Daily Notes, Including the Rhetorical Device Paralipsis

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

1. Featured Game: Tampa Bay at New York AL, 19:05 ET
2. Other Notable Games (Including MLB.TV Free Game)
3. Today’s Complete Schedule

Featured Game: Tampa Bay at New York AL, 19:05 ET
Regarding This Game, How I Was Tempted to Describe It for a Second
In terms of this game between the Rays and Yankees, I was tempted momentarily to describe it as a “clash of division rivals.”

Regarding Why I Was Tempted to Do That
I was tempted to do that probably because I’ve been watching game promos on sporting networks for over 20 years — on which networks, for example, phrases like “clash of division rivals” are relatively common.

Regarding Why I Didn’t Describe It That Way
I ended up not describing it that way, because, ultimately, a person probably shouldn’t use the word clash unless he’s addressing a phalanx of hoplites, and I — for the moment, at least — am not addressing a phalanx of hoplites.

Regarding How I’ve Said It by Not Saying It
Indeed, by suggesting that I would not describe this game as a “clash of division rivals,” I’ve more or less described it as a “clash of division rivals.”

Regarding the Name of That Rhetorical Device
The name of the rhetorical device wherein one says something by saying he won’t say it — the name of that rhetorical device is paralipsis.

Tonight’s Starting Pitchers
The starting pitchers for this game are James Shields (41.1 IP, 72 xFIP-, 0.6 WAR) for Tampa Bay and Ivan Nova (30.2 IP, 93 xFIP-, 0.2 WAR) for New York.

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

Other Notable Games
Los Angeles AL at Minnesota | 20:10 ET ***MLB.TV Free Game***
Dan Haren (39.1 IP, 82 xFIP-, 0.8 WAR) faces left-hander Scott Diamond, who (i.e. Diamond) makes his first start of the year. Here’s Diamond’s line through six Triple-A starts so far this season: 34.2 IP, 6.75 K/9, 1.82 BB/9, 0.26 HR/9, 2.77 FIP.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Los Angeles AL, Barely.

Atlanta at Chicago NL | 20:05 ET
A note on Ryan Dempster, who starts for Chicago: through four starts, both his strikeout rate (27.1%) and xFIP- (79) are better than any of his previous end-of-season numbers. (His career highs are 22.7% and 85, respectively). Another note: his slider usage — theoretically a thing that would become reliable pretty quickly — is higher (41.5%) than ever before, at least going back to 2007. (His previous high was 33.5% in 2010.)

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Chicago NL.

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 5.2.

Regard, a magnificent and sortable table:

Away		SP	Tm.	Gm.	Tm.	SP		Home	Time
John Danks	CHA	3	5	3	5	2	CLE	Justin Masterson	19:05
Miguel Batista*	NYN	1	1	3	2	6	PHI	Joe Blanton	19:05
James Shields	TB	8	7	7	7	7	NYA	Ivan Nova	19:05
Neftali Feliz	TEX	2	9	5	6	7	BAL	Jake Arrieta	19:05
Edwin Jackson	WAS	8	1	6	1	7	PIT	A.J. Burnett*	19:05
Randall Delgado	ATL	6	8	7	2	8	CHN	Ryan Dempster	20:05
Anibal Sanchez	MIA	8	3	6	8	4	HOU	An. Rodriguez*	20:05
Dan Haren	LAA	7	3	5	2	4	MIN	Scott Diamond*	20:10
Daniel Bard	BOS	4	4	6	9	8	KC	Danny Duffy	20:10
Homer Bailey	CIN	5	3	5	5	5	MIL	Yovani Gallardo	20:10
Jake Westbrook	STL	5	10	6	6	6	AZ	Ian Kennedy	21:40
Alex White*	COL	6	9	4	5	1	SD	Jeff Suppan*	22:05
Ricky Romero	TOR	4	6	4	2	3	OAK	Brandon McCarthy	22:05
Justin Verlander	DET	8	2	5	4	3	SEA	Kevin Millwood	22:10
Ryan Vogelsong	SF	3	4	6	5	10	LAN	Clayton Kershaw	22:10

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.