Daily Notes: Kluber With, Like, Seven or Nine Ks

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

1. Featured Game: Cleveland at Boston, 13:35pm ET
2. Today’s MLB.TV Free Game
3. Today’s Complete Schedule

Featured Game: Cleveland at Boston, 13:35pm ET
Regarding This Game, Who’s Starting It for Cleveland
Starting this game for Cleveland, in terms of a pitcher, is right-hander Corey Kluber.

Regarding Corey Kluber, What’s Notable About Him
What’s notable about Kluber is that, despite having entered the season as a 27-year-old with just 67.1 major-league innings on his resume, he’s proceeded to record the same approximate park-adjusted xFIP (78 xFIP- overall, 81 xFIP- starting) as considerably more celebrated pitchers — including, but not limited to: Matt Harvey (78 xFIP-), Clayton Kershaw (80 xFIP-), Jake Peavy (81 xFIP-), Chris Sale (81 xFIP-), and Shelby Miller (81 xFIP-).

Regarding Corey Kluber, What Else Is Notable About Him
Also notable with regard to Kluber is that his defense-independent numbers are likely not merely a product of deception. In fact, as a starter, Kluber has posted the same approximate average fastball velocity (92.8 mph) as certain pitchers expressly known for throwing hard — including, but not limited to: Yu Darvish (93.0 mph), Max Scherzer (92.9 mph), David Price (92.8 mph), Edwin Jackson (92.7 mph), and Matt Moore (92.4 mph).

Regarding Kluber, Why He’s Less Celebrated
Kluber is receiving less attention at the moment than many of the aforementioned pitchers likely because (a) he has not previously given cause for much attention and (b) he was not recently a celebrated prospect.

Regarding Kluber, Why Else He’s Less Celebrated
Also why Kluber has received less attention is likely because his defense-independent numbers have not translated into actual run prevention the way one might expect. Despite a 3.23 SIERA and 3.20 xFIP and even 3.63 FIP, Kluber has posted a considerably less appealing 5.19 ERA — largely due to a .359 BABIP.

One Possible Use of This Game
One possible use of the present game between Cleveland and Boston is to inspect Corey Kluber more closely, in light of the Compelling Remarks which appear above.

Another Possible Use of This Game
Another possible use for the reader of this game is to Participate in the Unexpected, which experience is facilitated by many games.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast
Per the results of our crowdsourcing project from the 2011-2012 offseason, FanGraphs readers prefer Cleveland Radio, probably (link).

Author’s Preferred Broadcast
Per the results of looking into his own self, the author prefer Boston Television (link).

Today’s MLB.TV Free Game
Baltimore at Toronto | 13:07 ET
Miguel Gonzalez (42.1 IP, 113 xFIP-, 0.4 WAR) faces Chad Jenkins (5.0, 111 xFIP-, 0.0 WAR). Baltimore enters Sunday with two players among the league’s top-10 by WAR: Chris Davis (2.6) and Manny Machado (2.5).

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Baltimore Radio*.

*As a number of readers have noted, the broadcast team for the Blue Jays has changed since the crowdsourced results of the broadcaster rankings project were released a couple offseasons ago.

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 5.3.

Note: the following table is entirely sortable.

Away		SP	Tm.	Gm.	Tm.	SP		Home	Time
Miguel Gonzalez	BAL	3	8	5	5	5	TOR	Chad Jenkins*	13:07
Mike Pelfrey	MIN	0	3	5	7	10	DET	Max Scherzer	13:08
Matt Garza*	CHN	8	4	8	5	9	CIN	Johnny Cueto	13:10
Corey Kluber	CLE	10	9	8	8	5	BOS	Felix Doubront	13:35
Cole Hamels	PHI	6	1	6	2	10	WAS	Step. Strasburg	13:35
CC Sabathia	NYA	6	6	7	7	7	TB	Alex Cobb	13:40
Jerome Williams	LAA	5	5	4	6	3	KC	Wade Davis	14:10
Alex Sanabia	MIA	1	0	1	0	1	CHA	Dylan Axelrod	14:10
Bartolo Colon	OAK	5	6	4	5	3	HOU	Dallas Keuchel*	14:10
Wandy Rodriguez	PIT	5	7	5	5	4	MIL	Yovani Gallardo	14:10
Jon Garland	COL	2	7	4	5	5	SF	Matt Cain	16:05
Jason Marquis	SD	0	7	4	4	8	AZ	Patrick Corbin	16:10
Shelby Miller	STL	10	2	8	2	10	LAN	Clayton Kershaw	16:10
Nick Tepesch	TEX	6	4	6	6	7	SEA	Hisashi Iwakuma	16:10
Julio Teheran	ATL	6	8	5	7	3	NYN	Shaun Marcum	20:05

To learn how Pitcher and Team NERD Scores are calculated, click here.
To learn how Game NERD Scores are calculated, click here.
* = Fewer than 20 IP, NERD at discretion of very handsome author.