NERD Game Scores for Thursday, May 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
Oakland at Tampa Bay | 16:10 ET
Sonny Gray (60.0 IP, 89 xFIP-, 1.1 WAR) faces Alex Cobb (19.0 IP, 98 xFIP-, 0.3 WAR). The latter makes his first start since April 12th after suffering, and then recovering from, a left oblique strain. He struck out nine of the 17 batters he faced — which is to say more than half of them — during a rehab start for the High-A Charlotte Stone Crabs (box). No substantive footage exists of the game; however, it does exist of this fisherman removing the claws from actual stone crabs.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Tampa Bay Radio.

Three Brief Notes
Regarding Yu Darvish, His Still Low-ish NERD Score
After finishing last season with a NERD score of 9, Texas right-hander Yu Darvish features only a score of 6 at the moment — largely because his park-adjusted xFIP is only very good (as opposed to elite) relative to the 150-plus pitchers to have recorded at least 20 innings as a starter, while his swinging-strike rate, overall strike rate, and fastball velocity are mostly average to date. Moreover, he’s produced one of the slowest paces among that same group.

Regarding Blake Treinen, His Fastball
During his last start on May 6th against the Dodgers (box), Washington right-hander Blake Treinen’s fastball featured an impressive combination of velocity and break, the author found while doing research for a post concerning that sort of thing.

Regarding Today’s Free Game
Today’s free game hadn’t been announced as of press time, but 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
Cole Hamels	PHI	7	2	6	9	6	MIA	Hen’son Alvarez	12:40
Yu Darvish	TEX	6	3	6	5	6	DET	Robbie Ray*	13:08
Tim Hudson	SF	7	6	6	9	4	COL	Jorge de la Rosa	15:10
Mark Buehrle	TOR	4	7	6	3	8	BOS	Jon Lester	16:05
Sonny Gray	OAK	6	6	7	6	8	TB	Alex Cobb*	16:10
Undecided*	CLE	5	5	5	3	5	BAL	Wei-Yin Chen	19:05
Blake Treinen*	WAS	7	5	5	7	3	PIT	Edinson Volquez	19:05
Zack Greinke	LAN	8	6	6	3	6	NYN	Jon Niese	19:10
Matt Garza	MIL	5	4	6	7	6	ATL	Aaron Harang	19:10
Wade Miley	AZ	6	5	6	3	6	STL	Lance Lynn	19:15
David Phelps*	NYA	4	5	6	3	9	CHA	Chris Sale	20:10
Jake Arrieta*	CHN	5	5	4	5	3	SD	Eric Stults	22:10
Jarred Cosart	HOU	3	7	5	5	6	SEA	Roenis Elias	22:10

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