Daily Notes, Featuring a Glorious Leaderboard Update

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

1. Glorious Custom Leaderboard Update: First-Round Draftees
2. Today’s Notable Games (Including MLB.TV Free Game)
3. Today’s Complete Schedule

Glorious Custom Leaderboard Update: First-Round Draftees
Regarding What This Is
Ten or something days ago now, I submitted for the reader’s consideration a leaderboard — a glorious custom leaderboard — of the first-round picks from the 2012 draft who had both signed and then started playing professionally. What follows is a hyperlink to an updated version of that same leaderboard.

New Additions to the Leaderboard
Here are the first-rounders who’ve been added to the leaderboard since that first iteration of the first-rounders leaderboard:

• Michael Zunino, C, Seattle
• Kyle Zimmer, RHP, Kansas City
• Michael Wacha, RHP, St. Louis
• Chris Stratton, RHP, San Francisco
• Marcus Stroman, RHP, Toronto

Two Other Additions to the Leaderboard
Here are two other players who’ve been added to the glorious and custom leaderboard — not because they’re first rounders, but because the author’s True Nature has dictated it:

• Nolan Fontana, SS, Houston — Because of his champion offensive line thus far.
• Sherman Johnson, 3B, LA AL — Because of his obvious personal magnetism.

Hyperlink to the Leaderboard in Question
Click this hyperlinked text to navigate your web browser to this glorious and updated and custom leaderboard.

Screenshot of Said Leaderboard
Here’s a screenshot (which one might click, perchance to embiggen) of said glorious and custom leaderboard — in this case, sorted by weighted batting runs above average:

A Note
The reader might notice that Diamondbacks prospect Stryker Trahan’s data continues to be strangely absent from this leaderboard. Per Baseball Reference, however, the 18-year-old Trahan is slashing .315/.453/.562 with 20 walks, 17 strikeouts, and three home runs in 95 plate appearances in the Rookie-level Arizona League.

Today’s Notable Games
Los Angeles NL at New York NL | 13:10 ET ***MLB.TV Free Game***
Left-hander Jonathon Niese (110.2 IP, 87 xFIP-, 1.1 WAR) pitches for the Mets. Despite wildly different batted-ball numbers this season, all of Niese’s defense-independent rates (strikeout, walk, ground-ball) are within two percentage points of last year’s marks. In case you were wondering even for a second about that kind of thing.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: New York NL Television.

Toronto at Boston | 13:35 ET
Per CoolStandings, Toronto and Boston are still decidedly in contention for a playoff spot — with odds of 19.2% and 35.9%, respectively — despite currently occupying the bottom two spots in the AL East.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Toronto Radio. (That said, note that a Toronto broadcast might not utilize Boston’s excellent center-field camera.)

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 4.3.

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
Philip Humber	CHA	3	5	5	4	5	DET	Jacob Turner*	13:05
Nathan Eovaldi	LAN	5	1	6	3	8	NYN	Jonathon Niese	13:10
Michael Fiers	MIL	7	7	5	4	6	CIN	Johnny Cueto	13:10
Jair Jurrjens	ATL	0	8	4	7	5	WAS	Ross Detwiler	13:35
Anibal Sanchez	MIA	7	3	4	4	5	PIT	Jeff Karstens	13:35
Barry Zito	SF	0	4	3	5	8	PHI	Joe Blanton	13:35
Hend. Alvarez	TOR	5	7	7	5	7	BOS	Jon Lester	13:35
Blake Beavan	SEA	2	3	3	5	5	TB	Matt Moore	13:40
Samuel Deduno*	MIN	4	3	1	6	1	KC	Jeremy Guthrie	14:10
Travis Wood	CHN	3	1	5	9	9	STL	Lance Lynn	14:15
Zach Britton*	BAL	4	1	3	4	4	CLE	Josh Tomlin	15:05
Chris. Friedrich	COL	8	9	4	5	4	SD	Ross Ohlendorf*	16:05
CC Sabathia	NYA	9	7	6	4	4	OAK	Bartolo Colon	16:05
Jordan Lyles	HOU	4	4	4	6	7	AZ	Josh Collmenter	16:10
Matt Harrison	TEX	5	7	5	6	6	LAA	Dan Haren	20:00

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.