Daily Notes: Javy Vazquez Would Consider Joining Contender

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

1. White-Hot News: Vazquez Would Consider Joining Contender
2. Apropos of Little: Biggio and Vaughn at Seton Hall
3. SCOUT Leaderboards: Venezuelan Winter League

White-Hot News: Vazquez Would Consider Joining Contender
As noted recently in these pages, right-hander Javier Vazquez has proven to be among the most effective pitchers in the Puerto Rican League this winter since joining said league at the beginning of December. Noted even more recently — by Ralph Pagán Archeval in the pages of ESPN Deportes — is how Vazquez would consider returning to the majors.

Said Vazquez (and translated Nick Colias): “Winning the World Series, quite simply, is the only thing (I’m interested in)… If I decide (to play), it doesn’t matter for what team, as long as they have a good possibility to get to the championship.”

For a rough sketch of what teams might have a “good possibility” of getting to the championship, consider, by clicking on this hyperlinked text, a previous post in which the author translated very early World Series odds into projections.

Apropos of Little: Biggio and Vaughn at Seton Hall
It came as a surprise to the author, this weekend, to learn while browsing the entire internet that Craig Biggio and Mo Vaughn — and also infielder John Valentin, one finds — were all teammates at Seton Hall together in 1987. More notably, perhaps, is that none of those three — which triumvirate accounted for ca. 135 WAR at the major-league level — were the Seton Hall player who, that season, was named Collegiate Player of the Year. That distinction belonged to first baseman Marteese Robinson, who hit .529 for the Pirates that season while stealing bases on 58 of 65 attempts and shared the aforementioned award with Oklahoma State’s Robin Ventura.

Robinson’s professional career was less successful. He played for four years in the minor leagues with Oakland, slashing .266/.315/.369 in ca. 1600 plate appearances, before leaving baseball. As of 2010, he was a scout in the Blue Jays organization.

Also, here’s his photograph:

And here’s his photograph with the Crystalize effect applied to it:

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

SCOUT Leaderboard: Venezuelan Winter League Hitters
Below is the current SCOUT batting leaderboard for the Venezuelan Winter 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+
Luis Jimenez	Mariners	30	DH	209	3.7%	18.7%	13.9%	153
Evan Gattis	Braves	25	C	211	6.0%	7.6%	14.2%	147
Carlos Maldonado	Nationals	31	C	207	4.7%	14.0%	21.7%	135
Luis Valbuena	Cubs	26	2B	213	2.6%	16.0%	15.5%	129
Chris Nowak	IND	29	3B	137	3.2%	13.0%	15.5%	127
C.J. Retherford	Dodgers	26	3B	263	2.9%	11.4%	12.9%	124
Jose Lopez	White Sox	28	2B	188	2.5%	12.6%	12.2%	123
Salvador Perez	Royals	22	C	141	3.8%	7.3%	12.4%	123
Carlos Rivero	Nationals	24	3B	232	3.8%	11.6%	19.0%	123
Justin Henry	Tigers	27	OF	106	1.4%	14.4%	10.4%	120

SCOUT Leaderboard: Venezuelan Winter League Hitters (Prospects)
Here is the SCOUT batting leaderboard for the Venezuelan Winter League, but only populated with players who are 25 or under — i.e. something more like “prospect” age relative to the league.

Player	Team	Age	Pos	PA	xHR%	xBB%	xK%	SCOUT+
Evan Gattis	Braves	25	C	211	6.0%	7.6%	14.2%	147
Salvador Perez	Royals	22	C	141	3.8%	7.3%	12.4%	123
Carlos Rivero	Nationals	24	3B	232	3.8%	11.6%	19.0%	123
Darwin Perez	Angels	22	SS	179	2.2%	19.5%	24.6%	116
Ezequiel Carrera	Indians	25	CF	129	1.9%	11.8%	13.1%	113
Darin Ruf	Phillies	25	1B	137	4.5%	11.5%	29.5%	110
Dave Sappelt	Cubs	25	CF	124	2.9%	7.6%	14.3%	110
Yangervis Solarte	Rangers	24	OF	191	1.5%	9.9%	9.4%	109
Jairo Perez	Twins	24	3B	119	2.6%	6.8%	12.2%	108
Rossmel Perez	Diamondbacks	22	C	27	2.0%	10.6%	14.2%	108

SCOUT Leaderboard: Venezuelan Winter League Pitchers
Below is the current SCOUT pitching leaderboard for the Venezuelan Winter 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-
Alex Torres	Rays	24	14	14	60.1	264	32.5%	9.6%	60
Enrique Gonzalez	NPB	29	27		27.2	108	27.4%	8.0%	69
Deolis Guerra	Twins	23	20		26.0	107	25.4%	8.2%	75
Danny Farquhar	Mariners	25	21		24.0	98	25.8%	8.5%	75
Austin Bibens-Dirkx	Nationals	27	12	10	53.2	226	25.3%	8.1%	75
Seth Etherton	N/A	35	6	6	27.1	112	24.8%	7.7%	75
Anthony Ortega	N/A	26	29		31.1	135	25.0%	9.0%	78
Jarrett Grube	Mariners	30	7	7	27.2	120	24.7%	9.6%	80
Ryan Reid	Rays	27	21		22.0	94	23.5%	8.8%	81
Cesar Jimenez	Mariners	27	23		21.0	95	23.4%	8.7%	81

SCOUT Leaderboard: Venezuelan Winter League Pitchers (Starters)
Here is the SCOUT pitching leaderboard for the Venezuelan Winter 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-
Alex Torres	Rays	24	14	14	60.1	264	32.5%	9.6%	60
Austin Bibens-Dirkx	Nationals	27	12	10	53.2	226	25.3%	8.1%	75
Seth Etherton	N/A	35	6	6	27.1	112	24.8%	7.7%	75
Jarrett Grube	Mariners	30	7	7	27.2	120	24.7%	9.6%	80
Josh Schmidt	Marlins	29	11	11	59.2	249	22.9%	8.8%	83
Paolo Espino	Indians	25	7	7	30.2	132	20.0%	8.0%	88
Eric Berger	Indians	26	9	9	45.0	191	19.9%	7.9%	88
Sergio Perez	Astros	27	14	14	72.0	302	19.5%	7.9%	89
Donovan Hand	Brewers	26	7	7	34.1	148	18.9%	8.1%	91
Thad Weber	Tigers	27	5	5	23.1	106	18.8%	8.4%	92