NERD Game Scores for Thursday, June 02, 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
Los Angeles NL at Chicago NL | 14:20 ET
Urias (2.2 IP, 192 xFIP-) vs. Hendricks (55.1 IP, 84 xFIP-)
The left-handed Urias’s major-league debut was a success by no measure, really. He didn’t prevent runs particularly well, nor do the fielding-indepedent numbers suggest he really ought to have prevented runs particularly well. On the other hand, one finds that Urias’s start also represents the best one recorded by a pitcher under 20 over the last decade. That it’s also the only such start might constitute a “fly in the ointment” so far as that particular distinction is concerned. But that’s what happens with ointments. Flies are always attempting to enter and remain inside them. One must be vigilant regarding his or her ointment. Protect it from flies. This, if nothing else, is what we’ve learned from Julio Urias.

Readers’ Preferred Television Broadcast: Chicago NL.

Two Other Brief Notes
Today’s Free Game
Today’s free game features Pittsburgh at Miami, starts at 19:10 ET, and can be accessed by means of this hyperlinked text.

Broadcaster Rankings
Recently, the present author facilitated a crowdsourcing effort to reproduce the broadcaster rankings which appeared on this site roughly four years ago. The results from that effort — for television broadcasts, at least — are available 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 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 02, 2016

Away		SP	TM	GM	TM	SP		Home	Time
Madison Bumgarner	SF	7	4	4	1	2	ATL	Aaron Blair	12:10
Zack Greinke	AZ	6	7	6	7	6	HOU	Dallas Keuchel	14:10
Julio Urias*	LAN	10	5	8	7	8	CHN	Kyle Hendricks	14:20
Rick Porcello	BOS	5	8	5	5	4	BAL	Ubaldo Jimenez	19:05
Chase Anderson	MIL	2	5	4	2	6	PHI	Jerad Eickhoff	19:05
Yordano Ventura	KC	2	5	5	7	7	CLE	Carlos Carrasco	19:10
Juan Nicasio	PIT	6	6	6	5	6	MIA	Wei-Yin Chen	19:10
Michael Pineda	NYA	8	4	6	4	8	DET	Matt Boyd*	19:40
Matt Moore	TB	7	7	5	6	0	MIN	Kyle Gibson	20:10
Alfredo Simon	CIN	1	3	3	4	5	COL	Eddie Butler	20:40
Wade Miley	SEA	6	7	5	5	2	SD	Colin Rea	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.