Daily Notes: Saturday’s Games, Rated for Watchability
Table of Contents
Here’s the table of contents for today’s edition of the Daily Notes.
1. Today’s Notable Games
2. Today’s MLB.TV Free Game
3. Today’s Complete Schedule
Today’s Notable Games
Los Angeles NL at Pittsburgh | 16:05 ET
Clayton Kershaw (100.1 IP, 83 xFIP-, 2.6 WAR) faces Brandon Cumpton (N/A). The latter makes his major-league debut in place of the injured A.J. Burnett. His most relevant numbers at Triple-A Indianapolis: 11 G, 10 GS, 65.1 IP, 6.75 K/9, 3.03 BB/9, 0.55 HR/9, 3.69 FIP. Tim Williams of Pirates Prospsects has a very current and also thorough scouting report on Cumpton. A brief summary of same: Cumpton is ground-ball oriented; his slider isn’t hopeless; might have trouble against left-handed batters.
Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Pittsburgh Radio or Television.
San Francisco at Atlanta | 16:05 ET
Chad Gaudin (42.2 IP, 99 xFIP-, 0.6 WAR) faces Mike Minor (84.2 IP, 93 xFIP-, 1.6 WAR). The former, despite vomiting twice during the course of it, posted a 7:1 strikeout-to-walk ratio against Arizona in his last start (box). In fact, Gaudin has been rather more effective than one might have otherwise expected during his limited time as a member of the San Francisco rotation, posting a 3.18 xFIP in 12.0 innings.
Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: San Francisco Radio or Television.
Seattle at Oakland | 19:15 ET
Felix Hernandez (97.2 IP, 63 xFIP-, 2.9 WAR) faces A.J. Griffin (83.1 IP, 104 xFIP-, 0.8 WAR). Nick Franklin Status Update: 63 PA, 12.7% BB, 15.9% K, .309/.397/.509 (.349 BABIP), 158 wRC+, 0.8 WAR. Mike Zunino Status Update: 8 PA, 12.5% BB, 25.0% K, .286/.375/.714 (.250 BABIP), 201 wRC+, 0.1 WAR.
Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Oakland Radio.
Washington at Cleveland | 19:15 ET
Jordan Zimmermann (94.2 IP, 91 xFIP-, 2.1 WAR) faces Scott Kazmir (52.1 IP, 99 xFIP-, 0.3 WAR). Not particularly related to that is this, a table of the top-five teams by park-adjusted home-run rate (or, at least by the author’s likely flawed calculation of same):
| Rank | Teams | aHR/PA |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Braves | 3.6% |
| 2 | Indians | 3.2% |
| 3 | Orioles | 3.2% |
| 4 | Rays | 3.1% |
| 5 | Blue Jays | 3.0% |
Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Cleveland or Washington Radio.
Today’s MLB.TV Free Game
Arizona at San Diego | 22:10 ET
Wade Miley (77.1 IP, 105 xFIP-, 0.6 WAR) faces Jason Marquis (77.2 IP, 122 xFIP, -1.2 WAR). A brief glance suggests that the latter almost certainly has recorded the largest gap among starting pitchers between WAR as calculated by FIP (-1.2) and WAR as calculated by runs allowed (+0.6).
Author’s Preferred Broadcast: Arizona Television.
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 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scott Feldman | CHN | 3 | 5 | 4 | 6 | 3 | NYN | Jon Niese | 13:10 |
| John Lackey | BOS | 6 | 9 | 6 | 8 | 3 | BAL | Freddy Garcia | 16:05 |
| Clayton Kershaw | LAN | 9 | 3 | 7 | 6 | 7 | PIT | Br. Cumpton* | 16:05 |
| Chad Gaudin* | SF | 7 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 8 | ATL | Mike Minor | 16:05 |
| R.A. Dickey | TOR | 8 | 5 | 6 | 3 | 6 | TEX | Josh Lindblom* | 16:05 |
| Jeremy Guthrie | KC | 2 | 4 | 5 | 9 | 8 | TB | Alex Cobb | 16:10 |
| Yovani Gallardo | MIL | 5 | 4 | 6 | 4 | 9 | CIN | Homer Bailey | 16:10 |
| Jon. Pettibone | PHI | 4 | 2 | 6 | 10 | 9 | COL | Tyler Chatwood | 16:10 |
| Lance Lynn | STL | 7 | 3 | 5 | 0 | 6 | MIA | Tom Koehler | 16:10 |
| John Danks | CHA | 7 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 0 | HOU | Lucas Harrell | 19:15 |
| Anibal Sanchez | DET | 10 | 7 | 5 | 3 | 1 | MIN | Samuel Deduno | 19:15 |
| David Phelps | NYA | 4 | 4 | 3 | 6 | 0 | LAA | Tommy Hanson | 19:15 |
| Felix Hernandez | SEA | 10 | 4 | 7 | 7 | 5 | OAK | A.J. Griffin | 19:15 |
| Jo. Zimmermann | WAS | 9 | 1 | 7 | 7 | 6 | CLE | Scott Kazmir | 19:15 |
| Wade Miley | AZ | 5 | 3 | 3 | 8 | 0 | SD | Jason Marquis | 22:10 |
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.
Carson Cistulli has published a book of aphorisms called Spirited Ejaculations of a New Enthusiast.
How can you prefer the hacks on Arizona TV, who somehow got MORE obnoxious and homer-y in the absence of Mark Grace to Dick Enberg on San Diego TV??? Please give me ONE redeeming quality of the AZ broadcast team.
They have never been convicted of regicide?
I don’t believe they’ve even been indicted for regicide, and, as the old saw goes, “a prosecutor can indict a ham sandwich”.
Ipso facto, they are not, in fact, ham sandwiches; which makes them that much more likely to be kosher. Should one feel the need to engage in cannibalism. And if one should be so inclined: please seek immediate mental health assistance. And lose the cutlery. Just to be on the safe side.
[I have no idea if that is the proper use of ipso facto, and I’m too lazy to look it up–and I seriously went off the rails, so the improper use of Latin is the least of the many concerns contained in the above paragraph].
[Additionally, I’m not an expert in Jewish dietary law, but I’m fairly certain humans do not fall in the category of “clean animals which may be eaten”, and therefore, are not kosher, even if they–the humans in question–are not ham sandwiches].
That ball is Goldy, Goldy…GONE.
San Diego TV is actually in front of Arizona TV on the rankings.