NERD Game Scores: Carlos Frias Against a Sea of Troubles

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 St. Louis | 19:15 ET
Frias (28.2 IP, 102 xFIP-) vs. Wacha (57.2 IP, 107 xFIP-)
Dodgers right-hander Carlos Frias suffered the slings and arrows less of outrageous fortune during his most recent start and more of the San Diego Padres batsmen (box). Facing 25 hitters, Frias recorded zero strikeouts, conceded two walks, and allowed 10 runs on 12 hits. One, in his most generous mood, might note that the Padres recorded hits on nearly half their balls in play against Frias. That same one, however, would find it difficult to ignore how Frias exhibited little feel for his release point over the duration of four mostly unpleasant innings. Despite those innings, Frias still owns slightly above-average fielding-independent numbers as a starter — plus also a swinging-strike rate and average fastball velocity that place him roughly 1.0 and 1.5 standard deviations, respectively, above the starting-pitcher mean.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: St. Louis Radio.

Two Brief Notes
Debut Alert: Chi Chi Gonzalez
The purpose of this brief entry is to note that Texas right-hander Alex “Chi Chi” Gonzalez is scheduled to make his major-league debut this evening. Gonzalez was ranked second among Rangers prospects this offseason by Kiley McDaniel and 27th among all prospects. While his future appears sufficiently bright that one might consider wearing some manner of protective eyewear before looking directly into it, it also seems possible that the future isn’t now for Gonzalez, who’s recorded worse than average strikeout and walk rates over 43.1 innings this year with Triple-A Round Rock.

Today’s Free Game
Today’s free game features Atlanta at San Francisco, starts at 22:05 ET, and can be accessed by means of this hyperlinked text.

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 the calculations both for team and game NERD scores have changed recently to better integrate playoff odds into same. Read more about those changes here, if you’re the sort of person accustomed to making poor life decisions.

Away		SP	Tm.	Gm.	Tm.	SP		Home	Time
Aaron Sanchez	TOR	4	8	4	2	3	MIN	Kyle Gibson	14:10
Jor. de la Rosa	COL	6	3	3	0	3	PHI	Aaron Harang	15:05
Erasmo Ramirez	TB	4	5	4	5	3	BAL	Wei-Yin Chen	16:05
J.my Hellickson	AZ	3	6	4	3	5	MIL	Kyle Lohse	16:10
Jose Quintana	CHA	6	0	6	10	7	HOU	Dallas Keuchel	16:10
Tom Koehler	MIA	2	5	3	5	3	NYN	Jon Niese	16:10
Gio Gonzalez	WAS	8	5	6	5	4	CIN	Raisel Iglesias	16:10
Wade Miley	BOS	2	5	4	4	6	TEX	Chi Chi Gonzalez*	19:15
Yo. Ventura	KC	9	7	7	6	5	CHN	Tsuyoshi Wada*	19:15
Carlos Frias	LAN	8	7	7	6	6	STL	Michael Wacha	19:15
Williams Perez	ATL	9	2	5	5	3	SF	Tim Lincecum	22:05
Shane Greene	DET	5	5	5	6	4	LAA	Jered Weaver	22:05
Nathan Eovaldi	NYA	7	7	6	5	5	OAK	Jesse Hahn	22:05
Shaun Marcum*	CLE	5	8	6	6	5	SEA	Roenis Elias	22:10
Charlie Morton*	PIT	6	7	7	3	9	SD	Tyson Ross	22:10

* = Fewer than 10 IP, NERD at discretion of very handsome author.