NERD Game Scores for Thursday, May 19, 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
Washington at New York NL | 19:10 ET
Strasburg (55.0 IP, 73 xFIP-) vs. Harvey (45.2 IP, 95 xFIP-)
What one finds here is a game with considerable promise. Two elite pitcher with easy plus velocity. Two strong clubs, each of which currently possess greater than a 45% chance of winning the division. “Garden-variety excellence,” one might be inclined to call it. Unless, that is, the garden has been started by the author. In which case, the garden is much less impressive. Because the tomato seedlings haven’t even sprouted their true leaves yet. Even though it’s been, like, three weeks. Because he used these peat pots from Agway instead of a plastic starter tray. Even though the gardening book was pretty explicit about don’t use peat pots.

Two Other Brief Notes
Today’s Free Game
Today’s free game is also the Nationals-Mets game cited above. It can be accessed by means of this hyperlinked text.

Broadcaster Rankings
Recently, the present author began the process of process of reproducing the broadcaster rankings which appeared on this site roughly four years ago. The third installment of the results from that effort appeared yesterday.

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 May 19, 2016

Away		SP	TM	GM	TM	SP		Home	Time
Nate Karns	SEA	6	5	5	6	3	BAL	Tyler Wilson	12:35
Jason Hammel	CHN	4	8	5	4	5	MIL	Junior Guerra	13:40
Mike Foltynewicz	ATL	8	1	4	5	2	PIT	Jeff Locke	19:05
Josh Tomlin	CLE	4	5	4	3	4	CIN	Tim Adleman	19:10
Stephen Strasburg	WAS	10	6	8	7	9	NYN	Matt Harvey	19:10
Jon Gray	COL	10	4	7	6	6	STL	Michael Wacha	19:15
Collin McHugh	HOU	4	6	6	4	8	CHA	Chris Sale	20:10
Marco Estrada	TOR	4	4	5	6	5	MIN	Ervin Santana	20:10
Jeff Samardzija	SF	7	4	5	5	3	SD	James Shields	21:10
Ross Stripling	LAN	4	5	5	2	8	LAA	Jhoulys Chacin	22:05
Ivan Nova	NYA	5	4	5	5	6	OAK	Kendall Graveman	22:05

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.