NERD Game Scores for Tuesday, June 14, 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
Chicago NL at Washington | 19:05 ET
Lackey (82.0 IP, 84 xFIP-) vs. Gonzalez (71.0 IP, 88 xFIP-)
Three questions to contemplate while leisurely consuming this leisure game:
QUESTION NO. 1
Both the Cubs and Nationals are in first place. At what point does the prospect of a pennant chase begin to feel “real”?
QUESTION NO. 2
How would Nigel Warburton, host of podcast Philosophy Bites, pronounce the phrase “feel real”?
QUESTION NO. 3
How would one render Warburton’s pronunciation into print by way of the International Phonetic Alphabet?
Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Chicago NL TV or Washington Radio.
Two Other Brief Notes
Today’s Free Game
Today’s free game features the same Cubs and Nationals teams cited above, 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 updated results for television broadcasts are available by means of this hyperlinked text; for radio, by means of this other 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.
| Away | SP | TM | GM | TM | SP | Home | Time | ||
| Zach Eflin* | PHI | 7 | 2 | 5 | 5 | 7 | TOR | Marcus Stroman | 12:37 |
| John Lackey | CHN | 8 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 5 | WAS | Gio Gonzalez | 19:05 |
| Chris Tillman | BAL | 4 | 7 | 7 | 8 | 8 | BOS | David Price | 19:10 |
| Brandon Finnegan | CIN | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 5 | ATL | Julio Teheran | 19:10 |
| TBA | PIT | 5 | 5 | 6 | 5 | 7 | NYN | Jacob deGrom | 19:10 |
| Taijuan Walker | SEA | 9 | 6 | 7 | 6 | 5 | TB | Jake Odorizzi | 19:10 |
| Jordan Zimmermann | DET | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | CHA | Miguel Gonzalez | 20:10 |
| Josh Tomlin | CLE | 5 | 7 | 5 | 4 | 4 | KC | Chris Young | 20:15 |
| Doug Fister | HOU | 2 | 6 | 5 | 6 | 5 | STL | Jaime Garcia | 20:15 |
| Nathan Eovaldi | NYA | 10 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 3 | COL | Jorge de la Rosa | 20:40 |
| Kenta Maeda | LAN | 5 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | AZ | Archie Bradley | 21:40 |
| Ervin Santana | MIN | 5 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 6 | LAA | Jhoulys Chacin | 22:05 |
| Martin Perez | TEX | 4 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 0 | OAK | Eric Surkamp | 22:05 |
| Tom Koehler | MIA | 1 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 6 | SD | Drew Pomeranz | 22:10 |
| Matt Garza* | MIL | 5 | 5 | 6 | 5 | 7 | SF | Madison Bumgarner | 22:15 |
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.
The game is not on yet, but: /fi:l r??l/ probably
EDIT: Oh no, the FG comments can’t display the dotless /i/ nor the schwa 🙁