Daily Notes: A Statistical Update on Players in Deadline Deals

September 25, 2013

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

1. A Statistical Update on Players in Deadline Deals
2. Today’s MLB.TV Free Game
3. Today’s Complete Schedule

A Statistical Update on Players in Deadline Deals
Introduction
On August 2nd of this year, the author published in these same Notes a leaderboard featuring all — or, at least, the most notable — players to have changed teams ahead of the July 31st deadline for non-waiver deals.

Nearly two months later, what the author has done is to aggregate and publish below a pair of similar leaderboards — in this case, featuring the statistical records for August and September of all those same players who appeared on the leaderboards from two months ago.

Leaderboard: August and September Stats, Traded Hitters
Here are the aggregate WAR figures, et al., from August and September for batters traded before the July 31st non-waiver deadline.

Rank	Name	Team	PA	OFF	DEF	WAR
1	Alfonso Soriano	Yankees	207	8.8	-0.2	1.7
2	Jose Iglesias	Tigers	139	-0.9	5.2	0.9
3	Justin Maxwell	Royals	95	6.6	-2.3	0.8
4	Grant Green	Angels	130	2.3	-2.2	0.5
5	Alberto Callaspo	Athletics	162	0.9	-4.2	0.2
6	Scott Hairston	Nationals	39	1.4	-0.3	0.2
7	L.J. Hoes	Astros	168	3.1	-6.7	0.2
8	Avisail Garcia	White Sox	149	2.8	-6.5	0.1
9	Steve Clevenger	Orioles	7	-0.1	0.1	0.0
10	Drew Butera	Dodgers	5	-1.2	0.0	-0.1

Leaderboard: August and September Stats, Traded Pitchers
Here are the aggregate WAR figures, et al., from August and September for pitchers traded before the July 31st non-waiver deadline.

Rank	Name	Team	IP	SO	BB	WAR
1	Jake Peavy	Red Sox	58.2	40	15	1.3
2	Ricky Nolasco	Dodgers	57.1	51	11	1.1
3	Matt Garza	Rangers	64.2	60	17	0.8
4	Bud Norris	Orioles	46.2	52	22	0.6
5	Scott Feldman	Orioles	56.2	45	24	0.5
6	Pedro Strop	Cubs	22.1	26	6	0.4
7	Marc Rzepczynski	Indians	17.1	17	5	0.2
8	Scott Downs	Braves	11.2	14	8	0.2
9	Francisco Rodriguez	Orioles	19.0	26	4	0.2
10	Matt Thornton	Red Sox	7.1	3	3	0.1
11	Carlos Marmol	Dodgers	16.2	23	15	0.1
12	Jose Veras	Tigers	17.1	15	8	0.1
13	Justin Grimm	Cubs	7.0	4	3	0.1
14	Matt Guerrier	Cubs	1.1	1	2	0.0
15	Brayan Villarreal	Red Sox	0.0	0	1	0.0
16	Steven Ames	Marlins	3.2	4	2	0.0
17	Jake Arrieta	Cubs	39.2	34	19	0.0
18	Joe Thatcher	D-backs	9.0	6	6	-0.1
19	Ian Kennedy	Padres	50.1	48	24	-0.2

Three Notes
• While the New York Americans won’t qualify for the postseason, it’s not for lack of production from Alfonso Soriano. Overall, the 37-year-old outfielder has produced a 134 wRC+ and 1.7 WAR in 228 plate appearances since his (re)acquisition from the Cubs, starting the plurality of games in left field during that stretch.

• Were it not for a recent start against San Francisco during which he recorded a 0:3 strikeout-to-walk ratio against 15 total batters in just 1.1 innings (box), right-hander Ricky Nolasco would likely sit atop the leaderboard among pitchers traded before the deadline. Leader Jake Peavy’s own claim to first place is somewhat tentative: he’s striking out fewer batters, walking more, and inducing fewer batters than he did with the White Sox. A .244 BABIP, however, and 6.1% home-run rate on fly balls have benefited his overall run prevention.

• After spending much of his season with the Cardinals as a member of their Triple-A affiliate Memphis, left-hander Marc Rzepczynski has been excellent for Cleveland, recording a 84 xFIP- in 17.1 innings with his new club.

Today’s MLB.TV Free Game
Milwaukee at Atlanta | 19:10 ET
Kyle Lohse (189.2 IP, 107 xFIP-, 1.5 WAR faces Paul Maholm (146.0 IP, 105 xFIP-, 0.5 WAR).

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Milwaukee Radio.

Today’s Complete Schedule
Here’s the complete schedule for all of today’s games, with our very proprietary watchability (NERD) scores for each one. Pitching probables and game times aggregated from MLB.com and RotoWire.

Note that these NERD scores are calculated using the methodology introduced recently and designed to account for the influence of playoff odds on the watchability of games. ***Unlike in recent iterations of this table, the author has adjusted the day’s NERD Game Scores such that, combined, they average 5.0.*** This allows said table to resemble more closely the Game Scores that have appeared here over the preceding four months.

Away		SP	Tm.	Gm.	Tm.	SP		Home	Time
D. Matsuzaka	NYN	0	0	3	0	7	CIN	Mat Latos	12:35
J. Zimmermann	WAS	9	0	8	2	8	STL	Shelby Miller	13:45
Francisco Liriano	PIT	9	1	6	0	3	CHN	Jake Arrieta	14:20
Dan Straily	OAK	5	0	3	0	4	LAA	Jered Weaver	15:35
Dylan Axelrod	CHA	1	0	9	4	10	CLE	Danny Salazar	19:05
David Price	TB	7	1	6	0	5	NYA	Phil Hughes	19:05
Esmil Rogers	TOR	5	0	3	0	4	BAL	Bud Norris	19:05
Kyle Lohse	MIL	4	0	3	0	4	ATL	Paul Maholm	19:10
Cole Hamels	PHI	8	0	5	0	5	MIA	Brad Hand*	19:10
Dallas Keuchel	HOU	7	0	10	6	6	TEX	Martin Perez	20:05
Max Scherzer	DET	9	0	4	0	2	MIN	Kevin Correia	20:10
Jake Peavy	BOS	5	0	4	0	5	COL	Jhoulys Chacin	20:40
Randall Delgado	AZ	7	0	4	0	4	SD	Ian Kennedy	22:10
Ervin Santana	KC	7	0	5	0	7	SEA	Hisashi Iwakuma	22:10
Ricky Nolasco	LAN	6	0	3	0	1	SF	Barry Zito	22:15

To learn how Pitcher and Team NERD Scores are calculated, click here.
To learn how Game NERD Scores are calculated, click here.
* = Fewer than 20 IP, NERD at discretion of very handsome author.