NERD Game Scores: Jameson Taillon Belated Debut Event
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
New York NL at Pittsburgh | 19:05 ET
Syndergaard (70.2 IP, 50 xFIP-) vs. Taillon (MLB Debut)
The author is quoting his own grotesque self when he declares that Mets right-hander Noah Syndergaard has produced the lowest adjusted xFIP among qualified pitchers since the entire time during which that metric has been available. The author is quoting other people when he notes that Pirates right-hander Jameson Taillon, who’s scheduled to record his major-league debut tonight, is one of baseball’s top prospects. Or, is quoting other people from 2013, at least — i.e., the most recent season before this one during which Taillon accumulated even one professional inning. Taillon, now 24 years old, has been excellent this season after a two-year hiatus, producing the top strikeout- and walk-rate differential among all Triple-A qualifiers while also sitting at 94-96 mph.
Readers’ Preferred Television Broadcast: New York NL.
Two Other Brief Notes
Today’s Free Game
Today’s free game features Los Angeles AL at New York AL, starts at 19:05 ET, and can be accessed by means of this hyperlinked text.
Broadcaster Rankings
Recently, the author published the results of a crowdsourcing effort to rank the league’s television broadcasts according to the tastes of this site’s readers. The second installment of the results for radio broadcasters appeared here yesterday.
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.
| Away | SP | TM | GM | TM | SP | Home | Time | ||
| John Lackey | CHN | 8 | 7 | 7 | 3 | 8 | PHI | Vincent Velasquez | 13:05 |
| R.A. Dickey | TOR | 9 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 4 | DET | Jordan Zimmermann | 13:10 |
| Julio Teheran | ATL | 4 | 0 | 4 | 4 | 6 | SD | Drew Pomeranz | 15:40 |
| Jake Odorizzi | TB | 4 | 7 | 6 | 6 | 8 | AZ | Archie Bradley | 15:40 |
| Edinson Volquez | KC | 4 | 4 | 4 | 7 | 3 | BAL | Chris Tillman | 19:05 |
| Jered Weaver | LAA | 3 | 2 | 5 | 4 | 10 | NYA | Nathan Eovaldi | 19:05 |
| Noah Syndergaard | NYN | 10 | 6 | 8 | 6 | 10 | PIT | Jameson Taillon* | 19:05 |
| Jaime Garcia | STL | 5 | 6 | 4 | 3 | 1 | CIN | Alfredo Simon | 19:10 |
| Doug Fister | HOU | 3 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 10 | TEX | Yu Darvish | 20:05 |
| Wei-Yin Chen | MIA | 5 | 5 | 6 | 6 | 7 | MIN | Ricky Nolasco | 20:10 |
| Jesse Hahn | OAK | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | MIL | Chase Anderson | 20:10 |
| Max Scherzer | WAS | 10 | 7 | 6 | 3 | 3 | CHA | James Shields | 20:10 |
| Carlos Carrasco | CLE | 6 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 8 | SEA | Taijuan Walker | 22:10 |
| Chris Rusin | COL | 5 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 4 | LAN | Kenta Maeda | 22:10 |
| David Price | BOS | 8 | 8 | 7 | 5 | 7 | SF | Madison Bumgarner | 22:15 |
TM denotes team score.
GM denotes overall game score.
Highlighted portion denotes game of the day.
* = Fewer than 10 IP, NERD at discretion of clueless author.
Carson Cistulli has published a book of aphorisms called Spirited Ejaculations of a New Enthusiast.
Should I watch Taillon’s start if I own him on my fantasy team? I think that sounds fun.
I think you should watch Taillon’s start if you have functioning vision organs and enjoy baseball.
So your saying he’s the next Kershaw?
As I don’t see Kershaw listed among tonight’s starters, I think it’s a fair point.
It certainly helps that arguably the most interesting starter tonight, Syndergaard, will be in the same game as Taillon.
While Scherzer, Darvish, or anyone else may do something incredible tonight, none of those options holds as much appeal to me as watching a highly anticipated prospect make his major league debut in front of the league’s best center field camera.