Daily Notes, Featuring a Not Unimportant Game in LA

September 9, 2012

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

1. Featured Game: Detroit at Los Angeles AL, 15:35 ET
2. Other Notable Games (Including MLB.TV Free Game)
3. Today’s Complete Schedule

Featured Game: Detroit at Los Angeles AL, 15:35 ET
Regarding This Game What’s Notable About It
A thing that’s notable about this game between the Tigers and Angels is how it’s not unimportant so far as the postseason fate of each of the named teams is concerned.

Regarding the Tigers, Their Playoff Odds
According to Cool Standings, Detroit currently has a 32.4% chance of making the playoffs: a 29.3% probability of winning the AL central and 3.1% one of qualifying for the wild-card game.

Regarding the Angels, Their Playoff Odds
According to the same helpful internet source cited above, Los Angeles’s playoff odds are currently at 36.3%, including a 2.2% chance of winning the AL West and 34.1% one of qualifying for the wild-card game.

Regarding “Not Unimportant,” Of Which Rhetorical Device It’s an Example
The phrase “not unimportant” is an example of the rhetorical device litotes (pronounced “lie-TOE-teez”), characterized ably by Wikipedia as “a form of understatement, always deliberate and with the intention of emphasis.”

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Regarding Litotes, Why a Person Might Use It
A person might use litotes in an effort to effect the speech of a 19th century Bostonian aristocrat.

Regarding Litotes, Why Else a Person Might Use It
A person might also use litotes in an effort to avoid superlative adjectives, which are largely the province of pubescent girls.

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

Other Notable Games
Texas at Tampa Bay | 13:40 ET ***MLB.TV Free Game***
This has been the other not unimportant series this weekend. In this particular installment, Roy Oswalt (52.1 IP, 82 xFIP-, 0.8 WAR) faces James Shields (190.0 IP, 82 xFIP-, 3.2 WAR).

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Texas Radio.

Arizona at San Diego | 16:05 ET
San Diego left-hander, and former independent-leaguer, Andrew Werner’s first three major-league starts have been rather impressive. To wit: 18.0 IP, 23.9% K, 7.0% BB, 55.3% GB, 3.30 SIERA, 90 xFIP-, 0.1 WAR. He faces rookie left-hander Patrick Corbin (80.2 IP, 92 xFIP-, 1.4 WAR).

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Arizona 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
Tyler Chatwood	COL	4	7	4	5	9	PHI	Cole Hamels	13:05
Tommy Hanson	ATL	4	7	1	2	0	NYN	Chris Young	13:10
Edgar Gonzalez*	HOU	7	4	4	4	7	CIN	Johnny Cueto	13:10
Chris Rusin*	CHN	6	1	5	4	9	PIT	Jeff Locke*	13:35
Ricky Nolasco	MIA	4	4	4	7	8	WAS	Edwin Jackson	13:35
Freddy Garcia	NYA	5	6	6	2	7	BAL	Zach Britton	13:35
Carlos Villanueva	TOR	5	5	3	5	4	BOS	Clay Buchholz	13:35
Roy Oswalt	TEX	9	8	8	6	8	TB	James Shields	13:40
Corey Kluber	CLE	5	2	3	5	6	MIN	Esmer. Vasquez*	14:10
Jeremy Guthrie	KC	2	7	4	4	8	CHA	Hector Santiago*	14:10
Shaun Marcum	MIL	5	9	6	9	6	STL	Joe Kelly	14:15
Anibal Sanchez	DET	6	4	9	8	8	LAA	Zack Greinke	15:35
Patrick Corbin	AZ	8	6	7	7	10	SD	Andrew Werner*	16:05
Tommy Milone	OAK	6	6	3	4	3	SEA	Jason Vargas	16:10
Drew Pomeranz	COL	4	7	4	5	8	PHI	Tyler Cloyd*	18:35
Clayton Kershaw	LAN	10	1	4	3	0	SF	Barry Zito	20:05

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.