Table of Contents
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1. A Schedule of Upcoming Actual Baseball
2. GIF: Last Pitch of the 2009 WBC

A Schedule of Upcoming Actual Baseball
With the announcement scheduled for Thursday of all 16 WBC provisional rosters and also the continued progression of the various winter-league playoffs — which end, finally, with the Caribbean Series (in Hermosillo, Mexico this year) — the prospect of real-live baseball is an actual thing.

Below are three upcoming events that will offer said real and live baseball to the reader.

Event: 2013 Caribbean Series
Dates: February 1-7
Notes: The Caribbean Series features the winners of the four major winter leagues from the Dominican, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Venezuela — and looks likely to feature, for example, Elvis Andrus and Pablo Sandoval this season (whose Magallanes team is currently first place in the Venezuelan league’s playoff round robin) and probably Javier Vazquez (who continues to dominate for Caguas in Puerto Rico). While in past seasons the Caribbean Series has utilized merely a round-robin format, this year’s edition will feature a proper final (about which one can read here). The Series is generally available on both MLB Network and MLB.com.

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

1. Nerds Stats for Canadia’s Provisional WBC Team
2. For Reference Sake: Maps of Canada
3. Video: Team Canada’s Best Reliever, Sort Of

Nerds Stats for Canadia’s Provisional WBC Team
It has come to the attention of the author that a certain number of this site’s readers are from Canada. In not entirely unrelated news, certain representatives from Canada have recently announced that country’s provisional roster for the World Baseball Classic (which itself begins in early March).

Below are the members of that roster, accompanied by various nerd stats.

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

1. Top Performers of the Venezuelan Winter League
2. Unhelpful Video: Alex Torres Recording a Strikeout Once
3. Final (!) SCOUT Leaderboards: Venezuelan Winter League

Top Performers of the Venezuelan Winter League
The playoffs for the Venezuelan Winter League (VWL) have begun — and, as such, the regular-season stats for the players in said League are final.

Here are the top performers of the VWL, per SCOUT (a metric explained below, but which, briefly stated, uses regressed inputs to help make sense of small samples).

Best Hitter (Overall): Luis Jimenez
One of the best hitters in last year’s edition of the VWL, DH-type Luis Jimenez finishes this year with the league’s best regressed offensive line, as well. A bit on the giant side so far as humans are concerned, Jimenez received his first major-league plate appearances in 2012, his age-30 season, posting this line in seven games: 18 PA, .059/.111/.059 (.077 BABIP), 1 BB, 4 K, -0.3 WAR. While finishing just ninth in the VWL by total home runs (nine), Jimenez’s plate-discipline numbers (39:29 BB:K) set him apart. A part of the Mariners organization in 2011-12, Jimenez signed with Toronto at the beginning of December.

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Table of Contents
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1. FAN Projection Targets: Basically Every Brewers Starter
2. Action GIF: Mark Rogers’ Slider
3. SCOUT Leaderboards: Australian Baseball League

FAN Projection Targets: Basically Every Brewers Starter
As is made apparent by the very recently released 2013 ZiPS projections for the Milwaukee Brewers, the starting rotation for said team contains a considerable amount of uncertainty — due either to a change of roles in the not-very-distant past (Marco Estrada, Mike Fiers) or injury (Chris Narveson, Mark Rogers).

In situations like this, where information not included in the ZiPS algorithm might be of some import regarding a specific player, it’s possible that the Wisdom of the Crowds might have some advantage in producing an able projection for said player.

To that end, the author encourages the readership to complete FAN Projection ballots for the following five pitchers — all candidates for Milwaukee’s rotation in 2013.

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Table of Contents
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1. Top Performances of the Mexican Pacific League
2. Unhelpful Video: Barbaro Canizares Homering for Spain
3. Final (!) SCOUT Leaderboards: Mexican Pacific League

Top Performances of the Mexican Pacific League
The playoffs for the Mexican Pacific League (MPL) have begun — and, as such, the regular-season stats for the players in said League are final.

Here are the top performers of the MPL, per SCOUT (a metric explained below, but which, briefly stated, uses regressed inputs to help make sense of small samples).

Best Hitter (Overall): Barbaro Canizares
A native of Cuba, first baseman Barbaro Canizares defected in February of 2004 and was signed eventually by Atlanta in 2006. He left affiliated baseball after the 2010 season, having accrued 21 major-league plate appearances, and has played in Mexico and with the independent American Association since. While a number of top hitters in the MPL approximated Canizares’ home-run rate this season, his control of the plate (he posted a 42:35 BB:K) is what set him apart.

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Table of Contents
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1. Top Performances of the Puerto Rican League
2. Mostly Relevant Video: Boston Prospect Jose De La Torre
3. Final (!) SCOUT Leaderboards: Puerto Rican League

Top Performances of the Puerto Rican League
The playoffs for the Puerto Rican League (PRL) have begun — and, as such, the regular-season stats for the players in said League are final.

Here are the top performers of the PRL, per SCOUT (a metric explained below, but which, briefly stated, uses regressed inputs to help make sense of small samples).

Best Hitter (Overall): Pedro Valdes
A one-time member of both the Rangers and Cubs organizations — and owner of 93 major-league plate appearances — Pedro Valdes has spent the past 10-plus seasons in Japan and Mexico, predominantly. Provided his Baseball Reference page is accurate, he appears actually not to have played professional ball in 2012. Provided the author understands three words in Spanish, Valdes appears to be retiring from baseball completely following the completion of the Puerto Rican League. While hitting just two home runs in the PRL, Valdes owned the strike zone, posting a 30:16 walk-to-strikeout ratio in an estimated 116 plate appearances.

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Table of Contents
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1. Top Performers of the Dominican Winter League
2. Totally Irrelevant Video: Rey Ordonez, Superstar Defender
3. SCOUT Leaderboards: Dominican Winter League

Top Performers of the Dominican Winter League
The playoffs for the Dominican Winter League (DWL) have begun — and, as such, the regular-season stats for the players in said League are final.

Here are the top performers of the DWL, per SCOUT (a metric explained below, but which, briefly stated, uses regressed inputs to help make sense of small samples).

Best Hitter (Overall): Hector Luna
Hector Luna, who turns 33 in February, isn’t a player about whom one is compelled to think very often — although, to his credit, he’s been slightly better than replacement level in 800-plus major-league plate appearances with five teams since 2004. Also to his credit, he was excellent in the DWL, posting a 29:30 walk-to-strikeout ratio while hitting seven home runs in ca. 200 plate appearances.

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Table of Contents
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1. Five Terribly Urgent FAN Projection Targets
2. Bias-Creating Video: Trevor Rosenthal, Maxing
3. SCOUT Leaderboards: Venezuelan Winter League

Five Terribly Urgent FAN Projection Targets
In the not very distant past, Dark Overlord of FanGraphs David Appelman released for the benefit of the bespectacled readership this year’s FAN Projection ballots. Less than a week later, over 200 players have reached the eight-vote threshold required for their projections to appear on the main FAN Projection page.

Here, the present author imposes his tastes and biases onto the reader — in this case, by requesting that said reader project players (a) who’ve not reached the eight-vote threshold and (b) about whom he (i.e. the author, again) is particularly curious.

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Table of Contents
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1. The Giancarlo Stanton of 1967
2. SCOUT Leaderboards: Mexican Pacific League
3. SCOUT Leaderboards: Australian Baseball League

The Giancarlo Stanton of 1967
On Thursday, managing editor Dave Cameron made note via Twitter of a select group to which Miami outfielder Giancarlo Stanton presently belongs — that is, batters with 1000-plus plate appearances and a 130-plus wRC+ through age 22.

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Table of Contents
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1. Even More Javier Vazquez Baseball Coverage, Crazy!
2. Action GIF: Javier Vazquez’s Curveball
3. SCOUT Leaderboards: Puerto Rican League

Even More Javier Vazquez Baseball Coverage, Crazy!
Since last week’s update of the Puerto Rican League leaderboards, former major-league pitcher and potentially-again major-league pitcher Javier Vazquez has made another start (his fifth) for the Leones of Ponce — in which start Vazquez posted the following line (box): 6.0 IP, 25 TBF 7 K, 3 BB, 1 HR, 4:6 GO:AO. The performance further increased the right-hander’s lead over the league’s other starting pitchers, per the regressed pitching metric SCOUT- (below).

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