Daily Notes, Featuring the Whole Entire Weekend
Table of Contents
Here’s the table of contents for today’s edition of Daily Notes.
1. Daily Notes Programming Message
2. Notable Weekend Games
3. Complete Weekend Schedule (Including MLB.TV Free Game)
Daily Notes Programming Message
Programming Note
At the risk of disappointing the otherwise entirely cheerful reader, both the Saturday and Sunday editions of the Daily Notes will be omitted from these electronic pages as the author attends a wedding this weekend.
Notable Weekend Games
Friday, 19:05 ET | St. Louis at Washington
In this case, the MLB.TV Free Game is also probably the most interesting one of the day. Adam Wainwright (166.0 IP, 77 xFIP-, 4.0 WAR) has resumed almost precisely the same level of excellence that he demonstrated in the two years before his Tommy John surgery. Also, the Cardinals are still just a game ahead of the Pirates. Chills up your spine, is what you’re feeling, one assumes.
Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Washington Radio.
Saturday, 19:05 ET | Chicago AL at Detroit
The very mercurial Max Scherzer (154.2 IP, 78 xFIP-, 3.2 WAR) starts for Detroit. Other information is, is here were White Sox’ playoff odds as of Thursday night: 81.9%. And the Tigers’ ones, as well: 45.5%.
Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Detroit Radio.
Sunday, 20:06 ET | Chicago AL at Detroit
Chris Sale (157.0 IP, 78 xFIP-, 4.1 WAR, 1.4 FDP Wins) and Justin Verlander (196.1 IP, 80 xFIP-, 5.6 WAR, 0.1 FDP Wins) are (a) entirely legitimate Cy Young candidates and (b) both pitching in this game that really, actually does have a scheduled first-pitch time of 8:06pm ET.
Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Detroit Radio.
Complete Weekend Schedule
Below is the complete schedule for all of this weekend’s games, with our very proprietary watchability (NERD) scores for each one. Pitching probables and game times aggregated from MLB.com and RotoWire.
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. Also: MLB.TV Free Games are — through the magic of HTML — are highlighted by yellow.
Friday
The average NERD Game Score for today is 3.9.
| Away | SP | Tm. | Gm. | Tm. | SP | Home | Time | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mad. Bumgarner | SF | 9 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 4 | CHN | Chris Volstad | 14:20 |
| Miguel Gonzalez | BAL | 2 | 1 | 4 | 6 | 6 | NYA | Hiroki Kuroda | 19:05 |
| Jake Peavy | CHA | 6 | 4 | 6 | 4 | 8 | DET | Doug Fister | 19:05 |
| Adam Wainwright | STL | 9 | 9 | 7 | 6 | 8 | WAS | Gio Gonzalez | 19:05 |
| Ryan Dempster | TEX | 6 | 7 | 2 | 3 | 1 | CLE | Ubaldo Jimenez | 19:05 |
| Jeremy Hellickson | TB | 3 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 6 | TOR | Brandon Morrow | 19:07 |
| R.A. Dickey | NYN | 10 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 4 | MIA | Nathan Eovaldi | 19:10 |
| Roy Halladay | PHI | 8 | 5 | 4 | 7 | 3 | ATL | Mike Minor | 19:35 |
| Mike Leake | CIN | 7 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 6 | HOU | Fernando Abad* | 20:05 |
| Cole DeVries | MIN | 2 | 4 | 2 | 7 | 4 | KC | Will Smith | 20:10 |
| Jeff Karstens | PIT | 6 | 4 | 7 | 8 | 8 | MIL | Mark Rogers | 20:10 |
| Clayton Richard | SD | 4 | 6 | 3 | 8 | 4 | COL | Alex White | 20:40 |
| Aaron Cook | BOS | 2 | 6 | 2 | 6 | 4 | OAK | Brandon McCarthy | 22:05 |
| Dan Haren | LAA | 5 | 8 | 3 | 4 | 3 | SEA | Kevin Millwood | 22:10 |
| Trevor Cahill | AZ | 6 | 6 | 3 | 1 | 1 | LAN | Aaron Harang | 22:10 |
Saturday
The average NERD Game Score for today is 4.6.
| Away | SP | Tm. | Gm. | Tm. | SP | Home | Time | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wei-Yin Chen | BAL | 5 | 1 | 5 | 6 | 5 | NYA | Freddy Garcia | 13:05 |
| Tim Lincecum | SF | 7 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 5 | CHN | Justin Germano | 13:05 |
| Jeff Niemann | TB | 5 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 4 | TOR | Hend. Alvarez | 13:07 |
| Ervin Santana | LAA | 3 | 8 | 5 | 4 | 9 | SEA | Felix Hernandez | 16:05 |
| Cliff Lee | PHI | 10 | 5 | 5 | 7 | 4 | ATL | Tim Hudson | 16:05 |
| Kyle Lohse | STL | 5 | 9 | 6 | 6 | 8 | WAS | J. Zimmermann | 16:05 |
| Francisco Liriano | CHA | 7 | 4 | 8 | 4 | 10 | DET | Max Scherzer | 19:05 |
| Homer Bailey | CIN | 6 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 5 | HOU | Lucas Harrell | 19:05 |
| Scott Feldman | TEX | 4 | 7 | 2 | 3 | 4 | CLE | R. Hernandez* | 19:05 |
| Liam Hendriks | MIN | 2 | 4 | 2 | 7 | 5 | KC | Luke Hochevar | 19:10 |
| Jeremy Hefner | NYN | 5 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 7 | MIA | Josh Johnson | 19:10 |
| A.J. Burnett | PIT | 7 | 4 | 7 | 8 | 7 | MIL | Marco Estrada | 19:10 |
| Edinson Volquez | SD | 5 | 6 | 2 | 8 | 2 | COL | Jhoulys Chacin | 20:10 |
| Felix Doubront | BOS | 7 | 6 | 7 | 6 | 10 | OAK | Brett Anderson* | 21:05 |
| Tyler Skaggs* | AZ | 9 | 6 | 6 | 1 | 4 | LAN | Josh Beckett | 21:10 |
Sunday
The average NERD Game Score for today is 4.5.
| Away | SP | Tm. | Gm. | Tm. | SP | Home | Time | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chris Tillman | BAL | 5 | 1 | 5 | 6 | 7 | NYA | David Phelps | 13:05 |
| Derek Holland | TEX | 6 | 7 | 4 | 3 | 7 | CLE | Zach McAllister | 13:05 |
| David Price | TB | 10 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 2 | TOR | Ricky Romero | 13:07 |
| Chris Young | NYN | 0 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 4 | MIA | Mark Buehrle | 13:10 |
| Jake Westbrook | STL | 5 | 9 | 7 | 6 | 10 | WAS | Stephen Strasburg | 13:35 |
| Bronson Arroyo | CIN | 4 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 6 | HOU | Bud Norris | 14:05 |
| Scott Diamond | MIN | 6 | 4 | 2 | 7 | 2 | KC | Luis Mendoza | 14:10 |
| James McDonald | PIT | 5 | 4 | 6 | 8 | 6 | MIL | Yovani Gallardo | 14:10 |
| Matt Cain | SF | 6 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 3 | CHN | Travis Wood | 14:20 |
| Casey Kelly* | SD | 12 | 6 | 6 | 8 | 4 | COL | Jeff Francis | 15:10 |
| Daisuke Matsuzaka | BOS | 4 | 6 | 4 | 6 | 6 | OAK | Tommy Milone | 16:05 |
| Jered Weaver | LAA | 4 | 8 | 4 | 4 | 5 | SEA | Hisashi Iwakuma | 16:10 |
| Wade Miley | AZ | 7 | 6 | 6 | 1 | 6 | LAN | Chris Capuano | 16:10 |
| Cole Hamels | PHI | 9 | 5 | 5 | 7 | 5 | ATL | Paul Maholm | 17:05 |
| Chris Sale | CHA | 10 | 4 | 9 | 4 | 10 | DET | Justin Verlander | 20:06 |
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.
Wasn’t Morrow’s 17K game against the Rays? Isn’t that the kind of non-predictive information that goes into making NERD the mercurial and misleading stat we love?