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:

Darvish Graph

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.





Carson Cistulli has published a book of aphorisms called Spirited Ejaculations of a New Enthusiast.

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Well-Beered Englishman
10 years ago

Regarding the Return of Intentional Redundancy to This Column, its Effect on the Present Reader
The present reader is given much pleasure.

Regarding the Pleasure Given to the Present Reader by the Intentional Redundancy of Certain Passages in This Column
The pleasure is sizeable and of a considerable size.

Baltar
10 years ago

Best imitation I’ve seen since The Ruggles.

Rian Wattmember
10 years ago

Two Things Which Say The Same Thing
Two Things Which Say The Same Thing