One Night Only: Game Previews for August 9th
The author is not a wizard, turns out.
Featured Game
Milwaukee (8) at St. Louis (7) | 20:15 ET
• Since July 12th, when I made the case that Milwaukee could improve itself most efficiently and cheaply by trading for a shortstop, Yuniesky Betancourt has slashed .388/.405/.575 (.412 BABIP) in 84 plate appearances — this, after slashing .237/.255/.342 (.242 BABIP) in the 321 PAs up till that point.
• Coinicidence? Yes, obviously.
• I promise you, if I possessed the ability to alter world events, I’d use it almost exclusively for personal gain.
• Like, to get big muscles, probably.
• Not on my body, I mean — just to have around the house.
Audio Feed: Brewers Radio.
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 5.8.
| Away | SP | Tm. | Gm. | Tm. | SP | Home | Time | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dan Haren | LAA | 7 | 8 | 6 | 6 | 5 | NYA | A.J. Burnett | 19:05 |
| Gavin Floyd | CHA | 5 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 3 | BAL | Jo-Jo Reyes | 19:05 |
| Doug Fister | DET | 4 | 5 | 6 | 9 | 7 | CLE | Justin Masterson | 19:05 |
| Rich Harden | OAK | 7 | 2 | 5 | 5 | 4 | TOR | Brett Cecil | 19:07 |
| Brandon Beachy | ATL | 8 | 5 | 6 | 6 | 5 | FL | Clay Hensley* | 19:10 |
| Esmil Rogers | COL | 4 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 5 | CIN | Dontrelle Willis | 19:10 |
| Jeff Francis | KC | 4 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 8 | TB | James Shields | 19:10 |
| Wade LeBlanc | SD | 3 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 6 | NYN | Chris Capuano | 19:10 |
| Michael Pineda | SEA | 10 | 1 | 7 | 7 | 7 | TEX | Alexi Ogando | 20:05 |
| Chien-Ming Wang* | WAS | 5 | 3 | 6 | 2 | 10 | CHN | Matt Garza | 20:05 |
| Erik Bedard | BOS | 7 | 7 | 5 | 2 | 4 | MIN | Francisco Liriano | 20:10 |
| Shaun Marcum | MIL | 6 | 8 | 7 | 7 | 8 | STL | Edwin Jackson | 20:15 |
| Jordan Lyles | HOU | 7 | 3 | 6 | 9 | 4 | AZ | Jason Marquis | 21:40 |
| Cliff Lee | PHI | 10 | 3 | 7 | 4 | 6 | LAN | Ted Lilly | 22:10 |
| James McDonald | PIT | 4 | 4 | 7 | 6 | 10 | SF | Madison Bumgarner | 22:15 |
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 find it shocking that Ted Lilly has a NERD of 6 this season.
He’s getting a some help right now from bad luck, so he’s a 5, basically.
To his credit, Lilly throws A LOT of strikes — 67.9%. That places him fourth in the majors (among pitchers with >20 IP starting) behind only Cliff Lee, Roy Halladay, and Scott Baker.
He’s not feature material, necessarily, but if he’s one starter in an otherwise interesting game, he won’t ruin it.