Daily Notes, With at Least One Joke re: British English

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

1. Real News Item: Amateur Draft Starts Today
2. Featured Game: Los Angeles NL at Philadelphia, 19:05 ET
3. Transaction Note: Fernando Martinez Recalled
4. Other Notable Games (Including MLB.TV Free Game)
5. Today’s Complete Schedule

Real News Item: Amateur Draft Starts Today
The 2012 amateur draft starts today at 7pm ET. Our Marc Hulet recently published notes on same for both the American and National Leagues. Furthermore, a source close to the situation reports that Hulet will be publishing a mock draft at some point on Monday.

Live and free video coverage of the first round appears to be available at MLB.com/live.

Featured Game: Los Angeles NL at Philadelphia, 19:05 ET
A Notable Thing in Terms of This Game
A notable thing in terms of this game is that it represents the return of Philadelphia right-hander Vance Worley (44.0 IP, 82 xFIP-, 0.5 WAR) from the disabled list.

Regarding That DL Stint
The internet reports that Worley was originally placed on the DL in mid-May with elbow inflammation. The internet reports, furthermore, that the discomfort Worley felt was caused by bone chips in his elbow (which will require surgery after the season, but shouldn’t impair him for the time being).

Regarding Bone Chips, What They’re Called in England
Bone crisps, naturally.

Regarding the Dodgers, Their Playoff Odds About a Week Ago
As of May 27th, the Dodgers held a 7.5-game lead over the Giants in the NL West and, per Cool Standings, had a 90.7% chance of making the playoffs.

Regarding the Dodgers, Their Playoff Odds Now
After the Dodgers’ loss Sunday in Colorado — that, coupled with the Giants’ home win against the Cubs — Los Angeles now has just a 3.0-game lead over San Francisco and only a 71.7% chance of making the postseason.

A Not Entirely Riveting Graph
This is the graph from that San Francisco win last night, during which game it appears as though precisely one thing happened:

Source: FanGraphs

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

Transaction Note: Fernando Martinez Recalled
With Travis Buck going on the DL, Houston recalled former top Met prospect Fernando Martinez, still just 23, as a replacement. Starting twice in right field over the weekend, Martinez recorded a double, zero walks, and six strikeouts in nine plate appearances. Here’s his line from Triple-A Oklahoma City this season: 206 PA, .319/.374/.532 (.371 BABIP).

Other Notable Games
St. Louis at New York NL | 13:10 ET
After scoring one run in their loss to New York on Sunday, St. Louis has now scored precisely one run through the first three games of their four-game series in Queens — this from a team that entered play on Friday with the fifth-best park- and league-adjusted offense since 1900.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: New York NL Television.

Minnesota at Kansas City | 20:10 ET ***MLB.TV Free Game***
Bespectacled right-hander Cole DeVries hasn’t posted particularly impressive defense-independent numbers (10.0 IP, 5.81 SIERA, 145 xFIP-, -0.3 WAR) through his first two major-league starts. Of some interest, perhaps, however, is the diversity of his repertoire. According to PITCHf/x, DeVries has thrown four different pitches at least 10% of the time and five different pitches at least 7.5% of the time.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Minnesota or Kansas City Radio, Either One.

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 4.9.

Note: the following Game Scores include the poorly conceived playoff-odds adjustment discussed in a recent edition of Daily Notes. Also note: the following table is entirely sortable.

Away		SP	Tm.	Gm.	Tm.	SP		Home	Time
Kyle Lohse	STL	4	10	7	1	9	NYN	Dillon Gee	13:10
Jeff Samardzija	CHN	10	4	5	4	2	SF	Ryan Vogelsong	15:45
Clayton Kershaw	LAN	9	6	8	4	7	PHI	Vance Worley	19:05
Cole DeVries*	MIN	4	2	3	6	6	KC	Will Smith*	20:10
Chris. Friedrich	COL	10	9	6	4	2	AZ	Joe Saunders	21:40
Jason Vargas	SEA	2	6	4	2	4	LAA	Ervin Santana	22:05
Scott Feldman	TEX	2	10	1	2	2	OAK	Jarrod Parker	22:05

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.