One Night Only: Previews for Weekend of May 27th

Shaun Marcum unfairly obscures the center-field batter’s eye with heavenly white light.

This edition of One Night Only contains:

1. Expanded previews for six games — including many italicized points.

2. Pitcher and Team NERD scores for every one of this weekend’s games (using the highly experimental and dangerous pitcher-heavy method discussed recently).

3. Matter over mind. Way over it.

Friday, May 27th
San Francisco (4) at Milwaukee (8) | 20:10 ET
• Per his Pitch F/x page, Shaun Marcum (7) is throwing five pitches more than 14.5% of the time.
• Regard: four-seam fastball (14.7%), changeup (34.3%), curveball (14.9%), two-seam fastball (14.6%), cut fastball (18.3%).
• He faces the barely imitable Tim Lincecum (9) tonight.

New York Americans (7) at Seattle (3) | 22:10 ET
• Per Baseball Reference, the average major-league attendance so far this seasons is 28,154, while the average away attendance for the Yankees is 31,770.
• That’s almost definitely not conclusive in any way.
• Regardless, it’s likely that more than 19,151 (i.e. the Mariners’ average in 2011) will watch Michael Pineda (10) face the Yankees.

Saturday, May 28th
Cleveland (10) at Tampa Bay (6) | 16:10 ET
• Carlos Carrasco (6) faces James Shields (9).
• Shields’ FIP and xFIP, respectively, in his May 22nd start (the 13 K one): 0.35 and 1.24.
• The whiff rates, respectively, on Shields’ change and curve in that game: 30.8% (on 39 thrown) and 25.9% (on 27).

St. Louis (5) at Colorado (9) | 19:10 ET
• Today marks the debut of young Juan Nicasio.
• Nicasio this year, at Double-A Tulsa: 56.2 IP, 10.01 K/9, 1.59 BB/9, 0.48 HR/9, 2.19 FIP.
• The internet declares these markets within the range of FOX’s broadcast of the present game: Albuquerque, Chicago, Denver, Las Vegas, Memphis, Milwaukee, New Orleans, Phoenix, Sacramento, Salt Lake City, San Diego, San Francisco, St. Louis.

Sunday, May 29th
Arizona (10) at Houston (2) | 14:05 ET
• Apparently, there’s no emoticon that means explicitly, “I want to sit on my couch and watch the hell out of Josh Collmenter pitching.”
• Nor for Bud Norris (9), either.
• Just kidding: I don’t really own a couch.

Kansas City (10) at Texas (6) | 15:05 ET
• Danny Duffy makes his third career start tonight.
• Line so far: 9.1 IP, 9.64 K/9, 8.68 BB/9, 39.1% GB.
• The very last bullet point in this post.

Also Playing
These games are very likely playing at some kind of sporty channel near you.

Friday:

Saturday:

Sunday:

pNERD = Pitcher NERD
tNERD = Team NERD
Game = Time and Average NERD for Game
* = Fewer than 20 IP, NERD of 5 (or 10 for debuts)