Daily Notes, Featuring the Univ. of Florida, It Appears

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

1. SCOUT Leaderboards for Both the Low-A Leagues
2. Other Notable Games (Including MLB.TV Free Game)
3. Today’s Complete Schedule

SCOUT Leaderboards for Both the Low-A Leagues
Regarding What This Is, First of All
What follows are the SCOUT Leaderboards for both the Low-A Leagues (the New York-Penn and Northwest ones, that is) 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 Low-A Leagues (Overall)
Here are the top-10 batters of the Low-A Leagues, as determined by the methodology explained above.

Player	Team	League	Age	PA	xHR%	xBB%	xK%	SCOUT+
Preston Tucker	Astros	NY-Penn	21	187	3.1%	9.6%	8.6%	150
Michael Zunino	Mariners	Northwest	21	133	4.1%	12.1%	19.6%	143
Kevin Plawecki	Mets	NY-Penn	21	252	2.5%	9.9%	9.5%	142
Daniel Vogelbach	Cubs	Northwest	19	168	3.9%	13.0%	20.2%	142
Maxx Tissenbaum	Padres	Northwest	20	208	1.4%	13.0%	6.7%	139
David Chester	Red Sox	NY-Penn	23	188	3.4%	11.5%	19.7%	138
Taylor Dugas	Yankees	NY-Penn	22	276	0.4%	18.5%	12.7%	137
Andrew Aplin	Astros	NY-Penn	21	196	1.7%	12.2%	11.2%	136
Matthew Snyder	Yankees	NY-Penn	22	219	1.3%	11.9%	8.7%	135
Viosergy Rosa	Marlins	NY-Penn	22	247	1.2%	18.6%	18.2%	135

Top Batters of the Low-A Leagues (Aged 20 and Under)
Here are the top-10 batters of the Low-A Leagues who were young relative to the level — again, as determined by the methodology explained above.

Player	Team	League	Age	PA	xHR%	xBB%	xK%	SCOUT+
Daniel Vogelbach	Cubs	Northwest	19	168	3.9%	13.0%	20.2%	142
Maxx Tissenbaum	Padres	Northwest	20	208	1.4%	13.0%	6.7%	139
Barrett Barnes	Pirates	NY-Penn	20	153	2.2%	10.5%	13.7%	132
Marcus Littlewood	Mariners	Northwest	20	259	3.2%	17.0%	27.8%	130
Kellen Sweeney	Blue Jays	Northwest	20	288	1.7%	12.2%	16.3%	121
Exicardo Cayones	Yankees	NY-Penn	20	200	0.7%	16.5%	20.0%	120
Estarlin Martinez	Nationals	NY-Penn	20	288	1.7%	9.0%	14.9%	119
Phillip Evans	Mets	NY-Penn	19	329	1.5%	9.4%	14.6%	119
Brandon Nimmo	Mets	NY-Penn	19	321	1.9%	14.3%	24.3%	118
Patrick Wisdom	Cardinals	NY-Penn	20	279	2.1%	11.1%	20.8%	118

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

Player	Team	League	Age	IP	TBF	xK%	xBB%	SCOUT-
Lee Stoppelman	Cardinals	NY-Penn	22	34.1	137	34.4%	7.6%	49
Omar Duran	Athletics	NY-Penn	22	20.1	87	36.3%	10.8%	53
Alec Asher	Rangers	Northwest	20	35.0	145	34.0%	8.8%	55
Tucker Healy	Athletics	NY-Penn	22	29.1	127	33.0%	8.9%	57
Brandon Creath	Cardinals	NY-Penn	23	32.2	138	32.9%	8.9%	58
Luis Mateo	Mets	NY-Penn	22	73.1	288	29.5%	5.7%	58
Sander Beck	Orioles	NY-Penn	21	44.1	182	32.4%	9.5%	62
Kevin Brady	Phillies	NY-Penn	21	39.0	166	29.5%	6.8%	62
Carl Edwards	Rangers	Northwest	20	47.0	185	32.4%	9.6%	63
Rainy Lara	Mets	NY-Penn	21	68.0	267	28.8%	6.5%	64

Top Pitchers of the Low-A Leagues (Starters Only)
Here are the top-10 pitchers in the Low-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-
Luis Mateo	Mets	NY-Penn	22	73.1	288	29.5%	5.7%	58
Kevin Brady	Phillies	NY-Penn	21	39.0	166	29.5%	6.8%	62
Carl Edwards	Rangers	Northwest	20	47.0	185	32.4%	9.6%	63
Rainy Lara	Mets	NY-Penn	21	68.0	267	28.8%	6.5%	64
Javier Avendano	Blue Jays	Northwest	21	78.0	302	30.1%	8.7%	67
Mike Augliera	Red Sox	NY-Penn	22	38.2	157	27.4%	6.6%	69
Juan Guzman	Orioles	NY-Penn	21	38.0	155	27.7%	8.1%	73
Jeffrey Ames	Rays	NY-Penn	21	64.1	261	26.8%	8.1%	76
Vincent Velasquez	Astros	NY-Penn	20	45.2	190	26.8%	8.6%	78
Hansel Robles	Mets	NY-Penn	21	72.2	272	24.3%	6.1%	78

Three Notable Performances
• Like Nolan Fontana, who finished near the top of the Class-A SCOUT batting leaderboard, outfielder Preston Tucker was both (a) part of the University of Florida’s very strong 2012 team and (b) drafted by the Houston Astros. He finished with the second-best walk-to-strikeout ratio on the Gators and continued demonstrating that sort of patience in professional baseball, posting an 18:16 figure in 187 plate appearances.
• Michael Zunino was another member, along with Fontana and Tucker, of that University of Florida team — and, at third overall, the first college player selected in the 2012 draft. Zunino’s minor-league season extended beyond Low-A, as well: after hitting extraordinarily well in the Northwest League, the catcher proceeded to post a 8.8% strikeout rate, 12.3% walk rate, and 166 wRC+ in 57 plate appearances with the Double-A Jackson Generals.
• Middle infielder Maxx Tissenbaum’s control over the strike zone at Eugene in the Northwest League was apparent in college. Before being selected by Toronto in the 11th round of this most recent draft, Tissenbaum posted a team-best 23:9 walk-to-strikeout ratio at College World Series participants Stony Brook University.

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)
Appalachian, Arizona, Gulf Coast, and Pioneer Leagues Combined (Rookie)

Today’s Notable Games
Milwaukee at Pittsburgh | 19:05 ET ***MLB.TV Free Game***
This game represents the first major-league start for Pirates right-hander Kyle McPherson, who’s already posted rather excellent numbers (11.2 IP, 23.4% K, 4.3% BB, 51.6 % GB) in seven major-league relief appearances after putting together the best regressed line among all starting pitchers in the Double-A Eastern League. With the Brewers’ 6-0 win over the Pirates on Tuesday (box), the former passed the latter in the NL Wild Card standings.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Milwaukee Radio.

Oakland at Detroit | 19:05 ET
For as excellent as Justin Verlander (217.1 IP, 81 xFIP-, 6.0 WAR) has been this season, Oakland left-hander Brett Anderson (32.2 IP, 67 xFIP-, 1.1 WAR) has been better — on a per-batter basis, at least — in his five starts since returning from Tommy John surgery. The pair face each other tonight in a game effing fraught with Playoff Implications™.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Oakland or Detroit 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 4.7.

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
Hend. Alvarez	TOR	4	5	5	7	10	NYA	Andy Pettitte	13:05
Aaron Harang	LAN	1	1	3	7	8	WAS	J. Zimmermann	16:05
Josh Beckett	LAN	5	1	3	7	3	WAS	John Lannan*	TBD
Marco Estrada	MIL	8	9	9	4	13	PIT	Kyle McPherson*	19:05
Liam Hendriks	MIN	3	4	2	2	6	CLE	Zach McAllister	19:05
Brett Anderson	OAK	10	6	8	4	9	DET	Justin Verlander	19:05
Ricky Romero	TOR	2	5	2	7	5	NYA	David Phelps	19:05
Kris Medlen	ATL	10	6	6	4	7	MIA	Josh Johnson	19:10
D. Matsuzaka	BOS	3	5	5	5	10	TB	Chris Archer*	19:10
Cole Hamels	PHI	9	5	6	2	10	NYN	Matt Harvey	19:10
Mike Leake	CIN	7	4	4	1	6	CHN	Chris Rusin*	20:05
Chris Sale	CHA	10	5	5	8	4	KC	Bruce Chen	20:10
Lucas Harrell	HOU	5	3	5	9	7	STL	Lance Lynn	20:15
Edinson Volquez	SD	5	7	4	6	6	AZ	Trevor Cahill	21:40
Derek Holland	TEX	6	7	5	8	4	LAA	C.J. Wilson	22:05
Joe Saunders	BAL	3	2	4	4	9	SEA	Felix Hernandez	22:10
Tyler Chatwood	COL	3	6	3	4	6	SF	Matt Cain	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.