Daily Notes, Ft. Three of Bauer’s Reverse Sliders

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

1. GIF Explosion: Three of Trevor Bauer’s “Reverse Sliders”
2. Information: Top Mexican Pacific League Reliever, Mike Benacka
3. SCOUT Leaderboards: Mexican Pacific League

GIF Explosion: Three of Trevor Bauer’s “Reverse Sliders”
Right-hander Trevor Bauer was traded from Arizona to Cleveland on Tuesday as part of a three-team deal that sent, among others, Shin-Soo Choo to the Reds and Drew Stubbs to the Indians. Among his repertoire is an excellent curveball — notable examples of which pitch the author examined yesterday in these pages.

Also among Bauer’s repertoire is something known as a “reverse slider” — a pitch not entirely dissimilar to a changeup, except also different than a changeup. Below are three notable examples of that pitch (probably) from his (i.e. Bauer’s) first four major-league starts — where “notable” is determined by a combination of (a) result, (b) movement, (c) strength of opponent, (d) camera angle, and (e) the author’s infallible aesthetic judgment.

All three of these pitches feature a velocity between 84.9 and 85.9 mph. They also feature armside run in the 3-to-5 inch range.

3. Against Bobby Abreu, July 8th

2. Against Everth Cabrera, July 3rd

1. Against Michael Bourn, June 28th

Information: Top Mexican Pacific League Reliever, Mike Benacka
Right-handed reliever Michael Benacka, who turned 30 in August, has posted the most impressive per-inning regressed line among all Mexican Pacific League (MPL) pitchers this fall, having recorded a 48:19 strikeout-to-walk ratio in just 31.2 innings. The walk totals, of course, merit concern; however, strikeout rates tend to become reliable in smaller samples and Benacka’s regressed 34.5% strikeout rate is the best in the MPL by about seven percentage points.

“Who is Michael Benacka?” is the sort of question a reasonable American might ask. “An undrafted alumnus of Lindenwood University,” appears to be one answer. “A one-time farmhand in the Oakland system,” appears to be another.

As of 2008 — when Baseball America profiled Benacka twice (here and here) over the span of a couple months — Benacka threw an 86-88 mph fastball with a plus change. PITCHf/x data at Brooks Baseball from an unspecified date bears this out: according to said data, Benacka threw the change 18 times out of 44 total pitches thrown and got swinging strikes on five of those (i.e. five of those changeups).

SCOUT Leaderboards: Mexican Pacific League
Below are the current SCOUT leaderboards for the Mexican Pacific League. (Ages as of July 1st, 2012. Players listed with most recent team. Click here for more on what is SCOUT.)

SCOUT Leaderboard: Mexican Pacific League Hitters
Below is the current SCOUT batting leaderboard for the Mexican Pacific League. SCOUT+ is calculated using regressed home-run, walk, and strikeout rates, where 100 is average and above 100 is above average.

Player	Team	Age	Pos	PA	xHR%	xBB%	xK%	SCOUT+
Barbaro Canizares	MEX	32	1B	215	5.8%	16.7%	11.6%	170
Jesse Gutierrez	IND	34	1B	215	6.2%	6.5%	12.1%	142
Saul Soto	MEX	33	C	202	4.6%	17.3%	22.3%	136
Chris Colabello	Twins	28	1B	198	5.7%	11.1%	20.2%	134
Cory Aldridge	MEX	33	OF	217	6.5%	15.2%	31.3%	134
Ramiro Pena	NYA	26	SS	185	2.8%	16.2%	12.4%	130
Marlon Byrd	N/A	34	CF	200	6.0%	10.5%	23.0%	130
Jose Amador	MEX	32	2B	155	3.8%	11.6%	12.3%	128
Jesse Castillo	MEX	29	3B	189	3.1%	11.5%	9.0%	127
Jorge Cantu	Angels	30	1B	164	5.3%	11.7%	23.2%	126

SCOUT Leaderboard: Mexican Pacific League Pitchers
Below is the current SCOUT pitching leaderboard for the Mexican Pacific League. SCOUT- is calculated using regressed strikeout and walk rates where 100 is average and below 100 is above average.

Player	Team	Age	G	GS	IP	TBF	xK%	xBB%	SCOUT-
Michael Benacka	IND	29	27	0	31.2	129	34.5%	10.5%	58
Esmailin Caridad	Cubs	28	29	1	33.0	140	27.2%	8.7%	73
Adrian Ramirez	MEX	24	29	0	27.2	115	26.8%	8.7%	74
Rafael Diaz	MEX	41	18	5	37.1	165	26.0%	8.8%	76
Esteban Haro	MEX	26	19	0	25.1	104	25.4%	8.9%	78
Hassan Pena	Nationals	27	22	0	21.1	90	24.3%	8.9%	81
Edwin Salas	MEX	20	10	3	25.2	96	23.7%	8.5%	82
Mario Mendoza	MEX	33	30	0	26.0	104	24.1%	9.1%	82
Marco Duarte	Red Sox	25	11	10	49.2	225	24.0%	9.2%	83
Ryan Brasier	Angels	24	24	0	25.2	103	23.6%	8.9%	83

SCOUT Leaderboard: Mexican Pacific League Pitchers (Starters)
Here is the SCOUT pitching leaderboard for the Mexican Pacific League, but only populated with pitchers who’ve made at least half of their appearances as starts.

Player	Team	Age	G	GS	IP	TBF	xK%	xBB%	SCOUT-
Marco Duarte	Red Sox	25	11	10	49.2	225	24.0%	9.2%	83
Nick Additon	Cardinals	24	10	10	53.0	229	21.4%	9.2%	90
Rolando Valdez	MEX	26	11	11	56.1	250	19.2%	8.1%	93
Javier Martinez	MEX	29	10	10	55.1	245	21.2%	10.2%	93
Irwin Delgado	MEX	23	10	9	41.2	185	20.6%	9.9%	94
Juan Delgadillo	MEX	29	10	10	62.0	260	18.8%	8.5%	95
Arturo Lopez	MEX	29	10	10	55.1	246	19.1%	8.9%	95
Edgar Osuna	N/A	24	9	9	44.2	193	19.2%	9.0%	95
Bobby Cramer	MEX	2012	7	7	35.0	155	19.4%	9.3%	96
Amauri Sanit	MEX	32	10	10	57.2	226	19.1%	9.0%	96