NERD Game Scores for Saturday, May 28, 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 AL at Tampa Bay | 16:10 ET
Pineda (49.2 IP, 86 xFIP-) vs. Moore (51.0 IP, 95 xFIP-)
Here’s a fact that’s concurrently startling and true and startling: as of Friday night, the Tampa Bay Rays — a club which not only plays in a legitimate pitcher’s park but which also features one of the league’s lowest collective payrolls — led the majors in home runs, having accumulated one more than both the Mets and Orioles. Adjusting for park, one finds that the Rays had produced a home-run rate approximately 2.1 standard deviations better than league average. The next best club by that measure? The Mets, at 1.6 standard deviations above the mean. Here’s who’s been the best at homering for Tampa Bay: Corey Dickerson. As of Friday, he’d recorded homers in 5.6% of his plate appearances. Here’s who’s been second-best: Steve Pearce. He’d also produced a 5.6% mark. Here’s who was third: Steven Souza Jr., at 5.3%. To find the rest of the team’s numbers, the reader will have to perform his or her own calculations. Or, alternatively, abandon all curiosity about the rest of the team’s numbers, thus rendering it unnecessary to perform all those dumb calculations.
Readers’ Preferred Television Broadcast: Tampa Bay.
Two Other Brief Notes
Today’s Free Game
Today’s free game features San Diego at Arizona, starts at 22:10 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 | ||
| Rick Porcello | BOS | 5 | 8 | 6 | 4 | 7 | TOR | Marcus Stroman | 13:07 |
| Carlos Rodon | CHA | 8 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 2 | KC | Yordano Ventura | 14:15 |
| Jerad Eickhoff | PHI | 6 | 3 | 6 | 8 | 7 | CHN | Kyle Hendricks | 14:20 |
| TBA | DET | 5 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 5 | OAK | Jesse Hahn | 16:05 |
| Ubaldo Jimenez | BAL | 5 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 8 | CLE | Danny Salazar | 16:10 |
| Alfredo Simon | CIN | 1 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 3 | MIL | Chase Anderson | 16:10 |
| Wei-Yin Chen | MIA | 6 | 6 | 5 | 1 | 5 | ATL | TBA | 16:10 |
| Michael Pineda | NYA | 9 | 4 | 7 | 8 | 7 | TB | Matt Moore | 16:10 |
| Madison Bumgarner | SF | 7 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 5 | COL | Eddie Butler | 16:10 |
| Kenta Maeda | LAN | 5 | 5 | 7 | 6 | 10 | NYN | Noah Syndergaard | 19:15 |
| Juan Nicasio | PIT | 6 | 6 | 7 | 5 | 10 | TEX | Yu Darvish* | 19:15 |
| Adam Wainwright | STL | 3 | 7 | 5 | 6 | 4 | WAS | Gio Gonzalez | 19:15 |
| Dallas Keuchel | HOU | 6 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 3 | LAA | Jered Weaver | 22:05 |
| Phil Hughes | MIN | 3 | 6 | 5 | 7 | 6 | SEA | Wade Miley | 22:10 |
| Cesar Vargas | SD | 5 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 7 | AZ | Zack Greinke | 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.
I believe that it’s fair to say that anybody actively involved in watching baseball also have an eye on the Rangers/Pirates game, as it is Yu Darvish’s first game back.