Daily Notes: All Matt Moore, All or Most of the Time

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

1. Brief Previews for Select Games
2. Sweet Table: Matt Moore on Five Top-Prospect Lists
3. Crowdsourcing Broadcasters: Miami Radio

Brief Previews for Select Games
Here are very brief previews for four of today’s games — each including the preferred television feed of FanGraphs readers, per the results of our offseason crowdsourcing project. (Information on probable pitchers from MLB.com.)

Tampa Bay at Detroit | 13:10 ET
Left-handed wunderkind and New Mexican Matt Moore makes his first start of the season. At no point at any of his minor-league stops did Moore, who enters his age-23 season, strike out fewer than 30% of opposing batters. Here’s his Steamer projection: 149.0 IP, 9.60 K/9, 4.53 BB/9, 0.87 HR/9, 3.80 FIP… The Tiger offense has been potent — through three games, at least. As of Monday, they led the majors in wRC+ (176) and had the second-lowest strikeout rate (13.4%)… Right-hander Rick Porcello, 23, starts for Detroit.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Detroit, Barely.

Boston at Toronto | 19:07 ET
After three dominant seasons at the end of Boston’s bullpen — during which time he posted a 78 xFIP- in 197.0 innings and 84 shutdowns against only 27 meltdowns (75.7% success rate) — Daniel Bard makes the first regular-season start of his major-league career. The right-hander’s spring was not particularly successful: Bard recorded just a 18:16 K:BB in 24.2 innings… Something to monitor: Bard’s changeup usage. He threw the pitch about 7% of the time last season, but will likely have to use it more frequently to be successful in a starting role… Right-hander Kyle Drabek, who walked more than he struck out (14.0% K vs. 15.1% BB) in 78.2 innings last year, pitches for Toronto.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Boston.

Seattle at Texas | 20:05 ET
Like Daniel Bard (noted above), Neftali Feliz makes his first major-league start tonight after a successful run as a reliever (162.2 IP, 90 xFIP-, 74 shutdowns vs. 19 meltdowns for a 79.6% success rate). Feliz’s spring, if not a great success, is at least a greater cause for optimism than Bard’s; Feliz posted an 11:5 K:BB in 13.0 innings… Here’s Feliz’s Steamer projection: 136.0 IP, 7.40 K/9, 4.09 BB/9, 4.66 FIP. And ZiPS: 170.1 IP, 7.61 K/9, 3.38 BB/9, 3.61 FIP… Right-hander Blake Beavan, 23, pitches for Seattle.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Seattle, Barely.

Kansas City at Oakland | 22:05 ET
This is the MLB.TV free game for today… Kansas City left-hander Danny Duffy faces Oakland right-hander Graham Godfrey… In conclusion, this game is free.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Oakland.

Sweet Table: Matt Moore on Five Top-Prospect Lists
Here’s a sweet table with Matt Moore’s ranking on five different and reputable top-prospect lists. Names are hyperlinked for the reader’s convenience.

Crowdsourcing Broadcasters: Miami Radio
Recently, we released the results of our television broadcaster rankings — itself the product of reader crowdsourcing that started in late November. Now, FanGraphs is asking readers to rate the radio broadcast teams for all 30 major-league clubs (Click here for more on this project.)

Rate other teams: Washington / Toronto / Texas / Tampa Bay / Seattle / San Francisco / San Diego / St. Louis / Pittsburgh / Philadelphia / Oakland / New York (NL) / New York (AL) / Minnesota / Milwaukee.