Baseball In The Daytime: 7-24-07

Those wishing for a pleasant diversion on a summer afternoon have a couple options today. It all just depends on your time zone, and your definition of the word "afternoon."

Batting leadoff are the Tigers and the White Sox at 12:05 Mountain. That would be five minutes "after noon" where I live, so break open the beers. One might look at the pitchers in this game and proclaim that it's a mismatch in favor of the Tigers. One might be wrong. Although Jeremy Bonderman is 10-1 while his counterpart Javier Vasquez sits at 7-5, their seasons are actually very similar.

Bonderman's ERA is 3.53 and Vazquez's is 3.73, but they've yielded the same number of runs (53 apiece). Only 47 of Bonderman's runs were earned, however, so Detroit's crappy defense actually makes Bonderman look better. Vazquez has more strikeouts, a lower WHIP and fewer hits allowed (in more innings pitched). What kills Vazquez is that his team scores 4.21 runs a game as opposed to 5.84 for his opponent today, and that the White Sox bullpen has a putrid 6.06 ERA this season.

And here's a few more numbers for ya: this game is available on 179 on the XM and 749 on the DirecTV Extra Innings package.

Then at 3:05 is a gem of a game, and by gem I actually mean the only people watching will be the friends and families of the players and hard-up NBA refs who need a little action. The Seattle Mariners and the Texas Rangers will play an AL West division game on XM 179 and DTV 736. Your pitchers are Ryan Feierabend and John Rheinecker, who combine for 20 letters in their last names and over 21 runs in their ERAs. Hideous.

Also, let's all wish Barry a happy birthday.