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

1. Some Almost Not Meaningless Spring Numbers
2. Mostly Unhelpful Video: Tom Layne, Striking Out Sides

Some Almost Not Meaningless Spring Numbers
The bespectacled reader is likely aware that spring training baseball has begun. As Jeff Sullivan pointed out earlier this month, there are a number of variables present in spring games which necessarily distort the stats that are produced there. As Mike Podhorzer demonstrated last March, however, there’s some significance to certain spring stats — especially among those which become reliable in smaller samples.

Even less than a week into spring, there are some numbers that are worthy of consideration — more for purposes of monitoring, perhaps, if not to regard as gospel.

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

1. The Best Players Without Starting Roles, Now for ZiPS
2. Mostly Unhelpful Video: Scott Rolen, Defensing in 2008

The Best Players Without Starting Roles, Now for ZiPS
Last week, the author utilized his widely praised capacity for “sorting through leaderboards” to identify the top forecasts for rookie-eligible players, according to the ZiPS and Steamer and FAN projection systems — where “top” was equivalent to “highest projected WAR” and nothing else.

Yesterday, the author performed a similar exercise — except for, instead of identifying the top rookie-eligible players, the author identified the best field players per Steamer who are currently without a starting role.

Today, the author once again looks at the best players sans a starting role, except with using the ZiPS projections, which were officially released at the site on Monday afternoon.

Below are the 11 players (because there was a tie for 10th place) who most aptly fit that description. Below that are some brief comments by the author to give the impression that he has not merely assembled a Table of Numbers.

First, though, five notes:

1. “Best” in the context of this exercise is equivalent to “projected WAR per every 650 plate appearances.”

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

1. The Best Players per Steamer Without Starting Roles
2. Mostly Unhelpful Video: Bobby Scales, Defensing

The Best Players per Steamer Without Starting Roles
Last week, the author used his unparalleled capacity for “sorting through leaderboards” to identify the top forecasts for rookie-eligible players, according to the ZiPS and Steamer and FAN projection systems — where “top” was equivalent to “highest projected WAR” and nothing else.

What follows is the product of a very similar exercise — except for, instead of identifying the top rookie-eligible players, the author has identified the best field players per Steamer who are currently without a starting role.

Below are the 14 players (because there was a considerable tie for seventh place) who most aptly fit that description. Below that are some brief comments by the author to give the impression that he has not merely assembled a Table of Numbers.

First, though, five notes:

1. “Best” in the context of this exercise is equivalent to “projected WAR per every 650 plate appearances.”

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

1. Spring Broadcast Schedule Begins Saturday
2. Saturday Games and Probable Starters
3. Sunday Games and Probable Starters

Spring Broadcast Schedule Begins Saturday
This weekend, six spring-training games are available via MLB.TV. “Which pitchers are starting those games?” a hypothetical reader might ask conveniently for the sake of this post. To which the author responds: “That’s a reasonable question.”

Indeed, given the nature of spring training, teams’ probable starters are not available days ahead of time (through the MLB website, for example) the way they are during the regular season. For example, as the author writes this, there are precisely zero probable starters listed for Saturday’s and Sunday’s games — and yet, this is what we might call “need to know” information.

With a view to satisfying the reader’s curiosity, then, what the author has done is to utilize his Google machine such that he might procure it (i.e. the information) from the internet. What follows is the fruit of that not-very-exhausting labor.

Beside each pitcher is his Steamer projection for 2013. Source material is available by clicking on each respective team acronym. All corrections are invited.

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Note: it has come to the author’s attention that Georgia Tech right-hander Buck Farmer’s start on Friday at 4pm ET will be available via Watch ESPN. The senior recorded 14 strikeouts in 8.0 innings during his season debut last weekend against Akron.

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

1. Three Notable College Weekend Series
2. Action Footage: Virginia Tech Junior Devin Burke’s Changeup

Three Notable Weekend College Series
The college baseball season began last weekend and continues with games through this next one. While some — like the author’s jerky editor Dave Cameron — are impervious to the charms of the collegiate game, it’s demonstrably a fact that the best NCAA players of 2013 will become relevant major leaguers in the not very distant future. Furthermore, in the absence of actual professional baseball, the college game is a reasonably entertaining substitute.

With that in mind — and as he did last week — the author has provided below a collection of series this weekend that both (a) are likely to feature actual amateur prospects and (b) are available for consumption, via streaming video, through CBS Sports’ ULive service.

The author has benefited considerably from Aaron Fitt’s top-25 college preview at Baseball America in the composition of these previews. Also, his own impressive prose skills is another thing from which the author has benefited.

As noted, all games are available streaming on ULive. All times are Eastern.

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

1. Some Brief and Mostly Important Disclaimers
2. The Top-Six Rookie-Eligible Hitters, According to the Fans
3. The Top-Five Rookie-Eligible Pitchers, According to the Fans

Some Brief and Mostly Important Disclaimers
Over the last week, the author has considered the top forecasts for rookie-eligible players, both according to the ZiPS and Steamer projection systems — where “top” was equivalent to “highest projected WAR” and nothing else.

What follows is the product of an almost identical exercise — except for, instead of ZiPS or Steamer, the author has sorted the FAN projection leaderboards, instead. As the name suggests, these are projections crowdsourced from readers of the site.

Below are the the top-six hitters (because there was a tie for fifth) and top-five pitchers who most aptly fit the aforementioned criteria. Alongside each player’s name are listed his 2012 line (for the level at which he spent the most time) and his 2013 projection. Finally, the author has appended brief comments to each entry to give the impression that he has not merely assembled a List of Numbers.

First, though, here are four caveats:

1. The FAN projections, unlike ZiPS, include playing-time projections.

2. FAN projections are generally optimistic, but also in a generally regular way. I asked managing editor Dave Cameron about this, and he replied: “I think we’ve seen an historical overprojection of total WAR by 15-20%. It might even be 25%. If you go with 20%, you’ll probably be in the ballpark.”

3. There are three players who appeared on either the ZiPS or Steamer top-rookie posts who have not reached the eight-ballot threshold for their projections. Those players are: Boston’s Jackie Bradley, Pittsburgh’s Kyle McPherson, and Seattle’s Mike Zunino. Click on their names to submit your projections for them.

4. In homage to Jonah Lehrer, the author has copy-and-pasted many of his comments below from the two earlier top-rookie posts.

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

1. Spring Broadcast Schedule Begins Saturday
2. Mostly Unhelpful Video: Anthony Rendon, Homering

Spring Broadcast Schedule Begins Saturday
MLB.com has released the (tentative) schedule for all the spring-training broadcasts available through MLB.TV — which broadcasts are accessible via a number of connected devices, including PlayStation 3, XBOX 360, Roku, and Apple TV.

The schedule in question is available by clicking this hyperlinked text. Furthermore, by way of cultivating our collective enthusiasm, the author has reprinted below the first four games of the spring broadcast schedule (which starts on Saturday, February 23rd) and made note both of notable offseason arrivals and prospects in camp.

Washington at New York NL | 12:10 ET
• Notable offseason arrivals: Dan Haren, Rafael Soriano, Denard Span (Washington); John Buck, Collin Cowgill, Travis D’Arnaud, Shaun Marcum (New York).
• Notable prospects in camp: Anthony Rendon, Matt Skole (Washington); D’Arnaud, Wilmer Flores, Rafael Montero, Zack Wheeler (New York).
• Other notes: former pitcher and current first baseman Micah Owings has been invited to big league camp for the Nationals. Third base prospect Carlos Rivero was among the top hitters in the Venezuelan Winter League.

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

1. Some Brief and Mostly Important Disclaimers
2. The Top-Five Rookie-Eligible Hitters, According to Steamer
3. The Top-Five Rookie-Eligible Pitchers, According to Steamer

Some Brief and Mostly Important Disclaimers
Last Thursday, in celebration of the final post in our team-by-team release of Dan Szymborski’s ZiPS projections for 2013, the present author — using his (by now famous) ability of “being able to sort leaderboards” — identified the rookie-eligible hitters and pitchers (meaning fewer than 130 at-bats or 50 innings in the majors) with the best projections, where “best” was equivalent to “highest projected WAR” and nothing else.

What follows is the product of an almost identical exercise — except for, instead of ZiPS, the author has sorted the Steamer projection leaderboards, instead.

Below are the the top-five hitters and top-five pitchers who most aptly fit the aforementioned criteria. Alongside each player’s name are listed his 2012 line (for the level at which he spent the most time) and his 2013 projection. Finally, the author has appended brief comments to each entry to give the impression that he has not merely assembled a List of Numbers.

Note: Steamer utilizes playing-time projections from the FAN Projections here at the site.

The Top-Five Rookie-Eligible Hitters, According to Steamer
By the criteria outline above, here are the top five rookie-eligible hitters for 2013, according to Steamer.

5. Jackie Bradley, OF, Boston
2012 Line: 305 PA, .357/.479/.523 (.405 BABIP), 180 wRC+ at High-A
2013 Steamer: 408 PA, .256/.335/.387 (.303 BABIP), 1.7 WAR
Notes: Sophomore year at South Carolina was excellent; junior one, less so. Taken by Red Sox 40th overall in 2011. Has been excellent as professional. Received similarly optimistic projection (1.7 WAR) from ZiPS. Will begin season at Triple-A, it seems.

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

1. Five Notable College Weekend Series
2. Action Footage: Sophomore Left-Hander Carlos Rodon’s Slider

Five Notable College Weekend Series
The college baseball season begins today (Friday) and continues with games through the weekend. While some — like the author’s jerky editor Dave Cameron — are impervious to the charms of the collegiate game, it’s demonstrably a fact that the best NCAA players of 2013 will become relevant major leaguers in the not very distant future. Also, in the absence of the professional game, the college one has merits as a substitute.

With that in mind, the author has provided below a collection of five series this weekend that both (a) are likely to feature actual amateur prospects and (b) are available for consumption, via streaming video, through CBS Sports’ ULive service.

The author has benefited considerably from Aaron Fitt’s top-25 college preview at Baseball America — and also Fitt’s recent weekend preview at that same site.

As noted, all games are available streaming on ULive. All times are Eastern.

Teams: Appalachian State at (8) North Carolina State
Times (Fri/Sat/Sun): 3:00 PM / 1:00 PM / 1:00 PM
Notes: NC State left-hander Carlos Rodon might actually be the best of the Friday night pitchers presently. According to Aaron Fitt, Rodon “easily reaches the mid-90s from the left side [and has] a filthy 83-86 slider.” He posted a 135:41 walk-to-strikeout ratio in 114.2 innings last season as a freshman. Also on NC State is sophomore shortstop Trea Turner, who slashed .336/.432/.459 in 2012 and went 57-for-61 on stolen-base attempts.

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

1. Some Brief and Mostly Important Disclaimers
2. The Top-Five Rookie-Eligible Hitters, According to ZiPS
3. The Top-Six Rookie-Eligible Pitchers, According to ZiPS

Some Brief and Mostly Important Disclaimers
With the release of the ZiPS projections for the Cleveland Indians this morning, now all 30 major-league teams have been caressed tenderly by Dan Szymborski’s math computer.

In celebration, what the present author has done is to peruse haphazardly all 30 sets of ZiPS team projections with a view to extracting from same the rookie-eligible hitters and pitchers (meaning fewer than 130 at-bats or 50 innings in the majors) with the best projections — where “best” is equivalent to “highest projected WAR” and nothing else.

Below are the players who most aptly fit all of that description — the top-five hitters and, because there was a tie for fourth, top-six pitchers. Alongside each player’s name are listed his 2012 line (for the level at which he spent the most time) and his 2013 projection. (Note that ZiPS does not predict playing time in the majors, but, rather, projects major-league equivalent production.) Finally, the author has appended brief comments to each entry to give the impression that he has not merely assembled a List of Numbers.

The Top-Five Rookie-Eligible Hitters, According to ZiPS
By the criteria outline above, here are the top five rookie-eligible hitters for 2013, according to ZiPS.

5. Mike Olt, 3B, Texas
2012 Line: 420 PA, .288/.398/.579 (.327 BABIP), 168 wRC+ at Double-A
2013 ZiPS: 487 PA, .247/.331/.429 (.325 BABIP), 2.4 WAR
Notes: At 24, Olt is among the oldest players on this list. With plus power and defense, skill set is not entirely dissimilar from — if less impressive than — Rangers current third baseman Adrian Beltre’s.

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