Daily Notes: Free Afternoon Baseball

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

1. Brief Previews for Select Games
2. Lightly Annotated Video: Matt Garza’s Slider
3. Crowdsourcing Broadcasters: Detroit Radio

Brief Previews for Select Games
Here are brief previews for three of today’s games — each including the preferred television feed of FanGraphs readers, per the results of our offseason crowdsourcing project. (Information on probable pitchers from MLB.com.)

New York NL at Atlanta | 12:10 ET ***MLB.TV Free Game***
R.A. Dickey pitches for the Mets. Here’s Dickey’s line through two starts: 13.0 IP, 18.9% K, 9.4% BB, 45.9% GB, .333 BABIP, 22.2% HR/FB, 3.96 SIERA, 3.48 xFIP, 96 xFIP-. Unsurprisingly for a knuckleballer, Dickey has bettered his ERA estimators each of the past two seasons — largely owing to his ability to suppress both BABIP and home runs per fly ball… The Braves’ center-field camera promises to provide an ideal perspective for watching Dickey’s knuckleball… Juan Francisco gets the start in place of Chipper Jones. Here’s how to recognize him: he’s the one swinging his ass off… Jair Jurrjens pitches for Atlanta.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: New York NL.

Chicago NL at Miami | 19:10 ET
Right-hander Matt Garza starts for Chicago. Our Ben Duronio recently made the case that Garza has become a legitimate No. 1 starter, largely owing to increased usage of his slider. The slider is not only excellent on its own merits, writes Duronio, but has allowed his fastball to become more effective, too, with opposing batters having to look for the secondary pitches more often. Here’s Garza’s line so far through two starts: 14.2 IP, 25.9% K, 5.6% BB, 50.0% GB, 2.76 SIERA, 2.65 xFIP, 73 xFIP-. His slider usage is currently at 25.7% — this, relative to the 12-13% range he utilized with Tampa Bay… Notice: the Marlins’ center-field camera is also excellent… Mark Buehrle starts for Miami.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Chicago NL.

Philadelphia at San Francisco | 22:15 ET
Cliff Lee faces Matt Cain… Cain was perfect but for a sixth-inning single this past Friday against the Pirates. His line: 9.0 IP, 28 TBF, 11 K, 0 BB, 11 GB on 17 batted-balls (64.7%) — for a single-game xFIP of 1.39… The Phillies have posted an 82 wRC+ through their first 11 games, 25th in the majors… Brandon Belt Status Update: Belt did not start in San Francisco’s 4-2 victory over Philly on Tuesday night.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: San Francisco.

Lightly Annotated Video: Matt Garza’s Slider
The following video — from Matt Garza’s most recent start, against Milwaukee — contains footage of six Garza sliders, at the following marks: 0:15, 0:31, 0:41, 0:57, 1:11, 1:17. Note that three of the six elicit swinging-strikes from left-handed batters.

Crowdsourcing Broadcasters: Detroit 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 / St. Louis / Pittsburgh / Philadelphia / Oakland / New York (NL) / New York (AL) / Minnesota / Milwaukee / Miami / Los Angeles (NL) / Los Angeles (AL) / Kansas City / Houston.