NERD Game Scores for Wednesday, July 20, 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
Los Angeles NL at Washington | 19:05 ET
Norris (86.1 IP, 96 xFIP-) vs. Gonzalez (103.1 IP, 96 xFIP-)
Norris has been fantastic over his first three starts for the Dodgers, recording strikeout and walk rates of 27.3% and 4.6%, respectively — the differential of which (22.7 points) would represent the sixth-best mark among baseball’s 96 qualified starters. The relatively quick pace at which they become stable, is why the author cites those metrics as a proxy for Norris’s brief career in Los Angeles. Because he’s a frightened and scurrying creature, is why the author does almost everything else.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Washington Radio.

Two Other Brief Notes
A Brief Note on Bartolo Colon’s Relatively Low Score
Colon is less well acquitted by NERD owing to how there’s no variable in that metric’s algorithm to account for Fallstaffian loveability.

Today’s Free Game
Today’s free game features Cleveland at Kansas City, starts at 14:15 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 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.