NERD Game Scores for Saturday, September 6, 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
San Francisco at Detroit | 13:08 ET
Madison Bumgarner (191.0 IP, 77 xFIP-, 3.8 WAR) faces David Price (210.1 IP, 72 xFIP-, 4.9 WAR). The discerning reader will note, within the table below, that this contest has received a perfect 10 according to the metric devised incautiously by the author with a view towards estimating a game’s likely aesthetic appeal. One reason why is, is the Giants and Tigers enter today featuring playoff odds perilously close — along with Oakland, in fact, the perilously closest — to 50%. Bumgarner and Price, meanwhile, belong to that small class of pitchers who offer both above-average run prevention and above-average other-notable-qualities (like swinging-strike rate and/or overall strike rate and/or velocity, etc).
Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: San Francisco Radio or Television.
Lone Brief Note
Regarding Today’s Free Game
Today’s free game features Los Angeles AL at Minnesota, starts at 7:10pm 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 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kevin Gausman | BAL | 6 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 6 | TB | Drew Smyly | 13:05 |
| Ma’son Bum’ner | SF | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | DET | David Price | 13:08 |
| Scott Feldman | HOU | 2 | 4 | 6 | 10 | 6 | OAK | Scott Kazmir | 16:05 |
| Danny Duffy | KC | 3 | 10 | 7 | 3 | 10 | NYA | Bran’n McCarthy | 16:05 |
| A.J. Burnett | PHI | 4 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 5 | WAS | Tanner Roark | 16:05 |
| Francisco Liriano | PIT | 8 | 7 | 5 | 4 | 1 | CHN | Felix Doubront | 16:05 |
| Dillon Gee | NYN | 3 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 7 | CIN | Johnny Cueto | 16:10 |
| Jose Quintana | CHA | 6 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 9 | CLE | Corey Kluber | 19:05 |
| Alex Wood | ATL | 8 | 6 | 6 | 4 | 9 | MIA | Nathan Eovaldi | 19:10 |
| Cory Rasmus* | LAA | 7 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 9 | MIN | Phil Hughes | 19:10 |
| Lance Lynn | STL | 4 | 5 | 6 | 8 | 4 | MIL | Kyle Lohse | 19:10 |
| J.A. Happ | TOR | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 4 | BOS | Clay Buchholz | 19:10 |
| Chris Young | SEA | 0 | 8 | 4 | 3 | 0 | TEX | Nick Martinez | 20:05 |
| Joe Wieland* | SD | 6 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 3 | COL | Jorge de la Rosa | 20:10 |
| Chase Anderson | AZ | 5 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 8 | LAN | Hyun-Jin Ryu | 21:10 |
To learn how Game NERD Scores are calculated, click here.
* = Fewer than 20 IP, NERD at discretion of very handsome author.
Carson Cistulli has published a book of aphorisms called Spirited Ejaculations of a New Enthusiast.
Did we just get our first “10” game? Across the board?
Perhaps at the cost of the pitchers = 0 game later in Texas
Only bum’mer is that I won’t get to hit.
#KeepNotGraphs