Fun-Loving? Check. Totally Sentient? Double-Check.

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

1. Featured Game: Atlanta at Boston, 19:15 ET
2. Other Notable Games (Including MLB.TV Free Game)
3. Today’s Complete Schedule

Featured Game: Atlanta at Boston, 19:15 ET
Regarding the Title of This Post, What It Refers To
The title of this post refers to how left-hander Franklin Morales is making his second start of the season — and over, like, the last four seasons — for the Boston Red Sox tonight.

The Title of This Post, To What Else It Refers
Apparently, the film Destry Rides Again, is what, a 1939 Western starring Marlene Dietrich and James Stewart.

The Title of This Post, To What the Author Thought It Referred
Herbie Rides Again, actually, a 1974 comedy film about a fun-loving and totally sentient Volkswagen Beetle.

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

1. Featured Game: Colorado at Texas, 20:05 ET
2. A Very Notable Other Game (With a Note on the MLB.TV Free Game)
3. Today’s Complete Schedule

Featured Game: Colorado at Texas, 20:05 ET
Regarding This Game, What the Big Deal Is
The big deal regarding this game is that 34-year-old right-hander Roy Oswalt is starting it for Texas.

Some Relevant Information Regarding Roy Oswalt
In terms of Roy Oswalt, these are facts about him:

• His most recent regular-season start was on September 27 of last year (box).
• His velocity was in the 88-92 mph range last season before back problems forced Oswalt to the DL. Upon his return, Oswalt’s velocity increased slightly, sitting more around 91-95.
• A free agent after 2011, he signed with Texas at the end of May.
• Two or three minutes’ worth of internet searches suggest that Oswalt’s fastball is probably sitting in the low-90s at the moment — or, at least that’s what it was doing in his second-to-last warmup start.
• He posted this line in a total of four minor-league starts between Double- and Triple-A: 15.1 IP, 13 K, 4 BB, 1 HR.

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

1. Featured Game: Tampa Bay at Washington, 19:05 ET
2. College World Series: Elimination Games Abound
3. Today’s MLB.TV Free Game
4. Today’s Complete Schedule

Featured Game: Tampa Bay at Washington, 19:05 ET
A Note on Who’s Pitching, First
This game features hard-throwing left-hander Matt Moore (75.2 IP, 103 xFIP-, 0.6 WAR) against other hard-throwing left-hander Gio Gonzalez (78.2 IP, 75 xFIP-, 3.0 WAR).

Regarding These Left-Handers, How Hard-Throwing They Are
In terms of fastball velocity, Moore (94.2 mph) and Gonzalez (93.4 mph) have the second- and third-highest average ones among all qualified left-handers, according to PITCHf/x.

Regarding Left-Handers, Generally
With regard to left-handers, generally, both etymology and probably also science somehow teach us that they’re (i.e. left-handers), by definition, sinister.

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

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

Arbitrary Endpoint Leaderboards: June 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 in, like, 11% more depth recently in these same pages.)

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

1. College World Series: Ryne Stanek to Pitch Tonight
2. Today’s Notable MLB Games (Including MLB.TV Free Game)
3. Today’s Complete Schedule

College World Series: Ryne Stanek to Pitch Tonight
What Is Happening Tonight, Specifically
Specifically, what is happening tonight is the Arkansas Razorbacks are playing the South Carolina Gamecocks in a College World Series game at 9pm ET.

What’s Happening Tonight, Even More Specifically
Even more specifically, what’s happening tonight is sophomore right-hander Ryne Stanek is pitching for Arkansas.

One Thing About Ryne Stanek
Of Stanek, Baseball America’s Aaron Fitt wrote this in March — with regard to Stanek’s prospects for the 2013 draft:

[H]is rapidly improving ability to utilize his stuff by attacking the strike zone (without trying too hard to be too fine) makes him a strong early candidate to be the No. 1 overall pick in the 2013 draft.

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

1. Breaking: College World Series Is Romp of Emotion
2. Today’s Notable MLB Games (Including MLB.TV Free Game)
3. Today’s Complete Schedule

Breaking: College World Series Is Romp of Emotion
Regarding the Title of This Post
The title of this post is designed to alert readers to a breaking news story, the substance of which story is that the College World Series — currently ongoing in Omaha, Nebraska, America — is a romp of emotion.

For Example, Why It’s a Romp of Emotion
Allow me to answer that question in the form of multiple Hot GIFs.

Robert Benincasa’s Slidepiece
Here’s Florida State reliever Robert Benincasa’s (7th round, Washington) slider, from a game in which he pitched 4.0 innings of relief, stiking out a third (5 of 15) of the batters he faced.

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

1. The College World Series, Important Knowledge About
2. Notable MLB Games (Including MLB.TV Free Game)
3. Today’s Complete Schedule

The College World Series, Important Knowledge About
The Things That Happened on Friday
The College World Series — which you’ll watch this evening and like watching — began last (Friday) night. Northeastern upstarts Stony Brook lost to UCLA, 9-1 (box). In the second game, Arizona beat Florida State by a score of 4-3 in 12 innings (box).

What That All Means
What that means is, is UCLA and Arizona will now face each other on Sunday night as part of the “winners bracket” of the double-elimination tournament. Northeastern upstarts Stony Brook will play Florida State on Sunday, as well. The loser of that latter game will be eliminated.

How the Author Feels
The author feels like, despite their loss, Florida State still has a pretty good chance of making it to the championship finals.

What Makes Him Feel That Way
What makes him feel that way is a combo package of excellent center fielder James Ramsey and also wild speculation — with a decided emphasis on the latter.

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That bracket for the College World Series everyone continues to talk about. (Click to embiggen.)

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

1. The College World Series: A Nerd’s Guide, Part II
2. Today’s MLB.TV Free Game
3. Today’s Complete Schedule

The College World Series: A Nerd’s Guide, Part II
A Note on What This Is
The College World Series begins tonight, at 5pm ET, with a game between Stony Brook and UCLA.

What follows is part two (of two) of a guide to said event for the sort of person who (a) reads FanGraphs, but (b) pays basically zero attention to college baseball, and yet still (c) has a passing interest in the Series itself.

All manner of disclaimer, qualification, and caveat appears in the first part this impossibly helpful guide.

Click on college names for team stats. Scouting reports for each team — of no little use to the author in the composition of this document — are available at Baseball America. The full schedule of the CWS is available here.

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This is the bracket for the College World Series everyone is talking about. (Click to embiggen.)

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

1. The College World Series: A Nerd’s Guide, Part I
2. Today’s Notable Games (Including MLB.TV Free Game)
3. Today’s Complete Schedule

The College World Series: A Nerd’s Guide, Part I
A Note on What This Is (And Also What It Isn’t)
The College World Series begins Friday, June 15th, at 5pm ET with a game between Stony Brook and UCLA.

What follows is part one (of two)* of a guide to said event for the sort of person who (a) would read FanGraphs (or, currently is reading FanGraphs, as appears to be the case), but (b) pays basically zero attention to college baseball, and yet still (c) has a passing interest in the Series itself.

*Read part two here.

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

1. Two Useful Tables Regarding First-Round Draft Signees
2. Today’s Notable Games (Including MLB.TV Free Game)
3. Today’s Complete Schedule

Two Useful Tables Regarding First-Round Draft Signees
A Note on the Following
On Sunday, 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) probably some really well-crafted prose that improved your outlook on life.

In any case, what follows is that same table, updated to include signings that’ve occurred in the interim.

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