NERD Game Scores for Friday, June 03, 2016
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
Seattle at Texas | 20:05 ET
Walker (54.1 IP, 90 xFIP-) vs. Darvish (5.0 IP, 38 xFIP-)
Darvish returned this past Saturday from a Tommy John procedure and the subsequent rehab, recording his first major-league appearance since August of 2014. The results were almost embarrassingly positive. The right-hander produced a 7:1 strikeout-to-walk ratio against just 19 batters over 5.0 innings while also posting an average fastball velocity more than 1 mph harder than his previously established levels. With a view towards best representing the sort of pleasures facilitated by Yu Darvish, the remainder of this brief entry will be delivered by means of video footage — a medium the reader will recognize as easier to consume and largely better than dumb words.
Readers’ Preferred Television Broadcast: Seattle.
Two Other Brief Notes
Today’s Free Game
Today’s free game features San Francisco at St. Louis, starts at 20:15 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 — for television broadcasts, at least — are available 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 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.
| Away | SP | TM | GM | TM | SP | Home | Time | ||
| Archie Bradley | AZ | 6 | 6 | 7 | 7 | 7 | CHN | John Lackey | 14:20 |
| Jered Weaver | LAA | 2 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 4 | PIT | Francisco Liriano | 19:05 |
| Jimmy Nelson | MIL | 3 | 5 | 5 | 2 | 8 | PHI | Vincent Velasquez | 19:05 |
| Nathan Eovaldi | NYA | 10 | 4 | 6 | 6 | 3 | BAL | Chris Tillman | 19:05 |
| Carlos Rodon | CHA | 7 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 5 | DET | Jordan Zimmermann | 19:10 |
| Edinson Volquez | KC | 4 | 5 | 6 | 6 | 8 | CLE | Danny Salazar | 19:10 |
| Noah Syndergaard | NYN | 10 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 0 | MIA | Tom Koehler | 19:10 |
| R.A. Dickey | TOR | 10 | 4 | 8 | 8 | 8 | BOS | David Price | 19:10 |
| Gio Gonzalez | WAS | 4 | 7 | 4 | 4 | 2 | CIN | Brandon Finnegan | 19:10 |
| Taijuan Walker | SEA | 9 | 7 | 8 | 5 | 10 | TEX | Yu Darvish* | 20:05 |
| Jesse Hahn | OAK | 4 | 4 | 4 | 7 | 3 | HOU | Doug Fister | 20:10 |
| Jake Odorizzi | TB | 4 | 7 | 6 | 6 | 6 | MIN | Ricky Nolasco | 20:10 |
| Johnny Cueto | SF | 7 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 4 | STL | Adam Wainwright | 20:15 |
| Julio Teheran | ATL | 4 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 5 | LAN | Kenta Maeda | 22:10 |
| Chris Rusin | COL | 6 | 4 | 6 | 6 | 6 | SD | Drew Pomeranz | 20:40 |
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.
R.A. Dickey a 10? Bo Derek demands a recount.
Yeah that seems like it’s based solely on his age and the fact that he throws a knuckleball. He may be a former CYA winner, but now he’s thoroughly ordinary.
Also, NERD heavily weights the amount of times a pitcher has climbed Kilimanjaro.
Only if you focus on his FIP and xFIP, which this site really needs to stop doing. I only use bWAR for pitchers now and I am winning in all my leagues.