NOTE: precisely 258 respondents to the poll below believe that 10.3 Nationals batters will strike out against Phillies pitching tonight. Standard deviation: 3.3.

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

1. Featured Game: Washington at Philadelphia, 19:05 ET
2. Shameless Poll Situation: National Strikeouts
3. Other Notable Games (Including MLB.TV Free Game)
4. Today’s Complete Schedule

Featured Game: Washington at Philadelphia, 19:05 ET
Regarding Who’s Pitching This Game
In terms of who’s pitching this game, it’s Edwin Jackson for Washington and Cole Hamels for Philadelphia.

Why Anyone Should Give a Care
A reader might be interested to know — apropos tonight’s starters Edwin Jackson and Cole Hamels — that they’ve both, generally speaking, been excellent this season. Like, how Jackson has posted this line: 51.2 IP, 88 xFIP-, 0.9 WAR. And how Hamels has posted this one: 54.1 IP, 78 xFIP-, 1.5 WAR.

Why Else Anyone Might Give a Care
A reader might also be interested to know that Jackson (at 13.1%) and Hamels (at 13.0% even) are ranked second and third, respectively, among 118 qualified starters in terms of swinging-strike rate.

What That Means, Generally
Generally speaking, a high swinging-strike rate leads to a high strikeout rate. (The two variables together have an r-squared of about 0.70.)

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

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

Featured Game: Washington at Philadelphia, 19:05 ET
Regarding a Thing Bill James Said
Bill James said — while promoting his true-crime book last year on Sounds of Young America, I think it was — Bill James said something to the effect that “People are interested in things that other people are interested in.”

An Example of That Phenomenon in Action
An example of that phenomenon is any article you’d read in the Daily News, probably. Like about the murders in the Daily News. Or about how a woman was fired from her job for being too busty in the Daily News.

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

1. Featured Game: Texas at Seattle, 22:10 ET
2. Other Notable Games (Including MLB.TV Free Game)
3. Today’s Complete Schedule

Featured Game: Texas at Seattle, 22:10 ET
An Unavoidable Fact Regarding This Game
An unavoidable fact regarding this game is that it features very famous right-handed pitchers Yu Darvish (52.0 IP, 88 xFIP-, 1.2 WAR) of Texas and Felix Hernandez (62.2 IP, 80 xFIP-, 1.7 WAR) of Seattle.

Regarding Where “Of Texas,” Specifically
The Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, specifically. The city of Arlington, even more specifically than that.

Regarding Where “Of Seattle,” Specifically
The SoDo neighborhood, specifically. (South of Dome or Downtown, that means.)

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

1. Featured Game: Boston at Philadelphia, 13:35 ET
2. Largely Superfluous Video: Cliff Lee’s May 15th Start
3. Other Notable Games (Including MLB.TV Free Game)
4. Today’s Complete Schedule

Featured Game: Boston at Philadelphia, 13:35 ET
Cliff Lee Status Update
Here’s a status update for 33-year-old left-hander Cliff Lee, who starts this afternoon for Philadelphia: 37.0 IP, 26.2% K, 3.1% BB, 61.1% GB, 2.09 SIERA, 61 xFIP-, 1.1 WAR.

Regarding Lee’s Strikeout Rate, Where It’d Rank in Terms of His Career
Regarding Lee’s present strikeout rate, it would represent the best mark of his career were the season to end today. (He posted a 25.9% strikeout rate last season.)

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

1. Featured Game: St. Louis at Los Angeles NL, 22:10 ET
2. Other Notable Games (Including MLB.TV Free Game)
3. Today’s Complete Schedule

Featured Game: St. Louis at Los Angeles NL, 22:10 ET
Status Update: St. Louis Offense
As of Friday, St. Louis continued to lead the majors both in batter WAR (13.3) and wRC+ (128).

Other Status Update: St. Louis Offense
On Friday, St. Louis scored four runs through the first three innings* of their game against Ted Lilly and the Dodgers (although, as their .322 wOBA through those first three innings indicates, it wasn’t necessarily a dominant performance early on).

*At which point, the author, who shares a great deal in common with America’s geriatric population, made his way bedward.

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

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

Featured Game: Baltimore at Washington, 19:05 ET
Regarding What Today Represents
Today represents the first slate of interleague games this season.

Regarding What Else Today Represents
Today also represents the first time various sportswriters will carry on at length concerning the value and/or meaning of interleague play this season.

Regarding What This Game, Specifically, Represents
This game, specifically, represents the first time that Mid-Atlantic half-rivals Baltimore and Washington have entered interleague play in something resembling “contention” since Pythodorus was archon of Athens.

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

1. Featured Game: St. Louis at San Francisco, 15:45 ET
2. Other Notable Games (Including MLB.TV Free Game)
3. Today’s Complete Schedule

Featured Game: St. Louis at San Francisco, 15:45 ET
Regarding the St. Louis Offense, What All They Lead In
As of Wednesday, the St. Louis offense leads the majors both in park-adjusted offense (130 wRC+) and batter WAR (13.8) this season.

Regarding the St. Louis Offense, Their May So Far
The St. Louis offense has been particularly effective in May, leading the league in both park-adjusted offense (144 wRC+) and WAR (6.5).

Regarding If the Cardinals Were a Player
The Cardinals have accrued 169 player games and 577 plate appearances so far in May — or, roughly what one player might compile over the course of a season. Their batter WAR so far in May (again, 6.5) is higher than the total recorded by all but 12 major leaguers last season — most of whom accrued considerably more than 577 plate appearances.

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

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

Featured Game: Oakland at Texas, 20:05 ET
With Regard to Japanese Sensation Yu Darvish
With regard to Japanese sensation Yu Darvish, who starts tonight for Texas, here’s his line so far this season: 44.1 IP, 25.9% K, 12.2% BB, 47.0% GB, 3.64 SIERA, 88 xFIP-, 0.9 WAR.

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

1. Featured Game: Milwaukee at New York NL, 19:10 ET
2. Other Notable Games (Including MLB.TV Free Game)
3. Largely Superfluous Video: Stephen Strasburg’s Last Start
4. Today’s Complete Schedule

Featured Game: Milwaukee at New York NL, 19:10 ET
On What the Reader Might Be Wondering
The reader might be wondering why a contest involving Dillon Gee is this evening’s featured game — in particular, that is, because Cliff Lee and CC Sabathia and Stephen Strasburg are all pitching in other, not featured games.

On What the Author Is Responding
The author is responding, first of all, that Gee opposes Brewers right-hander Zack Greinke, who has been excellent this season (43.0 IP, 67 xFIP-, 1.7 WAR).

On What the Author Is Also Responding
The author is also responding that Gee himself has been quite good. Consider, if you have a moment, staring deep into his season line to date: 37.2 IP, 20.0% K, 4.9% BB, 52.2% GB, 3.15 SIERA, 83 xFIP-, 0.6 WAR.

Of Particular Note Regarding Dillon Gee
Of particular note regarding Dillon Gee is that he’s currently 11th (among 116 qualified starters) with an 11.0% swinging-strike rate — and, on a likely related note, is first in opponent O-Swing%, at 36.8%.

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

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

Featured Game: New York AL at Baltimore, 19:05 ET
Of Particular Note Regarding This Game
Of particular note regarding this game is that right-hander Jason Hammel is starting it for Baltimore.

Of Particular Note Regarding Jason Hammel, Specifically
Of particular note regarding Jason Hammel, specifically, is that, after entering the season with a career ERA of 4.99 (about a 111 or 112 ERA-), he’s posted a 2.09 ERA so far this season (50 ERA-).

Also of Note Regarding Jason Hammel, Specifically
Also of note regarding Jason Hammel, specifically, is that he’s been excellent by the defense-independent numbers so far, too, posting a 60 FIP-, 67 xFIP-, and 1.3 WAR — on the strength, naturally, of excellent peripherals (25.5% K, 7.4% BB, 61.0% GB) — through his first six starts and 38.2 innings.

Regarding Those Strikeout and Walk Rates, Where They Rank
Here’s where Hammel’s strikeout and walk rates rank among the league’s 115 qualified starters: 12th and fifth, respectively.

A Short List of People Who Didn’t Foresee Hammel Doing That
The Oracle of Delphi, probably — and all the lesser oracles, too, probably.

Two Lesser Oracles
The Oracle of Schenectady, for example — and the Oracle of Fresno, for other example.

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