NERD Game Scores for Saturday, June 04, 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
Toronto at Boston | 16:05 ET
Stroman (74.2 IP, 91 xFIP-) vs. Wright (69.2 IP, 100 xFIP-)
The rules of baseball dictate that, at any given time, a team is permitted to field only eight players plus a pitcher — and, in the case of the American League, an extra “designated” hitter. Given those particular limitations, one is surprised to see the most current iteration of this site’s WAR leaderboard for the last 30 days:
| Name | Team | PA | AVG | OBP | SLG | wRC+ | BsR | Off | Def | WAR | |
| 1 | Ben Zobrist | Cubs | 109 | .418 | .509 | .648 | 211 | 0.6 | 15.1 | 1.8 | 2.1 |
| 2 | Marcell Ozuna | Marlins | 116 | .406 | .448 | .689 | 204 | -0.1 | 14.3 | 1.6 | 2.0 |
| 3 | Mookie Betts | Red Sox | 133 | .322 | .391 | .669 | 179 | 1.0 | 13.5 | 1.2 | 2.0 |
| 4 | Mike Trout | Angels | 118 | .319 | .449 | .532 | 173 | 2.3 | 12.5 | 1.6 | 1.9 |
| 5 | David Ortiz | Red Sox | 112 | .371 | .446 | .845 | 233 | -1.1 | 16.5 | -2.6 | 1.8 |
| 6 | Kyle Seager | Mariners | 118 | .400 | .458 | .629 | 196 | -0.1 | 13.3 | 0.3 | 1.8 |
| 7 | Ian Desmond | Rangers | 118 | .372 | .390 | .593 | 161 | 2.4 | 10.9 | 2.5 | 1.8 |
| 8 | Xander Bogaerts | Red Sox | 134 | .363 | .403 | .548 | 156 | -0.2 | 8.6 | 3.2 | 1.7 |
| 9 | Corey Seager | Dodgers | 125 | .310 | .352 | .612 | 161 | -0.3 | 8.8 | 3.4 | 1.7 |
| 10 | Jackie Bradley Jr. | Red Sox | 107 | .374 | .467 | .714 | 212 | 0.3 | 14.3 | -2.1 | 1.6 |
Four Boston players, is what one finds here — despite, as mentioned above, how a club is allowed to deploy only nine hitters in any particular game. Not only have the Red Sox deployed certain players with sufficient regularity to produce runs in volume, but four of those players have produced runs mostly better than anyone else. All four of those Boston players are likely to appear in this game — which the reader can watch or not watch at his or her discretion.
Readers’ Preferred Television Broadcast: Boston.
Two Other Brief Notes
Today’s Free Game
Today’s free game features Milwaukee at Philadelphia, starts at 15:05 ET, and can be accessed by means of this hyperlinked text.
Broadcaster Rankings
Recently, the present author facilitated a crowdsourcing effort to reproduce the broadcaster rankings which appeared on this site roughly four years ago. The results from that effort — for television broadcasts, at least — are available 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 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.
| Away | SP | TM | GM | TM | SP | Home | Time | ||
| Edwin Escobar* | AZ | 4 | 6 | 5 | 7 | 4 | CHN | Jason Hammel | 14:20 |
| Junior Guerra | MIL | 6 | 5 | 5 | 2 | 6 | PHI | Jeremy Hellickson | 15:05 |
| Jhoulys Chacin | LAA | 7 | 2 | 4 | 5 | 2 | PIT | Jeff Locke | 16:05 |
| Marcus Stroman | TOR | 8 | 4 | 7 | 8 | 9 | BOS | Steven Wright | 16:05 |
| Chris Sale | CHA | 8 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 1 | DET | Mike Pelfrey | 16:10 |
| Bartolo Colon | NYN | 4 | 6 | 4 | 5 | 1 | MIA | Justin Nicolino | 16:10 |
| Kendall Graveman | OAK | 5 | 4 | 6 | 7 | 6 | HOU | Collin McHugh | 16:10 |
| Matt Andriese | TB | 5 | 7 | 5 | 6 | 4 | MIN | Ervin Santana | 16:10 |
| Stephen Strasburg | WAS | 10 | 7 | 6 | 4 | 4 | CIN | Dan Straily | 16:10 |
| Ian Kennedy | KC | 4 | 5 | 5 | 6 | 5 | CLE | Josh Tomlin | 19:15 |
| Ivan Nova | NYA | 6 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 3 | BAL | Tyler Wilson | 19:15 |
| Jeff Samardzija | SF | 7 | 4 | 6 | 6 | 7 | STL | Michael Wacha | 19:15 |
| Nate Karns | SEA | 6 | 7 | 5 | 5 | 4 | TEX | Martin Perez | 21:05 |
| Bud Norris | ATL | 1 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 10 | LAN | Clayton Kershaw | 22:10 |
| Chad Bettis | COL | 5 | 4 | 4 | 6 | 2 | SD | Andrew Cashner | 22:10 |
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.
Carson Cistulli has published a book of aphorisms called Spirited Ejaculations of a New Enthusiast.
Braves and Bud Norris on the road against Kershaw, must be most lopsided game of the year.