NERD Game Scores: Noah Syndergaard Thought Experiment

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
Kansas City at New York NL | 13:10 ET
Duffy (54.0 IP, 84 xFIP-) vs. Syndergaard (85.0 IP, 53 xFIP-)
During Dave Cameron’s most recent appearance on FanGraphs Audio, he and the host discuss the difficulties inherent to manual pitch classification when the pitch classifier lacks the benefit of velocity readings. The Mets’ Noah Syndergaard illustrates the point. For example, consider: his average changeup velocity sits somewhere between 90 and 91 mph, the hardest among any starter who throws the pitch. Now consider more: that changeup velocity approaches the median average velocity of all the sinkers thrown by major-league starters this season. Changeups and sinkers generally feature more pronounced arm-side and downward movement than four-seam fastballs. So Syndergaard’s changeup, one finds, likely bears greater resemblance to the average sinker than it does a changeup. “How would I classify it?” the reader might ask while observing Syndergaard’s start. “What is the precise depth of my sadness?” is another popular question for any living person, too.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: New York NL Television.

Two Other Brief Notes
Today’s Free Game
Today’s free game hadn’t been announced as of press time, but can be accessed by means of this hyperlinked text if and when it is.

Broadcaster Rankings
Recently, the present author facilitated a crowdsourcing effort to reproduce the broadcaster rankings which appeared on this site roughly four years ago. The results from that effort are published here in one easily digestible post.

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 22, 2016

Away		SP	TM	GM	TM	SP		Home	Time
John Gant	ATL	5	1	4	6	4	MIA	Adam Conley	12:10
Jon Gray	COL	10	4	5	4	2	NYA	CC Sabathia	13:05
Danny Duffy	KC	9	5	8	6	10	NYN	Noah Syndergaard	13:10
Matt Shoemaker	LAA	9	3	7	6	9	HOU	Lance McCullers	14:10
Michael Wacha	STL	7	6	7	6	8	CHN	Jake Arrieta	14:20
Junior Guerra	MIL	4	4	5	4	7	OAK	Daniel Mengden	15:35
Robbie Ray	AZ	7	6	5	6	3	TOR	J.A. Happ	16:07
Erik Johnson	SD	2	4	4	7	5	BAL	Ubaldo Jimenez	19:05
Jeff Samardzija	SF	6	5	5	5	4	PIT	Francisco Liriano	19:05
Jose Quintana	CHA	6	3	4	8	1	BOS	Eduardo Rodriguez	19:10
Hisashi Iwakuma	SEA	3	5	5	5	8	DET	Michael Fulmer	19:10
Chris Archer	TB	8	7	7	8	6	CLE	Trevor Bauer	19:10
Dan Straily	CIN	3	3	4	5	6	TEX	Cole Hamels	20:05
Adam Morgan	PHI	5	2	3	4	2	MIN	Kyle Gibson	20:10
Joe Ross	WAS	6	7	7	6	10	LAN	Julio Urias	22:10

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 wretched author.