Daily Notes, Beginning with a Line by Bill James

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.

The Relevance of That Statement to This Game
The relevance of that statement to this game is how, according to NERD (our totally infallible measure of watchability), the Mets-Pirates game — featuring the perpetually amusing R.A. Dickey and suddenly effective James McDonald — receives the same score as this Nats-Phillies game. And yet, one imagines, it would be an exercise in folly to suggest that the Mets and Pirates were deserving of the highly esteemed “Featured Game” distinction.

The Difference Between Those Games
The difference between those games — among other differences, probably — is that the Phillies are averaging an NL-best 45,000 fans per game; the Pirates, an NL-worst 22,000.

The Difference Between Those Games, Part II
Apropos the above, I submit the following statement, which I believe to be uncontroversial: games that are (a) more well attended are also (b) more pleasant to watch on the television.

Starting Pitchers
Jordan Zimmermann (52.1 IP, 90 xFIP-, 0.9 WAR) of Washington faces Roy Halladay (64.1 IP, 89 xFIP-, 1.8 WAR) of Philadelphia.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast
Per the results of our offseason crowdsourcing project, FanGraphs readers prefer Washington and Philadelphia Radio about evenly (link).

Other Notable Games
Detroit at Cleveland | 19:05 ET ***MLB.TV Free Game***
Vaunted Detroit Offense Status Update (as of Monday): 98 wRC+ (13th in majors), 3.1 batter WAR (28th).

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Cleveland Radio.

New York NL at Pittsburgh | 20:10 ET
As noted above, both R.A. Dickey and James McDonald (50.1 IP, 87 xFIP-, 1.5 WAR) start tonight. Not noted above is how Pittsburgh’s center-field camera this year is excellent — especially for scouting pitchers.

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 5.1.

Regard, a magnificent and sortable table:

Away		SP	Tm.	Gm.	Tm.	SP		Home	Time
Felix Doubront	BOS	6	6	4	5	2	BAL	Brian Matusz	19:05
Rick Porcello	DET	7	3	4	4	0	CLE	Ubaldo Jimenez	19:05
Luke Hochevar	KC	5	6	5	6	4	NYA	Phil Hughes	19:05
R.A. Dickey	NYN	10	1	7	1	7	PIT	James McDonald	19:05
Jor. Zimmermann	WAS	8	5	7	4	7	PHI	Roy Halladay	19:05
Brandon Beachy	ATL	5	7	5	3	5	CIN	Mat Latos	19:10
Juan Nicasio	COL	6	7	5	3	3	MIA	Ricky Nolasco	19:10
Drew Hutchison	TOR	5	6	5	6	5	TB	Matt Moore	19:10
Travis Wood*	CHN	3	3	4	6	5	HOU	J.A. Happ	20:05
P.J. Walters*	MIN	5	2	5	4	5	CHA	Gavin Floyd	20:10
Matt Cain	SF	7	4	6	6	5	MIL	Shaun Marcum	20:10
Edinson Volquez	SD	5	4	6	10	7	STL	Adam Wainwright	20:15
Aaron Harang	LAN	4	6	5	4	5	AZ	Trevor Cahill	21:40
C.J. Wilson	LAA	4	4	3	4	1	OAK	Graham Godfrey*	22:05
Matt Harrison	TEX	5	10	5	5	3	SEA	Hector Noesi	22:10

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.