Daily Notes, With Dan Straily-Related Information

August 29, 2012

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

1. Dan Straily-Related Information
2. Today’s Notable Games (Including MLB.TV Free Game)
3. Today’s Complete Schedule

Dan Straily-Related Information
Regarding Who Dan Straily Is, First of All
Dan Straily is the 23-year-old and right-handed Oakland prospect who entered play Tuesday leading all minor-league pitchers in strikeouts, with 179.

Regarding Who Dan Straily Is, Also
Another thing about Dan Straily is, is he posted this line with Oakland in three minor-league starts not that long ago: 17.0 IP, 17.1% K, 5.7% BB, 28.3% GB, 4.56 SIERA, 116 xFIP-, 0.0 WAR.

Regarding One Type of Reader, What He Might Say
It’s entirely possible that a certain type of reader — inspecting Straily’s line, etc. — a certain type of reader might utter something to the effect of “Pshaw.”

Regarding That Same Sort of Reader, What He Maybe Should Consider
That same sort of reader — the one who might utter something to the effect of “Pshaw” apropos Dan Straily — should consider maybe how Dan Straily is glorious, or “full of glory.”

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Dan Straily Update
Dan Straily pitched Tuesday night — and struggled — for Triple-A Sacramento. Line: 2.2 IP, 17 TBF, 2 K, 1 BB, 3:0 GO:AO. And more line: 8 H, 6 ER, 6 R.

Regarding Dan Straily, What Is With Him
The author’s thoughts, and at least two-thirds of his prayers, are with Dan Straily.

Today’s Notable Games
Los Angeles NL at Colorado | 15:10 ET ***MLB.TV Free Game***
Perhaps the reader is curious about whom — after the Dodgers’ various acquisitions — about whom is playing for same. Here, in any case, is the Dodger lineup from Tuesday night:

1. Mark Ellis, 2B
2. Shane Victorino, LF
3. Matt Kemp, CF
4. Adrian Gonzalez, 1B
5. Hanley Ramirez, SS
6. Andre Ethier, RF
7. Adam Kennedy, 3B
8. A.J. Ellis, C
9. Chris Capuano, P

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: None, Really.

New York NL at Philadelphia | 19:05 ET
If we accept the proposition that some games are for “all of the marbles,” then we should readily accept that this game, between the Mets and Phillies, are for basically zero of the marbles — at least so far as “championship-winning” is concerned. Talented rookie Matt Harvey (36.0 IP, 84 xFIP-, 0.8 WAR) faces Cole Hamels (177.1 IP, 85 xFIP-, 3.4 WAR), though, which is promising aesthetically.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: New York NL Television.

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 4.0.

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
J.A. Happ	TOR	6	5	6	7	10	NYA	CC Sabathia	13:05
Joe Blanton	LAN	8	1	5	7	4	COL	D. Pomeranz	15:10
Mat Latos	CIN	8	4	5	7	7	AZ	Patrick Corbin	15:40
Tommy Hanson	ATL	4	8	2	6	2	SD	Eric Stults	18:35
Dylan Axelrod	CHA	5	4	4	1	2	BAL	M. Gonzalez	19:05
Matt Harvey	NYN	10	2	6	5	9	PHI	Cole Hamels	19:05
Travis Blackley	OAK	4	6	3	2	4	CLE	Corey Kluber	19:05
Joe Kelly	STL	7	9	6	4	4	PIT	W. Rodriguez	19:05
Alex Cobb	TB	7	5	5	8	5	TEX	Matt Harrison	19:05
Ross Detwiler	WAS	5	6	3	3	6	MIA	Jacob Turner*	19:10
Mike Fiers	MIL	7	8	6	1	10	CHN	Jeff Samardzija	20:05
Barry Zito	SF	0	3	0	4	0	HOU	Dallas Keuchel	20:05
Anibal Sanchez	DET	7	4	5	7	4	KC	Bruce Chen	20:10
Jason Vargas	SEA	3	4	0	4	0	MIN	Samuel Deduno	20:10
Zach Stewart*	BOS	6	6	4	8	4	LAA	C.J. Wilson	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.

12 Comments

Oldest

Newest Most Voted

13 years ago

Will curious to see how Axelrod fares today, would like to see him succeed, esp with the White Sox doing well.

Drew

What a tremendous pitching match up between Zito and Keuchel tonight. My loins are tingling with anticipation

johnnycuff

might you call it… the daily straily?

Plasmaj

I love Straily too. For the past few weeks, he has taken one of my two bench slots. But I’m worried that the A’s will finish the year with a rotation of Andeson, McCarthy, Milone, Parker and Griffin. Relegating Straily to bullpen duty

chri521

Hamels got scratched and Kemp is out a few days after he lost a collision contest with center field wall (ouch!)

Well-Beered Englishman

I thought the phrase was “for all the Tostitos.”

Eminor3rdMember since 2019

$300m in acquisitions, and they’re still batting Mark Ellis in the leadoff spot?

Brazen Reader

Reply to Eminor3rd

And Adam Kennedy is starting at 3rd

Cus

Wait a minute! I thought this site was a reputable source of baseball-related information and statistics, and you’re trying to tell me that Adam Kennedy is still in the league? Let’s just see what Wikipedia has to… Great googily moogily!

brendan

pitcher NERD for zito is 0! Come on, there has to be _something_ interesting about a guy trying to get outs w/ 83 MPH fastballs, 76 MPH changeups, and a 12-6 curve. I am amazed at how serviceable he’s been, considering his stuff is gone! no effort points in pitcher NERD?

Reply to brendan

NERD Pitching Scores favor pitchers that are young, throw hard, produce strikes, and are good at pitching (or pitchers that tickle Dear Author’s fancy). NERD is as useful as a Classics education or a pogo stick for people prone to saying “I am amazed at how serviceable [Zito]’s been” (i.e., you), or “Math? If I want to do math, I’d go back to school” (i.e., me), or “Give me a guy who wins games, that’s what it’s all about” (i.e., every analyst on MLB TV, except Joe McGrane and Dan Plesac.)

Ask yourself this: Does NERD score every game featuring Mike Trout, and every bad Angel pitcher yielding flyballs to Mike Trout, a 10? No? Rubbish and claptrap, as useful as a polar expedition.*

The truth is that the scientific value of Polar exploration is greatly exaggerated. The thing that takes men on such hazardous trips is really not any thirst for knowledge, but simply a yearning for adventure. … A Polar explorer always talks grandly of sacrificing his fingers and toes to science. It is an amiable pretention, but there is no need to take it seriously.

good one.

is straily staying down or what???