NERD Game Scores for Friday, September 25, 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
Texas at Houston | 20:10 ET
Gallardo (174.1 IP, 108 xFIP-) vs. Kazmir (175.0 IP, 100 xFIP-)
Houston somehow now trails Texas by 3.5 games in the American League’s most westerly division — this after having led by 2.5 games as recently as two weeks ago. While it appears as though the Rangers’ success until that point had been a product in no small part of good fortune — indeed, the club still possesses seven more wins than their BaseRuns winning percentage would otherwise suggest — they’ve actually played like a legitimately strong team in the meantime. By way of illustration, consider the following table, which features the top-five clubs by total WAR over the last two weeks:

Top-Five Team WAR, Last Two Weeks

	Team	Batter WAR	Pitcher WAR	Total WAR
1	Texas	4.4	1.5	5.9
2	Pittsburgh	2.8	3.0	5.8
3	Chicago NL	3.4	2.2	5.6
4	Toronto	3.2	2.2	5.4
5	Cleveland	2.7	1.8	4.5

The Texas offense, in particular, has been proficient: they’ve recorded a 138 wRC+ over 528 plate appearances, accumulating more than four wins during that interval. While they’ve arrived there in a slightly different manner, the Rangers hitters as a whole have produced a rough facsimile of J.D. Martinez’s entire 2015 season. Fewer home runs and fewer strikeouts, but the same basic outcomes on both offense and defense.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Texas Radio.

Two Brief Notes
Very Quiet Matt Boyd Starting Alert
The purpose of this brief entry is to note that Fringe Five co-champion and Detroit left-hander Matt Boyd is scheduled to start against Minnesota this evening at 19:08 ET. Despite conceding two home runs in his last start, Boyd was otherwise quite successful and has now produced strikeout and walk rates of 28.2% and 7.7% over this last two starts and 11.0 innings combined.

Today’s Free Game
Today’s free game features San Francisco at Oakland, starts at 22:05 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 adjustments here and here.

Away		SP	Tm.	Gm.	Tm.	SP		Home	Time
Gerrit Cole	PIT	10	5	6	5	7	CHN	Jon Lester	14:20
Carlos Rodon	CHA	8	4	5	6	5	NYA	CC Sabathia	19:05
Jerad Eickhoff	PHI	5	4	5	5	7	WAS	Jor. Zimmermann	19:05
Jake Odorizzi	TB	6	4	6	6	8	TOR	R.A. Dickey	19:07
Mike Pelfrey	MIN	2	6	4	4	3	DET	Matt Boyd	19:08
Ryan Weber	ATL	4	4	5	5	10	MIA	Jose Fernandez	19:10
Kevin Gausman	BAL	8	5	6	4	10	BOS	Rich Hill	19:10
N. Syndergaard	NYN	10	5	6	4	6	CIN	Ant. DeSclafani	19:10
Carlos Carrasco	CLE	10	5	5	4	4	KC	Edinson Volquez	20:10
Mike Bolsinger	LAN	5	5	5	4	6	COL	David Hale	20:10
Yovani Gallardo	TEX	2	6	7	10	5	HOU	Scott Kazmir	20:10
Ariel Pena	MIL	2	4	5	5	10	STL	Carlos Martinez	20:15
Mike Leake	SF	5	4	4	4	6	OAK	Sonny Gray	22:05
Vidal Nuno	SEA	5	4	5	6	7	LAA	Garrett Richards	22:05
Ru. de la Rosa	AZ	7	5	5	4	6	SD	Casey Kelly*	22:10

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