Daily Notes, With Attention to Ben Sheets, His Start

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

1. Featured Game: New York NL at Atlanta, 13:35 ET (Free Game)
2. Another Notable Game
3. Today’s Complete Schedule

Featured Game: New York NL at Atlanta, 13:35 ET
Regarding the Year 2004, What the Reader Might’ve Forgotten About It
So far as the year 2004 is concerned, it’s possible that the reader — owing to an excess either of formative experiences in the interim or, alternatively, of fermented beverages in the interim — it’s possible that the reader has forgotten how Arizona left-hander Randy Johnson was the very best pitcher in baseball that season, with a league-best WAR (among pitchers, at least) of 9.9 and league-best SIERA (among qualified pitchers, at least) of 2.58.

Regarding 2004, What Else the Reader Has Forgotten About It
That a gallon of gas only cost a nickel, is probably one thing the reader has forgotten, and that a handshake agreement meant something, goddammit — unless one lacked hands, that is, in which case a more conventional written contract was an entirely reasonable substitute.

Regarding 2004, Another Thing the Reader Has Forgotten About It
The reader has almost definitely forgotten that pitchers Ben Sheets (8.0) and Johan Santana (7.7) finished second and third, respectively, among all pitchers according to WAR in 2004 — and also that Sheets (2.67) and Santana (2.77) finished second and third, respectively, among all qualified pitchers per SIERA in that same season.

Regarding Randy Johnson in 2012
Randy Johnson is decidedly retired in 2012 — has been retired since 2010, in fact.

Regarding Santana and Sheets in 2012
Johan Santana and Ben Sheets are active major leaguers in 2012 — are, in fact, the starting pitchers of this very featured game.

Johan Santana: Status Update
Johan Santana’s line so far this season: 102.2 IP, 23.5% K, 7.8% BB, 32.3% GB, 3.73 SIERA, 99 xFIP-, 1.6 WAR.

Ben Sheets: Status Update
Here’s Ben Sheets’ line so far this season: N/A.

Regarding Ben Sheets’s Line, Why It Looks Like That
Ben Sheets has no major-league stats, because has had made no major-league appearances this season — hasn’t, in fact, since 2010.

Ben Sheets: Status Update, Redux
Here’s Ben Sheets’ line so far this season at Double-A Mississippi: 10.2 IP, 8.44 K/9, 0.84 BB/9, 0.00 HR/9, 1.89 FIP.

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

Another Notable Games
Boston at Tampa Bay | 13:40 ET
Of all the games being played today, this one, appears to be most immediate in terms of postseason implications: per Cool Standings, the Red Sox and Rays have playoff odds of 24.3% and 21.8%, respectively.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Boston or Tampa Bay 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 5.4.

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
Jered Weaver	LAA	4	5	5	7	7	NYA	Ivan Nova	13:05
Derek Lowe	CLE	2	5	5	7	5	TOR	Carlos Villanueva	13:07
Stephen Strasburg	WAS	10	6	5	3	4	MIA	Ricky Nolasco	13:10
Justin Verlander	DET	9	5	7	1	5	BAL	Miguel Gonzalez*	13:35
Johan Santana	NYN	6	2	8	8	10	ATL	Ben Sheets*	13:35
Josh Beckett	BOS	6	5	8	4	8	TB	James Shields	13:40
Chris Sale	CHA	10	5	5	6	3	KC	Luis Mendoza	14:10
Jarrod Parker	OAK	4	4	4	3	4	MIN	Brian Duensing*	14:10
A.J. Burnett	PIT	7	5	5	7	5	MIL	Yovani Gallardo	14:10
Trevor Cahill	AZ	5	6	5	1	8	CHN	Matt Garza	14:20
Cole Hamels	PHI	9	5	4	10	2	COL	Drew Pomeranz	15:10
Bud Norris	HOU	6	4	5	4	7	SF	Matt Cain	16:05
Jason Marquis	SD	4	5	5	2	7	LAN	Chad Billingsley	16:10
Matt Harrison	TEX	6	9	4	3	4	SEA	Hisashi Iwakuma*	16:10
Jake Westbrook	STL	5	9	6	4	5	CIN	Homer Bailey	20:00

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.