Daily Notes: Wednesday’s Velocity Champion, Surprisingly

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

1. Wednesday’s Velocity Champion, Surprisingly
2. Today’s MLB.TV Free Game
3. Today’s Complete Schedule

Wednesday’s Velocity Champion, Surprisingly
Question No. 1
Without consulting any sort of relevant leaderboard, identify which of the following 28 starting pitchers (arranged here alphabetically by first name because of how computers work) recorded the highest average fastball velocity on Wednesday:

Alfredo Aceves, Alfredo Figaro, Barry Zito, Chris Archer, Dan Straily, Dillon Gee, Edinson Volquez, Francisco Liriano, Hyun-Jin Ryu, James Shields, Jason Hammel, Jeremy Bonderman, Jerome Williams, Jordan Lyles, Jorge de la Rosa, Justin Verlander, Kevin Slowey, Mike Leake, Mike Pelfrey, Nick Tepesch, Patrick Corbin, Paul Maholm, Phil Hughes, Ross Ohlendorf, Shelby Miller, Travis Wood, Tyler Cloyd, Ubaldo Jimenez.

Question No. 2
Now, without consulting any other sort of relevant material, identify which of the following 28 starting pitchers from Wednesday is Milwaukee right-hander Alfredo Figaro:

Alfredo Aceves, Alfredo Figaro, Barry Zito, Chris Archer, Dan Straily, Dillon Gee, Edinson Volquez, Francisco Liriano, Hyun-Jin Ryu, James Shields, Jason Hammel, Jeremy Bonderman, Jerome Williams, Jordan Lyles, Jorge de la Rosa, Justin Verlander, Kevin Slowey, Mike Leake, Mike Pelfrey, Nick Tepesch, Patrick Corbin, Paul Maholm, Phil Hughes, Ross Ohlendorf, Shelby Miller, Travis Wood, Tyler Cloyd, Ubaldo Jimenez.

Answers
Here, inverted for Maximum Secrecy, are the answers to Question Nos. 1 and 2:

1.

2.

Leaderboard: Wednesday’s Hardest Throwers
Below are Wednesday’s five hardest-throwing starting pitchers, according to PITCHf/x. Note that Figaro’s lead is not only considerable, but also that he appears to have retained his velocity rather far into his start.

Alfredo Figaro, Very Much in Brief
Here are six facts which most succinctly summarize Alfredo Figaro, Major League Pitcher:

• Originally signed by Dodgers in 2004.
• Spent five years in Tigers system.
• Pitched for Orix in Japan, 2011-12.
• Signed by Brewers to minor-league contract in offseason.
• Made Opening Day bullpen.
• Replaced Mike Fiers in rotation, beginning of June.

Figaro’s Repertoire, Very Much in Brief
Figaro’s repertoire in three starts now has been very similar — both in terms of pitch usage and also velocity — to his repertoire from 16 relief appearances.

It includes:

• Fastball, 95 mph, 65%
• Slider, 83 mph, 28%
• Changeup, 86 mph, 7%

Footage: Figaro’s Hardest Fastball
Here’s footage of Figaro’s hardest recorded fastball from Wednesday night — at 99 mph to Miami outfielder Marcell Ozuna in the fourth inning on an 0-2 count:

Today’s MLB.TV Free Game
Washington at Colorado | 15:10 ET
Ross Detwiler (45.2 IP, 114 xFIP-, 0.6 WAR) faces Jeff Francis (40.0 IP, 110 xFIP-, 0.2 WAR). Anthony Rendon Status Update: 55 PA, 10.9% BB, 21.8% K, .306/.382/.408 (.405 BABIP), 123 wRC+, 0.4 WAR. Anthony Rendon, Rest-of-Season Steamer Projection: 105 PA, 10.0% BB, 19.4% K, .245/.327/.379 (.293 BABIP), 92 wRC+, 0.3 WAR.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Washington Radio.

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 5.9.

Note: the following table is entirely sortable.

Away		SP	Tm.	Gm.	Tm.	SP		Home	Time
Adam Wainwright	STL	9	3	8	6	10	NYN	Matt Harvey	13:10
Mat Latos	CIN	7	4	8	5	10	CHN	Jeff Samardzija	14:20
Ross Detwiler	WAS	4	1	4	10	4	COL	Jeff Francis	15:10
Hiroki Kuroda	NYA	4	4	4	7	4	OAK	Jarrod Parker	15:35
Felix Doubront	BOS	6	9	7	8	8	BAL	Kevin Gausman*	19:05
Matt Cain	SF	5	5	5	6	5	PIT	Charlie Morton*	19:05
Ervin Santana	KC	8	4	7	9	5	TB	Jeremy Hellickson	19:10
Esmil Rogers*	TOR	4	6	6	3	10	TEX	Yu Darvish	20:05
Cliff Lee	PHI	8	2	4	3	2	MIN	Kevin Correia	20:10

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.