NERD Game Scores for Sunday, June 05, 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 NL at Miami | 13:10 ET
Harvey (60.1 IP, 101 xFIP-) vs. Fernandez (32.2 IP, 88 xFIP-)
Child prodigy and Ohio native August Fagerstrom explored recently for the benefit of these pages both how (a) the Marlins and Jose Fernandez himself had planned this spring for the right-hander to adopt a more contact-oriented, ground-ball approach in 2016, but then also how (b) Fernandez had produced almost identical numbers so far in 2016 as he had in previous campaigns. In Fernandez’s lone start since Fagerstrom’s piece, however, Fernandez exhibited a more contact-oriented, ground-ball approach.

Regard, an illustrative table:

Jose Fernandez, Pitching (More) to Contact?

Dates	GS	IP	Zone%	K%	BB%	GB%
4/6 to 5/26	10	60.2	49.8%*	36.7%	10.2%	38.4%
5/31	1	7.0	54.6%*	27.3%	0.0%	60.0%

*League average for starters is 48.1%.

One, so motivated, might consider monitoring Fernandez’s approach this game. To monitor it and ask a questions like, “Is he throwing more or less than 50% of his pitches in the zone?” And also: “Is he inducing ground balls on more like 40% or more like 60% of his balls in play?” And also: “By using my time in this way, am I endeavoring to pursue happiness or ignoring my obligations to liberate others from suffering or both or neither?”

Readers’ Preferred Television Broadcast: New York NL.

Two Other Brief Notes
Today’s Free Game
Today’s free game features the same Met and Marlin clubs discussed above and can be accessed by means of this hyperlinked text.

Broadcaster Rankings
Recently, the author published the results of a crowdsourcing effort to rank the league’s television broadcasts according to the tastes of this site’s readers. The result of the radio version of that same exercise will appear at this site beginning on Tuesday, provided the author isn’t consumed entirely by sloth.

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.

NERD Scores for June 05, 2016

Away		SP	TM	GM	TM	SP		Home	Time
Jose Quintana	CHA	6	3	5	4	6	DET	Justin Verlander	13:10
Chris Young	KC	4	5	6	7	8	CLE	Corey Kluber	13:10
Matt Harvey	NYN	8	6	8	5	10	MIA	Jose Fernandez	13:10
Tanner Roark	WAS	6	7	4	4	0	CIN	Jon Moscot	13:10
Hector Santiago	LAA	4	2	4	5	6	PIT	Gerrit Cole	13:35
Wily Peralta	MIL	3	5	5	2	10	PHI	Aaron Nola	13:35
CC Sabathia	NYA	3	4	5	6	8	BAL	Kevin Gausman	13:35
Marco Estrada	TOR	4	4	5	8	6	BOS	Eduardo Rodriguez*	13:35
Sonny Gray	OAK	4	4	6	7	9	HOU	Lance McCullers	14:10
Drew Smyly	TB	7	7	7	6	7	MIN	Tyler Duffey	14:10
Patrick Corbin	AZ	5	6	7	7	8	CHN	Jake Arrieta	14:20
Hisashi Iwakuma	SEA	4	7	4	5	1	TEX	Derek Holland	15:05
Matt Wisler	ATL	4	0	4	5	5	LAN	Scott Kazmir	16:10
Jake Peavy	SF	3	4	5	6	7	STL	Carlos Martinez	20:05
Jonathan Gray	COL	10	4	6	5	5	SD	Luis Perdomo*	21:10

SP denotes pitcher NERD score.
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.