NERD Game Scores for Friday, June 12, 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
Cleveland at Detroit | 19:08 ET
Salazar (61.2 IP, 68 xFIP-) vs. Price (83.1 IP, 96 xFIP-)
The reader might regard it as a sort of minor injustice — or at least passing curiosity — that accomplished and conspicuously talented Detroit left-hander David Price receives merely an average rating here (i.e. NERD score of 5) by the author’s fallible methodology for determining the aesthetic value of, in this case, pitchers. Indeed, closer examination of the matter reveals that Price has actually recorded an expected FIP, swinging-strike rate, overall strike rate, and average fastball velocity all superior to the league-average starter’s mark — by a full standard deviation, in the three latter cases. Peculiar to Price, however, is the pace at which he works: on average, he’s recorded 25.7 seconds between pitches, the absolutely highest figure among qualifiers. To place that figure into context, consider the bag of Newman’s Own microwave popcorn currently residing in the author’s cabinet. On average, such a comestible requires roughly three minutes to prepare. Over such an interval, Price would throw almost exactly seven pitches. An average starter, meanwhile, would be halfway to throwing his ninth pitch. As for Mark Buehrle, given his average pace of 16.0 seconds, when that Newman’s Own popcorn is ready, he would just have received the ball back from the catcher after having delivered his 11th pitch.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Cleveland Radio.

A Single, Brief Note
Today’s Free Game
Today’s free game features Colorado at Miami, 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 changes here, if you’re the sort of person accustomed to making poor life decisions.

Away		SP	Tm.	Gm.	Tm.	SP		Home	Time
Johnny Cueto	CIN	7	5	7	7	8	CHN	Jason Hammel	16:05
Michael Pineda	NYA	10	6	7	4	6	BAL	Ubaldo Jimenez	19:05
Kevin Correia*	PHI	3	1	4	7	4	PIT	Jeff Locke	19:05
Danny Salazar	CLE	10	8	7	5	5	DET	David Price	19:08
Alex Wood	ATL	5	2	5	5	7	NYN	Bartolo Colon	19:10
John Danks	CHA	4	0	3	5	3	TB	Matt Andriese	19:10
Kyle Kendrick	COL	0	3	4	5	7	MIA	Jose Urena	19:10
Drew Hutchison	TOR	8	8	7	4	6	BOS	Joe Kelly	19:10
Tommy Milone	MIN	0	2	2	4	3	TEX	Wandy Rodriguez	20:05
Felix Hernandez	SEA	7	5	6	10	1	HOU	Brett Oberholtzer	20:10
J. Zimmermann	WAS	4	6	4	3	4	MIL	Mike Fiers	20:10
Yo. Ventura	KC	8	7	7	5	6	STL	Jaime Garcia	20:15
Jesse Chavez	OAK	5	5	5	7	2	LAA	Hector Santiago	22:05
Clayton Kershaw	LAN	10	6	6	3	3	SD	Od.r Despaigne	22:10
Chase Anderson	AZ	4	6	6	5	7	SF	Mad’n Bumgarner	22:15

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