Daily Notes for April 3rd
Table of Contents
Here’s the table of contents for today’s edition of Daily Notes.
1. Select Televised Games
2. Lightly Annotated Video: Chris Sale vs. the Dodgers
3. SCOUT Leaderboards: Spring Training Pitchers
Select Televised Games
The best games on MLB.TV today, or your money back. Seriously, all of it.
Atlanta Futures at Atlanta | 19:05 ET
This game features the Braves major-league team versus a team of Braves prospects. Left-hander Mike Minor, who has a 19:14 K:BB in 24.0 innings this spring, starts for the senior team. The roster for the Futures team is available here, courtesy MiLB.com, and features left-hander Sean Gilmartin (ranked fifth in the organization by our Marc Hulet), Christian Bethancourt (seventh), Edward Salcedo (eighth), etc.
Chicago AL at Houston | 20:05 ET
Left-hander Chris Sale, converting to the rotation this season after pitching exclusively in relief last year, gets the start for the White Sox. He’s pitched well this spring, ranking 21st out of the 218 pitchers included in the sample for the SCOUT leaderboard, which you can find below. Entering play Tuesday, Sale has a 22:2 K:BB in 24.0 innings — or what would likely approximate an 88 kwERA-.
Lightly Annotated Video: Chris Sale vs. the Dodgers
This is video from Chris Sale’s most recent Cactus League start, during which he recorded seven strikeouts and zero walks over 6.0 innings.
It appears as though at least five of Sale’s seven strikeouts come on the slider — and three of those come on sliders to Matt Kemp, with one in the dirt and the other two thrown to the back foot.
SCOUT Leaderboards: Spring Training Pitchers
Pitching Leaderboard
SCOUT is a metric designed to assess performance in those instances — like with baseball’s various fall and winter leagues, for example, or spring training — where small samples are the rule. Presented on the same scale as ERA-, SCOUT- is calculated like kwERA, except using regressed stikeout and walk rates instead. Because it uses metrics that become reliable rather quickly, SCOUT- represents a more stable alternative to ERA. (Click here for more on SCOUT-.)
Here’s the SCOUT- leaderboard for spring-training pitchers, as of Monday afternoon:
| Name | Org | G | GS | IP | BF* | K% | BB% | xK% | xBB% | SCOUT- |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zack Greinke | MIL | 6 | 5 | 22.1 | 90 | 33.2% | 5.5% | 27.0% | 6.3% | 72 |
| Francisco Liriano | MIN | 7 | 7 | 27.0 | 111 | 29.7% | 4.5% | 26.6% | 6.1% | 73 |
| Roy Halladay | PHI | 6 | 6 | 22.0 | 95 | 28.4% | 3.2% | 24.4% | 5.9% | 78 |
| Cory Luebke | SD | 6 | 6 | 20.1 | 92 | 27.1% | 6.5% | 23.4% | 6.5% | 83 |
| Yu Darvish | TEX | 4 | 4 | 15.0 | 65 | 32.3% | 12.3% | 23.9% | 7.2% | 83 |
| Chris Capuano | LAD | 5 | 5 | 19.2 | 77 | 28.7% | 6.5% | 23.2% | 6.5% | 83 |
| Justin Verlander | DET | 6 | 6 | 26.2 | 104 | 24.1% | 2.9% | 22.1% | 5.8% | 85 |
| Luke Hochevar | KC | 5 | 5 | 19.0 | 80 | 26.3% | 2.5% | 22.2% | 5.9% | 85 |
| James Shields | TB | 5 | 5 | 21.2 | 88 | 26.3% | 5.7% | 22.6% | 6.4% | 85 |
| Luis Marte | DET | 9 | 13.0 | 47 | 34.0% | 6.4% | 22.7% | 6.5% | 85 |
And the laggardboard:
| Name | Org | G | GS | IP | BF* | K% | BB% | xK% | xBB% | SCOUT- |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chris Narveson | MIL | 6 | 6 | 24.2 | 106 | 9.5% | 9.5% | 11.9% | 7.1% | 118 |
| Josh Collmenter | ARI | 5 | 5 | 16.0 | 80 | 6.3% | 6.3% | 11.5% | 6.5% | 117 |
| Kevin Correia | PIT | 5 | 5 | 16.1 | 75 | 5.3% | 5.3% | 11.4% | 6.3% | 117 |
| Mike Pelfrey | NYM | 5 | 5 | 22.0 | 103 | 8.7% | 5.8% | 11.5% | 6.4% | 117 |
| J.A. Happ | HOU | 4 | 4 | 13.2 | 71 | 7.1% | 9.9% | 12.6% | 6.9% | 115 |
| James McDonald | PIT | 5 | 5 | 18.2 | 84 | 9.6% | 12.0% | 13.1% | 7.3% | 115 |
| Jeremy Guthrie | COL | 5 | 5 | 20.2 | 95 | 9.5% | 7.4% | 12.5% | 6.7% | 115 |
| Wandy Rodriguez | HOU | 5 | 5 | 21.0 | 104 | 11.5% | 11.5% | 13.4% | 7.4% | 114 |
| Jason Marquis | MIN | 4 | 4 | 12.2 | 65 | 7.7% | 13.9% | 13.3% | 7.4% | 114 |
| Tim Stauffer | SD | 6 | 6 | 22.2 | 108 | 10.2% | 5.6% | 12.3% | 6.3% | 114 |
*Estimated
Notes
• The sample for this edition of the SCOUT pitching leaderboard includes the 218 pitchers who’d thrown 12.0 or more spring-training innings as of Monday afternoon.
• The top-10 list is populated by a surprising number of actually excellent pitchers — or, at least enough of them so’s to make the names of the lesser-esteemed ones (Hochevar, Marte, maybe Capuano) more interesting, probably.
• Here’s who Luis Marte is: a right-hander from the Dominican entering his age-25 season. He posted strikeout and walk rates of 33.3% and 8.8%, respectively, in 53.0 innings last year at Double-A Erie before very brief stints at Triple-A and in the majors. Marte recently told John Lowe of the Free Press the he throws a fastball, curve, slider and change — and PITCHf/x indicates roughly the same thing, with the fastball sitting at 90-91 mph.
• Tampa Bay right-hander Romulo Sanchez is 11th on the SCOUT- list. The internet says he’s not on the 40-man or anything. It also says he’s 6-5, 270.
• There are a pair of teams with two pitchers among the bottom 10: Houston and Pittsburgh.
Carson Cistulli has published a book of aphorisms called Spirited Ejaculations of a New Enthusiast.
Where can we view the current Scout+ leader board for hitters?
This past Friday’s is the most recent. I’ll probably post one more.
http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/daily-notes-for-march-30th/