Daily Notes: Largely Concerning Ervin “Magic” Santana

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

1. Featured Game: Tampa Bay at Kansas City, 14:10 ET
2. Other Notable Games (Including MLB.TV Free Game)
3. Today’s Complete Schedule

Featured Game: Tampa Bay at Kansas City, 14:10 ET
Firstly, Concerning the Title of This Post
With regard to the title of this post, it’s fair to say that the author was both pleased and very pleased with himself for having devised it.

Secondly, Concerning the Title of This Post
With regard to the title of this post, it’s also fair to say that, while in the midst of feeling pleased and very pleased with himself, that the author consulted Google to verify that no one else had produced the precise and amusing collection of words found in it before, and found actually that nearly everyone has produced the precise and amusing collection of words found in it before.

What One Learns
What one learns in cases like this — and, really, should have learned already — is that one is considerably less special than one’s mother had originally let on.

Considering Ervin Santana Himself
When we last considered Ervin Santana in these Notes, he had produced a surprising 86 xFIP- and 0.5 WAR and 0.9 RA/9 WAR (that is, WAR based not on FIP but on runs allowed) through four starts.

Considering Ervin Santana Himself, Part II
When we consider Ervin Santana now (through five starts) we find that he has produced an 81 xFIP- and 0.9 WAR and 1.5 RA/9 WAR — i.e. better all around.

What Happened in the Meantime
In the meantime with regard to Ervin Santana, he made an excellent start against Cleveland (box), producing a line very similar to this one: 7.0 IP, 27 TBF, 5 K, 0 BB, 15 GB on 22 batted-balls (68.2% GB), 2.21 xFIP.

A Note on Santana’s Slider
According to pitch-type values, Santana’s slider was worth over two runs better than average during that start against Cleveland — or, put differently, Santana prevented more than two runs relative to league average using just his slider.

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

Other Notable Games (Including MLB.TV Free Game)
Chicago at Texas | 20:05 ET
Jake Peavy and Justin Grimm start. Not more impressive, but perhaps more surprising, than the former’s performance so far (32.0 IP, 69 xFIP-, 0.6 WAR) is the latter’s performance so far (17.0 IP, 85 xFIP-, 0.5 WAR). He’s had considerable success with his curveball, has Grimm, which pitch he throws approximately a quarter of the time.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Texas Radio.

Detroit at Houston | 20:10 ET ***MLB.TV Free Game***
Houston Astros Park-Adjusted Offense Relative to Average Watch: Just Below.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Houston Television, Perhaps.

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 4.8.

Note: the following table is entirely sortable.

Away		SP	Tm.	Gm.	Tm.	SP		Home	Time
Rob. Hernandez	TB	7	7	7	7	8	KC	Ervin Santana	14:10
Eric Stults	SD	5	4	5	5	4	CHN	Travis Wood	14:20
Alex Sanabia	MIA	1	0	3	2	5	PHI	Kyle Kendrick	19:05
Ryan Dempster	BOS	8	8	5	3	1	TOR	J.A. Happ	19:07
Dan Haren	WAS	4	3	4	9	3	ATL	Kris Medlen	19:10
Jake Peavy	CHA	9	2	7	4	7	TEX	Justin Grimm*	20:05
Rick Porcello*	DET	3	5	5	7	5	HOU	Jordan Lyles*	20:10
Jake Westbrook	STL	1	2	4	6	6	MIL	Wily Peralta	20:10
Chris Tillman	BAL	3	7	3	3	2	LAA	Joe Blanton	22:05

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.