NERD Game Scores for Friday, September 12, 2014

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 Seattle | 22:10 ET
Jason Hammel (162.1 IP, 98 xFIP-, 1.5 WAR) faces James Paxton (53.0 IP, 88 xFIP-, 0.9 WAR). No club besides Washington currently possesses a higher projected rest-of-season winning percentage than Oakland — a statement, that, which seems unlikely for a team that is 3-11 over its last four series, the latter two of which series featured solidly below-average opponents (the Astros and White Sox). Only the Angels, though, have produced a better platonic record according to BaseRuns, which metric removes the influence of chaining. Tonight they face one of their primary rivals for the second wild-card spot in the American League.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Oakland Radio.

Two Brief Notes
Regarding Carlos Carrasco vs. David Price, Momentarily
Over the last month, Carlos Carrasco and David Price — who face each other tonight in Detroit — have recorded the second- and third-highest WARs, respectively, among all major-league pitchers. Carrasco’s 54 xFIP- is also the league’s best such mark during that interval among 108 qualified pitchers.

Regarding Today’s Free Game
Today’s free game features San Diego at Arizona, starts at 9:40 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
Bran’n McCarthy	NYA	10	3	5	4	7	BAL	Kevin Gausman	13:05
Bryan Mitchell*	NYA	7	3	4	4	5	BAL	Bud Norris	19:05
Tsuyoshi Wada	CHN	5	4	7	10	10	PIT	Gerrit Cole	19:05
Hen’son Alvarez	MIA	9	4	5	3	8	PHI	Cole Hamels	19:05
Nate Karns*	TB	6	4	4	4	5	TOR	J.A. Happ	19:07
Carlos Carrasco	CLE	10	4	8	10	10	DET	David Price	19:08
Gio Gonzalez	WAS	8	4	4	3	4	NYN	Dillon Gee	19:10
Alex Wood	ATL	9	5	5	3	7	TEX	Derek Holland*	20:05
Allen Webster	BOS	3	3	7	10	10	KC	Yordano Ventura	20:10
Mat Latos	CIN	5	3	4	5	5	MIL	Kyle Lohse	20:10
Phil Hughes	MIN	10	3	5	3	7	CHA	Jose Quintana	20:10
Jorge de la Rosa	COL	4	4	5	5	6	STL	Ad. Wainwright	20:15
Eric Stults	SD	5	3	4	3	6	AZ	Vidal Nuno	21:40
Brett Oberholtzer	HOU	5	4	4	3	5	LAA	C.J. Wilson	22:05
Jason Hammel	OAK	7	10	8	7	9	SEA	James Paxton	22:10
Hyun-Jin Ryu	LAN	9	5	8	10	10	SF	Ma’son Bum’r	22:15

To learn how Game NERD Scores are calculated, click here.
* = Fewer than 20 IP, NERD at discretion of very handsome author.