NERD Game Scores for June 28, 2017

Devised originally in response to a challenge issued by sabermetric forefather 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.

How are they calculated? Haphazardly, is how. An explanation of the components and formulae which produce these NERD scores is available here. All objections to the numbers here are probably justified, on account of how this entire endeavor is absurd.

Most Highly Rated Game
Milwaukee at Cincinnati | 19:10 ET
Anderson (89.1 IP, 100 xFIP-) vs. Castillo (5.0 IP, 120 xFIP-)
The author’s haphazardly constructed algorithm has identified today’s Brewers-Reds game as the day’s most promising — in no small part due to the presence of young right-hander Luis Castillo. Castillo hasn’t pitched a sufficient quantity of innings to receive a proper NERD score. At my discretion, however, he’s received a nearly perfect mark due to his debut performance, during which he recorded an average fastball velocity of 98.3 mph, a figure that would place him first among all qualifiers by that measure. He would appear to have some capacity either for thrilling or delighting or both thrilling and delighting.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Milwaukee Radio.

Another Brief Note
Today’s Free Game
Today’s free game features Los Angeles’s National League versus its American League club. The game is scheduled for 22:07 ET and can be accessed by means of this hyperlinked text.

Complete Schedule
Here’s the complete and also sortable table for all of today’s games. Pitching probables and game times aggregated from MLB.com and the rest of the internet. Note that calculations both for team and game NERD scores feature adjustment for postseason odds that increases as season progresses. Read more about those adjustments here and here.