NERD Game Scores for Tuesday, May 27, 2014

by
May 27, 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
Boston at Atlanta | 19:10 ET
Jon Lester (67.0 IP, 74 xFIP-, 2.2 WAR) faces Aaron Harang (59.2 IP, 86 xFIP-, 1.7 WAR). The former has recorded a strikeout rate (27.8%) this season approximately a third higher than his already totally competent career mark. The latter — according to Wikipedia, at least — was brutally murdered by a gang of criminals and subsequently revived by the malevolent mega-corporation Omni Consumer Products (OCP) as a superhuman cyborg baseball pitcher.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Atlanta Radio.

Two Brief Notes
Regarding McHugh, His Number of Strikeouts Versus Innings
Right-hander Collin McHugh, acquired by Houston via waivers this offseason, has recorded more strikeouts (41) this season than innings (38.0) — a sentence, that, which has never been rendered into print — or even uttered aloud, probably — throughout the whole duration of the universe.

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.

NERD Image 4

Away   SP Tm. Gm. Tm. SP   Home Time
J. de la Rosa COL 4 8 5 1 7 PHI Cole Hamels 19:05
Hen’son Alvarez MIA 6 9 6 5 6 WAS Blake Treinen* 19:05
Alex Cobb TB 6 6 5 7 4 TOR Mark Buehrle 19:07
Jon Lester BOS 8 2 7 7 7 ATL Aaron Harang 19:10
Edinson Volquez PIT 3 6 4 3 5 NYN Jon Niese 19:10
Wei-Yin Chen BAL 5 4 5 5 4 MIL Matt Garza 20:10
Justin Masterson CLE 5 5 7 3 10 CHA Chris Sale 20:10
Collin McHugh HOU 7 7 5 3 2 KC Jeremy Guthrie 20:10
Yu Darvish TEX 6 3 6 4 7 MIN Phil Hughes 20:10
David Phelps NYA 3 5 4 3 6 STL Lance Lynn 20:15
Eric Stults SD 4 5 5 5 6 AZ Wade Miley 21:40
Max Scherzer DET 7 5 6 5 6 OAK Sonny Gray 22:05
Alfredo Simon CIN 4 3 5 6 7 LAN Zack Greinke 22:10
Jered Weaver LAA 3 9 5 4 5 SEA Roenis Elias 22:10
Jake Arrieta* CHN 6 5 6 6 6 SF Tim Hudson 22:15

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





 

Carson Cistulli has published a book of aphorisms called Spirited Ejaculations of a New Enthusiast.

5 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Mike Green
9 years ago

Buehrle vs. Cobb a 5 because Buehrle is a 4? The weighting of factors for watchability ought to take greater account of pitcher pace. Buehrle is a pleasure to watch on a number of levels for me, but maybe this is a matter of taste. Some people like it fast, some people like it slow- to paraphrase John Lee Hooker.

0
Carson Cistullimember
9 years ago
Reply to  Mike Green

Buehrle is a difficult case with regard to this exercise for a number of reasons — not the least of which is that he prevents more runs than his defense-independent numbers suggest he should (a fact which is even more pronounced this year).

It doesn’t surprise me that one would want to watch Buehrle pitch, but I also think it’d probably create other, even less defensible problems to recalibrate the system to accommodate him. He’s a pleasant weirdo.

2