Daily Notes: Mostly Ambulant Nick Johnson Retires

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

1. Assorted Headlines
2. Table: Nick Johnson’s Walk Rate in Context
3. Three Images: Venezuelan Winter League Championship Series

Assorted Headlines
Johnson Announces Retirement
Former Yankees and Expos and Nationals first baseman Nick Johnson has retired, reports Sweeny Murti of New York’s WFAN. A legitimate offensive force when healthy, Johnson was frequently injured and amassed just 200 major-league plate appearances between 2010-12. A notably patient batter, he was among the league’s leaders in walk percentage over the course of his career — a claim that the author has supposed by means of nicely appointed table below.

Pineda Not Entirely Still Very Injured
Yankees right-hander Michael Pineda, who underwent shoulder surgery last spring not long after coming to New York in the trade that sent Jesus Montero to Seattle, will commence “tossing from a half mound,” according MLB.com’s Bryan Hoch. According to GM Brian Cashman (again, via Hoch), the club is hopeful of a June or July return to the majors.

Dallas Still Bananas
As the author has noted previously in these pages, the RSS feed for the Dallas Morning News’s baseball coverage appears to produce, in fact, all of that paper’s content — by virtue of which fact it has been revealed to the author that Dallas is filled with horrors. In the latest indication of this, we find Dallas Police conducting an hours-long standoff with a wanted man at an IHOP.

Table: Nick Johnson’s Walk Rate in Context
Here are the top-10 leaders in walk percentage among batters with at least 1,000 plate appearances between 2001-2012, i.e. the span of Nick Johnson’s major-league career:

Three Images: Venezuelan Winter League Championship Series
The Caribbean Series — featuring the champion from each of the Dominican Winter, Mexican Pacific, Puerto Rican, and Venezuelan Winter Leagues — begins on February 1st. As noted here yesterday, three of the four leagues have finished their respective playoffs. The Venezuelan championship series continues, however — and featured an extra-inning game on Monday night, which saw Lara defeat Magallanes 3-2 in extra innings (box).

The author managed to find an internet feed mere seconds before the game’s thrilling conclusion, and documents here what it is he saw.

First, Lara (and Atlanta minor-league) catcher Jose Yepez about to record the game-winning hit:

And, next, an entirely animated Luis Valbuena with a sideline reporter:

And, finally, what appears to be an invitation to participate in human trafficking: