NERD Game Scores for Sunday, June 22, 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 Arizona | 16:10 ET
Madison Bumgarner (94.2 IP, 78 xFIP-, 1.9 WAR) faces Michael Bolsinger (30.0 IP, 83 xFIP-, 0.1 WAR). While the virtues of the former are mostly conspicuous, one notes that the latter has produced excellent fielding-independent numbers, as well, including strikeout and walk rates of 20.1% and 5.8%, respectively, and a park-adjusted xFIP nearly 20% better than league average. Of note regarding Bolsinger: his cutter (ca. 65%) and curveball (ca. 33%) account for nearly 100% of the pitches he’s thrown this season.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: San Francisco Radio or Television.

Three Brief Notes
Regarding Yu Darvish, Why His NERD Score Remains Low-ish
Despite having recorded a strikeout rate of nearly 30% and also the second-highest WAR among all pitchers so far this season, Yu Darvish’s NERD score remains low-ish due to a merely good swinging-strike rate (10.2%), a below-average overall strike rate (62.8%) and one of the league’s slowest working paces (24.7 seconds between pitches).

Regarding Matt Showmaker, His Charms
Darvish’s opponent tonight is Matt Shoemaker, a 27-year-old rookie who’s produced the eighth-best park-adjusted xFIP among the 186 pitchers to have recorded at least 20 innings as a starter and who features a changeup of no little merit — superlative examples of which pitch one can find below at 0:17, 0:29, 0:34, 0:58, and 1:05.

Regarding Today’s Free Game
Today’s free game features the New York Nationals and Miami, starts at 1:10pm 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.

Away		SP	Tm.	Gm.	Tm.	SP		Home	Time
Max Scherzer	DET	7	4	6	5	6	CLE	Josh Tomlin	13:05
Jon Niese	NYN	4	2	5	7	6	MIA	A. DeSclafani*	13:10
R.A. Dickey	TOR	8	7	7	3	8	CIN	Johnny Cueto	13:10
Ervin Santana	ATL	8	7	7	7	5	WAS	Tanner Roark	13:35
Dallas Keuchel	HOU	8	6	5	6	0	TB	Erik Bedard	13:40
Chris Tillman	BAL	2	4	6	4	10	NYA	Masahiro Tanaka	14:05
John Danks	CHA	2	2	5	4	8	MIN	Phil Hughes	14:10
Roenis Elias	SEA	6	4	7	5	10	KC	Yordano Ventura	14:10
Kyle Kendrick	PHI	1	1	3	3	6	STL	Carlos Martinez*	14:15
Brandon Cumpton	PIT	6	5	6	5	7	CHN	Jason Hammel	14:20
Jon Lester	BOS	7	2	5	7	2	OAK	Tommy Milone	16:05
Hyun-Jin Ryu	LAN	5	6	5	4	4	SD	Eric Stults	16:10
Kyle Lohse	MIL	5	7	6	10	6	COL	Tyler Matzek*	16:10
M. Bumgarner	SF	9	7	8	6	9	AZ	Michael Bolsinger	16:10
Yu Darvish	TEX	6	3	7	6	10	LAA	Matt Shoemaker	20:07

To learn how Game NERD Scores are calculated, click here.
* = Fewer than 20 IP, NERD at discretion of very handsome author.