Devised originally in response to a challenge issued by viscount of the internet Rob Neyer, and expanded at the request of nobody, NERD scores represent an attempt to summarize in one number (and on a scale of 0-10) the likely aesthetic appeal or watchability, for the learned fan, of a player or team or game. Read more about the components of and formulae for NERD scores here.

Most Highly Rated Game
Pittsburgh at Detroit | 19:08 ET
Vance Worley (62.2 IP, 99 xFIP-, 0.9 WAR) faces Buck Farmer (115.2 IP, 27.1% K, 6.0% BB at Class- and Double-A). As of last Tuesday, Detroit possessed 92% odds of qualifying for the ALDS. After a week populated almost exclusively by Kansas City victories, however, the Tigers’ chances have fallen about 30 percentage points, while the team itself has fallen (if only slightly) out of first place in the AL Central. These are the conditions, one notes, under which right-handed prospect Buck Farmer is expected to record what one might accurately call either (a) his major-league debut or also (b) his third-ever start above the Class-A Midwest League. A fifth-round pick last year out Georgia Tech, Farmer has produced excellent fielding-independent numbers against the competition he has faced — largely, it would seem, on the strength of a fastball-slider combination.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Detroit Radio.

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What follows represents an attempt by the author to utilize the projections available at the site to identify the five major-league hitters whose WAR projections have most improved on a rate basis since the beginning of the season.

For every batter, what I’ve done is first to calculate his preseason (PRE) WAR projection per every 550 plate appearances (or 415 for catchers), averaging together Steamer and ZiPS forecasts where both are available. What I’ve done next is to calculate every hitter’s rest-of-season (ROS) WAR projection (again, prorated to 550 PA and using both Steamer and ZiPS when available). I’ve then found the difference in WAR per 550 PA between the preseason and rest-of-season projection.

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Devised originally in response to a challenge issued by viscount of the internet Rob Neyer, and expanded at the request of nobody, NERD scores represent an attempt to summarize in one number (and on a scale of 0-10) the likely aesthetic appeal or watchability, for the learned fan, of a player or team or game. Read more about the components of and formulae for NERD scores here.

Most Highly Rated Game
Detroit at Pittsburgh | 19:05 ET
Robbie Ray (15.1 IP, 124 xFIP-, 0.2 WAR) faces Edinson Volquez (133.2 IP, 116 xFIP-, 0.1 WAR). After their loss last night to Pittsburgh (box) — this, combined with Kansas City’s late-inning victory (their eighth consecutive) over Oakland (other box) — Detroit now occupies a rare space in the monde du baseball, in that they possess the third-best odds of winning the World Series according to the methodology utilized by this site while also occupying just second place in their own division. Indeed, the Tigers still possess a favorable projected rest-of-season winning percentage (.574) relative to the Royals (.500).

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Detroit Radio.

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Episode 469
Dave Cameron is both (a) the managing editor of FanGraphs and (b) the guest on this particular edition of FanGraphs Audio — during which edition he inflicts his great mind upon the Pastime.

Don’t hesitate to direct pod-related correspondence to @cistulli on Twitter.

You can subscribe to the podcast via iTunes or other feeder things.

Audio after the jump. (Approximately 36 min play time.)

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Devised originally in response to a challenge issued by viscount of the internet Rob Neyer, and expanded at the request of nobody, NERD scores represent an attempt to summarize in one number (and on a scale of 0-10) the likely aesthetic appeal or watchability, for the learned fan, of a player or team or game. Read more about the components of and formulae for NERD scores here.

Most Highly Rated Game
Oakland at Kansas City | 20:10 ET
Sonny Gray (150.1 IP, 90 xFIP-, 2.6 WAR) faces Yordano Ventura (127.0 IP, 93 xFIP-, 1.8 WAR). As great American explorer Jeff Sullivan noted earlier this morning in these same pages, the Royals have now won seven games in a row and also 15 of 18. Regardless of what that does or doesn’t say about the club’s true talent, what it means is they now possess a better than 20% chance of winning the AL Central — and nearly a 30% chance overall of qualifying for the divisional series. Tonight perhaps their youngest, most talented starter faces Oakland’s probably youngest, most talented starter.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Oakland Radio?

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Devised originally in response to a challenge issued by viscount of the internet Rob Neyer, and expanded at the request of nobody, NERD scores represent an attempt to summarize in one number (and on a scale of 0-10) the likely aesthetic appeal or watchability, for the learned fan, of a player or team or game. Read more about the components of and formulae for NERD scores here.

Most Highly Rated Game
Los Angeles NL at Milwaukee | 14:10 ET
Clayton Kershaw (128.1 IP, 51 xFIP-, 4.8 WAR) faces Jimmy Nelson (30.0 IP, 106 xFIP-, 0.3 WAR). Despite the fact that not only St. Louis and Pittsburgh — but also even Cincinnati — are all expected to produce higher win percentages over the remaining quarter-plus of the season, Milwaukee now possesses the highest odds of all NL Central clubs of winning that same division. This is due in no small part to how the Brewers have banked wins, as it were, in each of their last three games. Banking a fourth consecutive one will prove more difficult, on account of how they face leauge’s best starter on a per-inning basis.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Milwaukee Radio.

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Devised originally in response to a challenge issued by viscount of the internet Rob Neyer, and expanded at the request of nobody, NERD scores represent an attempt to summarize in one number (and on a scale of 0-10) the likely aesthetic appeal or watchability, for the learned fan, of a player or team or game. Read more about the components of and formulae for NERD scores here.

Most Highly Rated Game
Los Angeles NL at Milwaukee | 19:10 ET
Zack Greinke (146.1 IP, 69 xFIP-, 2.9 WAR) faces Mike Fiers (7.0 IP, 139 xFIP-, 0.0 WAR). Following Milwaukee’s victory over the Dodgers last night (box), the club now possesses 45% odds of reaching the divisional series — closer to even than any other major-league team. Starting for the Brewers is Fiers, who has produced both excellent and less excellent major-league numbers in the past. His stats for Triple-A Nashville skew decidedly in the more excellent direction this year. To wit: 102.1 IP, 31.5% K, 4.2% BB.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Milwaukee Radio.

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Devised originally in response to a challenge issued by viscount of the internet Rob Neyer, and expanded at the request of nobody, NERD scores represent an attempt to summarize in one number (and on a scale of 0-10) the likely aesthetic appeal or watchability, for the learned fan, of a player or team or game. Read more about the components of and formulae for NERD scores here.

Most Highly Rated Game
San Francisco at Kansas City | 20:10 ET
Madison Bumgarner (154.0 IP, 83 xFIP-, 2.7 WAR) faces Jason Vargas (129.1 IP, 106 xFIP-, 1.7 WAR). With Detroit’s 1-0 loss on Thursday (box), in conjunction with Kansas City’s 6-2 victory (box), that latter club now trails the former by only 2.5 games in the AL Central. The clubs’ proximity in the standings is perhaps exaggerated: the Tigers are projected to win 57% of their remaining games; the Royals, just 49%. Still, this represents one of Kansas City’s best opportunities to qualify for the postseason since Bret Saberhagen was a hairless youth.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Either San Francisco One.

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Devised originally in response to a challenge issued by viscount of the internet Rob Neyer, and expanded at the request of nobody, NERD scores represent an attempt to summarize in one number (and on a scale of 0-10) the likely aesthetic appeal or watchability, for the learned fan, of a player or team or game. Read more about the components of and formulae for NERD scores here.

Most Highly Rated Game
San Francisco at Milwaukee | 14:10 ET
Jake Peavy (137.0 IP, 111 xFIP-, 1.0 WAR) faces Wily Peralta (138.0 IP, 99 xFIP-, 0.7 WAR). This is the third game in a series that’s featured the two clubs currently playing the highest-leverage games in the league. San Francisco won last night, although only modestly — because the Dodgers also won — only modestly improved their odds of qualifying for the divisional series from 48.3% to 48.7%. The Milwaukees, meanwhile, despite occupying first place in the NL Central, currently possess a worse chance of reaching the divisional series than either the Cardinals or Pirates per the methodology employed by the present site.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Basically All of Them.

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The Fringe Five is a weekly regular-season exercise, introduced last April by the present author, wherein that same ridiculous author utilizes regressed stats, scouting reports, and also his own heart to identify and/or continue monitoring the most compelling fringe prospects in all of baseball.

Central to the exercise, of course, is a definition of the word fringe, a term which possesses different connotations for different sorts of readers. For the purposes of the column this year, a fringe prospect (and therefore one eligible for inclusion in the Five) is any rookie-eligible player at High-A or above both (a) absent from all of three notable preseason top-100 prospect lists* and also (b) not currently playing in the majors. Players appearing on the midseason prospect lists produced by those same notable sources or, otherwise, selected in the first round of the current season’s amateur draft will also be excluded from eligibility.

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