Daily Notes: The Sheets Is About to Get Real
Table of Contents
Here’s the table of contents for today’s edition of Daily Notes.
1. Featured Game: Atlanta at Washington, 13:05 ET
2. Other Notable Games (Including MLB.TV Free Game)
3. Today’s Complete Schedule
Featured Game: Atlanta at Washington, 13:05 ET
Regarding What’s Notable About This Game
What’s notable about this game is that Ben Sheets is making his second major-league start of the season in it and also his second major-league start of the last two seasons.
Sheets’ First Start
Here’s Sheets’ line from his first start of the last two seasons, home against the Mets on July 15th (box): 6.0 IP, 21 TBF, 5 K, 1 BB, 3 GB on 15 batted-balls (20%), 3.85 xFIP.
Video of Sheets’ First Start
Here’s video from that same July 15th start:
Regarding “July 15th,” The Name of the Number Part in That
A number with digits and then a suffix (-th, -st, -nd, and -rd) like that is called an “ordinal abbreviation” — as opposed to what’s referred to as a “cardinal number” (as in “July 15″).
What Site Editor Robert Sanchez Says About Ordinal Abbreviations
Site editor Robert Sanchez says that FanGraphs authors ought just to employ cardinal numbers, and not ordinal abbreviations, when writing dates.
What the Author Says Back to Robert Sanchez
“Whatever, Sanchez. What are you, my dad or something?”
A Plot Turn, What a Good One Would Be
If Robert Sanchez were actually the author’s father, is what.
Reality, What a Harrowing One Would Be
If Robert Sanchez were actually the author’s father, is also what.
Readers’ Preferred Broadcast
Per the results of our offseason crowdsourcing project, FanGraphs readers prefer Atlanta Radio (link).
Other Notable Games
Chicago AL at Detroit | 16:05 ET
As of Saturday morning, left-hander Chris Sale (who pitches for the White Sox today) is third among all pitchers in WAR (3.8). Also of note: these teams are now separated by just half a game in the AL Central.
Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Detroit Radio.
Atlanta at Washington | 19:05 ET ***MLB.TV Free Game***
This is the second game of a day-night doubleheader… if you know what I mean.*
*What the author means is, is there was an earlier game between Atlanta and Washington, and that this is the second one from the same day, but it’s happening more in the evening, is what.
Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Atlanta 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 4.8.
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 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ben Sheets* | ATL | 10 | 8 | 8 | 7 | 6 | WAS | Edwin Jackson | 13:05 |
| Chris Capuano | LAN | 6 | 1 | 5 | 3 | 2 | NYN | Miguel Batista* | 13:10 |
| Chris Sale | CHA | 10 | 5 | 8 | 4 | 6 | DET | Rick Porcello | 16:05 |
| Matt Cain | SF | 7 | 4 | 6 | 5 | 9 | PHI | Cole Hamels | 16:05 |
| Yu Darvish | TEX | 7 | 8 | 5 | 6 | 3 | LAA | Ervin Santana | 16:05 |
| Rand. Delgado | ATL | 5 | 8 | 5 | 7 | 4 | WAS | John Lannan* | 19:05 |
| Chris Tillman* | BAL | 8 | 1 | 6 | 5 | 7 | CLE | Zach McAllister | 19:05 |
| Carl. Zambrano | MIA | 1 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 8 | PIT | A.J. Burnett | 19:05 |
| Yovani Gallardo | MIL | 6 | 7 | 4 | 4 | 4 | CIN | Bronson Arroyo | 19:10 |
| Scott Diamond | MIN | 6 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 3 | KC | Luis Mendoza | 19:10 |
| Jason Vargas | SEA | 3 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 6 | TB | Alex Cobb | 19:10 |
| Carl. Villanueva* | TOR | 8 | 7 | 5 | 6 | 1 | BOS | Aaron Cook | 19:10 |
| Matt Garza | CHN | 8 | 1 | 6 | 9 | 5 | STL | Jake Westbrook | 19:15 |
| Dallas Keuchel | HOU | 0 | 4 | 3 | 6 | 7 | AZ | Wade Miley | 20:10 |
| Jeff Francis | COL | 3 | 9 | 1 | 5 | 0 | SD | Kip Wells | 20:35 |
| Phil Hughes | NYA | 5 | 7 | 5 | 4 | 5 | OAK | Jarrod Parker | 21:05 |
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.
“My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.”
“No… I am your father.”
Unrelated, but, after clippards recent struggles, should storen be picked up? If 2 save opportunities arise today, what is the likelihood they both get a shot at one?
If you’re going for the pun title, I think “This Sheets About to get real” works better.
God forbid he losses his command and hits a fan… :)
In all seriousness though, all the best to him
Why do the Cardinals get their own number system?
What about Cain against Hammel?
Also a bit off topic, but was looking through the hr list after Thome’s sosa tiebreaker – both BJ and Justin Upton are tied for 783rd on the career home run list with 99 apiece. I know that 100 is truly only one better than 99, but I still find it fun and interesting that they are both arrived at the edge of the triple digit milestone together. Hope someone else finds it interesting as well and that I’m not just the last person finding this out!
I really feel like there is way too much buzz in regards to Ben Sheets. Yes, his final line was impressive last week against an average Mets offense. The Ks were there (5 in 6 IP). The FIP (1.90) backed up the zero ER reasonably well. His velocity (90.6) was only a hair shy of what he threw back in 2010 (91.2). But Sheets’ start didn’t pass the eye test. He didn’t throw a single ground ball until his 5th inning of work and ended up with a 20% GB rate. He also gave up a pair of loud outs in a shaky third inning (the first a David Murphy rocket double that smacked off the very top of the left-center field wall, nearly winding up as a two-run homer; the second a David Wright deep fly out to deep right that would have been a three-run homer in many ball parks). Furthermore; Sheets’ velocity, while better than expected for his first game back, averaged two MPH less than when he was last an effective major leaguer; in 2008 when still a Milwaukee Brewer. Sheets is your prototypical ‘power pitcher.’ While it’s possible that Sheets is able to replicate Bartolo Colon’s uncanny ability to find success despite suffering a huge loss in velocity, it’s important to remember that Colon is the exception to the rule. I’d love to see Sheets continue to pitch well in 2012 and beyond. I just don’t see it happening.
Most of the buzz I’ve heard is about the fact that he’s pitching at all, not that he’s going to be great.
I’m one of those people that always thinks it’s fantastic when a guy like Sheets makes it back to the mound.
The Braves got 2 wins out of him already. That may have been more than they expected.
Last I checked (a week or two ago), the Mets were 3rd in the NL in scoring, despite hitting in a pitcher’s park. They were only behind Colorado and St Louis. They might not hit many HRs, but I wouldn’t dismiss them as average.
Also, Ben Sheets is not a prototypical power pitcher. Look at his walk rate from when he was a great pitcher. Although he had good velocity, he also had better control than most people that are considered power pitchers.
6 IP, 5 hits, 0 runs, 3 BB, 6 K
Loving the Sheets right now.
1100 thread count I persume
Angels offering Garrett Richards, Johnny Hellewig and Howie Kendrick for James Shields and Ben Zobrist as reported by Jon Heyman.
Opinions?
Terrible deal for Tampa Bay
Horrible deal for Tampa Bay.
There is literally no way TB does that and doubt LAA even had the balls to make that offer