NERD Game Scores for Thursday, June 09, 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
Cleveland at Seattle | 22:10 ET
Tomlin (61.0 IP, 101 xFIP-) vs. Karns (61.2 IP, 95 xFIP-)
Cleveland last appeared in a proper postseason series in 2007; Seattle, in 2001. Currently, the clubs possess a 69% and 45% probability, respectively, of qualifying for the divisional series. The odds, then, of one or the other of them ending their plaoyff drought would appear strong. Much better than the reader’s odds, certainly, of escaping the darkness that devours us all.
Readers’ Preferred Television Broadcast: Seattle.
Two Other Brief Notes
Today’s Free Game
Today’s free game features Pittsburgh at Colorado, starts at 17:10 ET, 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 second installment of the results for radio broadcasters appeared here Tuesday. The final installment is scheduled to appear today.
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.
| Away | SP | TM | GM | TM | SP | Home | Time | ||
| Collin McHugh | HOU | 6 | 7 | 5 | 5 | 4 | TEX | Martin Perez | 14:05 |
| Jeff Locke | PIT | 2 | 6 | 4 | 3 | 5 | COL | Chad Bettis | 17:10 |
| Jhoulys Chacin | LAA | 6 | 2 | 5 | 4 | 6 | NYA | Ivan Nova | 19:05 |
| Tyler Wilson | BAL | 3 | 7 | 6 | 4 | 8 | TOR | Marcus Stroman | 19:07 |
| Adam Wainwright | STL | 4 | 6 | 4 | 3 | 3 | CIN | Brandon Finnegan | 19:10 |
| Tom Koehler | MIA | 1 | 5 | 4 | 6 | 4 | MIN | Ervin Santana | 20:10 |
| Bartolo Colon | NYN | 4 | 6 | 4 | 5 | 3 | MIL | Jimmy Nelson | 20:10 |
| Gio Gonzalez | WAS | 5 | 7 | 4 | 3 | 3 | CHA | Miguel Gonzalez | 20:10 |
| Josh Tomlin | CLE | 5 | 7 | 6 | 6 | 5 | SEA | Nate Karns | 22:10 |
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.
Carson Cistulli has published a book of aphorisms called Spirited Ejaculations of a New Enthusiast.
Tomlin! Karns! Get pumped for Thursday baseball people!
If that’s our top matchup, consider me a fan of offense for the day.