NERD Game Scores: Tsuyoshi Wada Recon Opportunity

July 23, 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
San Diego at Chicago NL | 20:05 ET
Ian Kennedy (129.1 IP, 87 xFIP-, 2.3 WAR) faces Tsuyoshi Wada (113.2 IP, 25.9% K, 6.0% BB at Triple-A). That the latter has produced the second-best strikeout-walk differential among all qualified Triple-A pitchers is a matter of record. Precisely how he’s done that — as a 33-year-old who was considerably less effective last year in the minors and also throws just 90 mph — that’s a greater mystery. Wada’s major-league debut July 8th at Cincinnati was a success; he recorded a 3:1 strikeout-to-walk ratio against 19 batters over 5.0 scoreless innings (box).

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Chicago NL Television.

One Unhelpful, But Also Brief, Note
Regarding 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.

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.

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Away		SP	Tm.	Gm.	Tm.	SP		Home	Time
Trevor Bauer	CLE	6	7	5	4	4	MIN	Anthony Swarzak*	13:10
Mike Leake	CIN	6	2	5	6	5	MIL	Kyle Lohse	14:10
James Shields	KC	6	4	5	2	6	CHA	Jose Quintana	14:10
Stephen Strasburg	WAS	10	8	6	8	1	COL	Jorge de la Rosa	15:10
Anibal Sanchez	DET	5	4	4	5	2	AZ	Trevor Cahill	15:40
Bartolo Colon	NYN	5	2	5	5	7	SEA	Taijuan Walker*	15:40
Dan Haren	LAN	5	5	6	5	7	PIT	Francisco Liriano	19:05
Mad. Bumgarner	SF	9	6	6	3	3	PHI	A.J. Burnett	19:05
Yu Darvish	TEX	7	4	4	2	2	NYA	David Phelps	19:05
Clay Buchholz	BOS	4	3	6	6	9	TOR	R.A. Dickey	19:07
Nathan Eovaldi	MIA	8	7	8	7	8	ATL	Ervin Santana	19:10
Alex Cobb	TB	6	7	5	3	4	STL	Lance Lynn	19:15
Ian Kennedy	SD	7	4	8	5	11	CHN	Tsuyoshi Wada*	20:05
Chris Tillman	BAL	1	6	3	6	3	LAA	Jered Weaver	22:05
Brad Peacock	HOU	3	8	5	7	6	OAK	Jesse Chavez	22:05

To learn how Game NERD Scores are calculated, click here.
* = Fewer than 20 IP, NERD at discretion of very handsome author.