NERD Game Scores for Tuesday, May 31, 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
Pittsburgh at Miami | 19:10 ET
Cole (53.1 IP, 100 xFIP-) vs. Fernandez (60.2 IP, 63 xFIP-)
Were Noah Syndergaard and Nathan Eovaldi and Carlos Martinez and Yordano Ventura — were none of those four to exist, the starters in this game between Pittsburgh and Miami would possess the top two average four-seam velocities among all qualifiers. This presupposes, of course, that Cole and Fernandez weren’t somehow also altered. Which, have Syndergaard and Eovladi and everyone — have they died in this hypothetical scenario? Or have they merely never been born? Is it possible that their presence is detected only by their absence, not unlike a black hole? Can a man step in the same river twice? Of course, he can. As long as he’s brought his towel with him, it shouldn’t be a problem.

Readers’ Preferred Television Broadcast: Pittsburgh.

Two Other Brief Notes
Today’s Free Game
Today’s free game features Cincinnati at Colorado, starts at 20:40 ET, 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 results from that effort — for television broadcasts, at least — are available 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 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 31, 2016

Away		SP	TM	GM	TM	SP		Home	Time
Lance McCullers	HOU	9	6	7	7	4	AZ	Patrick Corbin	15:40
James Shields	SD	4	5	5	7	4	SEA	Hisashi Iwakuma	15:40
Colby Lewis	TEX	4	5	6	7	8	CLE	Corey Kluber	18:10
Eduardo Rodriguez*	BOS	6	8	7	5	8	BAL	Kevin Gausman	19:05
Joe Ross	WAS	6	6	6	2	10	PHI	Aaron Nola	19:05
CC Sabathia	NYA	3	4	4	4	4	TOR	J.A. Happ	19:07
Mat Latos	CHA	1	3	5	6	10	NYN	Steven Matz	19:10
Gerrit Cole	PIT	7	6	7	5	10	MIA	Jose Fernandez	19:10
Jake Peavy	SF	3	4	3	1	5	ATL	Matt Wisler	19:10
Scott Kazmir	LAN	5	5	6	7	8	CHN	Jake Arrieta	20:05
Mike Leake	STL	4	6	5	5	4	MIL	Wily Peralta	20:10
Drew Smyly	TB	7	7	6	5	6	KC	Dillon Gee	20:15
Jon Moscot	CIN	0	3	4	3	10	COL	Jon Gray	20:40
Anibal Sanchez	DET	3	4	3	2	3	LAA	Hector Santiago	22:05
Tyler Duffey	MIN	6	6	4	4	0	OAK	Eric Surkamp	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.