Daily Notes, With No Fewer Than One Bold Predictions
Table of Contents
Here’s the table of contents for today’s edition of Daily Notes.
1. Featured Game: Tampa Bay at Los Angeles AL, 15:35 ET
2. Other Notable Games (Including MLB.TV Free Game)
3. Today’s Complete Schedule
Featured Game: Tampa Bay at Los Angeles AL, 15:35 ET
Regarding What the People Want
What the people want — mostly owing to the unstoppable force that is human biology — what the people want is to reproduce. Like, in a sexual way.
Regarding Another Thing the People Want
Another thing the people want — the second thing, really, when you think about it — is an array of bold predictions.
Regarding What the Author Is About to Provide
The author is about to provide, in this internet post, no fewer than one bold predictions in re Zack Greinke, the very talented right-hander who makes his debut for the Angels this afternoon following a recent trade that sent prospects Jean Segura, Ariel Pena, and Johnny Hellweg to Milwaukee.
Bold Prediction
The author predictes that Greinke will lead the Angels to World Series Victory Excellence, that, after leading the Angels to World Series Victory Excellence, Greinke will lead a triumphal procession down whatever street you can do that in Anaheim, and that, as he proceeds triumphantly, Greinke will be accompanied by a servant whispering the words “Memento mori” into his (i.e. Greinke’s) ear, not unlike Roman generals were accustomed to doing.
Regarding the Aforementioned Prediction, How Bold It Is
Like about 110% or 120% or something.
Readers’ Preferred Broadcast
Per the results of our offseason crowdsourcing project, FanGraphs readers prefer Tampa Bay Radio (link).
Other Notable Games
Detroit at Toronto | 13:07 ET
Doug Fister, who pitches for the Tigers today, has posted better numbers than the author would have suspected. For example: 82.2 IP, 20.4% K, 5.2% BB, 51.6% GB, 3.33 SIERA, 76 xFIP-, 1.8 WAR.
Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Toronto Radio.
Washington at Milwaukee | 14:10 ET ***MLB.TV Free Game***
Brewers right-hander Mark Rogers, the fifth-overall pick of the 2004 draft who’s been limited to a total of 10 major-league innings because of numerous injuries and ineffectiveness, makes his season debut for the Brewers today. His line at Triple-A Nashville this season: 95.1 IP, 6.99 K/9, 4.63 BB/9, 1.23 HR/9, 5.12 FIP. According to Rogers, his velocity has risen to around 92-97 mph now, since the beginning of the season, when he topped out at 92.
Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Milwaukee 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 4.5.
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 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Doug Fister | DET | 8 | 4 | 7 | 8 | 5 | TOR | Brett Cecil | 13:07 |
| Clayton Richard | SD | 5 | 6 | 4 | 3 | 8 | MIA | Josh Johnson | 13:10 |
| Travis Blackley | OAK | 5 | 5 | 3 | 0 | 4 | BAL | Wei-Yin Chen | 13:35 |
| Roy Halladay | PHI | 8 | 5 | 6 | 8 | 5 | ATL | Tim Hudson | 13:35 |
| James McDonald | PIT | 5 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 5 | HOU | Lucas Harrell | 14:05 |
| Ubaldo Jimenez | CLE | 0 | 4 | 1 | 4 | 4 | MIN | Brian Duensing* | 14:10 |
| Gio Gonzalez | WAS | 9 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 9 | MIL | Mark Rogers* | 14:10 |
| Adam Wainwright | STL | 9 | 9 | 5 | 0 | 4 | CHN | Paul Maholm | 14:20 |
| Mat Latos | CIN | 7 | 4 | 2 | 8 | 0 | COL | Jonathan Sanchez | 15:10 |
| Jeremy Hellickson | TB | 2 | 4 | 6 | 6 | 9 | LAA | Zack Greinke | 15:35 |
| Clayton Kershaw | LAN | 9 | 1 | 6 | 4 | 3 | SF | Ryan Vogelsong | 16:05 |
| Will Smith | KC | 4 | 6 | 4 | 4 | 8 | SEA | Felix Hernandez | 16:10 |
| R.A. Dickey | NYN | 10 | 3 | 5 | 7 | 3 | AZ | Joe Saunders | 16:10 |
| Gavin Floyd | CHA | 4 | 4 | 3 | 8 | 4 | TEX | Scott Feldman | 19:05 |
| Felix Doubront | BOS | 7 | 5 | 6 | 6 | 6 | NYA | Hiroki Kuroda | 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.
So unstoppable are the forces of human biology that someone has seen Eno Sarris naked. It seems strange to me that I am familiar with 1/2 of the starters in the game with the highest SP NERD. Mark Rogers seems like the name of a man who sells print cartridges.
An additional Daily Note with regard to the Angels is the return of the aged Vernon Wells, who was informed that he is now a platoony reserve behind the irrepressible Mike Trout. Dipoto in fact quoted Tyrtaios:
Vernon responded by checking his checking account.
The only street in Anaheim suitable for a post-World Series procession is Main Street in Disneyland. It is not bold to state that Greinke will get the “I’m going to Disneyland” commercial moment. But I am very certain that Disneyland doesn’t allow “servants” and Mickey Mouse doesn’t speak Latin. So The Greinke One will have to be content with a rodent whispering “M-I-C-K-E-Y-M-O-U-S-E” into his ear.
As an aside – Y’all need to do a Houston Astros rest of season fantasy article. Yes, they suck. But they still have to roll out a lineup every day from here on out – and they’ve traded all their starting bats for “future prospects” (who ain’t playing this year). They have hands down been the most active trader and I have yet to see a single article.
Someone on the Astros is gonna surprise with playing time – in #1-#5 batting slots – and no one on the team who is taller than 5′ is actually owned in most leagues now.