NERD Game Scores: War of the Actual Roses Curiosity Event

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.

Most Highly Rated Game
New York AL at Houston | 20:10 ET
Warren (77.0 IP, 111 xFIP-) vs. Keuchel (107.1 IP, 77 xFIP-)
A flawed algorithm constructed by the author indicates that this game is today’s most compelling one for much the same reason that other recent games have been designated as those other days’ most compelling ones — namely, because of how it features the Houston Astros. As a club, Houston possesses the fourth-highest odds of qualifying for the divisional series among all major-league clubs — this, despite also possessing the league’s youngest collection of batters. Famously, American boxer Muhammad Ali announced at a press conference that he was young, handsome, fast, pretty, and couldn’t possibly be beat. At least one — but probably also fewer than all — of those descriptive elements apply to the current incarnation of the Astros.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Houston Radio.

Two Brief Notes
War of the Roses Curiosity Event
The War of the Roses, historically speaking, is the name given to a long-lasting contretemps between two rival English families in the 15th century. Less historically — but also more relevantly to baseball on on June 25, 2015 — it’s a nearly amusing designation for today’s encounter between Rubby de la Rosa and Jorge de la Rosa of the Arizona and Colorado baseball clubs, respectively. Unlike the original War of the Roses, today’s game won’t decide which family assumes control of England, but rather which club will continue to trail hardest in the National League West.

Today’s Free Game
Today’s free game features the same Arizona and Colorado clubs invoked above, starts at 15:10 ET, and 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. 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
Carlos Rodon	CHA	7	0	4	4	3	DET	Alfredo Simon	13:08
Miguel Gonzalez	BAL	4	6	5	4	7	BOS	Eduardo Rodriguez	13:35
Sonny Gray	OAK	7	5	5	3	3	TEX	Colby Lewis	14:05
Jacob deGrom	NYN	10	4	5	3	4	MIL	Taylor Jungmann	14:10
Carlos Frias	LAN	7	6	7	7	6	CHN	Jon Lester	14:20
Rubby de la Rosa	AZ	9	5	6	3	5	COL	Jorge de la Rosa	15:10
James Shields	SD	8	3	6	5	7	SF	Chris Heston	15:45
Matthew Wisler*	ATL	6	2	4	5	3	WAS	Doug Fister	16:05
Ant’ny DeSclafani	CIN	4	5	6	8	6	PIT	A.J. Burnett	19:05
Lance Lynn	STL	5	5	4	5	3	MIA	Dan Haren	19:10
Adam Warren	NYA	3	8	7	10	7	HOU	Dallas Keuchel	20:10

* = Fewer than 10 IP, NERD at discretion of very handsome author.