Daily Notes, Featuring Joey Gallo’s Powerful Power

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

1. SCOUT Leaderboards for All the Rookie-Level Leagues
2. Today’s Notable Games (Including MLB.TV Free Game)
3. Today’s Complete Schedule

SCOUT Leaderboards for All the Rookie-Level Leagues
Regarding What This Is, First of All
What follows are the SCOUT Leaderboards for all four of the domestic rookie-level minor leagues (the Appalachian, Arizona, Gulf Coast, and Pioneer ones) combined.

Regarding a “SCOUT Leaderboard,” What That Is
SCOUT is metric designed to assess performance in those instances — like in a minor league, for example — where small samples are ubiquitous. A high SCOUT+ is good for a hitter; a low SCOUT- is good for a pitcher.

More on SCOUT, How It’s Calculated
SCOUT uses regressed, defense-independent inputs to calculate FIP-like stats for both pitchers and hitters. Click here to learn more about it.

Regarding SCOUT, One of Its Benefits
A benefit of SCOUT is, because both SCOUT+ and SCOUT- are presented relative to league, it allows one to compare the relative performances of players across multiple leagues — like in what follows, for example.

Regarding These Numbers
All the following numbers are final for 2012.

Top Batters of the Rookie-Level Leagues (Overall)
Here are the top-10 batters of the Rookie-Level Leagues, as determined by the methodology explained above.

Player	Team	League	Age	PA	xHR%	xBB%	xK%	SCOUT+
Joey Gallo	Rangers	Arizona	18	193	6.5%	18.8%	26.9%	177
Wade Hinkle	Angels	Pioneer	22	325	4.6%	13.2%	16.0%	157
Jonathan Walsh	Angels	Pioneer	21	283	3.1%	16.3%	16.3%	147
Patrick Leonard	Royals	Appy	19	268	4.8%	11.2%	20.5%	147
Max Kepler-Rozycki	Twins	Appy	19	269	3.5%	10.0%	12.3%	144
Robert Maddox	Reds	Pioneer	23	211	4.8%	9.5%	19.9%	141
Art Charles	Blue Jays	Appy	21	123	3.0%	19.9%	25.8%	140
Romy Trinidad	Twins	Appy	21	139	3.6%	12.2%	18.2%	139
Jesmuel Valentin	Dodgers	Arizona	18	197	1.1%	17.6%	12.2%	139
Sherman Johnson	Angels	Pioneer	21	240	1.3%	20.4%	16.7%	138

Top Batters of the Rookie-Level Leagues (Aged 19 and Under)
Here are the top-10 batters of the Rookie-Level Leagues who were young relative to their level — again, as determined by the methodology explained above.

Player	Team	League	Age	PA	xHR%	xBB%	xK%	SCOUT+
Joey Gallo	Rangers	Arizona	18	193	6.5%	18.8%	26.9%	177
Patrick Leonard	Royals	Appy	19	268	4.8%	11.2%	20.5%	147
Max Kepler-Rozycki	Twins	Appy	19	269	3.5%	10.0%	12.3%	144
Jesmuel Valentin	Dodgers	Arizona	18	197	1.1%	17.6%	12.2%	139
Daniel Vogelbach	Cubs	Arizona	19	115	3.1%	10.1%	14.2%	137
Clint Coulter	Brewers	Arizona	18	214	2.0%	17.3%	18.7%	136
Jesus Ustariz	Tigers	Gulf Coast	19	196	1.0%	13.2%	12.8%	132
Corey Seager	Dodgers	Pioneer	18	202	3.2%	10.4%	16.3%	131
Daniel Robertson	Athletics	Arizona	18	127	2.1%	11.5%	13.2%	130
John Silviano	Blue Jays	Gulf Coast	17	141	1.2%	13.5%	15.3%	130

Top Pitchers of the Rookie-Level Leagues (Overall)
Here are the top-10 pitchers of the Rookie-Level Leagues, as determined by the methodology explained above.

Player	Team	League	Age	IP	TBF	xK%	xBB%	SCOUT-
Nicholas Sawyer	Rays	Appy	20	24.1	92	41.6%	9.1%	43
Jordan Jankowski	Astros	Appy	23	32.1	135	37.5%	8.4%	53
Chase Stevens	Diamondbacks	Pioneer	21	33.2	143	40.3%	9.9%	55
Chuck Ghysels	Blue Jays	Gulf Coast	22	25.2	105	33.7%	8.2%	56
Josh Hader	Orioles	Gulf Coast	18	20.1	80	33.2%	8.4%	58
Carlos Perez	Braves	Appy	20	30.2	131	36.0%	9.4%	60
Keivi Rojas	Phillies	Gulf Coast	19	32.1	123	31.8%	7.7%	61
Andrew Leenhouts	Giants	Arizona	22	37.0	168	35.7%	9.4%	61
Sam Selman	Royals	Pioneer	21	60.1	245	36.3%	9.1%	63
Luis Merejo	Braves	Gulf Coast	17	41.0	172	30.8%	7.4%	63

Top Pitchers of the Rookie-Level Leagues (Starters Only)
Here are the top-10 pitchers in the Rookie-Level Leagues who made at least half of their appearances as starts — again, as determined by the methodology explained above.

Player	Team	League	Age	IP	TBF	xK%	xBB%	SCOUT-
Sam Selman	Royals	Pioneer	21	60.1	245	36.3%	9.1%	63
Luis Merejo	Braves	Gulf Coast	17	41.0	172	30.8%	7.4%	63
Taylor Rogers	Twins	Appy	21	30.0	116	30.8%	7.8%	70
Spencer Patton	Royals	Pioneer	24	57.0	259	32.4%	8.7%	71
Bennett Parry	Orioles	Gulf Coast	20	19.1	73	28.2%	7.6%	73
Yeyfry Del Rosario	Blue Jays	Gulf Coast	18	44.2	184	28.3%	7.7%	73
Manaure Martinez	Phillies	Gulf Coast	20	37.0	140	28.7%	8.2%	73
Kevin Grendell	Orioles	Gulf Coast	18	17.1	79	29.3%	9.1%	74
Kayvon Bahramzadeh	Athletics	Arizona	22	37.0	164	29.3%	8.2%	75
Silfredo Garcia	Cardinals	Gulf Coast	20	23.1	86	27.0%	7.0%	75

Two Notable Performances
• Some uncertainty surrounds Rangers prospect Joey Gallo’s future as a major leaguer. For one, there’s the matter of his defensive home: despite having a legitimately terrific arm, Gallo might lack the agility necessary to play even a passable third base. For two, his contact ability is poor: Gallo struck out in 30% of his 260 plate appearances this season between Rookie-level and Low-A. One thing, however, about which there appears to be very little debate is Gallo’s power. That was the case in basically every pre-draft scouting report on him, nor has his first season of professional baseball done much to dissuade anyone of the notion. Gallo led all four of the Rookie-level leagues both in regressed home-run rate (6.5%) and also total homers (with 18 in 193 PAs). There was likely no greater distance between any one minor-league level’s best and second-best prospect-age hitter than the one between Joey Gallo and Kansas City’s Patrick Leonard of the Appalachian League.
• Age relative to level is less significant for pitching than hitting prospects, but Atlanta left-hander Luis Merejo’s presence at the top of the SCOUT pitching leaderboards in just his age-17 season is encouraging. According to a Baseball America report from early July, Merejo “commands a fastball that sits in the low-90s and backs it up with two potentially above-average secondary pitches in his curveball and changeup.”

Other SCOUT Leaderboards
International League (Triple-A)
Pacific Coast League (Triple-A)
Eastern League (Double-A)
Southern League (Double-A)
Texas League (Double-A)
California, Carolina, and Florida State Leagues Combined (High-A)
Midwest and Sally Leagues Combined (Class-A)
New York-Penn and Northwest Leagues Combined (Low-A)

Today’s Notable Games
Los Angeles NL at Washington | 19:10 ET ***MLB.TV Free Game***
Following their unexpectedly narrow victory over the Nationals on Wednesday (box), the Dodgers — in tandem with a Cardinals victory — remain two games out of the National League’s second wild-card slot.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Washington Radio.

Texas at Los Angeles AL | 22:05 ET
Yu Darvish (176.2 IP, 87 xFIP-, 4.5 WAR) has posted the fifth-highest WAR (1.5) among all pitchers over the last month — in two fewer starts than four pitchers just ahead, and three behind, him. He’s now tied for sixth overall in the majors by that measure. He faces one of the pitchers with whom he’s tied: Angels right-hander Zack Greinke (192.0, 81 xFIP-, 4.5 WAR).

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Texas 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. The average NERD Game Score for today is 3.9.

Note: the following Game Scores include the poorly conceived playoff-odds adjustment discussed in a recent edition of Daily Notes. Also note: the following table is entirely sortable.

Away		SP	Tm.	Gm.	Tm.	SP		Home	Time
Es. Vasquez*	MIN	3	4	2	2	7	CLE	Corey Kluber	12:05
Tommy Milone	OAK	6	6	6	4	7	DET	Anibal Sanchez	13:05
Bud Norris	HOU	6	3	6	8	9	STL	Jaime Garcia	13:45
Johnny Cueto	CIN	7	4	3	1	5	CHN	Jason Berken*	14:20
Clayton Richard	SD	4	7	2	6	3	AZ	Tyler Skaggs	15:40
Jorge de la Rosa*	COL	10	7	3	4	0	SF	Barry Zito	15:45
Mike Fiers	MIL	6	9	4	4	4	PIT	Wandy Rodriguez	16:05
Chris Capuano	LAN	6	1	4	7	5	WAS	Ross Detwiler	19:05
Aaron Laffey	TOR	1	5	2	6	5	NYA	Phil Hughes	19:05
Clay Buchholz	BOS	4	5	5	5	10	TB	David Price	19:10
Tyler Cloyd	PHI	5	5	3	2	5	NYN	Jeremy Hefner	19:10
Francisco Liriano	CHA	6	5	3	8	2	KC	Jeremy Guthrie	20:10
Yu Darvish	TEX	8	7	8	8	8	LAA	Zack Greinke	22:05

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