NERD Game Scores for Sunday, May 11, 2014

May 11, 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
Arizona at Chicago AL | 14:10 ET
Chase Anderson (39.0 IP, 26.0% K, 4.1% BB at Double-A) faces Hector Noesi (16.1 IP, 98 xFIP-, 0.4 WAR). The former’s difficulties as a starter in Triple-A last season suggest that concerns about his lack of armspeed might be warranted, so far as dealing with advanced hitters is concerned. What Anderson does offer, however, is a changeup that’s probably sweeter than lugduname — which compound (i.e. lugduname) appears to have been developed at the University of Lyon in 1996 and is “220,000 [to] 300,000 times as sweet as sucrose (table sugar).”

An example of said changeup:

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Arizona Radio or Television?

You Aren't a FanGraphs Member

It looks like you aren't yet a FanGraphs Member (or aren't logged in). We aren't mad, just disappointed.

We get it. You want to read this article. But before we let you get back to it, we'd like to point out a few of the good reasons why you should become a Member.

1. Ad Free viewing! We won't bug you with this ad, or any other.

2. Unlimited articles! Non-Members only get to read 10 free articles a month. Members never get cut off.

3. Dark mode and Classic mode!

4. Custom player page dashboards! Choose the player cards you want, in the order you want them.

5. One-click data exports! Export our projections and leaderboards for your personal projects.

6. Remove the photos on the home page! (Honestly, this doesn't sound so great to us, but some people wanted it, and we like to give our Members what they want.)

7. Even more Steamer projections! We have handedness, percentile, and context neutral projections available for Members only.

8. Get FanGraphs Walk-Off, a customized year end review! Find out exactly how you used FanGraphs this year, and how that compares to other Members. Don't be a victim of FOMO.

9. A weekly mailbag column, exclusively for Members.

10. Help support FanGraphs and our entire staff! Our Members provide us with critical resources to improve the site and deliver new features!

We hope you'll consider a Membership today, for yourself or as a gift! And we realize this has been an awfully long sales pitch, so we've also removed all the other ads in this article. We didn't want to overdo it.

Click Here To Become a Member

MLB.TV Free Game
Cleveland at Tampa Bay | 13:40 ET
Josh Tomlin (6.2 IP, 105 xFIP-, 0.1 WAR) faces Chris Archer (40.1 IP, 88 xFIP-, 1.0 WAR). If nothing else, this game serves as a pretense upon which to note that Cleveland outfielder Michael Brantley, who recorded a career-high 10 home runs last season in 611 plate appearances, has now produced seven of them (i.e. home runs) in just 150 plate appearances, even while maintaining his characteristically low strikeout rate (just 8.7%, presently).

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Cleveland Radio.

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
Jered Weaver	LAA	3	10	6	7	8	TOR	Drew Hutchison	13:07
Samuel Deduno*	MIN	4	4	6	5	8	DET	Robbie Ray*	13:08
Juan Nicasio	COL	3	10	6	4	7	CIN	Homer Bailey	13:10
Cole Hamels*	PHI	8	2	6	2	6	NYN	Jon Niese	13:10
Edwin Jackson	CHN	4	5	5	7	5	ATL	Aaron Harang	13:35
Jarred Cosart	HOU	4	7	4	3	4	BAL	Chris Tillman	13:35
Josh Tomlin*	CLE	5	5	6	7	7	TB	Chris Archer	13:40
Chase Anderson*	AZ	13	5	8	4	5	CHA	Hector Noesi*	14:10
David Phelps*	NYA	5	4	5	6	5	MIL	Matt Garza	14:10
John Lackey	BOS	7	1	5	3	6	TEX	Robbie Ross	15:05
Gio Gonzalez	WAS	6	5	6	4	6	OAK	Scott Kazmir	16:05
Jeremy Guthrie	KC	2	2	4	4	6	SEA	Roenis Elias	16:10
Hend. Alvarez	MIA	7	8	6	4	6	SD	Robbie Erlin	16:10
Tim Hudson	SF	7	6	8	5	10	LAN	Clay. Kershaw*	16:10
Shelby Miller	STL	3	4	4	7	3	PIT	Charlie Morton	20:05

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