Daily Notes for March 22nd

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

1. Select Televised Games
2. SCOUT Leaderboards: Spring Training Batters
3. Crowdsourcing Radio Broadcasters: Ballot Totals by Team

Select Televised Games
Some notable games available on MLB.TV.

Chicago NL at Texas | 16:05 ET
Prospective Cubs first baseman Bryan LaHair has a 0:14 BB:K in 37 at-bats this spring. What will he do today?!? It’s a mystery. Like a John le Carré novel. Which is to say, a lesser John le Carré novel.

Kansas City at Los Angeles AL | 16:05 ET
This is the daily free game on MLB.TV. Danny Duffy, 23, starts for the Royals (against Jered Weaver). Duffy posted just a 112 xFIP- last season and 0.6 WAR in 105.1 innings, but is a left-hander who sits at 93 mph as a starter. Lorenzo Cain, the Royals’ likely center fielder this season, has looked good, and is ranked 19th out of 193 batters with a 108 SCOUT+ (see below for more on what that means).

New York AL at Boston | 19:05 ET
Yankees right-hander David Phelps, who was originally scheduled to pitch in relief a couple days ago, gets the start for New York today instead. It’s possible, if not probable, that he could be a decent major-leaguer, despite the lack of real pedigree. In any case, he throws at around 92 mph and has generally only walked about 5% of batters faced in the minors.

SCOUT Leaderboards: Spring Training Batters
Batting 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 smalls samples are the rule. Presented on the same scale as wRC+, SCOUT+ uses regressed home-run rate, walk rate, and strikeout rate as its inputs. Because it uses metrics that become reliable rather quickly, SCOUT+ represents a more stable alternative to batting average, on-base percentage, slugging percentage, etc. (Click here for more on SCOUT+.)

Name Org PA* HR% BB% K% xHR% xBB% xK% SCOUT+
Delmon Young DET 38 13.2% 5.3% 13.2% 4.0% 6.7% 16.6% 117
Dan Uggla ATL 43 9.3% 14.0% 18.6% 3.6% 8.6% 18.0% 115
Mat Gamel MIL 34 8.8% 11.8% 8.8% 3.4% 7.9% 15.7% 114
Howie Kendrick LAA 32 9.4% 6.3% 3.1% 3.4% 7.0% 14.6% 114
Daniel Descalso STL 40 2.5% 25.0% 10.0% 2.7% 10.7% 15.7% 114
Albert Pujols LAA 34 8.8% 11.8% 11.8% 3.4% 7.9% 16.4% 113
Paul Goldschmidt ARI 44 4.5% 22.7% 18.2% 3.0% 10.5% 17.9% 113
J.P. Arencibia TOR 31 12.9% 3.2% 16.1% 3.7% 6.5% 17.4% 111
Eric Hosmer KC 46 4.3% 15.2% 13.0% 2.9% 9.0% 16.3% 111
Eric Sogard OAK 46 4.3% 10.9% 8.7% 2.9% 8.0% 15.0% 111

And here’s the laggardboard:

Name Org PA* HR% BB% K% xHR% xBB% xK% SCOUT+
Bryan LaHair CHC 37 0.0% 0.0% 37.8% 2.4% 5.8% 22.7% 84
Jai Miller BAL 35 2.9% 2.9% 48.6% 2.7% 6.3% 24.9% 85
Brandon Wood COL 31 0.0% 0.0% 38.7% 2.4% 6.0% 22.1% 86
Johnny Giavotella KC 36 0.0% 2.8% 27.8% 2.4% 6.3% 20.1% 90
Dayan Viciedo CWS 32 0.0% 6.3% 34.4% 2.4% 7.0% 21.3% 90
Freddie Freeman ATL 47 0.0% 2.1% 21.3% 2.3% 5.9% 18.8% 90
Ian Desmond WSH 43 0.0% 4.7% 25.6% 2.3% 6.6% 20.0% 90
Jon Jay STL 38 0.0% 7.9% 31.6% 2.3% 7.2% 21.2% 90
Danny Espinosa WSH 39 0.0% 7.7% 30.8% 2.3% 7.2% 21.1% 91
Chris Heisey CIN 36 0.0% 11.1% 36.1% 2.4% 7.8% 22.1% 91

Notes
• The sample from which these leaderboards were taken includes the 193 spring batters with at least 30 at-bats as of Wednesday afternoon.
• After placing second on last week’s batting leaderboards, Mat Gamel appears here, again — this time in third. He’s posted a 1:1 BB:K in ca. 12 plate appearances since then.
• Eric Sogard also appears on the leaderboard for a second consecutive week. He’s competing with Josh Donaldson for the Oakland third-base slot. In ca. 55 plate appearances, Donaldson has 94 SCOUT+, placing him 172nd out of 193 qualified batters.
• The Washington Nationals starting middle infield from 2011 — Ian Desmond and Danny Espinosa — is having some trouble thus far. Meanwhile, Nats middle-infield prospect Steve Lombardozzi is 58th overall, with a 104 SCOUT+ in ca. 38 plate appearances.

Crowdsourcing Radio Broadcasters: Ballot Totals by Team
Recently, we released the results of our television broadcaster rankings — itself the product of reader crowdsourcing that started in late November. Now, FanGraphs is asking readers to rate the radio broadcast teams for all 30 major-league clubs (Click here for more on this project.)

So far, we’ve done seven teams. Here they are in order of votes received. (Click on a team name to go to the relevant ballot — especially if you’re from San Diego.)

Num Team Ballots
1 San Francisco 605
2 Toronto 205
3 Washington 85
4 Seattle 60
5 Texas 31
6 Tampa Bay 22
7 San Diego 10





Carson Cistulli has published a book of aphorisms called Spirited Ejaculations of a New Enthusiast.

4 Comments
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KJ
12 years ago

Really want to add Sogard in my deep league… will they actually make him the starter or will he just platoon w/ Donaldson?

Delirium Nocturnum
12 years ago
Reply to  KJ

More than likely, Sogard has beat out Rosales for the utility infielder spot. That said, if he continues to hit and Donaldson doesn’t, I imagine the A’s will give him a shot – and why not? what’s to lose?

Just my opinion as an A’s fan. If you can stash him on the bench, maybe go get him now, though personally, I think Donaldson is the better hitter.