I launched the site early 2017 and listed games from 2016 if you want to catch something older, and have also been listing each day’s best games the day after, plus weekly and monthly bests. Hope you can enjoy!

The rankings do move around a bit from game to game. After good outings last night from David Price and Johnny Cueto, all previous games involving them have moved up in the rankings. Price’s start against the Blue Jays on April 16 has ticked up to 7th on the list. I like though that as players perform well, overlooked games from earlier in the season start to rise to the surface. One of the best-ranked games from last year was on April 6 — Corey Kluber vs Dallas Keuchel. It takes on more importance in retrospect when Keuchel emerges with a Cy Young season.

One of the problems I have with ranking games based on metrics like average leverage index is that those metrics tend to highlight certain ‘types’ of games. Games with high average leverage index tend to be either extra-inning games or low-scoring pitchers’ duels. Games with high ‘comeback’ ratings tend to be high-scoring games that drag on for 4 hours. Games with a high championship leverage index tend to feature two 83-79 teams fighting it out for the last wild card spot. After a while you get bored of watching these types of games. I’d rather watch two 97-65 teams go at it, with their best pitchers on the mound, and I don’t mind if the score is 5-1 (low average leverage index) and both teams are leading their divisions by 10 games (low championship leverage index).

I think you get around these issues by combining several different metrics, although of the top 9 games on your list for this season, 7 of the 9 went extra innings, and the two 9-inning games had scores of 9-7 and 12-10.

I’m very happy you’re running this list every day, and I look forward to watching some of these games. The links to the video highlights and baseball reference pages are a nice touch as well.

As for time of game, I’m not sure I agree that shorter is always better. I’ve personally enjoyed many long and short games, but I don’t think it is the time of game that makes it enjoyable. Sure, if a game is 4 hours long and never close, I will agree that it isn’t enjoyable But that is already dealt with in the current method.

This year I have taken a different approach, and ranked the games based on who actually played in them (inspired by this article: http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-best-mlb-all-star-teams-ever/). The formula is just the sum of ((plate appearances or batters faced) x WAR) for both teams, divided by total plate appearances for both teams in the game. Based on this measure, the best game of the 2015 season was the Cubs/Pirates one-game playoff on October 7 (Jake Arrieta vs Gerrit Cole) — 67 plate appearances with a weighted average WAR of 7.95 (I believe I used Fangraphs’ FIP-based WAR for the calculation).

The benefit of this approach is that the highest-rated games feature the best pitchers going deep into the game, and the star players are in the lineup (rather than taking a day off). The drawback is that the starting pitcher faces ~25 batters per game, and has a much bigger impact on the game’s weighted average WAR than an individual position player.

Here’s the top 10 for 2016 so far (using Fangraphs’ FIP-based WAR, which explains why the Marlins/Mets game tops the list — Jose Fernandez has a 4.37 ERA but a 2.42 FIP). The list is dominated by Noah Syndergaard and the Cubs.

Rk. Date: Wtd WAR (Score: gameday blurb)
1. April 12: 0.56 (Marlins 2 at Mets 1: Martin Prado recorded the go-ahead pinch-hit sacrifice fly in the eighth as the Marlins have beaten the Mets twice in a row. Noah Syndergaard struck out 12 batters in seven innings, while Jose Fernandez settled down after a shaky start to retire 10 straight through five frames.)

2. April 18: 0.56 (Mets 5 at Phillies 2: David Wright hit his first and second homers of the year to back another dominant Noah Syndergaard start — eight strikeouts over seven innings — in the Mets’ win over the Phillies at Citizens Bank Park. Philadelphia starter Jerad Eickhoff was sharp as well, allowing two runs on five hits and while striking out nine over seven innings. Lucas Duda and Neil Walker hit back-to-back solo shots in the eighth.)

3. April 19: 0.53 (Cubs 2 at Cardinals 1: Jason Hammel was sharp over six innings and paced the offense with a two-run knock as the Cubs took a 2-0 lead in the rivalry series. Yadier Molina’s booming RBI triple off the left-field wall was the only damage against Hammel and the Cubs, who also turned an inning-ending double play at the plate on an amazing throw from Jason Heyward.)

4. April 8: 0.51 (Cubs 2 at Diamondbacks 3: D-backs slugger Paul Goldschmidt tied things up in the eighth and then Yasmany Tomas singled home pinch-runner Chris Owings with the game-winning run in the ninth to hand the Cubs their first loss. Chicago threatened to break things open in the fifth when it had runners on the corners with no outs, but after Ben Zobrist struck out, Arizona turned a 3-2-5-2-6-9 double play.)

5. April 15: 0.49 (White Sox 1 at Rays 0: Chris Sale allowed only two hits and struck out nine en route to a shutout in the White Sox 1-0 win over the Rays. Rays starter Jake Odorizzi was sharp as well, striking out six over seven scoreless innings. Melky Cabrera plated the only run of the game on a single in the top of the ninth off Alex Colome. The win was the White Sox fifth in a row.)

6. April 25: 0.49 (Reds 3 at Mets 5: In the seventh, after Michael Conforto and Lucas Duda backed Noah Syndergaard with deep flies, Mets newcomer Neil Walker hit the club’s third tiebreaking homer of the night, his eighth of the season, to finish the Reds. Joey Votto’s tying hit in the seventh was spoiled.)

7. April 17: 0.44 (Giants 1 at Dodgers 3: Kenta Maeda limited the Giants to one run on four hits and fanned seven to outduel Jeff Samardzija, who took a hard-luck loss after giving up three runs in six-plus innings. Joc Pederson’s two-run homer proved the difference as the Dodgers won the three-game series to take over first place in the NL West.)

8. April 15: 0.44 (Giants 3 at Dodgers 7: Enrique Hernandez homered twice and doubled for four RBIs off Madison Bumgarner and Clayton Kershaw held the Giants to two earned runs over seven frames to take the opener of the three-game clash between NL West rivals. San Francisco’s defense made it tough on its ace, committing three errors.)

9. April 5: 0.44 (Mets 2 at Royals 0: Noah Syndergaard was in no mood to celebrate after the Royals received their World Series rings, striking out nine over six innings and clamping down whenever K.C. threatened. Neil Walker’s homer, the Mets’ first of the season, was the difference.)

10. April 9: 0.43 (Cubs 4 at Diamondbacks 2: D-backs ace Zack Greinke was outpitched by the Cubs’ Kyle Hendricks, who gave p four hits in 6 2/3 innings, fanning five. The offense gave him plenty of support, particularly Ben Zobrist, who went 3-for-4 with a double, two singles, an RBI, a walk and a run scored. Greinke struggled with command, giving up four runs in six innings, including three in the first frame, but he did strike out eight.)