One Night Only: Game Previews for August 11th
Let’s cut to the chase, how’s about.
Featured Game
Detroit (2) at Cleveland (6) | 19:05 ET
• Allow me to remind the reader that, after some important work in the NERD Lab yesterday, today’s Game Scores are being calculated with a new and improved playoff-odds adjustment — the entirely boring and unnecessarily complicated details of which any English speaker with a computer can read here.
• If you’re the sort of reader who prefers cutting to the chase, remain confident that Carson Cistulli is dedicated to improving your baseball experience to the max.
• If you’re the sort of film director who prefers cutting to the chase, your name is probably Hal Roach Sr.
• And you directed the Our Gang movies, among others.
• And you died in 1992. (Which: condolences.)
Audio Feed: Suggestions? (I’ve watched some Tigers Television. Rod Allen is quite strong, but I wouldn’t describe the broadcast as transencdent, either.)
Also Playing
Here’s the complete schedule for all of today’s games, with our very proprietary watchability (NERD) scores for each one. Pitching probables and game times aggregated from MLB.com and RotoWire. The average NERD Game Score for today is 5.6.
Note: a full list of Team NERD scores — including the relevant playoff-odds adjustments (POFF) appear at the bottom of this post.
| Away | SP | Tm. | Gm. | Tm. | SP | Home | Time | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Danny Duffy | KC | 6 | 10 | 5 | 6 | 5 | TB | Jeff Niemann | 12:10 |
| Cory Luebke | SD | 10 | 6 | 8 | 6 | 9 | NYN | Jonathon Niese | 12:10 |
| Jhoulys Chacin | COL | 5 | 6 | 4 | 5 | 5 | CIN | Johnny Cueto | 12:35 |
| Guillermo Moscoso | OAK | 0 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 5 | TOR | Brad Mills* | 12:37 |
| Tyler Chatwood | LAA | 2 | 5 | 6 | 10 | 6 | NYA | Bartolo Colon | 13:05 |
| Jordan Zimmermann | WAS | 8 | 4 | 5 | 1 | 7 | CHN | Ryan Dempster | 14:20 |
| Mark Buehrle | CHA | 3 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 2 | BAL | Chris Tillman | 19:05 |
| Justin Verlander | DET | 10 | 2 | 10 | 6 | 5 | CLE | Fausto Carmona | 19:05 |
| Yovani Gallardo | MIL | 7 | 7 | 9 | 4 | 8 | STL | Chris Carpenter | 20:15 |
| Brett Myers | HOU | 5 | 3 | 5 | 9 | 2 | AZ | Joe Saunders | 21:40 |
NERD represents an attempt to anticipate the watchability of a game for the baseballing enthusiast.
To learn more about Pitcher NERD, click here and scroll down a little.
To learn more about latest Team NERD, click here.
To learn how Game NERD Scores are calculated, click here.
* = Fewer than 20 IP, NERD at discretion of very handsome author.
The complete Team NERD table. (Note: Team NERD Scores do not include POFF adjusted in last column):
| Teams | NERD | Age | BAT | HR/FB | Spd | BULL | UZR | Pay | Luck | POFF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Royals | 10 | 2.35 | 0.06 | -0.46 | 0.65 | -0.33 | 0.26 | 1.40 | 1.13 | -0.68 |
| Red Sox | 10 | 0.00 | 2.40 | 1.52 | 0.31 | 0.57 | 1.84 | 0.00 | 0.33 | -0.62 |
| Yankees | 10 | 0.00 | 1.96 | 1.42 | 1.67 | 0.57 | 0.60 | 0.00 | 0.00 | -0.63 |
| Diamondbacks | 9 | 0.52 | -0.16 | 0.91 | 0.82 | -0.03 | 2.23 | 0.97 | 0.00 | 1.32 |
| Marlins | 9 | 1.44 | -0.34 | 0.26 | -0.20 | 0.53 | -0.28 | 0.89 | 1.51 | -0.68 |
| Rangers | 8 | 0.00 | 1.60 | 1.40 | 0.99 | -0.30 | 0.72 | 0.02 | 0.00 | 0.65 |
| Brewers | 7 | 0.15 | 0.75 | 1.23 | -0.03 | 1.23 | 0.04 | 0.18 | 0.40 | 0.13 |
| Indians | 6 | 0.98 | -0.15 | 0.62 | -0.20 | -0.10 | -0.46 | 1.08 | 0.00 | 1.98 |
| Rays | 6 | 0.42 | 0.20 | 0.01 | 0.99 | -1.96 | 1.21 | 1.25 | 0.00 | -0.42 |
| Blue Jays | 6 | 0.24 | 0.50 | 0.19 | 0.65 | 0.53 | -0.61 | 0.75 | 0.00 | -0.65 |
| Padres | 6 | 0.52 | -0.82 | -1.11 | 1.67 | 0.43 | 0.10 | 1.16 | 0.00 | -0.61 |
| Rockies | 6 | 0.24 | -0.31 | 0.24 | 0.48 | 1.40 | 0.02 | 0.12 | 0.00 | -0.43 |
| Mets | 6 | 0.61 | 0.95 | -1.28 | 1.16 | 0.17 | -1.19 | 0.00 | 1.35 | -0.46 |
| Pirates | 5 | 1.53 | -1.20 | -0.82 | -0.20 | -0.10 | 0.22 | 1.15 | 0.00 | -0.56 |
| Reds | 5 | 0.00 | 0.23 | 0.65 | -0.71 | -0.43 | 1.83 | 0.41 | 0.00 | -0.40 |
| Angels | 5 | 0.00 | -0.40 | -0.43 | 0.48 | -0.60 | 1.26 | 0.00 | 1.58 | 2.10 |
| Braves | 4 | 0.06 | -0.36 | 1.35 | -2.07 | 2.07 | -1.05 | 0.15 | 0.69 | -0.15 |
| Dodgers | 4 | 0.00 | -0.77 | -1.06 | 0.31 | 0.03 | 0.16 | 0.00 | 2.00 | -0.65 |
| Nationals | 4 | 0.00 | -0.68 | 0.67 | 0.31 | -0.63 | -0.25 | 0.72 | 0.26 | -0.67 |
| Cardinals | 4 | 0.00 | 1.40 | 1.32 | -1.56 | -0.10 | -0.92 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 2.37 |
| Giants | 4 | 0.00 | -1.61 | -1.39 | -1.05 | 1.70 | 0.54 | 0.00 | 1.94 | 1.49 |
| Astros | 3 | 0.24 | -0.41 | -1.56 | 0.48 | 0.10 | -1.58 | 0.55 | 1.96 | -0.70 |
| Phillies | 3 | 0.00 | 0.01 | 0.12 | 0.82 | -0.67 | -0.67 | 0.00 | 0.08 | -0.69 |
| Tigers | 2 | 0.24 | 0.65 | -0.17 | -0.88 | -1.60 | -0.55 | 0.00 | 1.11 | 1.38 |
| Orioles | 2 | 0.24 | -0.14 | 0.57 | -1.73 | 0.07 | -2.07 | 0.19 | 1.26 | -0.70 |
| White Sox | 2 | 0.00 | -0.77 | -0.34 | -1.90 | 1.33 | -0.19 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.99 |
| Athletics | 1 | 0.00 | -0.59 | -1.45 | 0.14 | -0.17 | -0.59 | 0.65 | 0.00 | -0.67 |
| Cubs | 1 | 0.00 | -0.53 | 0.16 | -0.88 | -0.80 | -0.92 | 0.00 | 0.75 | -0.70 |
| Twins | 0 | 1.07 | -1.11 | -1.08 | -0.54 | -2.50 | 0.20 | 0.00 | 0.00 | -0.66 |
| Mariners | 0 | 0.00 | -1.95 | -1.47 | 0.14 | -0.43 | -0.05 | 0.16 | 0.26 | -0.70 |
Carson Cistulli has published a book of aphorisms called Spirited Ejaculations of a New Enthusiast.
Pitch NERD
……………..
J aime :
NIEMANN / TB / 3 @ 4 @ 5 today : 5
NIESE / NYM / 6 @ 7 @ 8 @ 9 today : 9
j aime pas :
CARMONA / CLE / 7 @ 6 @ 5 today : 5
Sorry, DET @ CLE is a 10??
I know we can’t just do (3*SP1 + 3*SP2 + T1+T2)/8 anymore to calculate this, but I still can’t figure out how that math works out to an avg > 9.5
Without considering POFFS that game is a 6.625. So 2.875 pts or greater are added by POFFS adjustment?
Looking at the teams table, I can see that might be the case, but… that seems much too strong.
Just an idea, instead of having 25% give you the highest POFFS score (Or something like that, I just skimmed yesterdays, apologies), wouldn’t a better metric be “how much of an influence on a teams playoff chances could this game have” Thus downplaying games earlier in the season and having much more exciting ones later on. Which seems to closer mimic reality.
I critique because I care.
If you can listen to WTAM (Indians radio) Tom Hamilton is one of the better radio voices in the game. Indians TV crew is another story.
Nanananananananananana……………………
Finally Telo you post something smart.
Go for the Indians’ broadcast if only because it IS so much worse. You’ll hear things like: “Solo HRs are okay because they prevent teams from starting a rally.” “Verlander is good because he knows how to win.” and “I know nothing about this guy, Matt, because I do no research even though it’s my job.” Only one of those is fake. Fun times in Cleveland today!
Why are there so many of us?
I find WXYT (detroit) perfectly acceptable. Dan Dickerson calls a good game, plus he reads FanGraphs and that’s gotta be worth something.
source: http://www.blessyouboys.com/2011/3/14/2047136/q-a-with-tigers-radio-announcer-dan-dickerson-part-1
I second the suggestion of WXYT, Dickerson is a solid announcer. Don’t mind Detroit’s TV crew either.