NERD Game Scores for Monday, June 06, 2016

Devised originally in response to a challenge issued by sabermetric nobleman 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
Tampa Bay at Arizona | 21:40 ET
Archer (66.1 IP, 89 xFIP-) vs. Ray (57.0 IP, 92 xFIP-)
In 2013, Arizona’s Robbie Ray appeared several times among the Fringe Five. What qualified him for inclusion within that weekly exercise were his excellent fielding-independent numbers. Over 148.2 innings between High-A and Double-A, the left-hander (then a Nationals prospect) produced one of the top strikeout rates among minor-league starters — ahead, for example, of Archie Bradley and Lance McCullers. That was encouraging. What rendered him eligible for the Five, however, was his omission from any of the industry’s notable top-100 lists. The reason why, it appears? A lack of arm speed. Ray possessed merely average fastball velocity. Now, however, that’s no longer the case.

Regard, the top-five average four-seam velocities among pitchers who’ve recorded 50-plus innings:

Average Four-Seam Fastball Velocity, Left-Handed Starters

Name	Team	IP	vFA
Robbie Ray	D-backs	57.0	93.5
Carlos Rodon	White Sox	63.1	92.9
Martin Perez	Rangers	72.1	92.9
Clayton Kershaw	Dodgers	92.2	92.8
Matt Moore	Rays	62.2	92.7

Minimum 50 innings pitched.

Ray, who’s also passed through the Detroit system en route to Arizona, is now among the hardest-throwing left-handed starters in baseball, and he’s recording numbers commensurate with the stuff.

Readers’ Preferred Television Broadcast: Tampa Bay.

Two Other Brief Notes
Today’s Free Game
Today’s free game features Tampa Bay at Arizona, starts at 21:40 ET, and can be accessed by means of this hyperlinked text.

Broadcaster Rankings
Recently, the author published the results of a crowdsourcing effort to rank the league’s television broadcasts according to the tastes of this site’s readers. The results of the radio version of that same exercise will appear at this site beginning today, provided something hasn’t gone horribly wrong.

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 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.

NERD Scores for June 06, 2016

Away		SP	TM	GM	TM	SP		Home	Time
Jon Lester	CHN	6	7	5	2	4	PHI	Adam Morgan	19:05
Danny Duffy	KC	9	5	6	6	4	BAL	Mike Wright	19:05
Matt Shoemaker	LAA	8	3	6	4	6	NYA	Masahiro Tanaka	19:05
Steven Matz	NYN	10	6	7	5	5	PIT	Jon Niese	19:05
J.A. Happ	TOR	3	4	5	4	9	DET	Michael Fulmer	19:10
Mike Fiers	HOU	6	7	5	5	4	TEX	Colby Lewis	20:05
Chris Archer	TB	8	7	7	6	8	AZ	Robbie Ray	21:40
Williams Perez	ATL	4	0	2	5	0	SD	Christian Friedrich	22:10
Trevor Bauer	CLE	5	7	7	6	9	SEA	James Paxton*	22:10
Tyler Chatwood	COL	5	3	4	6	3	LAN	Mike Bolsinger	22:10

SP denotes pitcher NERD score.
TM denotes team score.
GM denotes overall game score.
Highlighted portion denotes game of the day.

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