NERD Game Scores for Monday, May 9, 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
New York NL at Los Angeles NL | 22:10 ET
Matz (28.2 IP, 70 xFIP-) vs. Kazmir (31.2 IP, 103 xFIP-)
If the season ended right now, that’d be unusual. Because the 2016 schedule clearly dictates that games ought to be played through September, is why. And because literally millions of consumers have purchased tickets to contests scheduled for May 10th and beyond, is also why. If the season ended right now, it’d probably be the result either of some emergent issue within baseball itself — along the lines of a strike — or, alternatively, the product of a national crisis that would render the country’s taste for diversion either impractical or vulgar or both. If the season ended right now, it would likely mean that a lot of people’s lives had changed for the worse. In any case, if the season really did end right now, Mets left-hander Steven Matz would possess the second-best WAR mark among all rookie pitchers — behind only the Dodgers’ Kenta Maeda, who’s a rookie in one sense but less of a rookie in another sense.

Two Other Brief Notes
Today’s Free Game
Today’s free game features Detroit at Washington, starts at 19:05 ET, and can be accessed by means of this hyperlinked text.

Broadcaster Rankings: The Results
Recently, the present author began the process of process of reproducing the broadcaster rankings which appeared on this site roughly four years ago. Provided the author does his job, the results of that crowdsourcing effort should begin appearing on FanGraphs either today or tomorrow.

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 May 9, 2016

Away		SP	TM	GM	TM	SP		Home	Time
Anibal Sanchez	DET	3	4	6	6	10	WAS	Stephen Strasburg	19:05
Chris Young	KC	4	3	4	4	5	NYA	Ivan Nova*	19:05
Wily Peralta	MIL	3	6	7	7	10	MIA	Jose Fernandez	19:10
Sonny Gray	OAK	5	5	4	7	1	BOS	Clay Buchholz	19:10
Jon Niese	PIT	4	5	4	4	4	CIN	Dan Straily	19:10
Miguel Gonzalez*	CHA	6	5	4	3	2	TEX	Colby Lewis	20:05
Cesar Vargas	SD	3	5	5	9	6	CHN	Jon Lester	20:05
Tyler Wilson	BAL	4	5	6	6	8	MIN	Jose Berrios*	20:10
Corey Kluber	CLE	8	6	7	6	6	HOU	Mike Fiers	20:10
Archie Bradley*	AZ	7	7	6	4	6	COL	Tyler Chatwood	20:40
Steven Matz	NYN	10	8	7	4	5	LAN	Scott Kazmir	22:10
Matt Moore	TB	8	7	5	5	2	SEA	Felix Hernandez	22:10
Aaron Sanchez	TOR	9	4	6	5	4	SF	Jake Peavy	22:15

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.