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.

NERD Scores for June 08, 2016

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

SP denotes pitcher NERD score.
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.