One Night Only: Hot Game Previews for May 25th

by
May 25, 2011


Atlanta’s Mike Major (né Minor) starts in place of Tim Hudson this afternoon.

This edition of One Night Only contains:

1. Expanded previews for three games (two of which begin momentarily): Atlanta at Pittsburgh, Washington at Milwaukee, and Cincinnati at Philadelphia.

2. Pitcher and Team NERD scores for every one of tonight’s games.

3. Weather-related action video!

Atlanta (6) at Pittsburgh (4) | 12:35 ET
Starting Pitchers
Braves: Mike Minor (N/A)
Triple-A: 52.2 IP, 9.23 K/9, 2.39 BB/9, 1.03 HR/9, 3.43 FIP

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Pirates: James McDonald (4)
47.1 IP, 7.42 K/9, 4.37 BB/9, .302 BABIP, 38.0% GB, 12.9% HR/FB, 4.35 xFIP, 117 xFIP-

Notes
• Mike Minor takes the place today of Tim Hudson, who’s dealing with back stiffness of some kind.
• On the one hand, Minor pitched poorly in his only major-league start this year.
• To wit: 4.1 IP, 22 TBF, 2 K, 4 BB, 7 GB on 15 batted-balls (46.7%).
• On the other, his numbers in Triple-A (above) have been pretty excellent.
• As was the 91 xFIP- he posted in eight major-league starts (40.2 IP) towards the end of last season.

If I Had My Druthers
• Mike Minor would change his surname after being promoted to the majors.
• (I almost wrote “would be forced” to change his surname.)
• (But that would be against Freedom — i.e. one of the most important capitalized nouns.)

Washington (6) at Milwaukee (7) | 13:10 ET
Starting Pitchers
Nationals: Jason Marquis (4)
57.1 IP, 5.18 K/9, 2.04 BB/9, .321 BABIP, 50.3% GB, 5.0% HR/FB, 3.74 xFIP, 101 xFIP-

Brewers: Zack Greinke (10)
21.0 IP, 12.43 K/9, 0.86 BB/9, .370 BABIP, 37.5% GB, 21.1% HR/FB, 1.47 xFIP, 41 xFIP-

Notes
• Basically, every way in which he could feel the scourge of Cruelest Fate, Zack Greinke is feeling same scourge.
• Regard (with current league averages in parentheses): .370 BABIP (.285), 49.0% LOB (72.9%), 21.1% HR/FB (ca. 9.0%).
• “Hey, has anyone noticed that the league-average BABIP right now is .285? Is that a weather-related thing? Something else?”
• That’s something I just sent out to the FanGraphs internal messaging network.
• Jonah Keri answered that maybe defense has something to do with it.

If I Had My Druthers
• Jonah Keri would personally answer all my questions.
• Like, “What’s the meaning of life?”
• And like, “What does this button do?”

Cincinnati (9) at Philadelphia (2) | 19:05 ET
Starting Pitchers
Reds: Travis Wood (7)
55.2 IP, 7.44 K/9, 2.75 BB/9, .331 BABIP, 34.1% GB, 7.4% HR/FB, 3.63 xFIP, 98 xFIP-

Phillies: Roy Halladay (10)
77.1 IP, 9.31 K/9, 1.40 BB/9, .297 BABIP, 52.9% GB, 3.2% HR/FB, 2.28 xFIP, 62 xFIP-

On Roy Halladay’s Delivery, Its Relative Interesting-ness
Reader kilroy69 suggested in yesterday’s edition of One Night Only — apropos Josh Collmenter, mostly — that there should be a component in NERD that accounts for interesting-ness of delivery.

Reader Shazbot worried that such a component would hurt Halladay’s NERD score, on account of its (i.e. Halladay’s delivery) relative simplicity.

I have no opinion on these matters at the moment except to say that these are very clearly the Issues facing us as a people.

On How Travis Wood Has a High-ish NERD Score
Travis Wood has a high-ish NERD score because his ERA (5.17) is quite high relative to his xFIP. That, and he’s pretty young (24).

On How There Was a Tornado in Philadelphia
There was a tornado in Philadelphia the other day.

Video:

Also Playing
These games are very likely playing at some kind of sporty channel near you.

pNERD = Pitcher NERD
tNERD = Team NERD
Game = Time and Average NERD for Game
* = Fewer than 20 IP, NERD of 5 (or 10 for debuts)





 

Carson Cistulli has published a book of aphorisms called Spirited Ejaculations of a New Enthusiast.

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adohaj
14 years ago

You call that a tornado?

1