Daily Notes: Contract Crowdsourcing, Center Fielders

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

1. Contract Crowdsourcing: Center Fielders
2. SCOUT Leaderboards: Arizona Fall League
3. Video: Jonathan Singleton’s Almost Identical Home Runs

Contract Crowdsourcing: Center Fielders
Free agency begins five days after the end of the World Series. FanGraphs is asking readers to estimate the years and average annual dollar values likely to be received by certain notable free agents. We continue today with corner outfielders. (Click here for more on the contract crowdsourcing project.)

Other positions: Catchers / First Basemen / Second Basemen / Third Basemen / Shortstops / Corner Outfielders.

Player Page: Michael Bourn

Player Page: Josh Hamilton

Player Page: Angel Pagan

Player Page: B.J. Upton

Player Page: Shane Victorino

SCOUT Leaderboards: Arizona Fall League
Batting Leaderboard
Here is the SCOUT batting leaderboard for the Arizona Fall League. SCOUT represents an attempt to derive something meaningful from small samples and is calculated using regressed defense-indepedent numbers (home runs, walks, strikeouts for hitters). The offensive version is SCOUT+, where 100 is league average and above 100 is above average. (Click here for more on SCOUT.)

Player	Team	Age	PA	xHR%	xBB%	xK%	SCOUT+
Jonathan Singleton	HOU	20	45	2.5%	11.1%	20.7%	113
Christopher Mcguiness	TEX	24	37	2.6%	10.0%	19.8%	112
Brock Kjeldgaard	MIL	26	19	3.0%	9.4%	22.3%	111
Whit Merrifield	KC	23	31	1.6%	11.3%	18.0%	108
Kent Matthes	COL	25	30	2.0%	10.3%	18.8%	108
Nate Roberts	MIN	23	21	1.7%	10.8%	18.0%	107
Kevin Pillar	TOR	23	18	2.0%	9.9%	19.1%	107
Matt Skole	WAS	22	28	2.0%	11.4%	21.1%	107
Ricky Oropesa	SF	22	24	2.0%	12.1%	22.3%	107
Christian Vazquez	BOS	21	21	1.7%	11.8%	20.0%	106

Pitching Leaderboard
Here is the SCOUT pitching leaderboard for the AFL. SCOUT for pitchers is calculated using regressed defense-indepedent numbers (in this case, strikeouts and walks). The pitching version is SCOUT-, where 100 is league average and below 100 represents above-average run prevention. (Click here for more on SCOUT.)

Player	Team	Age	IP	GS	TBF	xK%	xBB%	SCOUT-
Kyle Gibson	MIN	24	10.0	100.0%	38	26.3%	9.1%	87
Kevin Siegrist	STL	22	6.0	50.0%	18	24.4%	9.5%	92
James Paxton	SEA	23	7.2	100.0%	34	24.9%	9.9%	92
Heath Hembree	SF	23	4.0	0.0%	16	24.1%	9.5%	93
Robbie Erlin	SD	21	4.2	100.0%	18	23.8%	9.5%	93
Mark Montgomery	NYA	21	5.0	0.0%	20	24.2%	10.0%	93
Tyler Chatwood	COL	22	11.2	100.0%	49	24.1%	10.0%	94
Seth Blair	STL	23	6.1	100.0%	25	24.1%	10.1%	94
Andre Rienzo	CHA	24	7.0	100.0%	27	23.9%	9.8%	94
Kevin Rhoderick	CHN	23	4.2	0.0%	17	23.3%	9.5%	94

Notes
• Houston first-base prospect Jonathan Singleton is the youngest player on either leaderboard (i.e. the hitting or the pitching type) and, in fact, leads all hitters through a couple weeks’ worth of games. He was also among the top hitters per SCOUT in the Double-A Texas League this summer, finishing behind only the notably talented pair of Mike Olt and Oscar Taveras among the league’s top prospect-age batters.
• Minnesota right-hander Kyle Gibson, who turns 25 literally today, spent most of 2012 recovering from Tommy John surgery. His first 10 AFL innings have been ideal: Gibson has struck out 16 of the 38 batters he’s faced in two starts while walking none of them. According to Baseball America’s Peter Wardell, Gibson has been sitting around 92-94 mph with his fastball with a “legitimate put-away slider.”
• Kevin Siegrist is a left-handed pitcher in the Cardinals system. The internet has wildly different reports on his velocity (everything from mid-80s to mid-90s). He was actually more impressive following an early August promotion to Double-A Springfield, increasing his strikeout rate and lowering his walk rate.

Video: Jonathan Singleton’s Almost Identical Home Runs
Here are two almost identical home runs courtesy talented Houston first-base prospect Jonathan Singleton.

First, this one from August 31st:

And second, this other one from September 5th: