NERD Game Scores: A Victory for Leisure

Devised originally in response to a challenge issued by sabermetric nobleman 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 Tampa Bay | 19:10 ET
Fulmer (63.2 IP, 95 xFIP-) vs. Smyly (89.2 IP, 91 xFIP-)
Despite receiving the same NERD score as the afternoon Cleveland-Toronto game, this Detroit-Tampa Bay contest receives the distinction of the day’s most highly rated one because (a) it actually features a higher mark than that first one by three-hundredths of a point (6.53 vs. 6.50) and (b) that first game featuring the Indians and Blue Jays had already moved into the 12th inning before the author — who was occupied first by his editoral duties and then a nap — had completed this post. So while one might regard all this as a failure by the author to complete his work in a timely fashion, another person might declare it a victory for Leisure.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Detroit Radio.

Two Other Brief Notes
Today’s Free Game
Today’s free game features Chicago NL at New York NL, starts at 19:10 ET, and can be accessed by means of this hyperlinked text.

Broadcaster Rankings
Recently, the present author facilitated a crowdsourcing effort to reproduce the broadcaster rankings which appeared on this site roughly four years ago. The results from that effort are published here in one easily digestible post.

Complete Schedule
Here’s the complete and very sortable table for all of today’s games. Pitching probables and game times aggregated from MLB.com and also the rest of the internet. Note that calculations both for team and game NERD scores feature adjustment for postseason odds that increases as season progresses. Read more about those adjustments here and here.