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.

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.

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.

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.