NERD Game Scores: Ft. Uncommon Drama in Detroit

August 13, 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.

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Most Highly Rated Game
Pittsburgh at Detroit | 19:08 ET
Vance Worley (62.2 IP, 99 xFIP-, 0.9 WAR) faces Buck Farmer (115.2 IP, 27.1% K, 6.0% BB at Class- and Double-A). As of last Tuesday, Detroit possessed 92% odds of qualifying for the ALDS. After a week populated almost exclusively by Kansas City victories, however, the Tigers’ chances have fallen about 30 percentage points, while the team itself has fallen (if only slightly) out of first place in the AL Central. These are the conditions, one notes, under which right-handed prospect Buck Farmer is expected to record what one might accurately call either (a) his major-league debut or also (b) his third-ever start above the Class-A Midwest League. A fifth-round pick last year out Georgia Tech, Farmer has produced excellent fielding-independent numbers against the competition he has faced — largely, it would seem, on the strength of a fastball-slider combination.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Detroit Radio.

Two Brief Notes
Javier Baez Breathtaking Home Run Watch
Cubs prospect Javier Baez recorded zero breathtaking home runs on Tuesday.

Regarding Today’s Free Game
Today’s free game features Tampa Bay at Texas, starts at 8:05pm ET, and can be accessed by means of this hyperlinked text.

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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.

Away		SP	Tm.	Gm.	Tm.	SP		Home	Time
Anthony Ranaudo*	BOS	5	2	4	3	6	CIN	Mike Leake	12:35
Kyle Gibson	MIN	4	3	4	4	3	HOU	Brett Oberholtzer	14:10
Jose Quintana	CHA	6	2	5	7	3	SF	Jake Peavy	15:45
Tyler Matzek	COL	3	4	4	3	7	SD	Ian Kennedy	18:40
Andrew Chafin*	AZ	7	3	5	5	5	CLE	Trevor Bauer	19:05
Vidal Nuno	AZ	4	3	5	5	8	CLE	Josh Tomlin*	TBD
Michael Pineda*	NYA	7	4	5	5	2	BAL	Chris Tillman	19:05
Vance Worley	PIT	5	10	8	7	10	DET	Buck Farmer*	19:08
Hyun-Jin Ryu	LAN	7	4	6	6	8	ATL	Ervin Santana	19:10
Justin Masterson	STL	4	10	7	4	8	MIA	Nathan Eovaldi	19:10
J. Zimmermann	WAS	10	5	5	2	5	NYN	Bartolo Colon	19:10
Kyle Lohse	MIL	4	10	6	3	5	CHN	Tsuyoshi Wada	20:05
Chris Archer	TB	6	4	4	3	4	TEX	Miles Mikolas	20:05
Scott Kazmir	OAK	7	6	6	8	4	KC	Jason Vargas	20:10
A.J. Burnett	PHI	3	2	4	9	2	LAA	Jered Weaver	22:05
R.A. Dickey	TOR	10	5	7	6	8	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.