Daily Notes: Miguel Tejada Signs Mostly Major-League Deal

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

1. Assorted Headlines for the Baseball Enthusiast
2. Graphs: Miguel Tejada’s Career in WAR
3. SCOUT Leaderboards: Dominican Winter League

Assorted Headlines for the Baseball Enthusiast
Kansas City Sign Chavez, Tejada
The Kansas City Royals have signed outfielder Endy Chavez and infielder Miguel Tejada to minor-league deals, reports MLB.com’s AJ Cassavell. The latter will become an MLB deal worth $1.1 million, according to Dionisio Soldevila of ESPN Deportes (with credit to MLB Trade Rumors’ Edward Creech for collecting same information). Tejada, who enters his age-39 season, has been worth 43.8 WAR over his career, although only about one of those wins has come over the previous three seasons.

Tampa Bay, Price Avoid Arbitration
The Tampa Bay Rays and very talented left-hander David Price have avoided arbitration, reports ESPN Jerry Crasnick. The deal is for $10.1 million, according to Jon Heyman of CBSSports — slightly more than the $9.5 million projected by Matt Swartz’s model and considerably more than than the $4.4 million he made in 2012. Price posted the following line in 31 starts last year: 211.0 IP, 24.5% K, 7.1% BB, 53.1% GB, 3.16 SIERA, 75 xFIP-, 5.1 WAR. His WAR was fifth-best among all major-league pitchers; his 7.2 RA/9 Wins (i.e. wins based entirely on runs allowed), the majors’ second-best figure.

Boston’s 2013 Payroll: Basically Same as 2012 One
After shedding quite a lot in the way of financial commitments last season — largely due to a giant, giant trade that saw Josh Beckett, Carl Crawford, and Adrian Gonzalez all go to the Dodgers — the Boston Red Sox, owing to their offseason spending, will enter 2013 with roughly the same payroll (around $176 million) as they did the 2012 one, finds the Boston Globe’s Peter Abraham.

Graphs: Miguel Tejada’s Career in WAR
Here’s Miguel Tejada’s career WAR chart:

Here’s that same chart in front of a beautiful, beautiful Dominican beach:

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

SCOUT Leaderboard: Dominican Winter League Hitters
Below is the current SCOUT batting leaderboard for the Dominican 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+
Hector Luna	Phillies	32	3B	204	2.9%	14.2%	14.7%	136
Mauro Gomez	Red Sox	27	1B	212	3.2%	14.2%	20.8%	127
Nelson Perez	Cubs	24	OF	113	2.5%	18.6%	23.4%	127
Jordany Valdespin	Mets	24	2B	111	2.2%	13.2%	14.9%	123
Ricardo Nanita	Blue Jays	31	OF	135	1.3%	12.1%	9.2%	121
Donell Linares	MEX	28	3B	102	2.2%	8.1%	8.8%	121
Oscar Taveras	Cardinals	20	OF	166	2.5%	8.6%	12.7%	118
Miguel Tejada	Orioles	38	SS	150	2.3%	6.9%	8.7%	118
Todd Linden	Giants	32	OF	108	3.5%	13.4%	26.0%	118
Moises Sierra	Blue Jays	23	OF	176	2.8%	10.6%	18.2%	116

SCOUT Leaderboard: Dominican Winter League Hitters (Prospects)
Here is the SCOUT batting leaderboard for the Dominican 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+
Nelson Perez	Cubs	24	OF	113	2.5%	18.6%	23.4%	127
Jordany Valdespin	Mets	24	2B	111	2.2%	13.2%	14.9%	123
Oscar Taveras	Cardinals	20	OF	166	2.5%	8.6%	12.7%	118
Moises Sierra	Blue Jays	23	OF	176	2.8%	10.6%	18.2%	116
Wilin Rosario	Rockies	23	C	40	2.6%	11.1%	18.0%	116
Yan Gomes	Blue Jays	24	OF	64	2.8%	8.9%	19.6%	109
Juan Francisco	Braves	25	3B	139	4.0%	8.9%	26.7%	109
Arismendy Alcantara	Cubs	20	SS	16	2.1%	10.7%	18.3%	108
Kole Calhoun	Angels	24	OF	83	2.3%	11.0%	20.5%	108
Miguel Sano	Twins	19	3B	57	2.8%	10.8%	23.1%	108

SCOUT Leaderboard: Dominican Winter League Pitchers
Below is the current SCOUT pitching leaderboard for the Dominican 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-
Erick Abreu	Astros	28	21	0	31.2	119	29.2%	8.7%	69
Kyler Newby	Orioles	27	7	7	31.0	128	27.4%	9.1%	75
Tony Pena	Red Sox	31	19	0	23.2	94	27.0%	8.9%	76
Samuel Deduno	Twins	28	6	5	25.2	105	26.9%	10.0%	79
Johan Yan	Rangers	27	21	0	17.2	73	25.6%	9.1%	80
Jose De Paula	Padres	22	14	7	40.0	169	24.9%	8.4%	80
Dustin Richardson	IND	28	18	2	21.0	84	24.8%	8.7%	81
Kelvin De La Cruz	Tigers	23	11	1	15.1	68	24.1%	9.2%	85
Fabio Castro	Athletics	27	12	10	41.2	182	23.1%	8.9%	87
Juan Cruz	Pirates	33	3	0	6.2	24	23.0%	9.2%	88

SCOUT Leaderboard: Dominican Winter League Pitchers (Starters)
Here is the SCOUT pitching leaderboard for the Dominican 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-
Kyler Newby	Orioles	27	7	7	31.0	128	27.4%	9.1%	75
Samuel Deduno	Twins	28	6	5	25.2	105	26.9%	10.0%	79
Jose De Paula	Padres	22	14	7	40.0	169	24.9%	8.4%	80
Fabio Castro	Athletics	27	12	10	41.2	182	23.1%	8.9%	87
Danny Salazar	Indians	22	5	3	14.0	58	22.7%	9.0%	88
Esmil Rogers	Indians	26	3	3	13.0	53	22.0%	8.9%	90
Josh Outman	Rockies	27	6	6	25.2	111	22.2%	9.4%	90
Aneury Rodriguez	Astros	24	8	8	32.0	135	21.2%	8.4%	91
Randall Delgado	Braves	22	7	6	26.2	115	21.7%	9.1%	91
Stolmy Pimentel	Red Sox	22	8	6	23.0	101	21.4%	8.8%	91