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

1. Assorted Headlines
2. Table: Nick Johnson’s Walk Rate in Context
3. Three Images: Venezuelan Winter League Championship Series

Assorted Headlines
Johnson Announces Retirement
Former Yankees and Expos and Nationals first baseman Nick Johnson has retired, reports Sweeny Murti of New York’s WFAN. A legitimate offensive force when healthy, Johnson was frequently injured and amassed just 200 major-league plate appearances between 2010-12. A notably patient batter, he was among the league’s leaders in walk percentage over the course of his career — a claim that the author has supposed by means of nicely appointed table below.

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The Marlins Top 15 list has a little bit of everything and the organization boasts some impressive arms. There are three left-handed starters on the list that have the potential to develop into No. 3 starters, if not better. The overall depth of the system is improving but it’s still not quite where I’d like it to be.

#1 Jose Fernandez (P)

Fernandez, just 20, dominated two levels of A-ball in 2012. The 14th overall pick during the 2011 amateur draft, the right-hander was considered an advanced high school arm but he’s been even better than advertised. He struck out 158 batters with just 35 walks in 134 combined innings last season. He has a four-pitch repertoire that includes a mid-to-high-90s fastball, plus changeup and two very good breaking balls in a curveball and slider.

Although he’s very advanced for his age, a contact I spoke with says Fernandez still has some work to do, including, “Learning how to pitch, reading hitters swings, and a better understanding of pitch sequences,” the talent evaluator said. The young hurler also has so many weapons at his disposal that he needs to learn when it’s appropriate to use each one for maximum effectiveness. Fernandez has a durable frame and should be able to provide 200+ innings with ease at the big league level. He will, though, have to watch his conditioning to prevent getting too big around the middle. Read the rest of this entry »

Ben and Sam preview the Orioles’ season with Derek Carty, and Pete talks to MLB.com Orioles reporter Brittany Ghiroli (at 13:22).

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This afternoon, it was reported that the Rays will ink Kelly Johnson to a one-year deal. It’s an interesting match, as Johnson provides the Rays with the one thing that they like — a player who has been very good in the past but who still comes at a modest cost. He also gives Tampa manager Joe Maddon the thing that he likes best — options.

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This is a post with two potential introductions. We will deploy both one of them. By our numbers, a year ago, Michael Young was worth -1.4 WAR. He’s going to be a starter for the Phillies. A year ago, Ryan Howard was worth -1.0 WAR. He’s going to be a starter for the Phillies. A year ago, Delmon Young was worth -0.7 WAR. He’s supposedly going to be a starter for the Phillies. A year ago, Chone Figgins was worth -1.0 WAR. By reports, the Phillies are the last team to have expressed some interest. A year ago, Joe Mather was worth -1.5 WAR. He’ll be in Phillies camp on a minor-league deal. A year ago, Yuniesky Betancourt was worth -0.8 WAR. He’ll be in Phillies camp on a minor-league deal.

It’s misleading to present the numbers like that, but it’s also powerful. The Phillies are going to have a lot of talent on their roster, but they could also have a lot of players coming off really bad seasons. For now, it doesn’t mean much that Mather and Betancourt will be in camp, because they’re on minor-league contracts, and minor-league contracts are effectively harmless. But the risk is that a bad player on a minor-league contract can end up on the major-league roster, and as you’ve figured out, I’m using this as the latest opportunity to write about Yuniesky Betancourt, the extraordinary underachiever.

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I swear I’ve posted almost all of my instructs reports. From Phillies camp, I’ve got two of the top three picks from the most recent draft, both multi-sport athletes as the Phillies are notorious for drafting.

Mitch Gueller was the 54th overall pick (sandwich round) in June from a Washington state high school that signed for slot, nearly $950,000. Gueller was a high school quarterback and also played basketball, so his solid-average speed and athleticism stood out, along with his 6’3, 215 pound frame and fastball that peaked at 95 mph. Unfortunately, it appeared Gueller was fatigued the two times I saw him in instructs as his velo was down and he had more command issues and trouble repeating his delivery than he should.

The first time I saw him, he was facing Gerrit Cole (report) and while Cole was busy hitting 101 mph, Gueller was a more workmanlike 87-89 mph. He spotted his fastball well early, wasn’t afraid to come inside and he kept the ball down. Gueller was throwing a four-seamer that didn’t move much and as he lost his release point, tried throwing a cutter, sinker and slider, all of which weren’t working. The second time I saw Gueller he was much more crisp, sitting 89-90 mph and showing a usable cutter and slider. Gueller’s slider was 81-83 mph and showed average potential and 12-to-6 tilt with late, short bite. His changeup was a solid pitch, also showing average potential in both outing at 79-82 mph with more sink than fade but good deception and arm speed.

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The Los Angeles Dodgers announced this morning the creation of a new cable television network that will broadcast all Dodgers games and other Dodgers-related programming beginning in the 2014 season. The network, to be called SportsNetLA, will be operated by American Media Productions or AMP, a newly-formed subsidiary of the Dodgers’ ownership group. Time Warner Cable (TWC) will carry the new network in Los Angeles and Hawaii and pay the Dodgers between $7 billion and $8 billion over 25 years for that privilege.

“We concluded last year that the best way to give our fans what they want — more content and more Dodger baseball — was to launch our own network,” Dodgers chairman Mark Walter said in a prepared statement. “The creation of AMP will provide substantial financial resources over the coming years for the Dodgers to build on their storied legacy and bring a world championship home to Los Angeles.”

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Last week, the Diamondbacks traded Justin Upton to the Braves for Martin Prado and a collection of unexciting prospects. The trade was not particularly well received, and the response didn’t get any more positive in the aftermath, as members of the Diamondbacks organization explained that Upton’s personality wasn’t really what they were looking for.

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At this writing, the biggest baseball news of the last few days is that the Brewers haven’t ruled out signing free-agent starter Kyle Lohse. Or maybe it’s that the Mariners are reportedly getting closer to signing Kelly Shoppach, or maybe it’s that Jair Jurrjens might or might not pitch for the Netherlands in the WBC. There are still important things that could happen, but none of them have just happened, which is why you’re presently reading a FanGraphs article about position players pitching toward the end of January.

The thing about position players pitching is that it’s not supposed to happen. It happens very infrequently, but it does happen, and from those things that happen that shouldn’t, we’re often able to learn. Over the past five years, covering the PITCHf/x era, pitchers have thrown well beyond 200,000 major-league innings. Non-pitchers, by my count, have thrown 42 major-league innings. We’re talking about the difference between well more than three million pitches, and just more than 700 pitches. What can we see when we poke around? And I mean aside from the fact that non-pitchers are terrible at pitching.

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