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.
| Rank | Name | Team | IP | vFA |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alfredo Figaro | Brewers | 7.0 | 96.0 |
| 2 | Chris Archer | Rays | 4.0 | 95.1 |
| 3 | Francisco Liriano | Pirates | 6.0 | 93.6 |
| 4 | Justin Verlander | Tigers | 7.0 | 93.2 |
| 5 | Shelby Miller | Cardinals | 6.0 | 93.2 |
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.
Carson Cistulli has published a book of aphorisms called Spirited Ejaculations of a New Enthusiast.
Can anyone back a Marcum or E. Jax spot start tomorrow? Thanks!
No Brainer!
Fair enough. But I am reading too into the numbers and have given myself reasons for both…only need one though, of course. Thoughts?
Dang, I was sure it was going to be Ross Ohlendorf!
I was secretly hoping for Bonderman.
thoughts on Cingrani’s new “slider”? looking at his pitch type data from Tuesday, he threw a “curve” nearly 10% of the time. he hadn’t thrown a curve in any previous game, in addition to a few sliders. but looking at his pitch charts, it looks like the pitch which used to be called a slider is now being called a curve (thrown in the mid 70s with both downward and horizontal movement). and he threw three pitches which were identified as sliders but don’t match any pitch from his previous games (low 80s velocity, downward movement, but none horizontally)
In interviews he’s said that he worked on his breaking balls while he was back in AAA between call-ups. I have read many conflicting accounts identifying his most used breaking ball as either a curve or a slider; I’ve never been clear on whether he actually uses both pitches or just one slurvy tweener pitch.
Phillies-Twins should have a negative game score.
except Clifton Phifer Lee
“Question No. 2” is absolutely fantastic.
That is all.
…identify which of the following… No. If I wanted to work, I would not be reading (or, more accurately, lamely commenting on) your chuff and chaff.
Re: Washington Team NERD Score of 1. Were the Well Beered Englishmen not a model of equipoise, he might have something hurtful to say.
Re: St Louis’s Team Nerd of 2. Another Fangraphs Nerd disagrees:
If he visits, the Well Beered Englishman might reorder the list of pitchers according to mellifluency.