NERD Game Scores for Friday, August 28, 2015
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 Toronto | 19:07 ET
Boyd (30.2 IP, 126 xFIP-) vs. Dickey (167.0 IP, 122 xFIP-)
The current edition of this daily futile exercise features a bold and fresh amendment to the (now less) haphazardly derived algorithm utilized by the author to produce the NERD scores one finds below. Concerned reader John suggested a subtle but powerful revision to the calculation yesterday with a view to more accurately representing the state of those teams (like the Cubs) who, while technically featuring roughly a 50% probability of reaching the divisional series, aren’t actually competing in particularly high-leverage games at the moment (because they’ve basically clinched a wild-card spot but have no real chance of winning their division). The results of that suggestion appear below. Note the Cubs’ score, for instance, which drops from 10 to 5 as a result of the alteration. The Blue Jays and Yankees feature the league’s highest team scores, meanwhile, on account how their seasons are currently riddled with uncertainty.
Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Detroit or Toronto Radio.
Another Brief Note
Today’s Free Game
Today’s free game features Los Angeles AL at Cleveland, starts at 19:10 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 adjustments here and here.
| Away | SP | Tm. | Gm. | Tm. | SP | Home | Time | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jonathan Gray | COL | 6 | 4 | 6 | 6 | 8 | PIT | Francisco Liriano | 19:05 |
| Adam Conley | MIA | 6 | 4 | 6 | 5 | 10 | WAS | Max Scherzer | 19:05 |
| Ian Kennedy | SD | 5 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 5 | PHI | Aaron Nola | 19:05 |
| Matt Boyd | DET | 4 | 4 | 7 | 10 | 8 | TOR | R.A. Dickey | 19:07 |
| Henry Owens | BOS | 5 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 9 | NYN | Matt Harvey | 19:10 |
| Ed’son Volquez | KC | 4 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 6 | TB | Erasmo Ramirez | 19:10 |
| Andrew Heaney | LAA | 5 | 6 | 6 | 4 | 10 | CLE | Danny Salazar | 19:10 |
| Masa. Tanaka | NYA | 7 | 10 | 6 | 3 | 1 | ATL | Williams Perez | 19:35 |
| Kevin Gausman | BAL | 9 | 5 | 7 | 6 | 8 | TEX | Cole Hamels | 20:05 |
| Raisel Iglesias | CIN | 8 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 5 | MIL | Taylor Jungmann | 20:10 |
| Scott Kazmir | HOU | 6 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 4 | MIN | Kyle Gibson | 20:10 |
| Taijuan Walker | SEA | 10 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 4 | CHA | John Danks | 20:10 |
| Sonny Gray | OAK | 7 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 3 | AZ | Chase Anderson | 21:40 |
| Jason Hammel | CHN | 7 | 5 | 7 | 7 | 10 | LAN | Clayton Kershaw | 22:10 |
| Michael Wacha | STL | 9 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 5 | SF | Mike Leake | 22:15 |
* = Fewer than 10 IP, NERD at discretion of very handsome author.
Carson Cistulli has published a book of aphorisms called Spirited Ejaculations of a New Enthusiast.
The remainder of the NL East division race reminds me of that game when an adult throws a bunch of coins into a pool and little kids run and pick up as much as they can.
Those schedules for Mets and Nats are stupid easy.