One Night Only: Game Previews for August 17th
Featured Game
Cleveland (6) at Chicago Americans (3) | 20:10 ET
• If you access the part of your brain responsible for memory, you’ll likely recall that Indians-White Sox was yesterday’s featured game here, as well.
• Then that thing up above happened.
• Video of which you can see here.
• Note that Hawk Harrelson narrates a bunch of that.
• Note that Hawk Harrelson will now narrate your dreams.
Audio Feed: Suggestions? We discussed White Sox and Indian radio yesterday. Is one better, though?
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 5.1.
The following Game Scores include the new and improved playoff-odds adjustment, which you can learn about in your brain by clicking here.
| Away | SP | Tm. | Gm. | Tm. | SP | Home | Time | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| David Price | TB | 10 | 6 | 7 | 10 | 4 | BOS | John Lackey | 13:35 |
| Casey Coleman | CHN | 0 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 7 | HOU | Bud Norris | 14:05 |
| Alfredo Simon | BAL | 5 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 7 | OAK | Brandon McCarthy | 15:35 |
| Dillon Gee | NYN | 3 | 5 | 4 | 6 | 8 | SD | Mat Latos | 18:35 |
| Joe Saunders | AZ | 2 | 9 | 6 | 3 | 10 | PHI | Cliff Lee | 19:05 |
| Johnny Cueto | CIN | 6 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 5 | WAS | Ross Detwiler* | 19:05 |
| Carl Pavano | MIN | 4 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 1 | DET | Brad Penny | 19:05 |
| Kyle Lohse | STL | 3 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 3 | PIT | Paul Maholm | 19:05 |
| Matt Cain | SF | 6 | 4 | 8 | 4 | 5 | ATL | Jair Jurrjens | 19:10 |
| Fausto Carmona | CLE | 5 | 6 | 9 | 3 | 3 | CHA | Mark Buehrle | 20:10 |
| Nathan Eovaldi* | LAN | 7 | 4 | 7 | 8 | 10 | MIL | Zack Greinke | 20:10 |
| Bartolo Colon | NYA | 6 | 10 | 4 | 10 | 2 | KC | Bruce Chen | 20:10 |
| Ricky Nolasco | FL | 7 | 8 | 4 | 7 | 2 | COL | Aaron Cook | 20:40 |
| C.J. Wilson | TEX | 6 | 8 | 7 | 5 | 7 | LAA | Ervin Santana | 22:05 |
| Brandon Morrow | TOR | 10 | 7 | 5 | 0 | 4 | SEA | Blake Beavan | 22:10 |
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.
Carson Cistulli has published a book of aphorisms called Spirited Ejaculations of a New Enthusiast.
I feel Buehrle shouldn’t be a 3 on NERD. I know he’s not flashy, but there’s something astetically pleasing about someone who works that fast, and conversely, unappealing when one works slow. Ever thought about including an average time component in NERD?
This is a good idea. Take a pitcher like Josh Beckett for example, who’s actually pretty good, but is completely unwatchable.
If there were a time adjustment, there’d probably never be a Yankees-Red Sox game above a 5.
Huh. Yeah, I’ve played with this idea — maybe before we had all the data on the site.
I’ll look into it. Just don’t expect anything immediately, on account of I’m lacking the Competence department.
Is there an average game time for starting pitchers available?
If so, it can be done somewhat easily. For instance, say that the average game time is 2.5 hours and Josh Beckett, since he was already mentioned, pitches games that last an average of three hours. So we multiply his score by 2.5/3.
What about a “general funkiness” discretionary category? I still think Josh Collmenter should get a bonus for that…
@DbacksSkins: Collmenter obviously deserves some sort of bonus. How exactly to implement that is the question. This might fall under the category of NERD Scouting.
There might be a way to do it by looking at release points in Pitch F/x, but that’s unlikely — and, even if it is possible, is something I’m assuredly not equipped to handle.
I really love the split on the Blue Jays – Mariners game. The Mariners on a non-Felix or Pineda night are so bad that they make a game with a 7 team and 10 pitcher league-average programming.
Also: Bruce Chen.
Nathan Eovaldi got a 7 at your discretion simply for that last name, correct?
As soon as I find it, I’ll push the button that blocks you from commenting, Bryz.
Dead. Meat.
I always assumed I’d say something a little more inflammatory to get myself banned….
I do like the POFF adjustment, but, an idea to consider:
Some nights I may just want to watch good baseball, regardless of the playoff implications. “Quality Baseball” and the current score may not always be compatible as it gives credence to the importance of the game. I’m not proposing a solution (2 scores?) but just something to think about as you head into the offseason to refine and improve upon this.
The White Sox radio feed (Ed Farmer and Darren Jackson) is not strong, but it won’t make your ears bleed like listening to Harrelson. They might teach you something but probably not. If you could mute Hawk and just listen to Steve Stone on the TV side that would be great but I don’t think the technology doesn’t exist.