NERD Game Scores for Saturday, June 6, 2015

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
Houston at Toronto | 13:07 ET
Oberholtzer (8.1 IP, 96 xFIP-) vs. Hutchison (63.1 IP, 94 xFIP-)
Among the mostly haphazard adjustments made by the author last year to the certainly flawed method for calculating NERD’s game scores, one of them was to weight pitcher scores more heavily at the beginning of the season (by a factor of 3:1) and then team scores, with postseason-odds adjustments, more heavily at the end of the season (by a factor of 3:1, as well). The exact weights are tied to the percentage of games played across the league, meaning that, at the season’s exact midpoint, pitcher and team scores are weighted precisely the same. The justification for all this futile arithmetic: that team-related conditions (such as postseason implications, for example) tend to influence the appeal of a game more strongly as the season progresses. And the reason any of this is relevant right now: Houston and Toronto possess two of the highest team scores among the league’s 30 clubs — the former largely because of its combination of power and youth; the latter, owing primarily to its all-around batting production and baserunning.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Toronto Radio.

Two Brief Notes
Neverending Video: Pat Venditte’s First Pitches
Apropos of his major-league debut, here’s footage — captured and rendered into constantly looping web video — of Oakland switch-pitcher Pat Venditte’s first pitches from both the left and right side yesterday against Boston:

Today’s Free Game
Today’s free game features Milwaukee at Minnesota, starts at 14:10 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. Note that the calculations both for team and game NERD scores have changed recently to better integrate playoff odds into same. Read more about those changes here, if you’re the sort of person accustomed to making poor life decisions.

Away		SP	Tm.	Gm.	Tm.	SP		Home	Time
Jason Hammel	CHN	9	6	8	5	9	WAS	Joe Ross*	12:05
Brett O’holtzer*	HOU	5	10	8	8	8	TOR	Drew Hutchison	13:07
Matt Garza	MIL	3	3	4	3	6	MIN	J.R. Graham*	14:10
Wandy Rodriguez	TEX	3	4	6	7	9	KC	Yordano Ventura	14:10
Mad’n Bumgarner	SF	6	5	5	0	7	PHI	Sev. Gonzalez	15:05
Jesse Chavez	OAK	5	5	5	4	6	BOS	Joe Kelly	16:05
Ubaldo Jimenez	BAL	6	4	7	9	10	CLE	Danny Salazar	16:10
David Phelps	MIA	3	6	4	3	4	COL	Chris Rusin*	16:10
Andrew Cashner	SD	9	3	5	5	3	CIN	Michael Lorenzen	16:10
Jeff Locke	PIT	4	8	4	2	3	ATL	Julio Teheran	19:10
David Price	DET	5	4	3	0	3	CHA	John Danks	19:15
Garrett Richards	LAA	5	7	5	6	3	NYA	Adam Warren	19:15
Bartolo Colon	NYN	6	5	5	6	4	AZ	Chase Anderson	22:10
Jaime Garcia	STL	4	4	6	7	10	LAN	Clayton Kershaw	22:10
Alex Colome	TB	5	5	6	5	7	SEA	Felix Hernandez	22:10

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