NERD Game Scores for Friday, May 22, 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
Oakland at Tampa Bay | 19:10 ET
Kazmir (49.2 IP, 92 xFIP-) vs. Archer (54.2 IP, 68 xFIP-)
A protostar, in astronomical terms, is a region of matter in space that, by some combination of condensing matter and pressure, forms a hot and spinning mass which, with the addition of even more matter, itself develops into a main-sequence star. A protostar, in sporting terms, isn’t really a thing. Were it a thing, however, it would likely denote Tampa Bay right-hander Chris Archer, which pitcher has the sixth-best expected FIP and eighth-highest average fastball velocity among all qualified pitchers. One has the opportunity to observe him today by means of the Rays’ excellent center-field camera.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Tampa Bay Radio.

Two Brief Notes
On the Topic of Noah Syndergaard
A certain portion of the readership might take some umbrage with regard to Mets right-hander Noah Syndergaard’s NERD score of 5 in the table below. “But he is young and so hard-throwing!” are two entirely reasonable arguments one might level against the author and his wholly fallible methodology. Over his first couple starts, however, Syndergaard has thrown strikes — and even produced swinging strikes — at a rate below league average. Phrased differently: Matt Andriese and Kyle Lobstein and Jordan Lyles and Adam Warren have all produced whiffs at a greater rate than Syndergaard. Which, that’s not to say that Syndergaard won’t eventually — won’t even perhaps this year — develop great success in this regard. That it will occur tonight, however, is unlikely.

Today’s Free Game
Today’s free game features Milwaukee at Atlanta, starts at 7:35pm 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
No. Syndergaard	NYN	5	5	7	6	10	PIT	Gerrit Cole	19:05
Sean O’Sullivan	PHI	1	0	4	5	10	WAS	Max Scherzer	19:05
Colby Lewis	TEX	3	4	6	6	10	NYA	Michael Pineda	19:05
Felix Hernandez	SEA	7	6	6	7	5	TOR	Marco Estrada	19:07
Collin McHugh	HOU	6	10	6	6	3	DET	Alfredo Simon	19:08
Ubaldo Jimenez	BAL	6	5	6	5	6	MIA	Hen.son Alvarez	19:10
Mike Leake	CIN	4	5	7	7	10	CLE	Carlos Carrasco	19:10
Garrett Richards	LAA	6	5	5	5	5	BOS	Rick Porcello	19:10
Scott Kazmir	OAK	6	6	7	5	10	TB	Chris Archer	19:10
Wily Peralta	MIL	6	4	4	3	4	ATL	Alex Wood	19:35
Phil Hughes	MIN	6	2	4	0	6	CHA	Jeff Samardzija	20:10
Ryan Vogelsong	SF	1	4	2	3	0	COL	Kyle Kendrick	20:10
Lance Lynn	STL	7	6	6	7	4	KC	Chris Young	20:10
Jon Lester	CHN	6	7	5	5	3	AZ	Josh Collmenter	21:40
Andrew Cashner	SD	8	4	6	8	4	LAN	Zack Greinke	22:10

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