Daily Notes, Featuring That Information You Wanted

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

1. That Information You Wanted: SCOUT Leaderboards for High-A
2. Today’s Notable Games (Including MLB.TV Free Game)
3. Today’s Complete Schedule

That Information You Wanted: SCOUT Leaderboards for High-A
Regarding What This Is, First of All
What follows is that information you asked about — i.e. the SCOUT Leaderboards for all three High-A Leagues (the California, Carolina, and Florida State) combined.

Regarding What Is SCOUT, Additionally
SCOUT is a (likely absurd, admittedly unnecessary) metric designed by the author to assess performance in those instances — like in a minor league, for example — where small samples are ubiquitous.

The Offensive Version of SCOUT, How It’s Calculated
The offensive version of SCOUT — represented as SCOUT+, where 100 is league average and above 100 is above average — is essentially a version of wRC+, except using the three main defense-independent metrics (home-run, walk, and strikeout rates), all regressed duly*, as the inputs.

*By the method outlined here.

The Pitching Version of SCOUT, How It’s Calculated
The pitching version of SCOUT — represented as SCOUT-, where 100 is league average and below 100 represents above-average run prevention — is calculated using a version of kwERA, with regressed strikeout and walk rates as the relevant inputs.

Regarding SCOUT, One of Its Benefits
A benefit of SCOUT is it allows one to compare the relative performances of players with markedly different sample sizes.

Regarding SCOUT, Another of Its Benefits
Another 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 High-A Leagues (Overall)
Here are the top-10 batters of the High-A Leagues, as determined by the methodology explained above.

Player	Team	League	Age	PA	xHR%	xBB%	xK%	SCOUT+
Aaron Baker	Orioles	Carolina	24	364	6.0%	9.9%	21.2%	154
C.J. Retherford	Dodgers	California	26	322	6.2%	6.5%	13.0%	154
Yazy Arbelo	Diamondbacks	California	24	231	7.6%	8.7%	24.7%	153
Tyler Kelly	Orioles	Carolina	23	324	2.8%	16.7%	12.7%	152
Kyle Parker	Rockies	California	22	463	5.0%	14.3%	19.0%	150
Miles Head	Athletics	California	21	293	6.1%	7.8%	18.8%	145
Travis Shaw	Red Sox	Carolina	22	423	3.8%	13.9%	19.1%	143
Evan Gattis	Braves	Carolina	25	94	4.3%	9.3%	15.5%	143
Jared Clark	Rockies	California	26	532	4.5%	16.7%	24.1%	142
Cory Vaughn	Mets	Florida	23	535	4.3%	12.1%	21.3%	141

Top Batters of the High-A Leagues (Aged 22 and Under)
Here are the top-10 batters of the High-A Leagues who might still, because of their age relative to the level, be considered prospects — again, as determined by the methodology explained above.

Player	Team	League	Age	PA	xHR%	xBB%	xK%	SCOUT+
Kyle Parker	Rockies	California	22	463	5.0%	14.3%	19.0%	150
Miles Head	Athletics	California	21	293	6.1%	7.8%	18.8%	145
Travis Shaw	Red Sox	Carolina	22	423	3.8%	13.9%	19.1%	143
Wilmer Flores	Mets	Florida	20	272	3.5%	6.6%	11.0%	135
Jackie Bradley	Red Sox	Carolina	22	305	1.0%	17.0%	13.1%	131
Marcell Ozuna	Marlins	Florida	21	539	4.5%	8.2%	21.5%	130
Steve Selsky	Reds	California	22	307	4.9%	8.5%	20.2%	130
Lance Ray	Twins	Florida	22	426	3.1%	11.7%	19.0%	129
Joc Pederson	Dodgers	California	20	499	3.6%	10.2%	16.2%	127
C.J. Cron	Angels	California	22	557	4.8%	3.1%	12.9%	127

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

Player	Team	League	Age	IP	TBF	xK%	xBB%	SCOUT-
Rob Wort	Nationals	Carolina	23	56.2	230	41.3%	8.2%	37
Michael Olmsted	Red Sox	Carolina	25	39.1	155	39.4%	7.3%	40
Mark Montgomery	Yankees	Florida	21	40.1	160	38.1%	8.9%	43
Tyler Clark	Tigers	Florida	23	42.2	160	36.9%	9.1%	48
Jack Leathersich	Mets	Florida	21	48.0	214	35.5%	9.6%	53
Michael Tonkin	Twins	Florida	22	30.1	127	32.3%	8.6%	60
Taylor Thompson	White Sox	Carolina	25	44.1	173	32.9%	8.0%	61
Tommy Kahnle	Yankees	Florida	22	55.0	222	32.4%	9.4%	63
Scott Gracey	Blue Jays	Florida	25	28.1	122	31.6%	8.6%	63
Ryan Duke	Phillies	Florida	23	25.0	98	31.3%	8.5%	63

Top Pitchers of the High-A Leagues (Starters Only)
Here are the top-10 pitchers in the High-A 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-
Adam Morgan	Phillies	Florida	22	123.0	490	28.6%	6.0%	64
Rafael Montero	Mets	Florida	21	50.2	193	29.0%	7.5%	67
Tony Cingrani	Reds	California	22	56.2	220	32.3%	7.5%	68
Wilmer Font	Rangers	Carolina	22	85.1	344	32.6%	9.8%	68
Cody Buckel	Rangers	Carolina	20	75.2	294	31.0%	8.3%	69
Nathan Karns	Nationals	Carolina	24	71.2	278	31.3%	8.8%	69
Yordano Ventura	Royals	Carolina	21	76.1	326	30.1%	8.4%	72
Hiram Burgos	Brewers	Florida	24	41.1	150	27.3%	7.3%	72
Dylan Bundy	Orioles	Carolina	19	57.0	228	28.9%	8.0%	74
Michael Bolsinger	Diamondbacks	California	24	38.0	160	30.6%	8.4%	74

Three Notable Performances
• Kyle Parker is a corner outfielder, ranked seventh among Rockies prospects by Marc Hulet on his preseason top-15 list. Heading into the season, contact was a concern for Parker, who posted a 25.6% strikeout rate last season in the Class A Sally League. Hulet notes — as does Mike Newman in a scouting-oriented piece from January — that Parker’s decision to play quarterback at Clemson through his senior year would make him (i.e. Parker) a bit less refined than other prospects with the same raw talent. In fact, Parker improved his approach this season, posting a higher walk rate and lower strikeout rate than in 2011, despite advancing a level.
• Mets infielder Wilmer Flores is not only the most highly ranked 20-year-old on this leaderboard, but he also appeared at the top of the prospect-age SCOUT offensive leaders for the Double-A Eastern League.
• Left-hander Adam Morgan receives the very considerable distinction of Best High-A Starting Pitcher, per SCOUT. A question one might ask is, “Who is Adam Morgan, actually — especially since he appears to have outpitched Tony Cingrani (now in the major leagues) by this measure?” Here’s who Morgan is: a third-round pick out of the University of Alabama in the 2011 draft who was ranked 29th overall among Philadelphia prospects by Baseball America this preseason. As of then, he was reported as throwing an 88-92 mph fastball, a curve and slider (the latter of which “show[ed] flashes of becoming a plus pitch), and a change. Morgan made six starts at Double-A Reading and posted this line: 35.2 IP, 7.32 K/9, 2.78 BB/9, 0.50 HR/9, 3.23 FIP.

Other SCOUT Leaderboards
International League (Triple-A)
Pacific Coast League (Triple-A)
Eastern League (Double-A)
Southern League (Double-A)
Texas League (Double-A)
Midwest and Sally Leagues Combined (Class-A)
New York-Penn and Northwest Leagues Combined (Low-A)
Appalachian, Arizona, Gulf Coast, and Pioneer Leagues Combined (Rookie)

Today’s Notable Games
Detroit at Chicago AL | 14:10 ET
The Tigers and White Sox remain separated by just two games in the AL Central, nor is the second-place team likely to qualify for the wild-card play-in game.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Detroit Radio.

Atlanta at Miami | 19:10 ET ***MLB.TV Free Game***
Atlanta swept the first-place Washington Nationals over the weekend, but a wild-card spot is still the most likely outcome for the club: per Cool Standings, their chances of taking the division increased by only about three percentage points.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Atlanta 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 3.6.

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
Doug Fister	DET	7	4	6	4	5	CHA	Jose Quintana	14:10
Tim Hudson	ATL	4	6	2	4	3	MIA	Wade LeBlanc	19:10
Aaron Cook	BOS	2	5	4	5	7	TB	Alex Cobb	19:10
Cliff Lee	PHI	9	5	6	2	10	NYN	R.A. Dickey	19:10
Kevin Correia	PIT	2	4	1	1	3	CHN	Travis Wood	20:05
Chris Tillman	BAL	5	2	3	4	3	SEA	Hector Noesi	22:10
Jhoulys Chacin	COL	2	6	3	4	9	SF	M. Bumgarner	22:15

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.