Heading into the 2008 draft, Baseball America concluded their scouting report on Long Beach State right-hander Vance Worley by saying this:

Command is the primary concern with Worley, not in terms of walks but in quality of pitches and efficiency, as he frequently finds himself in deep counts. With refinement of his secondary offerings, he could develop into a mid-rotation starter in pro ball, but his power arm makes a conversion to the bullpen a solid option.

Worley had struggled in his junior season at LBSU, but had impressed enough in the Cape Cod League the summer before that the Phillies ended up selecting him in the third round of that 2008 draft. After a two start stint in the short-season New York Penn League, he finished he season at low-A Lakewood and pitched pretty well, running a 53/7 K/BB ratio in 61 innings. Of course, as a college pitcher facing a string of teenagers, anything less would have been a significant disappointment.

The Phillies moved him up to Double-A in 2009, a more appropriate level of competition for a guy with his experience. This didn’t go so well. He threw 153 mediocre innings, walked 49 batters, struck out just 100, and gave up 17 home runs on the way to posting a 4.39 FIP and 5.34 ERA. His 15.2% strikeout rate was perhaps the most alarming sign, as guys who don’t miss bats in the minors generally don’t make successful conversions as they climb the ladder.

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In the FanGraphs Guts! page, you’ll now find a bunch of component park factors, included park factors by handedness.

All park factors are calculated using this 5 year regressed version.

Knowledgeable baseball fans clamor for rankings of farm systems every offseason. Experts’ opinions are highly coveted, as fans eagerly await information on where their team’s prospects rank. This year, Baseball America ranked the Rangers atop its list, with the Royals just behind them. On the other hand, The White Sox’ and Indians’ farm systems were ranked at the bottom.

This year’s rankings saw big spenders like the Phillies, Dodgers and Tigers in the bottom-third in baseball, while the top-third included some teams with the lightest payrolls — like Rays, A’s and Padres. Obviously fans want their teams to be big spenders on veterans — and big farmers of young talent — but which is more important? What does a good ranking mean in the win and loss columns, and how much can payroll explain that performance?

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Table of Contents
Here’s the table of contents for today’s edition of Daily Notes.

1. Crowdsourcing Radio Broadcasters: The First 29 Ballots
2. Final Radio Crowdsourcing Ballot: Arizona
3. Today’s Notable Games (Including MLB.TV Free Game)
4. Today’s Complete Schedule

Crowdsourcing Radio Broadcasters: The First 29 Ballots
Recently, we released the results of our television broadcaster rankings — itself the product of reader crowdsourcing that started in late November. Now, FanGraphs is asking readers to rate the radio broadcast teams for all 30 major-league clubs (Click here for more on this project.)

Voting for radio broadcasts will end at approximately noon on Sunday.

Below are links to the first 29 ballots (in the order they were made available), accompanied by the total number of ballots cast (as of last night) for each.

Washington: 132
Toronto: 287
Texas: 70
Tampa Bay: 79
Seattle: 111

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The Dodgers have been the talk of the baseball world this season, with the $2 billion sale of the organization and their league-best 17-8 record. However, as well as the team has played, they actually stand to improve their offense with a simple lineup tweak: Move Dee Gordon in front of the pitcher and bat A.J. Ellis near the top of the lineup.

By batting him eighth, the Dodgers are not optimally utilizing Ellis’s on-base proficiency.

Sure, some of his ability to draw walks so far is tied to his lineup spot. He’s a patient hitter regardless of where he bats — but batters in that position tend to get intentionally walked or unintentionally-intentionally walked more often than those in other spots. Even so, the difference in on base percentage between Ellis and Gordon is still substantial after accounting for those lineup effects.

The Dodgers are leaving runs on the table by batting an OBP-sinkhole in front of Matt Kemp and Andre Ethier. The situation is exacerbated by the fact that their eighth hitter has a .449 OBP and projects to finish at around .390.

While the overall effects of lineup optimization are negligible over the course of the season, effectively swapping Ellis and Gordon will help increase their scoring output and stave off some offensive dropoff when Kemp and Ethier regress.

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After seeing the nearly unanimous reaction of sadness to the news of Mariano Rivera’s injury, I began to wonder what other athletes in history had this kind of widespread affection at the time they were playing. There are certainly people who are looked back on now with great fondness and respect, but it is human nature to emphasize the good qualities of the past, and people are rarely seen in such a positive light at the time they are in the spotlight.

Rivera’s stature is that of a beloved living legend, and I don’t know a single person who responded in any way besides sadness when they heard that he had a torn ACL. This is not something I’ve ever experienced before in watching sports. So, I’m curious about the larger perspective. How do you perceive Rivera now relative to some of the other players during their playing days who were often talked about with reverence and widespread respect?

Poll after the jump.

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The Yankees were beaten by the Kansas City Royals tonight, but the real loss occurred before the game, when Mariano Rivera slipped shagging balls during BP and had to be carted off the field. Addressing the media after the game, Joe Girardi confirmed the worst – Rivera has a torn ACL and will miss the remainder of the 2012 season.

Little needs to be said about Rivera. He’s the best reliever of all time, and even at an age where most pitchers are long retired, he remains one of the dominant relief aces in the sport. Perhaps just as amazing as his consistent excellence has been his durability, as he’s thrown 60+ innings in every season of his career save one. He has appeared in 1,041 games, seventh most all time, and ranks 14th all time in innings pitched by a reliever. Among relievers with at least 500 career innings, Rivera’s 2.05 ERA is easily the best ever.

For baseball’s sake, let’s hope Rivera’s career does not end this way. At 42-years-old, he’s hinted at retirement as a possibility after this season, but you can’t imagine that this is how he wants to go out. This shouldn’t be how one of the truly great careers of all time ends.

For the Yankees, they have options – David Robertson is very good, Rafael Soriano has been an excellent closer before, and the tandem of Cory Wade and Boone Logan can be effective middle relievers. But, there’s no replacing Rivera. Even if they go out on the trade market to bring in another arm, they’re not going to get a guy in Rivera’s league. While relievers in general are often overrated, Mariano Rivera is not. He’s the best at what he does, and now the Yankees will have to find someone else to protect 9th inning leads.

The Yankees can survive this, but losing Rivera is a significant blow.

Episode 176
David Laurila, curator of FanGraphs’ Q&A Series, asks left-handed Oakland A’s reliever Brian Fuentes to respond to notable quotations of famous French general Napoleon Bonaparte.

Don’t hesitate to direct pod-related correspondence to @cistulli on Twitter.

You can subscribe to the podcast via iTunes or other feeder things.

Audio after the jump. (Approximately 15 min. play time.)

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Last night, Jered Weaver threw the 274th no-hitter in baseball history — or so the stories say. There have been two no-hitters so far this year, and ten so far in this young decade. Half of them came in 2010, the year whose no-hit frequency led some to dub it “The Year of the Pitcher.”

And, indeed, the five regular-season no-hitters thrown in 2010 (along with a sixth, by Roy Halladay, in the playoffs) mark it as one of the no-hittiest years in history. The five regular season no-nos tie it for third place, with 1962, 1968, 1973, and 1991, and the six overall tie it for second place with 1969. (Of course, many will remember that there almost was — and should have been — a seventh.) But the most of all were thrown in 1990: eight overall. The frequency of no-hitters per year hasn’t increased, except with respect to the historically anomalous 2000’s.

Data here and throughout compiled from baseball-reference play index and MLB.com’s no-hitter registry.
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