NERD Game Scores for Sunday, August 30, 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
New York AL at Atlanta | 13:35 ET
Eovaldi (144.0 IP, 97 xFIP-) vs. Teheran (157.1 IP, 105 xFIP-)
Last Monday, Eno Sarris examined in these pages the development of right-hander Nathan Eovaldi’s splitter, a pitch that — following a disaster start at Miami in June — Eovaldi began to throw roughly 4 mph harder than previously but also with the same amount of drop. That same evening as Sarris’s post, Eovaldi proceeded to record a higher usage rate with the splitter than with his fastball (while also throwing that same fastball at an average velocity of 98-99 mph). The results: the highest single-game whiff rate of Eovaldi’s season and also 8.0 shutout innings. This afternoon’s game against Atlanta — facilitated by Atlanta’s excellent center-field camera — represents an opportunity to observe Eovaldi’s transformation.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Atlanta Radio.

Another Brief Note
Today’s Free Game
Today’s free game features Detroit at Toronto, starts at 13:07 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 adjustments here and here.

Away		SP	Tm.	Gm.	Tm.	SP		Home	Time
Alfredo Simon	DET	2	4	6	10	5	TOR	Mark Buehrle	13:07
Wade Miley	BOS	5	4	6	5	10	NYN	No. Syndergaard	13:10
Danny Duffy	KC	2	4	4	4	5	TB	Nate Karns	13:10
Jered Weaver	LAA	3	5	5	5	8	CLE	Josh Tomlin	13:10
Jorge de la Rosa	COL	4	4	5	7	6	PIT	Charlie Morton	13:35
Brad Hand	MIA	3	4	5	5	10	WAS	Stephen Strasburg	13:35
Nathan Eovaldi	NYA	7	10	7	3	6	ATL	Julio Teheran	13:35
James Shields	SD	6	4	5	3	7	PHI	Alec Asher*	13:35
John Lamb	CIN	8	4	5	4	4	MIL	Wily Peralta	14:10
Lance McCullers	HOU	9	8	6	5	3	MIN	Ervin Santana	14:10
Edgar Olmos*	SEA	6	4	5	3	7	CHA	Jose Quintana	14:10
Miguel Gonzalez	BAL	3	4	5	7	6	TEX	Derek Holland	15:05
Jaime Garcia	STL	6	7	6	6	4	SF	Chris Heston	16:05
Jesse Chavez	OAK	5	4	3	4	0	AZ	Allen Webster	16:10
Jake Arrieta	CHN	9	5	6	6	5	LAN	Alex Wood	20:08

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