NERD Game Scores for Saturday, June 28, 2014

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
Chicago AL at Toronto | 13:07 ET
Chris Sale (71.1 IP, 71 xFIP-, 2.3 WAR) faces Marcus Stroman (36.0 IP, 93 xFIP-, 0.5 WAR). With regard to the former, Jeff Sullivan recently noted within these pages that, in an attempt to decease the risk of injury, that Sale has made an effort to throw his changeup more often, his slider less. Indeed, one finds that, over the three starts Sale has recorded since Sullivan’s piece, that the left-hander has thrown his changeup almost precisely a third of the time. By way of comparison, his changeup usage in 2013 was over 10 percentage points less than that. His slider usage over those three starts, meanwhile, is much lower than in 2013: 13% vs. 29%.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Toronto Radio?

Two Brief Notes
Regarding Blake Treinen, One of His Accomplishments
Some potentially, but not definitely, flawed calculations performed by the author earlier this week suggest that Washington right-hander Blake Treinen’s WAR projection has improved more considerably on a rate basis than probably every other pitcher likely to throw a major-league inning this year. Treinen starts the second game of the Nationals’ doubleheader with the Cubs.

Regarding Today’s Free Game
Today’s free game features the Chicago Americans at Toronto, starts at 1:07pm 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.

Away		SP	Tm.	Gm.	Tm.	SP		Home	Time
Gio Gonzalez	WAS	5	8	6	4	6	CHN	Dallas Beeler*	13:05
Blake Treinen	WAS	4	8	6	4	7	CHN	Jeff Samardzija	19:15
Chris Sale	CHA	10	2	8	7	9	TOR	Marcus Stroman	13:07
Ervin Santana	ATL	8	6	4	1	1	PHI	Rob. Hernandez	14:05
David Hale	ATL	2	6	3	1	3	PHI	Sean O’Sullivan*	19:15
Hector Santiago	LAA	2	6	6	5	10	KC	Yordano Ventura	14:10
Phil Hughes	MIN	8	3	6	3	6	TEX	Yu Darvish	16:05
Jon Niese	NYN	4	2	5	4	8	PIT	Gerrit Cole	16:05
Erik Bedard	TB	1	5	4	5	5	BAL	Wei-Yin Chen	16:05
Jhoulys Chacin	COL	2	10	4	6	4	MIL	Matt Garza	16:10
Max Scherzer	DET	7	4	6	6	5	HOU	Brett Oberholtzer	16:10
Sonny Gray	OAK	7	7	8	8	8	MIA	Nathan Eovaldi	16:10
Jon Lester	BOS	7	3	7	3	10	NYA	Masahiro Tanaka	19:15
Lance Lynn	STL	5	3	6	5	7	LAN	Zack Greinke	19:15
Alfredo Simon	CIN	5	4	5	6	4	SF	Matt Cain	22:05
Josh Collmenter	AZ	2	6	4	4	4	SD	Eric Stults	22:10
Josh Tomlin	CLE	6	6	6	5	6	SEA	Roenis Elias	22:10

To learn how Game NERD Scores are calculated, click here.
* = Fewer than 20 IP, NERD at discretion of very handsome author.