NERD Game Scores: Fernandez/Kershaw Double Feature

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.

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Most Highly Rated Game
Chicago NL (Hammel) at Miami (Fernandez) | 13:10 ET
Los Angeles NL (Kershaw) at Pittsburgh (Kuhl) | 20:08 ET
Does baseball — or any spectator sport, for that matter — amount to little more than an optiate of the masses, a distraction from the centralization of power among a select few whose nearly invisible oppressive force slowly corrodes our humanity? Or, alternatively, does it offer an opportunity to observe the perpetual struggle against circumstance — the agon in Greek — played out in dramatic form, to witness the outlying margins of human potential? “Yes,” is obviously the one possible answer. Today, whatever the Pastime offers, it offers it twice, first in the form of Jose Fernandez at around 1pm ET and then, later, by way of Dodgers left-hander Clayton Kershaw.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Chicago NL Television, Los Angeles NL Radio.

Two Other Brief Notes
Today’s Free Game
Today’s free game features Houston at Kansas City, starts at 14:15 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.

NERD Scores for June 26, 2016
Away SP TM GM TM SP Home Time
Tyler Duffey MIN 7 5 6 4 9 NYA Nathan Eovaldi 13:05
Jason Hammel CHN 5 6 7 6 10 MIA Jose Fernandez 13:10
Josh Tomlin CLE 5 8 5 4 5 DET Justin Verlander 13:10
Luis Perdomo SD 9 5 5 3 3 CIN Anthony DeSclafani 13:10
Bartolo Colon NYN 5 6 5 2 5 ATL Bud Norris 13:35
Drew Smyly TB 8 6 6 8 2 BAL Tyler Wilson 13:35
Marcus Stroman TOR 8 6 6 3 8 CHA Chris Sale 14:10
Tanner Roark WAS 6 8 5 4 2 MIL Jimmy Nelson 14:10
Doug Fister HOU 3 6 4 4 3 KC Ian Kennedy 14:15
Clay Buchholz BOS 1 8 4 5 4 TEX Martin Perez 15:05
Sonny Gray OAK 5 4 4 3 3 LAA Hector Santiago 15:35
Aaron Nola PHI 10 2 6 5 7 SF Johnny Cueto 16:05
Patrick Corbin AZ 5 6 5 4 6 COL Chad Bettis 16:10
Jaime Garcia STL 5 5 6 5 10 SEA James Paxton 16:10
Clayton Kershaw LAN 10 6 7 5 7 PIT Chad Kuhl* 20:08
SP denotes pitcher NERD score.
TM denotes team score.
GM denotes overall game score.
Highlighted portion denotes game of the day.

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





Carson Cistulli has published a book of aphorisms called Spirited Ejaculations of a New Enthusiast.

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Bipmember
7 years ago

Is there a crowdsourced ranking of national broadcasts? I’d be interested in how the ESPN broadcast rates against the local radio feeds, when that is the option.

johnnyairport
7 years ago
Reply to  Bip

I would rather watch a game with announcers speaking a foreign language with subtitles than listen to Joe Buck call a game. Back when Tim McCarver worked with Buck, I tried muting my TV set and putting subtitles on. It was still annoying to read what they were saying, only slightly less so.