NERD Game Scores for Wednesday, April 30, 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
Toronto at Kansas City | 20:10 ET
Drew Hutchison (26.0 IP, 80 xFIP-, 0.6 WAR) faces Yordano Ventura (25.0 IP, 84 xFIP-, 0.8 WAR). The latter, in addition to having posted the highest average fastball velocity among qualified starters (which isn’t particularly surprising), has also generated a considerable number of swings and misses with his secondary pitches (which is more surprising). Hutchison, for his part, has actually recorded even better defense-independent figures, having now struck out more than a third of opposing batters in consecutive starts.
Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Toronto, Maybe?
MLB.TV Free Game
Los Angeles NL at Minnesota | 20:10 ET
Zack Greinke (29.1 IP, 49 xFIP-, 0.2 WAR) faces Kyle Gibson (22.1 IP, 119 xFIP-, 0.5 WAR). The former has been indomitable through five starts, recording a strikeout-walk differential of about 30 points, nearly double his already impressive career mark. The latter, Gibson, has been much more domitable — although, were he capable of reducing his walks, would likely produce average-ish numbers based on his ground-ball tendencies.
Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Minnesota Radio.
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 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Matt Garza | MIL | 6 | 7 | 4 | 2 | 2 | STL | Shelby Miller | 13:45 |
| Max Scherzer | DET | 9 | 4 | 7 | 4 | 6 | CHA | Hector Noesi* | 14:10 |
| Zach McAllister | CLE | 5 | 5 | 5 | 10 | 4 | LAA | C.J. Wilson | 19:05 |
| Bartolo Colon | NYN | 6 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 2 | PHI | Kyle Kendrick | 19:05 |
| Charlie Morton | PIT | 3 | 8 | 4 | 4 | 4 | BAL | Chris Tillman | 19:05 |
| Roenis Elias | SEA | 4 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 6 | NYA | David Phelps* | 19:05 |
| Aaron Harang | ATL | 4 | 9 | 7 | 8 | 10 | MIA | Nathan Eovaldi | 19:10 |
| Edwin Jackson | CHN | 2 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 3 | CIN | Tony Cingrani | 19:10 |
| Chris Archer | TB | 8 | 7 | 5 | 2 | 1 | BOS | Felix Doubront | 19:10 |
| Jesse Chavez | OAK | 7 | 5 | 6 | 2 | 6 | TEX | Robbie Ross | 20:05 |
| Zack Greinke | LAN | 10 | 6 | 6 | 5 | 1 | MIN | Kyle Gibson | 20:10 |
| Drew Hutchison | TOR | 8 | 5 | 8 | 2 | 10 | KC | Yordano Ventura | 20:10 |
| Jor. Zimmermann | WAS | 8 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 3 | HOU | Br. Oberholtzer | 20:10 |
| Jordan Lyles | COL | 5 | 8 | 5 | 4 | 5 | AZ | Josh Collmenter* | 21:40 |
| Robbie Erlin | SD | 6 | 3 | 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.
While observing the current weather in the Philadelphia area, it occurs to me that weather might be a significant factor in the watchability of a game. Depending on your tastes, rainy games might add appeal in terms of increased potential for goofy or unusual events. Would it be possible to incorporate local forecasts into NERD game scores?
rainy weather also increases the potential for rain delays and cancellations. any increase in pleasure from goofiness would be (pardon the pun) washed out by the chance of seeing no baseball at all.
A game with a significant risk of rain delay / postponement could definitely get docked in the rankings. This could be done using the %PoP (probability of precipitation) found at baseball press (http://www.baseballpress.com/lineups).
Maybe it could be scaled where a 60-80% PoP would dock the total game by one score, and 80-100% would dock the game by two points? (Then again, this also gets away from the spirit of NERD, which is supposed to be focused on the teams/players involved.)