHugh, His First Major-League Start
McHugh, 25, was excellent in his first start, on August 23rd against the Rockies. Regard: 7.0 IP, 23 TBF, 9 K, 1 BB, 4 GB on 12 batted-balls (33.3%), 2.01 xFIP.

Regarding McHugh, His Repertoire
The author — who isn’t bragging or anything, but just noting it for the benefit of the reader — the author recently wrote a piece, with sexy, animated GIFs, examining McHugh’s repertoire of sexy pitches.

Read the rest of this entry »

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

1. Daily Notes Programming Message
2. Notable Weekend Games
3. Complete Weekend Schedule (Including MLB.TV Free Game)

Daily Notes Programming Message
Programming Note
At the risk of disappointing the otherwise entirely cheerful reader, both the Saturday and Sunday editions of the Daily Notes will be omitted from these electronic pages as the author attends a wedding this weekend.

Read the rest of this entry »

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

1. Very Sortable Table: Arizona Fall League Rosters
2. Today’s Notable Games (Including MLB.TV Free Game)
3. Today’s Complete Schedule

Very Sortable Table: Arizona Fall League Rosters
Regarding Yesterday, A Thing That Was Announced During It
A thing that was announced yesterday — via some manner of stone tablet and/or atop some manner of rocky peak, one assumes — was the preliminary rosters for this year’s Arizona Fall League, or AFL.

Regarding the AFL, What It Is, Again
The AFL is a league composed of myriad top prospects that takes place (geographically speaking) in the Greater Phoenix Area and (chronologically speaking) over October and November. This year’s schedule, for example, runs from October 9th until the November 17th championship game.

Regarding What the Author Has Done
What the author has done is to publish a sortable table of all presently known AFL-bound players, including both the AFL and MLB parent club for each one. Also, for the greater convenience of the reader, each player’s name includes a hyperlink to his FanGraphs player page.

Read the rest of this entry »

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

1. Dan Straily-Related Information
2. Today’s Notable Games (Including MLB.TV Free Game)
3. Today’s Complete Schedule

Dan Straily-Related Information
Regarding Who Dan Straily Is, First of All
Dan Straily is the 23-year-old and right-handed Oakland prospect who entered play Tuesday leading all minor-league pitchers in strikeouts, with 179.

Regarding Who Dan Straily Is, Also
Another thing about Dan Straily is, is he posted this line with Oakland in three minor-league starts not that long ago: 17.0 IP, 17.1% K, 5.7% BB, 28.3% GB, 4.56 SIERA, 116 xFIP-, 0.0 WAR.

Regarding One Type of Reader, What He Might Say
It’s entirely possible that a certain type of reader — inspecting Straily’s line, etc. — a certain type of reader might utter something to the effect of “Pshaw.”

Read the rest of this entry »

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

1. Tommy Milone’s Changeup
2. Today’s Notable Games (Including MLB.TV Free Game)
3. Today’s Complete Schedule

Tommy Milone’s Changeup
What the Attentive Reader Might Notice
The attentive reader might notice that Tommy Milone is pitching for Oakland tonight, against Cleveland.

What a More Attentive Reader Might Notice
An even more attentive reader than that first one might notice that Tommy Milone has pitched quite well this season. Like, to the point where it would be entirely reasonable to suggest that he’s a slightly above-average major-league starter. To wit: 153.1 IP, 17.8% K, 4.8% BB, 39.2% GB, 3.97 SIERA, 96 xFIP-, 2.1 WAR.

What the Most Attentive Reader Might Notice
What the most attentive reader will notice is that Milone’s success is almost entirely due to his changeup. Consider, for example, the pitch values (runs relative to average) for his repertoire:

• Four-Seam Fastball: -6.3 runs, -0.53 runs/100.
• Two-Seam Fastball: -5.2 runs, -4.07 runs/100.
• Cut Fastball: -0.5 runs, -0.20 runs/100.
• Curveball: 0.7 runs, 0.28 runs/100.
• Changeup: 16.1 runs, 2.67 runs/100.

Read the rest of this entry »

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

1. Featured Game: Atlanta at San Diego, 22:05 ET
2. Other Notable Games (Including MLB.TV Free Game)
3. Today’s Complete Schedule

Featured Game: Atlanta at San Diego, 22:05 ET
Regarding This Game, Why It’s Notable
Tonight’s game between Atlanta and San Diego is notable, on account of it represents the major-league debut of real-live prospect Casey Kelly.

Regarding Casey Kelly, Who That Even Is
Casey Kelly is a right-handed pitcher whom the Padres acquired in the trade that sent Adrian Gonzalez to Boston in December of 2010. He’s also a player whom the Red Sox themselves originally took 30th overall in the 2008 draft out of a Sarasota (FL) high school.

Regarding Casey Kelly, His Rankings on Various Prospect Lists
In terms of where Kelly appeared on various prospect lists before the season, sixth is where our Marc Hulet ranked him among Padres farmhands. John Sickels of Minor League Ball, meanwhile, ranked Kelly eighth overall among Padres prospects, while Baseball America ranked him third.

Read the rest of this entry »

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

1. Featured Game: Los Angeles AL at Detroit, 13:05 ET
2. Today’s MLB.TV Free Game
3. Today’s Complete Schedule

Featured Game: Los Angeles AL at Detroit, 13:05 ET
Regarding What’s Possible
It’s entirely possible that a reader — a brazen sort of reader, that is — it’s possible that such a reader might confront the author regarding his choice of featured game today.

On What Grounds a Reader Might Do That
In the event that a reader were to confront the author on his selection of today’s Featured Game, it’s possible he would do so on the grounds that the NERD score — i.e. the infallible watchability metric created by the author himself — that the NERD score for the Angels-Tigers contest is decidedly not the highest among today’s games.

Other Games with a Higher NERD Score Than Angels-Tigers, A Brief List
Here’s a brief list of games with a higher NERD score than today’s Angels-Tigers game:

• The Cardinals-Reds game
• The Brewers-Pirates game

Read the rest of this entry »

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

1. Information: Who Is and Isn’t on the Red Sox
2. Today’s Notable Games (Including MLB.TV Free Game)
3. Today’s Complete Schedule

Information: Who Is and Isn’t on the Red Sox
A Note on What’s About to Happen
What’s about to happen — or, depending on when you’re reading this, what has happened already — is the Red Sox and Dodgers are going to conduct business with each other. Adult-type of business. Serious adult-type of business.

A Note on the Aforementioned Business, What’s Unclear About It
So far as the serious and aforementioned business is concerned, it’s not entirely clear — to the author, at least, who necessarily serves as the reader’s surrogate in such matters — it’s not entirely clear who’ll be on the Red Sox after the business has been conducted. Like, on the Sox’ 25-man roster.

Regarding Who’s Not on the Red Sox Anymore
As of this afternoon, here are the players who’ll no longer be on the Red Sox, it seems: Josh Beckett, Carl Crawford, Adrian Gonzalez, and Nick Punto.

Read the rest of this entry »

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

1. Sexy Regressed August Leaderboards
2. Today’s Notable Games (Including MLB.TV Free Game)
3. Today’s Complete Schedule

Sexy Regressed August Leaderboards
Regarding a “Sexy Regressed Leaderboard,” What That Is
In the not very distant past, the author submitted — as a prelude to a series of posts on college summer leagues — he submitted an entirely infallible and also sexy method by which to present responsibly both batting and pitching production regardless of sample size.

Regarding the Method in Question, A Short Description of It
Essentially, what the author did was to (a) take the strikeout, walk, and (for hitters) home-run rates of every player in the relevant sample, (b) regress them accordingly, and (c) produce a number that looks either like wRC+ (for hitters) or ERA- (for pitchers).

Regarding That Method, A Slightly More Thorough Description of It
For the purposes of these sexy leaderboards, offensive production (represented as the totally made-up SCOUT+, where 100 is league average and above 100 is above average) is essentially a version of wRC+, except using the three main defense-independent inputs (home-run, walk, and strikeout rate), all regressed duly*. Pitching performance (represented by the also entirely made-up SCOUT-, where 100 is league average and below 100 represents above-average run prevention) is calculated using a version of kwERA, with regressed strikeout and walk rates as the relevant inputs.

Regarding That Method, The Most Thorough Description of It
Click this hyperlinked text to read the most thorough description of the method discussed here.

Read the rest of this entry »

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

1. Arbitrary Endpoint Leaderboards: August So Far
2. Today’s Notable Games (Including MLB.TV Free Game)
3. Today’s Complete Schedule

Aribitrary Endpoint Leaderboards: August So Far
The Arbitrary Endpoint Leaderboards, What They Are
The Arbitrary Endpoint Leaderboards represent an attempt to compensate for the influence of early season narratives, which — likely owing to a cogntive bias known as the primacy effect — are often quite powerful and can obscure more recent, notable performances. (Note: this was discussed — albeit not in great depth — recently in these same pages.)

The Arbitrary Endpoint Leaderboards, What Else They Are
The Arbitrary Endpoint Leaderboards also represent an opportunity for the author to build most or all of a post around what’s little more than a regular leaderboard from the present site, rendered into the form of an internet table.

Regarding This Situation, What a Person Might Call It
It’s possible that a native English speaker might refer to what’s happening here as a “win-win” situation.

Read the rest of this entry »