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

1. Featured Game: St. Louis at Cincinnati, 19:10 ET
2. Other Notable Games (Including MLB.TV Free Game)
3. Today’s Complete Schedule

Featured Game: St. Louis at Cincinnati, 19:10 ET
A Thing That Will Surprise You
A thing that will surprise you, the marvelous reader, is perhaps that tonight’s starter for Cincinnati, Mat Latos, after a generally miserable April and May, currently has a 95 xFIP- (i.e. park- and league-adjusted xFIP, where below 100 is better).

Regarding Mat Latos, His xFIPs by Month
Here are Latos’s xFIPs by month this season, so far (month and innings pitched in parentheses): 4.79 (April, 28.2 IP), 4.00 (May, 30.1), 3.02 (June, 38.2), 2.26 (July, 7.0).

What a Reasonable Person Might Suggest
A person — an entirely reasonable one, in fact — might suggest, after looking at Mat Latos’s month-by-month xFIPs, that some manner of “trend” has revealed itself.

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

1. World Series Odds, Converted into Projections
2. Actual Transaction News
3. Video for No Reason: Mets Prospect Josh Edgin

World Series Odds, Converted into Projections
Regarding What This Is
This past offseason, after internet sportsbook Bodog had published their early odds for 2012’s World Series winner, I converted those odds into very basic projections, with a view towards seeing what the wisdom of the crowd might reveal about the upcoming season.

Now, with the season roughly at its midway point, I present updated World Series odds, once again converted into projected winning percentages for the league’s 30 clubs.

One Way This Is Different
One way these projected winning percentages are different from those from Novemeber is that these are based on odds from Pinnacle sportsbook, not Bodog. As reader Cliff noted in that first post, Bodog is what’s known as a “square’ book — which is to say, it tends to take bets from casual bettors who are more likely to bet on favorites or for their hometown team, for example. Accordingly, these books will offer less favorable odds on more popular clubs — and artificially inflate the projected World Series chances of those clubs, in the process. A “sharp” book, meanwhile, tends to cater more towards experienced bettors, who are more likely to place reasoned bets. Pinnacle appears to have a reputation as being a sharp book.

Another Way This Is Different
Another way this is different, is that the odds here — unlike in that original version — include the original stake, so the break-even point is just the listed odds divided by one.

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

1. Glorious Custom Leaderboard: First-Round Draftees
2. Assorted Headlines
3. Image for No Reason: Addison Russell

Glorious Custom Leaderboard: First-Round Draftees
Regarding an Important Gift
Prometheus famously stole fire from the gods and gave it to man. Eve, owing to her conduct in the garden, made humans ultimately capable of shame — one of the best emotions people can have.

I’m confident that I, Carson Cistulli, will be remembered alongside these noteworthy benefactors for the glorious custom leaderboard I’ve recently made — a leaderboard, specifically, of all the first-round picks from the most recent draft to have begun their professional careers — and a hyperlink to which I now make available to the public.

Hyperlink to Said Glorious and Custom Leaderboard
Click this hyperlinked text to navigate your web browser to this glorious and custom leaderboard.

Screenshot of Said Glorious and Custom Leaderboard
Here’s a screenshot (which one might click, perchance to embiggen) of said glorious and custom leaderboard — in this case, sorted by weighted batting runs above average:

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

1. Updated Update: First-Round Signees
2. Notes on Allotted Bonus Pools and Penalties
3. Video for No Reason: Stryker Trahan

Updated Update: First-Round Signees
A Note on the Following
A little less than a month ago, we published in these electronic pages a table of the first-round picks who’d signed so far, along with (a) the amount of each signee’s bonus, (b) MLB’s suggested bonus for each corresponding slot, and (c) photographs of the present author posing sensually without a shirt but with a giant snake.

What follows is that same table, updated to include signings that’ve occurred in the interim. The photos of the author, considered too hot for the whole internet, have been woefully omitted.

Note: the deadline to sign draft picks this year is July 13th, or roughly a month earlier than in recent seasons.

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Table of Contents
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1. Introduction to This Edition of the Notes
2. Notable Minor-League Games on MiLB.TV
3. Stirring Hyperlink: John Sickels’ Midseason Top-120 Prospects

Introduction to This Edition of the Notes
A Note to the Reader
The reader will note — if he has not done so already — that, owing to how the All-Star break has begun, there’s what one might call a “dearth” of major-league baseball today.

A Second Note to the Reader
The reader will also note that there’s a decided lack of coverage — in this edition of the Notes — a decided lack of coverage of baseball’s Home Run Derby Exhibition Grand Slam Show, Good Job, which is happening tonight.

Regarding the Lack of Home Run Derby Coverage
The lack of Home Run Derby coverage in this edition of the Notes — and, in fact, likely at this entire baseball internet site today — is not a commentary on the sort of entertainment value which the citizenry might derive from said Exhibition.

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Table of Contents
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1. Assorted Notes on the Futures Game
2. Other Notable Games (Including MLB.TV Free Game)
3. Today’s Complete Schedule

Assorted Notes on the Futures Game
A Note on Right-Thinking People Everywhere, Their Opinions
It’s the opinion of right-thinking people everywhere that the Futures Game — which occurs tonight (Sunday) at 5pm ET — is the very best (and/or, perhaps, only tolerable) thing about the All-Star break and its attendant festivities.

A Note on Wrong-Thinking People Everywhere, Their Opinions
With regard to wrong-thinking people and their opinions, the author has considerably less to say — except that they (i.e. wrong-thinking people) are very likely responsible for the design and manufacture of the PT Cruiser.

The Futures Games, Some Information About It
The Futures Game, for those who are unacquainted with it, is a contest between the very best American-born and also other-country-born prospects in baseball. It is, for example, the medium by which the author was first introduced to the athletic stylings of an 18-year-old Mike Trout.

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Table of Contents
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1. Featured Game: New York AL at Boston, 12:35 ET
2. Other Notable Games (Including MLB.TV Free Game)
3. Today’s Complete Schedule

Featured Game: New York AL at Boston, 12:35 ET
Regarding a Thing About This Game
A thing about this game is that — owing both to its early start time and also the semi-belated appearance of the present Notes — is that it’s probably beginning now, or just about to begin, even as you’re reading these words.

Regarding Another Possibility
Another possibility is that the game is maybe even over already — ended, in fact, some time ago — and the reader is fully aware of the result, but curious as to what his expectations might have been had he read these Notes earlier, and to what degree those expectations would have been borne out, or perhaps contradicted (if that’s a thing that can be done to expectations), by the actual game itself.

In the Event That That’s the Case
If that is the case — the thing about the game being over already — allow me to salute the Gentlereader of the Future. Allow me to commend, moreoever, his taste in baseballing internet sites.

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Table of Contents
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1. Stirring Hyperlink: BA’s Midseason Top-50 Prospects
2. Notable MLB Games (Including MLB.TV Free Game)
3. Today’s Complete Schedule

Stirring Hyperlink: BA’s Midseason Top-50 Prospects
Regarding What Happened Yesterday
The thing that happened yesterday is, is Baseball America made available to Navigators of the Internet its midseason top-50 prospect list.

The Reader’s Likely Reaction to That
Rendered in video form, here’s how the reader is likely reacting to that sort of information:

In Terms of Navigating to the Aforementioned Prospect List
In terms of navigating to BA’s midseason prospect list, it’s necessary to follow this hyperlink.

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Table of Contents
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1. Leaderboard from the Future: Rest-of-Season Hitters
2. Notable MLB Games (Including MLB.TV Free Game)
3. Today’s Complete Schedule

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

1. Notes of Import™
2. Notable MLB Games (Including MLB.TV Free Game)
3. Today’s Complete Schedule

Notes of Import™
Need to know information for men and women who need to know.

Scouting Report of Cole’s July 2nd Start
Internetting Gentleman mattp31 attended top-ranked Pittsburgh prospect and right-hander Gerrit Cole’s start against the Binghamton Mets on Monday and has written a detailed report of same for Minor League Ball. Cole’s fastball seemed to sit at around 94-96 mph and, according to the aforementioned author, hit 96 or higher about a third of the time. The start was the 21-year-old Cole’s third at Double-A. Here’s his line from same: 5.2 IP, 25 TBF, 5 K, 1 BB, 0 HR, 7:3 GO:FO, 6 H.

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