Daily Notes: Extraordinary Coincidences, Abounding
Table of Contents
Here’s the table of contents for today’s edition of Daily Notes.
1. Featured Game: Philadelphia at St. Louis, 20:15 ET
2. Other Notable Games (Including MLB.TV Free Game)
3. Today’s Complete Schedule
Featured Game: Philadelphia at St. Louis, 20:15 ET
Regarding Two Surprisingly Effective Pitchers, Their Names
The names of two surprisingly effective starting pitchers this season are Joe Blanton (53.0 IP, 93 xFIP-, 0.9 WAR) and Jake Westbrook (52.1 IP, 90 xFIP-, 1.0 WAR).
Regarding Those Same Pitchers, An Extraordinary Coincidence
An extraordinary coincidence involving those same pitchers is that they’re both starting tonight, against each other, in this featured game.
Regarding Those Same Pitchers, Another Coincidence
Another coincidence involving those pitchers is that Joe Blanton’s secretary is named Westbrook and Westbrook’s secretary’s name is Blanton.
Regarding That Joke, How Hackneyed It Is
About 100% hackneyed, probably.
Regarding Some Other Jokes, Ones That Aren’t Hackneyed
Generally speaking, jokes by Anthony Jeselnik aren’t hackneyed (although, please note, they do contain mature content):
Readers’ Preferred Broadcast
Per the results of our offseason crowdsourcing project, FanGraphs readers prefer Philadelphia Radio (link).
Other Notable Games
Atlanta at Cincinnati | 19:10 ET ***MLB.TV Free Game***
Let’s do a Joey Votto Status Update. Line: 188 PA, .295/.447/.555 (.346 BABIP), 173 wRC+, 2.2 WAR.
Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Atlanta Radio.
Minnesota at Chicago AL | 20:10 ET
Right-hander Cole Devries, who either (a) looks like or (b) actually is a substitute teacher, makes his first major-league start tonight for Minnesota.
Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Minnesota Radio.
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 5.0.
Regard, a magnificent and sortable table:
| Away | SP | Tm. | Gm. | Tm. | SP | Home | Time | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Justin Verlander | DET | 9 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 2 | CLE | Justin Masterson | 12:05 |
| Randall Delgado | ATL | 4 | 7 | 5 | 3 | 5 | CIN | Homer Bailey | 19:10 |
| Eric Stults* | SD | 2 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 6 | NYN | Jeremy Hefner* | 19:10 |
| Ryan Vogelsong | SF | 2 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 8 | MIA | Anibal Sanchez | 19:10 |
| Cole Devries* | MIN | 8 | 2 | 5 | 4 | 4 | CHA | Philip Humber | 20:10 |
| Joe Blanton | PHI | 7 | 5 | 7 | 10 | 6 | STL | Jake Westbrook | 20:15 |
| Dan Haren | LAA | 6 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 3 | SEA | Jason Vargas | 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.
Carson Cistulli has published a book of aphorisms called Spirited Ejaculations of a New Enthusiast.
Given the results of the crowdsourcing project, it’s probably a good idea to mention the higher-rated radio and TV broadcast for each featured game. Otherwise, it’ll end up being a radio broadcast 90% of the time.