NERD Game Scores for Tuesday, May 26, 2015

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
Atlanta at Los Angeles | 22:10 ET
Teheran (50.2 IP, 104 xFIP-) vs. Kershaw (58.1 IP, 60 xFIP-)
With regard to all the sorts of numbers that both (a) become reliable in smaller samples and also (b) most directly inform run prevention, Dodgers left-hander Clayton Kershaw has produced almost an exact replica this year of his monstrous 2014 season. With regard to how many runs he’s actually conceded, however, the differences are unfortunately less subtle.

Regard, by way of illustration, this table:

Strikeout rate, walk rate, ground-ball rate, and also fastball velocity (denoted as FBv): all are rough approximations this year of what they were last. Indeed, the first three of those metrics conspire to produce the very best park-adjusted xFIP among all qualifiers this season so far. Kershaw, however, has conceded both hits (as denoted by BABIP) and home runs (HR/FB) in unusually large quantities — which has led to all the run-allowing. It’s probably premature to describe Kershaw’s misfortunes at this point as “Job-like.” Perhaps they’re more similar to the misfortunes of one who left his wallet at the restaurant and now must go all the way back there to recover it.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Los Angeles NL Television.

Two Brief Notes
Debut Alert
The purpose of this brief entry is to note how Detroit shortstop prospect Dixon Machado recorded his major-league debut on Monday. Machado was a fixture among the author’s weekly Fringe Five columns last year, developing from a glove-first — or perhaps even glove-only — organizational piece into an actual prospect, thanks largely to his excellent control of the strike zone. Machado was ranked eighth among Tigers prospects by Kiley McDaniel this past offeason. He’s expected to remain with the club while Jose Iglesias recovers from a bruised knee.

Today’s Free Game
Today’s free game features Colorado at Cincinnati, starts at 7:10pm ET, and 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. Note that the calculations both for team and game NERD scores have changed recently to better integrate playoff odds into same. Read more about those changes here, if you’re the sort of person accustomed to making poor life decisions.

Away		SP	Tm.	Gm.	Tm.	SP		Home	Time
Scott Feldman	HOU	5	10	5	5	1	BAL	Chris Tillman	19:05
Jason Vargas	KC	0	7	3	6	2	NYA	Adam Warren	19:05
Jose Urena*	MIA	8	5	6	7	5	PIT	Jeff Locke	19:05
Jo. Zimmermann	WAS	5	5	6	7	6	CHN	Kyle Hendricks	19:05
John Danks	CHA	2	0	4	7	7	TOR	R.A. Dickey	19:07
Jorge de la Rosa	COL	6	3	5	5	4	CIN	Michael Lorenzen	19:10
Jerome Williams	PHI	4	0	5	5	9	NYN	Jacob deGrom	19:10
J.A. Happ	SEA	5	6	6	5	7	TB	Alex Colome	19:10
Wandy Rodriguez	TEX	3	4	6	7	10	CLE	Danny Salazar	19:10
Clay Buchholz	BOS	8	5	4	2	2	MIN	Mike Pelfrey	20:10
Ma.n Bumgarner	SF	7	4	4	3	3	MIL	Matt Garza	20:10
Archie Bradley	AZ	3	6	5	5	5	STL	Jaime Garcia*	20:15
David Price	DET	6	6	6	5	5	OAK	Jesse Chavez	22:05
Od.r Despaigne	SD	2	4	4	6	6	LAA	Matt Shoemaker	22:05
Julio Teheran	ATL	5	2	6	7	10	LAN	Clayton Kershaw	22:10

* = Fewer than 10 IP, NERD at discretion of very handsome author.