Daily Notes: Getting Intimate w/ the American Assoc.

by
October 12, 2012

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

1. Final SCOUT Leaderboards: Indepedent American Association
2. Mostly Relevant Video: Brian Myrow Doubling in 2008
3. Today’s Playoff Games

Final SCOUT Leaderboards: Indepedent American Association
Regarding What Happened Recently
What happened recently is the author, having noted a news story regarding the final game of the independent Atlantic League’s championship series, endeavored to publish SCOUT hitting and pitching leaderboards for that same league.

Regarding What Happened Even More Recently
A thing that happened even more recently is the author, in preparing the aforementioned SCOUT leaderboards for the Atlantic League, was reminded about how there are, like, six or whatever other indepedent leagues — information for all of which the FanGraphs readership would undoubtedly be clamoring.

Regarding What’s Happening Right Now
What’s happening right now is — for the benefit of the clamoring readership — is the author is presenting SCOUT hitting and pitching leaderboards for the independent American Association, which ended in mid-September (championship box score). Click here for a full list of teams and standings.

Regarding What Is SCOUT
SCOUT is a metric calculated using regressed defense-indepedent numbers (walks, strikeouts, and — for hitters — home runs). The offensive version is SCOUT+, where 100 is league average and above 100 is above average. Its pitching counterpart is SCOUT-, where 100 is league average and below 100 represents above-average run prevention. (Read more here, if you’re even interested.)

Regarding SCOUT, One of Its Benefits
A benefit of SCOUT is it allows one to compare the relative performances of players with markedly different sample sizes and/or batted-ball luck.

SCOUT Leaderboard: American Association Hitters
Here are the top-10 batters of the independent American Association, as determined by the methodology explained above:

Player Team Pos Age PA xHR% xBB% xK% SCOUT+
C.J. Ziegler WI 1B 26 260 6.2% 13.1% 14.2% 171
Chris McMurray GP/LN C 25 324 5.6% 9.9% 13.3% 155
Eric Campbell FM 3B 25 243 4.7% 10.3% 10.7% 151
Brian Myrow GP CIF 35 398 3.0% 18.8% 18.1% 142
Ole Sheldon SP 1B 29 425 4.7% 7.3% 12.0% 140
John Rodriguez WI DH 34 425 3.8% 9.2% 10.4% 138
Trent Lockwood GP RF/1B 26 403 3.7% 14.1% 18.1% 137
David Espinosa LN 2B 30 313 2.2% 16.6% 14.1% 134
Ryan Delgado FM C 24 399 5.0% 6.5% 16.8% 132
Devin Goodwin KC SS/3B/2B 25 385 4.7% 8.6% 18.7% 130

SCOUT Leaderboard: American Association Pitchers (Overall)
Here are the top-10 pitchers of the independent American Association, as determined by the methodology explained above:

Player Team Age IP TBF xK% xBB% SCOUT-
Mike Benacka LL 29 52.2 225 41.0% 11.2% 43
Matt Nevarez WI 25 26.1 106 34.6% 8.6% 53
Chaz Roe LL 25 55.0 219 31.5% 6.2% 55
Steve Kent KC 33 47.1 203 33.0% 8.3% 56
Tom Boleska FM 25 46.0 186 31.2% 7.5% 59
P.J. Zocchi LN 27 41.0 184 29.9% 8.2% 64
Edwin Walker LL 28 45.2 194 29.4% 9.2% 68
Brian Beuning WP 31 63.1 232 27.6% 7.3% 68
Justin Dowdy GP 28 31.2 130 28.2% 10.1% 73
Kyle Mertins SF 24 54.0 212 25.5% 7.6% 74

SCOUT Leaderboard: American Association Pitchers (Starters)
Here are the top-10 pitchers in the independent American Association who made at least half of their appearances as starts — again, as determined by the methodology explained above:

Player Team Age IP TBF xK% xBB% SCOUT-
Fabian Williamson WP 23 39.2 170 24.2% 8.8% 80
Matt Rusch WP 29 139.0 565 20.0% 5.5% 83
Tyler Herron FM 25 123.0 512 20.5% 6.0% 83
Lance Janke GP 25 19.1 89 22.4% 8.7% 85
Brian Grening KC 27 146.1 617 18.3% 4.9% 85
Ryan Sheldon LN 26 121.0 535 20.2% 7.3% 87
Justin Garcia AM 25 135.1 581 17.4% 4.8% 88
Nick Singleton EP 29 42.1 188 18.6% 6.9% 90
Tommy Palica LN 24 70.1 341 19.9% 8.6% 91
Reymond Cruz EP/GP 28 85.0 376 18.4% 7.2% 91

Three Notable Performances
• C.J. Ziegler is a giant (6-5, 245) first base-type drafted in the 16th round out of the University of Arizona by San Francisco in 2008. He was released before the 2010 season after showing only fair offensive numbers relative both to his age for the level and defensive position. As an indy leaguer, he’s exhibited a pretty excellent combination of power and control of the plate.
• I, personally, saw a 31-year-old Brian Myrow hit the pants off the ball at Triple-A Portland (Ore.) in 2008, en route to an offensive line of .314/.451/.500 (.367 BABIP), 19.4% BB, 17.3% K in 417 plate appearances. Why or how the ball was wearing comfortable men’s slacks remains a mystery.
• At 23, left-hander Fabian Williamson is actually the age of many real-live prospects. Also, in posting the league’s top line among starters in just 39.2 innings (where the pull of regression is stronger), Williamson has done something notable there, as well. Drafted in the 22nd round by Seattle in 2006 out of a California high school, Williamson has actually spent time in four major-league organizations, already — most recently with Atlanta’s Class A Sally League affiliate, Rome, where he wasn’t entirely impressive: 14 G, 8 GS, 50.1 IP, 6.44 K/9, 5.54 BB/9, 0.89 HR/9. Williamson was topping out at ca 94 mph as recently as 2011, according to Scout’s Jason Cole, with decided command issues, however.

Mostly Relevant Video: Brian Myrow Doubling in 2008
Here is Brian Myrow, among this year’s top American Association hitters, doubling for the Portland Beavers on what appears to have been a miserable night in 2008:

Today’s Playoff Games
ALDS, Game 5 (2-2 Tie) | Baltimore at New York | 17:00 ET on TBS
BAL: Jason Hammel (118.0 IP, 83 xFIP-, 2.9 WAR)
NYA: CC Sabathia (200.0 IP, 77 xFIP-, 4.8 WAR)

NLDS, Game 5 (2-2 Tie) | St. Louis at Washington | 20:30 ET on TBS
STL: Adam Wainwright (198.2 IP, 83 xFIP-, 4.4 WAR)
WAS: Gio Gonzalez (199.1 IP, 87 xFIP-, 5.4 WAR)





 

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

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Matt
11 years ago

I work for a team in the AA. Would it be possible to get SCOUT leaderboards beyond the Top 10? or is that all you have? Thanks for the article.

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Carson Cistullimember
11 years ago
Reply to  Matt

Sir!

Feel free to email me here:

carson [dot] cistulli [at] fangraphs [dot] com

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