Daily Notes: Sunday’s Games Considered for Your Pleasure

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

1. Featured Game: Boston at Texas, 15:05 ET
2. Other Notable Games (Including MLB.TV Free Game)
3. Today’s Complete Schedule

Featured Game: Boston at Texas, 15:05 ET
Regarding Texas, Who’s Starting for Them
Starting this game for Texas is talented right-hander Yu Darvish.

Regarding Yu Darvish, What He’s Done This Season
In terms of what Yu Darvish has done this season, here are numbers which tell much of that that story: 38.2 IP , 38.4% K, 8.6% BB, 51.9% GB, 2.18 SIERA, 56 xFIP-, 1.8 WAR, 1.6 RA9-Wins

Ranks: Darvish Relative to the League
Here are those same numbers as above, except also now with Darvish’s rank in each relative to the league’s 107 qualified starters: 38.2 IP (37th), 38.4% K (1st), 8.6% BB (74th), 51.9% GB (21st), 2.18 SIERA (1st), 56 xFIP- (2nd), 1.8 WAR (3rd), 1.6 RA9-Wins (12th).

Graph: Darvish Relative to the League
Here are those same numbers, mostly — except in graph form and with, instead of his rank, Darvish’s percentile relative to the league’s 107 qualified starters:

Regarding That Graph, A Chilling Fact
A chilling fact regarding that graph is how long the author spent crafting it — a figure which (a) the author won’t divulge, but would (b) sicken his ancestors who endured cold and illness and poverty and Connecticut to make a life in this country.

Regarding That Graph, A Second Chilling Fact
A second chilling fact with regard to that graph above is how not only did it require a substantial allocation of time in terms of minutes and hours, but also how the author really should have gone with his wife to Trader Joe’s by now, seeing as he only has the rental car for another hour or so.

In Conclusion
In conclusion, this portion of the Daily Notes is now concluded.

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

Other Notable Games (Including MLB.TV Free Game)
Oakland at New York AL | 13:05 ET
Dan Straily pitches for Oakland. The right-hander, who led all the minors in strikeouts last season, has made two starts and struck out 11 and six, respectively, in them. He has a 1.88 SIERA and 55 xFIP-.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Oakland Radio.

Cincinnati at Chicago NL | 14:20 ET ***MLB.TV Free Game***
The entirely competent Mat Latos (39.1 IP, 79 xFIP-, 1.0 WAR) faces the nearly as competent Edwin Jackson (33.0 IP, 94 xFIP-, 0.6 WAR). Here’s a trivia question one can ask oneself or one’s friend: Who’s the currently Cubs leader in WAR, among field players? The answer is here.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Chicago NL 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 5.1.

Note: the following table is entirely sortable.

Away		SP	Tm.	Gm.	Tm.	SP		Home	Time
Mike Pelfrey	MIN	0	3	4	10	7	CLE	Corey Kluber*	13:05
Dan Straily*	OAK	9	6	7	6	6	NYA	Andy Pettitte	13:05
Joe Saunders	SEA	1	4	2	2	3	TOR	Bran. Morrow	13:07
Jon Niese	NYN	1	8	4	8	5	ATL	Tim Hudson	13:35
Gio Gonzalez	WAS	7	2	5	8	3	PIT	Wan. Rodriguez	13:35
Jose Quintana	CHA	5	1	5	7	5	KC	Wade Davis	14:10
Jaime Garcia	STL	7	3	6	6	6	MIL	Marco Estrada	14:10
Mat Latos	CIN	8	3	7	5	7	CHN	Edwin Jackson	14:20
Kevin Slowey	MIA	5	0	4	2	5	PHI	Roy Halladay	14:35
Jon Lester	BOS	6	9	8	4	10	TEX	Yu Darvish	15:05
Jason Hammel	BAL	0	7	3	3	4	LAA	Jer. Williams*	15:35
Ian Kennedy	AZ	3	5	3	4	2	SD	Ed. Volquez	16:10
Justin Verlander	DET	8	5	6	6	3	HOU	Philip Humber	16:10
Alex Cobb	TB	7	9	7	7	5	COL	Jhoulys Chacin	16:10
Hyun-Jin Ryu	LAN	9	2	6	6	5	SF	Matt Cain	20:00

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.