Daily Notes, Featuring an Executive Decision

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

1. Featured Game: Texas at Tampa Bay, 19:10 ET
2. Today’s MLB.TV Free Game
3. Today’s Complete Schedule

Featured Game: Texas at Tampa Bay, 19:10 ET
Regarding What’s Necessary, Sometimes
Sometimes a thing that’s necessary is what’s commonly referred to as an “executive decision.”

Regarding an “Executive Decision,” When It’s Necessary
An executive decision is necessary if someone’s drowning, probably, in a pool. Someone needs to be like, “Hey, let’s save that person.”

Regarding an “Executive Decision,” When Else It’s Necessary
Another time an executive decision is necessary is also if someone’s drowning in a secluded and beautiful private lake — like in Maine, or something. An independent-minded sort, one whose character has been commended from an early age, must announce, “Despite the dangers to our own, individual persons, we are bound by a moral imperative to rescue this imperiled swimmer from his own grievous and watery grave.”

Regarding an “Executive Decision,” A Third Instance in Which It’s Necessary
A third instance in which an “executive decision” is required, is when NERD — i.e. the infallible watchability metric devised by the author himself — is when NERD suggests that the Tigers-Angels matchup is the day’s most notable game, but, in fact, reason and logic dictate that such a distinction belongs to the Rangers-Rays game.

Regarding the Third Type of “Executive Decision,” Why It’s Necessary
This third type of executive decision is necessary, on account of Chris Archer, who pitches for Tampa Bay, has been excellent (11.2 IP, 65 xFIP-, 0.4 WAR) in his only two major-league starts and also because it’s been some time since the author has watched Yu Darvish, who, it turns out, had his best major-league month in August (32.1, 80 xFIP-, 1.0 WAR), and those are mostly the reasons.

In Conclusion
In conclusion, here’s an image of Immanuel Kant looking super judgy:

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

Today’s MLB.TV Free Game
Houston at Cincinnati | 19:10 ET
Joey Votto, in two games since returning from an extended DL stint: 8 PA, 4 BB, 1 K, 0 HR, 2 H.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Houston 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 4.8.

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
Mark Buehrle	MIA	3	4	2	7	5	WAS	Ross Detwiler	13:05
Kris Medlen	ATL	9	7	5	2	6	NYN	Jeremy Hefner	16:05
Bruce Chen	KC	4	7	6	4	10	CHA	Chris Sale	16:05
Chris Capuano	LAN	6	1	5	3	6	SF	Matt Cain	16:05
Jeff Samardzija	CHN	10	1	5	4	5	PIT	Jam. McDonald	19:05
Tyler Chatwood	COL	4	8	5	5	9	PHI	Cole Hamels	19:05
CC Sabathia	NYA	10	6	6	2	3	BAL	Joe Saunders	19:05
Zach McAllister	CLE	6	2	2	5	2	MIN	Cole DeVries	19:10
Bud Norris	HOU	6	4	3	4	4	CIN	Bronson Arroyo	19:10
Yu Darvish	TEX	8	8	7	5	10	TB	Chris Archer*	19:10
Aaron Laffey	TOR	2	5	1	5	3	BOS	D. Matsuzaka	19:10
Mike Fiers	MIL	7	9	6	9	5	STL	Jake Westbrook	19:15
Wade Miley	AZ	7	6	5	6	8	SD	Casey Kelly*	20:35
Justin Verlander	DET	10	4	8	8	4	LAA	C.J. Wilson	21:05
Brett Anderson	OAK	10	6	6	4	5	SEA	His. Iwakuma	21:10

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.