One Night Only: Previews for Weekend of April 22nd

Seattle’s Jason Vargas wants you to know: “They’re not tricks, they’re illusions.”

This edition of One Night Only contains:

1. Previews for seven — yes, seven — weekend games.

2. Updated Team NERD scores in parentheses.

3. Shameless references to pop culture — for the kids.

Friday, April 22nd
Kansas City (9) at Texas (6) | 8:05pm ET
• If Dave Cameron tells you to jump off the Brooklyn Bridge, you should ignore him.
• If he volunteers his thoughts on contemporary cinema, you should definitely ignore those, too.
• When he tells you about tonight’s starter for Kansas City, though, you should probably frigging listen.

Cincinnati (10) at St. Louis (9) | 8:15pm ET
• A pitcher mostly has control over three things: striking out batters, not walking them, and inducing grounders.
• Edinson Volquez is really good at two of those things and what we might call “not so good” at the third.
• Just looking at his line to date, guess which is which: 22.2 IP, 9.53 K/9, 6.35 BB/9, 58.6 GB%, 4.05 xFIP, 104 xFIP-.

Saturday, April 23rd
Tampa Bay (5) at Toronto (6) | 1:07pm ET
• Brandon Morrow makes his season debut this afternoon, returning from some kind of forearm strain situation.
• His mostly promising ZiPS projection: 149.1 IP, 9.77 K/9, 4.34 BB/9, 0.96 HR/9, 3.75 FIP, 92 FIP-.
• His most dangerous nemesis: fear itself Sam Fuld.

Atlanta (6) at San Francisco (5) | 4:10pm ET
• Tim Lincecum is pitching.
• There’s very little to say about him besides “He’s excellent and does whatever he wants.”
• Thus rendering this third line of text totally unnecessary.

Oakland (3) at Seattle (1) | 9:10pm
• Tonight’s starter for Seattle, Jason Vargas, is the type of magician who, instead of pulling a rabbit out of his hat and/or marrying a supermodel, instead parlays a middling fastball into great success.
• The fastball: 87.1 mph. The great success: 22.2 IP, 7.15 K/9, 1.59 BB/9, 45.9 GB%, 3.42 xFIP, 83 xFIP-.
• Other note: Trevor Cahill (25.1 IP, 61 xFIP-) against the Mariner offense (.287 wOBA, 84 wRC+) may not take very long.

Sunday, April 24th
Colorado (9) at Florida (6) | 1:10pm ET
• Marlin starter Josh Johnson is one of only nine pitchers to’ve reached the one-win mark.
• Troy Tulowitzki leads the majors with a 1.7 WAR.
• Together, the two of them could beat the Twins.

Kansas City (9) at Texas (6) | 3:05pm ET
• Last year, Texas Ranger C.J. Wilson, both (a) converted from relief to startering and (b) outpitched his peripherals (3.35 ERA, 4.06 xFIP) by a pretty considerable margin.
• It was only natural to think that he’d regress up to the latter of those numbers.
• Instead, so far, he’s just altered his peripherals to match last year’s ERA: 26.1 IP, 7.18 K/9, 2.73 BB/9, 50.0 GB%, 3.13 xFIP.