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

1. Sexy Regressed August Leaderboards
2. Today’s Notable Games (Including MLB.TV Free Game)
3. Today’s Complete Schedule

Sexy Regressed August Leaderboards
Regarding a “Sexy Regressed Leaderboard,” What That Is
In the not very distant past, the author submitted — as a prelude to a series of posts on college summer leagues — he submitted an entirely infallible and also sexy method by which to present responsibly both batting and pitching production regardless of sample size.

Regarding the Method in Question, A Short Description of It
Essentially, what the author did was to (a) take the strikeout, walk, and (for hitters) home-run rates of every player in the relevant sample, (b) regress them accordingly, and (c) produce a number that looks either like wRC+ (for hitters) or ERA- (for pitchers).

Regarding That Method, A Slightly More Thorough Description of It
For the purposes of these sexy leaderboards, offensive production (represented as the totally made-up SCOUT+, where 100 is league average and above 100 is above average) is essentially a version of wRC+, except using the three main defense-independent inputs (home-run, walk, and strikeout rate), all regressed duly*. Pitching performance (represented by the also entirely made-up SCOUT-, where 100 is league average and below 100 represents above-average run prevention) is calculated using a version of kwERA, with regressed strikeout and walk rates as the relevant inputs.

Regarding That Method, The Most Thorough Description of It
Click this hyperlinked text to read the most thorough description of the method discussed here.

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Episode 231
David Laurila, curator of FanGraphs’ Q&A Series, discusses all manner of advanced baseball analysis with Angels left-hander C.J. Wilson.

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

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Audio after the jump. (Approximately 12 min. play time.)

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The author attended Wednesday night’s game — or, at least, the first eight innings of it — between the Class A Midwest League affiliates of the Minnesota Twins (the Beloit Snappers) and Chicago Cubs (the Peoria Chiefs) in Beloit, Wisconsin. Below are some notes on same.

Please note: none of what follows constitutes Official Prospect Analysis.

Regarding Miguel Sano and Jorge Soler
Miguel Sano and Jorge Soler are presently the most high-profile prospects on Beloit and Peoria, respectively, the former having been ranked 27th by Marc Hulet on his (i.e. Hulet’s) midseason top-50 prospect list and the latter having signed a nine-year, $30 million contract with the Cubs after having defected from Cuba earlier this year.

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

1. Arbitrary Endpoint Leaderboards: August So Far
2. Today’s Notable Games (Including MLB.TV Free Game)
3. Today’s Complete Schedule

Aribitrary Endpoint Leaderboards: August So Far
The Arbitrary Endpoint Leaderboards, What They Are
The Arbitrary Endpoint Leaderboards represent an attempt to compensate for the influence of early season narratives, which — likely owing to a cogntive bias known as the primacy effect — are often quite powerful and can obscure more recent, notable performances. (Note: this was discussed — albeit not in great depth — recently in these same pages.)

The Arbitrary Endpoint Leaderboards, What Else They Are
The Arbitrary Endpoint Leaderboards also represent an opportunity for the author to build most or all of a post around what’s little more than a regular leaderboard from the present site, rendered into the form of an internet table.

Regarding This Situation, What a Person Might Call It
It’s possible that a native English speaker might refer to what’s happening here as a “win-win” situation.

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Episode 230
New FanGraphs contributor and longtime (in Internet Years, at least) curator of Mariners SB Nation site Lookout Landing Jeff Sullivan discusses volcanoes, for which subject (i.e. volcanoes) he possesses a great deal of enthusiasm.

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 40 min. play time.)

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

1. Featured Game: Miami at Arizona, 15:40 ET
2. Other Notable Games (Including MLB.TV Free Game)
3. Today’s Complete Schedule

Featured Game: Miami at Arizona, 15:40 ET
Regarding This Game, Why It’s Notable
This game between Miami and Arizona is notable mostly on account of it represents the major-league debut of top prospect Tyler Skaggs.

Regarding Tyler Skaggs, Who That Is
Tyler Skaggs is a 21-year-old left-hander (although, because of his July birthday, one currently in just his age-20 season) originally taken 40th overall by the Angels in 2009 from a California high school. He came to the Diamondbacks as part of the trade that sent Dan Haren to Anaheim in 2010.

Regarding Tyler Skaggs, His Place in Various Rankings
Our Marc Hulet ranked Skaggs 11th overall among all prospects in March and 11th overall among all prospects on his midseason top-50 list. Baseball America ranked Skaggs 13th overall on their preseason list and seventh on their midseason list. John Sickels of Minor League Ball ranked Skaggs 23rd overall in February and then 20th overall on his midseason review.

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

1. Update: Trade-Deadline Players
2. Today’s Notable Games (Including MLB.TV Free Game)
3. Today’s Complete Schedule

Update: Trade-Deadline Players
Regarding What We Do Periodically
Periodically, in the Daily Notes, we become troublingly intimate with the idea of our own mortality and weep silently, inconsolably until the dawn light.

Regarding What Else We Do Periodically
Also periodically, in these Notes, we revisit the players who were traded at the July 31st deadline and make note of their performances since those trades.

Hyperlinks of Note
Click this hyperlinked text to see a custom leaderboard of all the players traded within a week of this year’s July 31st trade deadline. Click this other hyperlinked text for the pitchers who match that same description.

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Episode 229
FanGraphs managing editor Dave Cameron, as per usual, makes his weekly appearance on FanGraphs Audio and analyzes all baseball.

Discussed:
• Against the guest’s will, 27-year-old Cincinnati right-handed minor-leaguer Todd Redmond and his invisi-ball.
• Starlin Castro’s contract extension, why the Cubs did that.
• The 19-inning Pittsburgh-St. Louis game and the NL Wild Card race, generally.

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 30 min. play time.)

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“We always give him (grief) because he’s got the invisi-ball,” said Kris Medlen, who played with Redmond in Gwinnett this year and Double-A Mississippi in 2008. “He always goes seven or eight innings, but he throws these belt-high to belly button-high 90 mph (fastballs). If I threw them they’d get crushed but it doesn’t. Some things you can’t explain.”

— David O’Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, June 17, 2012

Todd Redmond’s major-league debut this past Saturday wasn’t what even the most forgiving of Mr. Redmond’s supporters would describe as a “rousing success.” The 27-year-old right-hander allowed four runs and seven hits in just 3.1 innings before getting relieved by Alfredo Simon. Nor were his defense-independent numbers any kinder: with his 2:5 strikeout-to-walk ratio and mere five grounders induced (of 15 batted-balls total), Redmond posted a decidedly poor 9.06 xFIP for the game (box).

Despite all his problems, however, it’s notable — one might even say “shocking,” were one in the appropriate mood — that Redmond finished the game with an above-average run value (+0.6 total, +0.9 per 100 thrown) on his fastball, a pitch he threw 65 times and constituted 71% of his 91 total pitches for the game. Conversely, Redmond’s change and slider — which he threw just a combined 25 times — were worth about 3.8 negative runs.

Indeed, Redmond induced swinging strikes on 10 of those 65 fastballs (15.4%) — this, while the league-average swinging-strike rate on four-seam fastballs sits at just 7.0%.

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

1. Featured Feature: Sunday’s Best Pitch, Probably
2. Today’s Notable Games (Including MLB.TV Free Game)
3. Today’s Complete Schedule

Featured Feature: Sunday’s Best Pitch, Probably
Regarding Sunday’s Best Pitch, What It Probably Was
Sunday’s best pitch was probably San Diego reliever Cory Burns‘ changeup, which he (i.e. Burns) threw 12 times and on which he (i.e. still Burns) induced seven swinging strikes (for a swinging-strike rate of 58.3%).

Regarding the Changeup, Its Swinging-Strike Rate Usually
The league-average swinging-strike rate on changeups is about 15%, according to Harry Pavlidis of the internet.

Regarding the Changeup, Its Best-Case Swinging-Strike Rate
Here are some pitchers (in no discernible order) with notable changeups and the swinging-strike rates of those same changeups this season:

• Stephen Strasburg, 27.4%
• Felix Hernandez, 15.0%
• Tim Lincecum, 23.6%
• Kelvin Herrera, 24.5%
• Cole Hamels, 28.4%

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