Daily Notes, Ft. WBC Games You Can Really Watch

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

1. World Baseball Classic: Qualifying Games This Weekend
2. Video: Brazil Upsets Panama
3. SCOUT Leaderboards: Arizona Fall League

World Baseball Classic: Qualifying Games This Weekend
The third ever World Baseball Classic takes place this March. Unlike its predecessors, which featured just four pools of four teams each, this iteration of the Classic has an expanded qualifying round of 16 teams designed to produce four total qualifiers — which four clubs will be added to 12 automatically qualified teams.

Qualifying Rounds 1 and 2 were played in September. Rounds 3 and 4, however, are currently in progress and available for real watching on your computer. Owing to the double-elimination format, the precise schedule is undetermined. A reader could hypothetically click this hyperlinked text, though, with a view to finding updated box scores and links to the relevant live feeds.

By way of reference, here’s — stolen directly from Wikipedia — here’s the bracket for Qualifier 3, being played in Panama:

And here’s the present bracket for Qualifier 4, being played at very late/early hours Eastern Time in New Taipei City:

And here are the names of four players currently participating in Qualifier 3:

• From Nicaragua, Seattle right-hander Erasmo Ramirez, who pitched quite well (59.0 IP, 91 xFIP-, 0.9 WAR) while battling injury this past season.

• Also from Nicaragua: Cheslor Cuthbert, a third-base prospect in the Kansas City system who played the entirety of the season as a teenager in the High-A Carolina League.

• From Colombia, someone called Sugar Ray Marimon, a 24-year-old pitcher also in the Kansas City system.

• And from host team Panama, Ruben Rivera, who appeared five times on Baseball America’s top-100 lists — and three times within the top 10. Rivera turned 39 years old on Wednesday and played center field on Thursday, in Panama’s 3-2 loss to Brazil (box). Despite his underwhelming major-league resume, he’s hit like a monster in the Mexican League.

Video: Brazil Upsets Panama
It was noted during the telecast of Brazil’s 3-2 upset over Panama that the Panamanian lineup included more major leaguers in it than Brazil had ever produced as a country ever.

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

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

Player	MLB	Age	PA	xHR%	xBB%	xK%	SCOUT+
Nate Roberts	Twins	23	81	2.2%	11.5%	13.8%	123
Christopher McGuiness	Rangers	24	104	2.4%	11.4%	16.1%	120
David Adams	Yankees	25	94	2.2%	11.9%	15.4%	120
Matt Szczur	Cubs	22	103	1.4%	11.9%	12.9%	116
Kent Matthes	Rockies	25	93	2.5%	10.9%	18.2%	115
Trayce Thompson	White Sox	21	67	2.0%	15.2%	22.4%	114
George Springer	Astros	22	81	2.6%	12.5%	21.8%	114
Joe Panik	Giants	21	88	1.5%	10.7%	12.9%	114
Josh Prince	Brewers	24	106	1.4%	12.3%	15.2%	113
Logan Watkins	Cubs	22	36	1.8%	11.8%	17.2%	112

SCOUT Leaderboard: Arizona Fall League Hitters (Prospects)
Here is the SCOUT batting leaderboard for the Arizona Fall League, but only populated with players who are 22 or under — i.e. something more like “prospect” age relative to the league.

Player	MLB	Age	PA	xHR%	xBB%	xK%	SCOUT+
Matt Szczur	Cubs	22	103	1.4%	11.9%	12.9%	116
Trayce Thompson	White Sox	21	67	2.0%	15.2%	22.4%	114
George Springer	Astros	22	81	2.6%	12.5%	21.8%	114
Joe Panik	Giants	21	88	1.5%	10.7%	12.9%	114
Logan Watkins	Cubs	22	36	1.8%	11.8%	17.2%	112
Jonathan Schoop	Orioles	20	83	1.9%	13.9%	20.9%	112
Didi Gregorius	Reds	22	81	1.6%	9.0%	11.8%	111
Cory Spangenberg	Padres	21	38	1.8%	12.2%	18.2%	111
Matt Skole	Nationals	22	74	2.3%	12.9%	22.1%	111
Jonathan Singleton	Astros	20	108	2.1%	13.2%	21.6%	111

SCOUT Leaderboard: Arizona Fall League Pitchers (Overall)
Below is the current SCOUT pitching leaderboard for the Arizona Fall League. SCOUT- is calculated using regressed strikeout and walk rates where 100 is average and below 100 is above average.

Player	MLB	Age	G	GS	IP	TBF	xK%	xBB%	SCOUT-
Kevin Siegrist	Cardinals	22	6	5	19.0	78	27.6%	9.8%	83
Robbie Erlin	Padres	21	6	6	18.2	74	26.8%	9.7%	85
Mark Montgomery	Yankees	21	9	0	10.1	41	27.2%	10.3%	85
Kevin Quackenbush	Padres	23	10	0	10.0	37	25.0%	9.8%	89
Kyle Gibson	Twins	24	6	6	23.1	106	24.5%	9.6%	89
Boone Whiting	Cardinals	22	6	6	21.1	91	24.5%	9.7%	89
Kevin Rhoderick	Cubs	23	9	0	9.1	35	24.6%	9.8%	90
Ryan Pressly	Red Sox	23	10	0	14.0	61	23.8%	9.2%	90
Chase Anderson	Diamondbacks	24	6	6	23.1	96	24.5%	10.0%	90
Grant Dayton	Marlins	24	9	0	11.0	48	24.9%	10.5%	90

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

Player	MLB	Age	G	GS	IP	TBF	xK%	xBB%	SCOUT-
Kevin Siegrist	Cardinals	22	6	5	19.0	78	27.6%	9.8%	83
Robbie Erlin	Padres	21	6	6	18.2	74	26.8%	9.7%	85
Kyle Gibson	Twins	24	6	6	23.1	106	24.5%	9.6%	89
Boone Whiting	Cardinals	22	6	6	21.1	91	24.5%	9.7%	89
Chase Anderson	Diamondbacks	24	6	6	23.1	96	24.5%	10.0%	90
T.J. House	Indians	22	6	6	27.0	107	23.0%	9.8%	93
Nicholas Bucci	Brewers	21	6	6	18.0	92	23.0%	10.1%	93
James Paxton	Mariners	23	5	5	12.2	57	23.0%	10.1%	94
Justin Marks	Royals	24	7	7	24.1	102	21.0%	9.1%	96
Seth Blair	Cardinals	23	6	6	20.0	89	22.8%	11.0%	96