NERD Game Scores for Wednesday, June 25, 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
Washington at Milwaukee | 14:10 ET
Stephen Strasburg (100.0 IP, 65 xFIP-, 2.8 WAR) faces Marco Estrada (89.2 IP, 112 xFIP-, -0.8 WAR). The latter has produced a strikeout-walk differential of 14.1 percentage points — a stat, that, which correlates highly with run prevention and a precise figure, that, which ranks 32nd among the league’s 95 qualified pitchers. What else Estrada has produced, however, is 24 home-runs allowed over 15 starts and ca. 90 innings. “Is there something wrong with Estrada? Ought the Brewers replace him with minor-leaguer Jimmy Nelson?” These are questions being asked by Americans today.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Milwaukee Radio.

Three Brief Notes
Regarding Marco Gonzales, How It’s His Debut
Left-handed Cardinals prospect and 2013 first-round draft pick Marco Gonzales makes his major-league debut only slight more than a month after making his Double-A debut. One can read more about that same left-hander within today’s very recently published Prospect Watch.

Regarding Brad Mills, His Less Slow Fastball Velocity
Oakland left-hander Brad Mills — acquired by Oakland recently and used as a starter by that same club last week — recorded an average fastball velocity ca. 2.5 mph greater in that contest than when he last made a major-league appearance in 2012. Which is to say, Mills continues to exhibit below-average armspeed, but not below below-average armspeed.

Regarding Today’s Free Game
Today’s free game features San Diego at San Francisco, starts at 3:45pm 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.

Away		SP	Tm.	Gm.	Tm.	SP		Home	Time
Charlie Morton	PIT	4	5	7	5	10	TB	David Price	12:10
St. Strasburg	WAS	10	7	7	7	5	MIL	Marco Estrada	14:10
Marco Gonzales*	STL	9	3	7	10	6	COL	Yohan Flande*	15:10
Ian Kennedy	SD	7	4	6	7	5	SF	Tim Lincecum	15:45
Hector Noesi	CHA	4	2	3	5	2	BAL	Ubaldo Jimenez	19:05
Mat Latos*	CIN	6	3	6	5	6	CHN	Edwin Jackson	19:05
Hen’son Alvarez	MIA	8	7	4	0	1	PHI	A.J. Burnett	19:05
Hiroki Kuroda	NYA	4	3	5	7	6	TOR	Drew Hutchison	19:07
Brad Mills*	OAK	6	7	6	2	8	NYN	Zack Wheeler	19:10
Anibal Sanchez	DET	6	5	3	4	0	TEX	Joe Saunders	20:05
Alex Wood	ATL	9	7	7	6	6	HOU	Collin McHugh	20:10
Dan Haren	LAN	5	5	5	5	6	KC	James Shields	20:10
Corey Kluber	CLE	9	6	7	6	5	AZ	Chase Anderson	21:40
Yohan Pino*	MIN	7	4	7	6	8	LAA	Garrett Richards	22:05
Clay Buchholz	BOS	1	2	4	5	7	SEA	Hisashi Iwakuma	22:10

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