NERD Game Scores for Friday, May 15, 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
New York AL at Kansas City | 20:10 ET
Pineda (46.1 IP, 55 xFIP-) vs. Young (23.0 IP, 104 xFIP-)
Most of the observations one might reasonably make while attempting to characterize the nature of Michael Pineda’s success so far this year were made by Jeff Sullivan for the benefit of this site’s readers on Monday. Summarized briefly, however, what Pineda has done is to produce one of the league’s best strikeout rates while also recording (relatively speaking) an even better walk rate. Indeed, were Bartolo Colon never to have been born, Pineda’s walk rate would currently stand as the best in the majors. Coincidentally, Bartolo Colon having never been born is actually the premise on which noted filmmaker Charlie Kaufman has written a remake of Frank Capra’s 1946 classic It’s a Wonderful Life.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Kansas City Radio?

Two Brief Notes
Promoted:
The Phillies have recalled this morning 22-year-old prospect Maikel Franco. Franco was ranked second among Philadelphia prospects this past offseason by Kiley McDaniel, and 38th among all prospects everywhere. He’s expected to become the club’s starting third baseman after Cody Asche was demoted earlier in the week.

Today’s Free Game
Today’s free game features Los Angeles AL at Baltimore, starts at 7:05pm 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
Jeff Locke	PIT	7	6	6	6	5	CHN	Kyle Hendricks	14:20
Chase Anderson	AZ	6	6	4	0	4	PHI	Chad Billingsley	19:05
Jered Weaver	LAA	5	5	4	5	3	BAL	Wei-Yin Chen	19:05
Julio Teheran	ATL	6	3	5	5	4	MIA	David Phelps	19:10
Kyle Lohse	MIL	5	3	6	5	8	NYN	Bartolo Colon	19:10
Ma. Bumgarner	SF	8	3	6	5	6	CIN	Jason Marquis	19:10
Bruce Chen*	CLE	3	7	4	3	4	TEX	Wandy Rodriguez	20:05
Michael Pineda	NYA	10	6	8	6	9	KC	Chris Young	20:10
Jake Odorizzi	TB	8	5	6	3	7	MIN	Phil Hughes	20:10
R.A. Dickey	TOR	6	7	8	10	8	HOU	Dallas Keuchel	20:10
Shane Greene	DET	7	4	7	5	10	STL	Carlos Martinez	20:15
Carlos Rodon*	CHA	9	1	7	6	8	OAK	Jesse Hahn	22:05
Clay Buchholz	BOS	8	4	7	6	7	SEA	J.A. Happ	22:10
Eddie Butler	COL	2	4	6	9	10	LAN	Clayton Kershaw	22:10
J. Zimmermann	WAS	5	5	4	4	3	SD	Od.r Despaigne	22:10

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