Devised originally in response to a challenge issued by sabermetric forefather 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.

How are they calculated? Haphazardly, is how. An explanation of the components and formulae which produce these NERD scores is available here. All objections to the numbers here are probably justified, on account of how this entire endeavor is absurd.

Most Highly Rated Game
Toronto at New York AL | 19:05 ET
Stroman (100.1 IP, 79 xFIP-) vs. Tanaka (90.2 IP, 88 xFIP-)
The major-league season has just passed its midpoint in terms of total games played, which is significant to the author’s haphazardly constructed algorithm insofar as now team NERD scores are weighted slightly more heavily than pitcher scores in the calculation of the game scores one finds below. This also represents the point in the season at which a club’s postseason odds slightly outweigh other variables in the calculation of the team score. In either case, this Blue Jays-Yankees contest is the most promising of today’s games and everything remains meaningless.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Toronto Radio.

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Devised originally in response to a challenge issued by sabermetric forefather 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.

How are they calculated? Haphazardly, is how. An explanation of the components and formulae which produce these NERD scores is available here. All objections to the numbers here are probably justified, on account of how this entire endeavor is absurd.

Most Highly Rated Game
Washington at St. Louis | 20:05 ET
Scherzer (113.2 IP, 74 xFIP-) vs. Martinez (106.1 IP, 80 xFIP-)
The author’s haphazardly constructed algorithm has once again exhibited its capacity to sniff out the Obvious, identifying today’s Nationals-Cardinals game as most likely to facilitate something wonderful. This is due in large part to the game’s probable starters, Max Scherzer and Carlos Martinez, each of whom rank among the league’s top-10 pitchers by WAR — both by the sort that’s calculated with FIP and also the sort that calculated with runs allowed. This is due, in smaller part, to a number of other reasons too inconsequential to discuss.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: St. Louis Radio.

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Devised originally in response to a challenge issued by sabermetric forefather 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.

How are they calculated? Haphazardly, is how. An explanation of the components and formulae which produce these NERD scores is available here. All objections to the numbers here are probably justified, on account of how this entire endeavor is absurd.

Most Highly Rated Game
Colorado at Arizona | 22:10 ET
Chatwood (93.2 IP, 99 xFIP-) vs. Greinke (102.1 IP, 73 xFIP-)
The author’s haphazardly calculated algorithm suggests that tonight’s Rockies and D-backs game offers the greatest opportunity for thrills and/or delights. This is largely based on performance this year of the latter club and that club’s probable starter tonight, Zack Greinke. In the wake of last year’s uncharacteristically league-average performance and in the midst currently of a velocity decline, Greinke has nevertheless managed to produce fielding-independent numbers on par with his best seasons. As for Arizona, they continue to maintain the league’s top baserunning figure, having produced nearly two wins by that measure alone.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Arizona Radio.

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Devised originally in response to a challenge issued by sabermetric forefather 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.

How are they calculated? Haphazardly, is how. An explanation of the components and formulae which produce these NERD scores is available here. All objections to the numbers here are probably justified, on account of how this entire endeavor is absurd.

Most Highly Rated Game
New York AL at Houston | 20:10 ET
Pineda (87.1 IP, 79 xFIP-) vs. McCullers (81.2 IP, 60 xFIP-)
One might be inclined to think that, on account of how good Chris Sale has been this year, that he’s certainly recorded the top expected FIP mark (xFIP-) among all qualified pitchers. It’s actually true that he’s done that. It’s also true that so has Lance McCullers, though. Entering play today, both pitchers have produced a park-adjusted xFIP 40% better than league average. Only one of them is expected to pitch tonight, however. McCullers is who.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Houston Radio.

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Fringe Five Scoreboards: 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013.

The Fringe Five is a weekly regular-season exercise, introduced a few years ago by the present author, wherein that same author utilizes regressed stats, scouting reports, and also his own fallible intuition 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 among the Five) is any rookie-eligible player at High-A or above who (a) was omitted from the preseason prospect lists produced by Baseball America, Baseball Prospectus, MLB.com, John Sickels*, and (most importantly) lead prospect analyst Eric Longenhagen and also who (b) is currently absent from a major-league roster. Players appearing on any updated list — such as the revised top 100 released last week by Baseball America — will also be excluded from eligibility.

*All 200 names!

In the final analysis, the basic idea is this: to recognize those prospects who are perhaps receiving less notoriety than their talents or performance might otherwise warrant.

Jose Miguel Fernandez, 2B, Los Angeles NL (Profile)
Like every player included among this edition of the Five (with the exception of Zack Granite, who has nowhere to go besides the majors), Fernandez received a promotion this week — in this case, from Double- to Triple-A. It was only temporary (he returned to Tulsa yesterday), but not irrelevant. While it’s almost too obvious even to render into print, these promotions serve as votes of confidence from the organizations to which the players belong. That’s relevant to the author’s decision-making insofar as clubs naturally possess much better information about their prospects than a weblogger sitting at a coffee shop in Maine.

Questions persist about Fernandez’s second-base defense. No questions appear to remain about his offensive profile, however. He possesses the lowest strikeout rate in the Texas League among qualified batters and a better-than-average isolated-power figure.

Here he is taking some pleasure in his work earlier this week:

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Devised originally in response to a challenge issued by sabermetric forefather 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.

How are they calculated? Haphazardly, is how. An explanation of the components and formulae which produce these NERD scores is available here. All objections to the numbers here are probably justified, on account of how this entire endeavor is absurd.

Most Highly Rated Game
Los Angeles NL at Los Angeles AL | 22:07 ET
Kershaw (109.1 IP, 68 xFIP-) vs. Ramirez (86.1 IP, 94 xFIP-)
The author’s haphazardly constructed algorithm has once again selected a game featuring Clayton Kershaw, proving that it both (a) has the capacity to identify talented pitchers and (b) is also probably unnecessary. Shocked readers might note with shock that Kershaw doesn’t actually possess a perfect NERD score at the moment. The reason appears to be what is, for Kershaw, a subpar swinging-strike rate. Consider, for illustrative purposes, the following small table.

While Kershaw ranked either first or second by this measure relative to qualifiers in 2015-16, he currently sits 11th. This is likely of little consequence to Kershaw’s overall performance; however, it does appear to indicate that he’s been less dominant in 2017 by this one narrow definition.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Los Angeles NL Television.

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Devised originally in response to a challenge issued by sabermetric forefather 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.

How are they calculated? Haphazardly, is how. An explanation of the components and formulae which produce these NERD scores is available here. All objections to the numbers here are probably justified, on account of how this entire endeavor is absurd.

Most Highly Rated Game
Milwaukee at Cincinnati | 19:10 ET
Anderson (89.1 IP, 100 xFIP-) vs. Castillo (5.0 IP, 120 xFIP-)
The author’s haphazardly constructed algorithm has identified today’s Brewers-Reds game as the day’s most promising — in no small part due to the presence of young right-hander Luis Castillo. Castillo hasn’t pitched a sufficient quantity of innings to receive a proper NERD score. At my discretion, however, he’s received a nearly perfect mark due to his debut performance, during which he recorded an average fastball velocity of 98.3 mph, a figure that would place him first among all qualifiers by that measure. He would appear to have some capacity either for thrilling or delighting or both thrilling and delighting.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Milwaukee Radio.

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Episode 752
Managing editor Dave Cameron recently underwent surgery to repair his ACL. In this episode, the host of FanGraphs Audio uses Cameron’s personal misfortune as an entree into a conversation about baseball’s actual disabled list. This offseason, the 15-day DL was replaced by the 10-day variety. Certain clubs (the Dodgers) have used the rule change to their advantage. Others (the Mets) haven’t. Also, were Cameron to create a DL system from whole cloth, how would he do it? The guest holds forth on that and much, much, much, much, much more.

A reminder: FanGraphs’ Ad Free Membership exists. Click here to learn more about it and share some of your disposable income with FanGraphs.

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 43 min play time.)

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Devised originally in response to a challenge issued by sabermetric forefather 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.

How are they calculated? Haphazardly, is how. An explanation of the components and formulae which produce these NERD scores is available here. All objections to the numbers here are probably justified, on account of how this entire endeavor is absurd.

Most Highly Rated Game
St. Louis at Arizona | 21:40 ET
Martinez (100.1 IP, 80 xFIP-) vs. Walker (63.0 IP, 94 xFIP-)
The author’s haphazardly constructed algorithm has identified this game as today’s most compelling due largely to the quality of the probable starters. Cardinals right-hander Carlos Martinez is in the midst of his best season by whatever metric — FIP- or xFIP- or ERA- — one cares to utilize. In a not unrelated development, he’s produced what would amount to the highest strikeout rate of his career by some margin. Taijuan Walker, for his part, has recorded strikeout and walk rates commensurate with his established levels. While having traditionally underperformed his expected FIPs, however, he’s now outperforming that same metric with the D-backs.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: St. Louis Radio.

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