Daily Notes, With a Table Concerning Yu Darvish

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

1. Featured Game: Oakland at Texas, 20:05 ET
2. Other Notable Games (Including MLB.TV Free Game)
3. Today’s Complete Schedule

Featured Game: Oakland at Texas, 20:05 ET
With Regard to Japanese Sensation Yu Darvish
With regard to Japanese sensation Yu Darvish, who starts tonight for Texas, here’s his line so far this season: 44.1 IP, 25.9% K, 12.2% BB, 47.0% GB, 3.64 SIERA, 88 xFIP-, 0.9 WAR.

Regarding Darvish’s Line So Far, What’s Notable
What’s notable about Darvish’s line so far this season is the degree to which it’s improved since his first three starts. Consider this table, for instance:

Starts	IP	K%	BB%	GB%	xFIP
First 3	17.2	16.3%	15.0%	42.1%	4.89
Last 4	26.2	33.3%	10.0%	51.7%	2.29

A Thing That Was Useful in the Manufacture of That Table
A thing that was useful in the manufacture of that table was the updated game-logs page added to the site on Tuesday by FanGraphs founder and darkest of overlords David Appelman.

Another Thing That Was Useful in the Manufacture of That Table
Another thing that was useful in the manufacture of that table was the Guts page (which contains the FIP constant, for example) that was added to the site towards the end of April — also by my handsome and virile employer David Appelman.

Why the Author Mentioned Those Recent Additions to the Site
As a service to the public, one imagines.

Why Else the Author Mentioned Those Additions
To greater promote his own “job security,” one imagines.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast
Per the results of our offseason crowdsourcing project, FanGraphs readers prefer Oakland Television (link).

Other Notable Games
Seattle at Cleveland | 19:05 ET ***MLB.TV Free Game***
Felix Hernandez starts for Seattle. Here’s a thing that’s largely unchanged for Hernandez so far this year (in 59.0 IP) relative to recent seasons: his strikeout and walk rates (24.8% and 6.8 %, respectively). Here’s a thing that has changed, but only slightly: his ground-ball rate (47.7% this season, after sitting in the low-to-mid 50s for most of his career). Here’s a thing that’s continued to change: his average fastball velocity (91.6 mph this season, 93.4 mph in 2011, 94.4 mph in 2010). Here’s what has changed dramatically: his changeup usage (currently 37.9%, 22.0% in 2011, 16.2% in 2010, 5.3% in 2009).

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Seattle.

Baltimore at Kansas City | 20:10 ET
Felipe Paulino makes his third start of the season for the Royals. His line so far: 11.2 IP, 25.5% K, 6.4% BB, 43.8% GB, 3.03 SIERA, 75 xFIP-, 0.3 WAR. He faces a Baltimore team ranked eighth in batter/fielder WAR as of Monday.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Baltimore.

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 4.8.

Regard, a magnificent and sortable table:

Away		SP	Tm.	Gm.	Tm.	SP		Home	Time
Chris Capuano	LAN	4	5	4	5	4	SD	Clayton Richard	18:35
Nick Blackburn	MIN	2	3	4	2	7	DET	Rick Porcello	19:05
Erik Bedard	PIT	6	1	6	2	9	WAS	Gio Gonzalez	19:05
Felix Hernandez	SEA	7	3	3	3		CLE	Ubaldo Jimenez	19:05
Hiroki Kuroda	NYA	3	7	4	5	4	TOR	Kyle Drabek	19:07
Clay Buchholz	BOS	1	6	3	7	2	TB	Jer. Hellickson	19:10
Mike Leake	CIN	5	3	5	2	7	NYN	Johan Santana	19:10
Mark Buehrle	MIA	3	4	5	8	7	ATL	Mike Minor	19:10
Randy Wolf	MIL	1	6	5	6	7	HOU	Bud Norris	20:05
Tommy Milone	OAK	4	4	6	10	7	TEX	Yu Darvish	20:05
Vance Worley	PHI	7	4	6	3	7	CHN	Matt Garza	20:05
Tommy Hunter	BAL	4	6	6	7	8	KC	Felipe Paulino*	20:10
Patrick Corbin*	AZ	6	6	5	8	3	COL	Jamie Moyer	20:40
Gavin Floyd	CHA	5	4	5	2	5	LAA	Jerome Williams	22:05
Jaime Garcia	STL	5	10	5	3	5	SF	Mad. Bumgarner	22:15

To learn more about Pitcher and Team NERD scores click here.
To learn how Game NERD Scores are calculated, click here.
* = Fewer than 20 IP, NERD at discretion of very handsome author.