Daily Notes: Nerd Stats for Venezuela’s WBC Roster

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

1. Nerds Stats for Venezuela’s Provisional WBC Team
2. Comparative Images: Cesar Jimenez vs. Caesar Augustus

Nerds Stats for Venezuela’s Provisional WBC Team
Last Thursday, all 16 participants in this year’s World Baseball Classic announced their provisional rosters for that same tournament (which itself begins in early March). Recently, in the Notes, we’ve considered the nerds stats for some of the notable WBC rosters, where notable is defined as “those which most interest the author on that particular morning.”

Here are the countries considered so far: Canada* / Dominican Republic / United States.

*Not by this precise methodology.

Below are the members of the Venezuelan national team, accompanied by various nerd stats from the last three seasons of major-league play.

Here, first, are the field players for the Venezuelan team, sorted by WAR per every 650 plate appearances over the past three seasons:

Name	Team	PA	AVG	OBP	SLG	BABIP	wRC+	WAR	WAR/650
Miguel Cabrera	Tigers	2033	.334	.420	.604	.344	171	20.6	6.6
Salvador Perez	Royals	463	.311	.339	.471	.320	119	4.1	5.8
Miguel Montero	Diamondbacks	1457	.280	.363	.450	.333	115	10.7	4.8
Carlos Gonzalez	Rockies	1757	.313	.371	.547	.355	132	12.9	4.8
Pablo Sandoval	Giants	1524	.287	.339	.464	.303	118	10.4	4.4
Martin Prado	Braves	1931	.290	.339	.428	.308	108	11.8	4.0
Elvis Andrus	Rangers	2050	.277	.346	.348	.321	87	10.6	3.4
Ramon Hernandez	– – –	876	.273	.330	.418	.295	98	4.1	3.0
Gerardo Parra	Diamondbacks	1316	.276	.335	.399	.330	90	5.8	2.9
Asdrubal Cabrera	Indians	1708	.273	.333	.419	.306	109	7.5	2.9
Marco Scutaro	– – –	1823	.293	.345	.403	.308	100	7.7	2.7
Averages	– – –	1540	.292	.351	.450	.320	113	9.7	4.1

***

Now, here are the Venezuelan pitchers who’ve made at least 50% of their appearances in a starting capactiy, sorted by WAR per every 200 innings:

Name	Team	IP	K%	BB%	GB%	xFIP-	ERA-	WAR	WAR/200
Felix Hernandez	Mariners	715.1	23.3%	6.7%	51.0%	77	76	17.3	4.8
Anibal Sanchez	– – –	587.0	21.1%	7.3%	45.3%	92	93	12.0	4.1
Carlos Zambrano	– – –	407.2	17.4%	11.1%	45.0%	114	106	3.8	1.9
Henderson Alvarez	Blue Jays	251.0	11.2%	5.8%	56.2%	101	110	1.5	1.2
Averages	– – –	490.1	18.3%	7.7%	49.4%	96	96	8.7	3.0

***

And now, here the Venezuelan players who’ve pitched mostly in relief, with WAR per every 60 innings:

Name	Team	IP	K%	BB%	GB%	xFIP-	ERA-	WAR	WAR/60
Cesar Jimenez	Mariners	6.2	23.3%	10.0%	45.0%	89	141	0.1	1.0
Francisco Rodriguez	– – –	201.0	25.7%	9.2%	45.5%	85	81	3.2	1.0
Ronald Belisario	Dodgers	126.1	20.6%	9.3%	63.0%	85	95	0.7	0.3
Jose Mijares	– – –	138.0	18.9%	9.9%	32.5%	115	85	0.7	0.3
Enrique Gonzalez	Tigers	35.0	10.6%	15.9%	41.4%	141	129	-0.4	-0.7
Averages	– – –	101.3	19.8%	10.9%	45.5%	103	106	0.9	0.4

Notes
• All averages are simple averages — that is, not weighted by plate appearances or innings pitched.

• Venezuela’s field players and starting pitchers have been almost precisely as valuable in the majors over the last three season, on average, as those on the provisional U.S. roster — with Venezuela perhaps having a narrow advantage, insofar as their starting-pitching talent is consolidated rather dramatically in just two pitchers: Felix Hernandez and Anibal Sanchez.

• Left-hander Cesar Jimenez probably actually isn’t the ace of Venezuela’s bullpen.

Comparative Images: Cesar Jimenez vs. Caesar Augustus
Here, lest the reader confuse the two, are images both of Venezuelan left-hander Cesar Jimenez and founder of the Roman Empire Caesar Augustus.