NERD Game Scores for Wednesday, September 30, 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.

Most Highly Rated Game
Oakland at Los Angeles AL | 19:05 ET
Zito (3.0 IP, 238 xFIP-) vs. Richards (195.1 IP, 95 xFIP-)
It is not particularly helpful to suggest that — for a club such as the Angels, who find themselves within two games on each side either of winning the AL West or failing to qualify at all for the postseason — it’s not so helpful to suggest that every victory is meaningful. Perhaps more enlightening, however, is to observe that, among all the clubs playing today, the Angels possess the highest projected probability of winning as calculated by the methodology used at the site (and ignoring precise lineup decisions, because the information is unavailable).

Regard, that same statement rendered — with difficulties — into the form of a table:

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Oakland Radio.

Another Brief Note
Today’s Free Game
Today’s free game features Houston at Seattle, starts at 22:10 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 the calculations both for team and game NERD scores have changed recently to better integrate playoff odds into same. Read more about those adjustments here and here.

Away		SP	Tm.	Gm.	Tm.	SP		Home	Time
Michael Wacha	STL	8	5	6	5	10	PIT	Gerrit Cole	13:35
Tyler Lyons	STL	7	5	6	5	7	PIT	Charlie Morton	19:05
Marcus Stroman	TOR	8	5	5	5	3	BAL	Miguel Gonzalez	16:05
R.A. Dickey	TOR	8	5	6	5	8	BAL	Kevin Gausman	TBD
Kyle Gibson	MIN	4	5	6	5	10	CLE	Carlos Carrasco	16:10
Mike Pelfrey	MIN	3	5	5	5	5	CLE	Cody Anderson	TBD
Wade Miley	BOS	5	5	5	5	8	NYA	Masahiro Tanaka	19:05
Logan Verrett	NYN	7	5	5	4	2	PHI	Alec Asher	19:05
Barry Zito*	OAK	4	5	7	10	7	LAA	Garrett Richards	19:05
Jon Lester	CHN	7	5	5	5	6	CIN	Ant. DeSclafani	19:10
Jarred Cosart	MIA	4	5	5	5	8	TB	Drew Smyly	19:10
Jo. Zimmermann	WAS	7	5	5	4	3	ATL	Williams Perez	19:10
Matt Boyd	DET	3	4	5	8	2	TEX	Yovani Gallardo	20:05
Edinson Volquez	KC	4	4	4	4	6	CHA	Jose Quintana	20:10
Chad Bettis	COL	5	5	5	5	4	AZ	Chase Anderson	21:40
Scott Kazmir	HOU	5	8	6	4	5	SEA	Undecided	22:10
Zachary Davies	MIL	5	4	5	5	7	SD	Andrew Cashner	22:10
Mike Bolsinger	LAN	4	5	5	5	5	SF	Mike Leake	22:15

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