Daily Notes for March 21st

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

1. Select Televised Games
2. Lightly Annotated Video: Liam Hendriks Throws a Pitch
3. Crowdsourcing Broadcasters: St. Louis Radio

Select Televised Games
Atlanta at Washington | 13:05 ET
This is MLB.TV’s free game for the day. The starting pitchers (Tommy Hanson and John Lannan) are known quantities — which, for the fan thirsting for knowledge, won’t provide much, uh, knowledge. That said, this game does present an opportunity both (a) to watch Braves right-hander Jairo Asencio pitch and (b) to gather more information regarding who might end up in the Nationals middle infield on Opening Day. Asencio, scheduled to pitch in relief, posted a 36:9 K:BB in 28.1 innings in the Dominican Winter League this offseason and has recorded similar numbers in the minors. Meanwhile, last year’s starting shortstop for Washington, Ian Desmond, has looked vulnerable this spring (1:11 BB:K in 37 AB) following a pair of seasons in which he’s recorded less than three wins total. Steve Lombardozzi is the leading candidate to replace him — likely, with Danny Espinosa moving over to shortstop.

MLB.TV Feed: Washington Television.

Minnesota at Detroit | 13:05 ET
Right-hander Liam Hendriks is scheduled to start for Minnesota. The 3.72 FIP for which ZiPS projects him is the second-lowest such figure on the Twins — just behind Scott Baker. Moreover, the 23-year-old has looked good this spring, putting up this line: 7.0 IP, 9 K, 2 BB, 0 HR.

MLB.TV Feed: Detroit Television.

Lightly Annotated Video: Liam Hendriks Throws a Pitch
Liam Hendriks was credited by PITCHf/x as throwing six different pitches at least 5% of the time during his 23.1 major-league innings last season. Here they are, in order of frequency: four-seam fastball (43.6%), slider (16.5%), curveball (14.1%), cut fastball (11.7%), changeup (8.8%), and two-seam fastball (5.3%). Note that Hendriks says nothing about a cutter while discussing his repertoire in a recent piece by Andrew Pentis at Australian Baseball Digest. Given the velocity of the following — which earned him his first major-league strikeout — it’s probably an example of Hendriks’ curveball (although the Target Field camera angle makes it difficult to adjudge the depth of the pitch).

Crowdsourcing Broadcasters: St. Louis Radio
Recently, we released the results of our television broadcaster rankings — itself the product of reader crowdsourcing that started in late November. Now, FanGraphs is asking readers to rate the radio broadcast teams for all 30 major-league clubs (Click here for more on this project.)

Rate other teams: Washington / Toronto / Texas / Tampa Bay / Seattle / San Francisco / San Diego.