Daily Notes, Featuring a Daniel Straily Debut Event

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

1. The Briefest of Announcements
2. Featured Game: Toronto at Oakland, 22:05 ET ET
3. Today’s MLB.TV Free Game
4. Today’s Complete Schedule

The Briefest of Announcements
The author will be attending the wedding of a good friend in Cambridge this weekend and then eating delicious seafood in Cape Cod after that. The mostly able Patrick Dubuque and Robert J. Baumann, both of NotGraphs, will cover the Notes on Saturday and Sunday (Dubuque) and then Tuesday and Wednesday (Baumann). Please treat them just as poorly as you would treat me.

Featured Game: Toronto at Oakland, 22:05 ET
Regarding This Game, What’s Notable About It
What’s notable about this game is how 23-year-old right-hander Daniel Straily is making his debut in it for Oakland.

Regarding Daniel Straily, Who That Is
Daniel Straily is a pitcher who posted a line very similar to this one at Double-A Midland this year: 85.1 IP, 11.39 K/9, 2.43 BB/9, 0.63 HR/9, 2.57 FIP. And a line almost precisely like this one at Triple-A Sacramento (also this year): 53.0 IP, 11.38 K/9, 2.38 BB/9, 0.51 HR/9, 2.20 FIP.

A Thing the Reader Might Enjoy About Daniel Straily
One thing the reader might enjoy about Daniel Straily is that, while he’s not particularly big (he’s listed at 6-foot-2), his heart is actually 10-feet tall.

A Thing About Daniel Straily That Might Concern the Reader
A thing about Daniel Straily that might concern the reader is how Straily’s heart is about four feet taller than he (i.e. Straily) is.

Some Questions the Reader Might Be Asking
The reader might be asking now something like, “What happens to that other four feet of heart that Straily’s got? Like, where does he keep it? Can you see it through his jersey or something when he’s pitching? Is he in danger just of dy-ying at any moment?”

A Response to the Reader
A logical response to the reader is that Straily’s unusual medical condition represents at least one reason to watch this game.

An Actually Helpful Thing Regarding Straily’s Repertoire
Straily recently spoke, and gave a very thorough description of his repertoire, to MLB.com Andrew Pentis. Click this hyperlinked text to read that piece.

An Actually Amusing Comment, Courtesy Daniel Straily
From the Twitter feed of MLB.com’s Jane Lee:

Straily: “I never got into the whole prospect thing because I never was one.”

— Jane Lee (@JaneMLB) August 2, 2012

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast
Per the results of our offseason crowdsourcing project, FanGraphs readers prefer Toronto Radio (link).

Today’s MLB.TV Free Game
Cleveland at Detroit | 19:05 ET ***MLB.TV Free Game***
Anibal Sanchez (127.0 IP, 92 xFIP-, 2.2 WAR) makes his second start at a Tiger. How will he ultimately compare to other pitchers who were traded at the deadline? That’s an actual question you can answer by referencing our custom leaderboard of recently traded players.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Cleveland 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 4.7.

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
Brad Hand*	MIA	6	3	3	6	4	WAS	John Lannan*	16:05
Josh Johnson	MIA	7	3	5	6	8	WAS	Gio Gonzalez	TBD
Ian Kennedy	AZ	6	8	7	5	8	PHI	Joe Blanton	19:05
Justin Masterson	CLE	5	3	5	4	7	DET	Anibal Sanchez	19:05
Kevin Millwood	SEA	3	4	4	7	9	NYA	CC Sabathia	19:05
Tommy Hunter	BAL	5	0	5	4	6	TB	Matt Moore	19:10
Brian Duensing*	MIN	3	4	4	5	7	BOS	Felix Doubront	19:10
Wandy Rodriguez	PIT	4	4	4	4	8	CIN	Mat Latos	19:10
Arman. Galarraga*	HOU	3	4	3	8	5	ATL	Tim Hudson	19:35
Zack Greinke	LAA	9	6	5	4	3	CHA	Philip Humber	20:10
Matt Harrison	TEX	5	8	3	7	1	KC	Jeremy Guthrie	20:10
Randy Wolf	MIL	3	8	5	10	5	STL	Joe Kelly	20:15
Ryan Vogelsong	SF	2	3	2	8	0	COL	Jonathan Sanchez	20:40
R.A. Dickey	NYN	10	4	5	6	5	SD	Clayton Richard	22:05
Brett Cecil	TOR	4	7	9	5	17	OAK	Daniel Straily	22:05
Jeff Samardzija	CHN	10	1	6	0	6	LAN	Chad Billingsley	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.