NERD Game Scores for Wednesday, May 27, 2015

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.

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Most Highly Rated Game
Seattle at Tampa Bay | 13:10 ET
Hernandez (61.2 IP, 68 xFIP-) vs. Archer (60.0 IP, 69 xFIP-)
It is perhaps not one of the world’s great injustices, but still a small- or medium-sized injustice, that one is compelled to observe half of Seattle right-hander Felix Hernandez’s starts by means of Safeco’s center-field broadcast camera. The angle of that camera, one finds, distorts the magnitude of any horizontal break a pitch might feature moving in towards a right-handed batter or away from a left-handed one. As a result, it’s difficult to distinguish between anything a left-handed pitcher is throwing — or, alternatively, to fully appreciate a great right-handed changeup. Felix Hernandez possesses exactly the latter of those things. Fortunately, the Tampa Bay camera is one of the greats — as is Tampa Bay’s starter tonight, it seems.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Tampa Bay Radio.

A Single, Brief Note
Today’s Free Game
Today’s free game features the same clubs discussed above, 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 the calculations both for team and game NERD scores have changed recently to better integrate playoff odds into same. Read more about those changes here, if you’re the sort of person accustomed to making poor life decisions.

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NERD Image 4

Away   SP Tm. Gm. Tm. SP   Home Time
Colby Lewis TEX 3 4 6 7 10 CLE Carlos Carrasco 12:10
Kyle Kendrick COL 0 3 2 5 3 CIN Mike Leake 12:35
Brad Hand* MIA 4 5 7 7 10 PIT Gerrit Cole 12:35
Jeff Samardzija CHA 7 0 5 8 5 TOR Marco Estrada 12:37
Chris Young KC 2 7 6 7 10 NYA Michael Pineda 13:05
Rick Porcello BOS 5 4 4 3 5 MIN Phil Hughes 13:10
Sean O’Sullivan PHI 1 0 3 5 7 NYN No.h Syndergaard 13:10
Felix Hernandez SEA 8 6 8 5 10 TB Chris Archer 13:10
Ryan Vogelsong SF 1 5 4 3 6 MIL Mike Fiers 13:40
Kyle Ryan* DET 5 6 5 5 5 OAK Scott Kazmir 15:35
Collin McHugh HOU 6 10 7 5 6 BAL Ubaldo Jimenez 16:35
Max Scherzer WAS 9 5 7 7 5 CHN Jon Lester 20:05
Josh Collmenter AZ 3 6 5 6 6 STL Lance Lynn 20:15
Andrew Cashner SD 7 3 5 5 5 LAA Garrett Richards 22:05
Alex Wood ATL 4 2 4 7 4 LAN Zack Greinke 22:10

* = Fewer than 10 IP, NERD at discretion of very handsome author.





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

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Alex
10 years ago

Wow! I would’ve bet on Scherzer/Lester being the top draw.