Daily Notes: Arbitrary Endpoint Leaderboard Situation
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.
Arbitrary Endpoint Leaderboard: August Hitters So Far
Here are the (sortable) leaders among field players, per WAR, in August so far:
| Name | Team | PA | wRC+ | BABIP | Fld | BsR | WAR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Buster Posey | Giants | 82 | 216 | .400 | 0.1 | -0.6 | 1.6 |
| Jon Jay | Cardinals | 84 | 185 | .419 | 1.4 | 0.4 | 1.4 |
| Mike Trout | Angels | 94 | 173 | .333 | 1.0 | 0.8 | 1.4 |
| Jason Heyward | Braves | 90 | 152 | .429 | 2.8 | 1.1 | 1.3 |
| Chase Headley | Padres | 84 | 179 | .283 | 0.7 | -0.2 | 1.3 |
| Prince Fielder | Tigers | 82 | 214 | .333 | -0.3 | -0.5 | 1.2 |
| Todd Frazier | Reds | 87 | 186 | .356 | -0.8 | 0.4 | 1.2 |
| Eric Young | Rockies | 72 | 182 | .442 | 1.1 | 0.8 | 1.2 |
| Angel Pagan | Giants | 93 | 166 | .391 | -0.3 | 0.6 | 1.2 |
| Michael Bourn | Braves | 94 | 137 | .345 | 2.8 | 0.5 | 1.2 |
Arbitrary Endpoint Leaderboard: August Pitchers So Far
Here are the (sortable) August leaders among pitchers, by WAR:
| Name | Team | IP | K% | BB% | GB% | xFIP- | WAR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kris Medlen | Braves | 27.2 | 25.0% | 3.9% | 55.4% | 67 | 1.2 |
| Adam Wainwright | Cardinals | 31.0 | 27.0% | 4.4% | 56.4% | 67 | 1.2 |
| Jeremy Guthrie | Royals | 28.2 | 22.1% | 4.8% | 36.8% | 88 | 1.2 |
| Felix Hernandez | Mariners | 32.2 | 22.8% | 3.5% | 45.2% | 78 | 1.2 |
| Jon Lester | Red Sox | 27.2 | 25.2% | 5.6% | 55.6% | 63 | 1.1 |
| Clayton Kershaw | Dodgers | 29.1 | 29.4% | 2.8% | 45.7% | 61 | 1.1 |
| David Price | Rays | 30.0 | 24.5% | 4.7% | 48.0% | 73 | 1.1 |
| Madison Bumgarner | Giants | 29.0 | 28.3% | 2.8% | 45.1% | 69 | 1.0 |
| Justin Verlander | Tigers | 21.0 | 30.8% | 5.5% | 37.5% | 56 | 1.0 |
| Cole Hamels | Phillies | 32.2 | 24.8% | 2.5% | 43.5% | 77 | 1.0 |
Notes
• Mike Trout’s name has appeared on previous editions of these leaderboards, but, in both cases, he had BABIPs in excess of .400. In point of fact, it’s entirely likely that Trout’s .333 BABIP here is below his true-talent level.
• Rockies outfielder Eric Young has hit three home runs in August, which is more than he’d had in 600 major-league plate appearances entering the month. He was recently placed on the DL with a rib injury, but should receive considerable playing time in September with Michael Cuddyer (oblique) a possibility to miss the rest of the season.
• Atlanta right-hander Kris Medlen actually pitched just last (Wednesday) night, throwing seven innings in a defeat of Washington. Line: 7.0 IP, 28 TBF, 7 K, 1 BB, 10 GB on 20 batted-balls (50.0%), 2.57 xFIP.
Today’s Notable Games
Toronto at Detroit | 13:05 ET
Justin Verlander (181.2 IP, 79 xFIP-, 5.2 WAR) pitches for a Tigers team that has almost precisely a 50% chance of making the playoffs at the moment.
Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Toronto Radio.
Colorado at New York NL | 20:10 ET ***MLB.TV Free Game***
Right-hander Collin McHugh makes his major-league debut for the Mets. The 25-year-old’s line at Triple-A Buffalo: 69.0 8.74 K/9, 3.52 BB/9, 0.91 HR/9, 3.84 FIP. The internet’s consensus scouting report: he’s basically Dillon Gee.
Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: New York NL Television.
Today’s Complete Schedule
Here’s the complete schedule for all of today’s games, with our very proprietary watchability (NERD) scores for each one. Pitching probables and game times aggregated from MLB.com and RotoWire. The average NERD Game Score for today is 4.4.
Note: the following Game Scores include the poorly conceived playoff-odds adjustment discussed in a recent edition of Daily Notes. Also note: the following table is entirely sortable.
| Away | SP | Tm. | Gm. | Tm. | SP | Home | Time | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| J.A. Happ | TOR | 6 | 6 | 6 | 4 | 9 | DET | Justin Verlander | 13:05 |
| Tyler Chatwood | COL | 4 | 8 | 5 | 2 | 11 | NYN | Collin McHugh* | 13:10 |
| Dallas Keuchel | HOU | 0 | 4 | 3 | 9 | 5 | STL | Jake Westbrook | 13:45 |
| Johnny Cueto | CIN | 7 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 9 | PHI | Cole Hamels | 19:05 |
| C.J. Wilson | LAA | 4 | 8 | 4 | 6 | 6 | BOS | Frank. Morales | 19:10 |
| Tyson Ross | OAK | 2 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 7 | TB | Alex Cobb | 19:10 |
| Scott Diamond | MIN | 6 | 4 | 5 | 7 | 9 | TEX | Roy Oswalt | 20:05 |
| Tommy Hanson | ATL | 4 | 8 | 2 | 3 | 0 | SF | Barry Zito | 22:15 |
To learn more about Pitcher and Team NERD scores click here.
To learn how Game NERD Scores are calculated, click here.
* = Fewer than 20 IP, NERD at discretion of very handsome author.
Carson Cistulli has published a book of aphorisms called Spirited Ejaculations of a New Enthusiast.
I’ve got Trout’s ability to generate a hit on contact (H/(AB-K)) at .389. That’s a hair behind McCutchen and AJax.