Daily Notes: Now Actually Pitching, Javier Vazquez

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

1. Three Notes Regarding the Puerto Rican League
2. Video: Johnny Monell Hitting Home Runs Enthusiastically
3. SCOUT Leaderboards: Puerto Rican League

Three Notes Regarding the Puerto Rican League
Javier Vazquez Debuts Again for First Time
As Peter Gammons reported last month would be the case, right-hander Javier Vazquez has started pitching for Ponce in the Puerto Rican League. As Peter Gammons likely didn’t report — because he’s not clairvoyant, I mean — is that Vazquez appears on this week’s edition of the SCOUT pitching leaderboards for the Puerto Rican League.

Starting Ponce’s December 1st game against a Manati lineup that featured, most notably probably, Kansas City infield prospect Christian Colon, Vazquez posted this line (box): 2.0 IP, 4 K, 0 BB, 0 HR, 2 H. A search for velocity readings from the game reveals little — unless for what the reader is actually searching is gas mileage data on the 2002 Mitsubishi Nativa.

On Puerto Rican Batting Leader Johnny Monell
“Who is Johnny Monell?” is a question that a reasonable person might ask him- or herself (but, according to this demographic data I’ve got right here, probably himself) while looking at today’s edition of the SCOUT batting leaderboards for the Puerto Rican League. Here’s one sort of answer to that: a catcher who played this past season as a 26-year-old in the Giants’ Double-A affiliate. And another one: a 30th-round draftee by San Francisco in 2007 out of Seminole (Florida) Community College. According to Giants Nirvana, questions remained this past winter regarding Monell’s defensive abilities — although, power has been previously acknowledged to be among his skill set. Monell has five home runs in ca 60 plate appearances in Puerto Rico.

On Roberto Ortiz, How He Has Just One Plate Appearance
The attentive reader will note that outfielder Roberto Ortiz, who played in the Baltimore organization this past year, appears on the prospect-age SCOUT batting leaderboard despite having recorded just a single plate appearance. Because he hit a home run in the single plate appearances, is why.

Video: Johnny Monell Hitting Home Runs Enthusiastically
Here’s Giants minor-league catcher Johnny Monell hitting a home run with what is known as “a flourish”:

And here he is doing a very similar thing again:

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

SCOUT Leaderboard: Puerto Rican League Hitters
Below is the current SCOUT batting leaderboard for the Puerto Rican 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+
Johnny Monell	Giants	26	C	60	3.0%	12.0%	16.7%	128
Andy Gonzalez	Brewers	30	SS	72	2.6%	11.4%	19.1%	117
Carlos Rivera	MEX	34	1B	62	2.0%	10.4%	14.4%	116
Edgardo Baez	MEX	26	OF	67	2.3%	11.7%	19.1%	114
Angel Sanchez	Astros	28	SS	73	2.0%	10.4%	15.0%	114
Luis Matos	MEX	33	OF	50	1.8%	11.0%	15.9%	112
Jesus Feliciano	Rays	33	OF	76	1.3%	8.3%	10.0%	109
Irving Falu	Royals	29	2B	67	1.7%	9.7%	14.4%	109
Brandon Snyder	Rangers	25	1B	12	2.0%	10.2%	18.0%	108
Ruben Gotay	Braves	29	2B	70	1.3%	11.0%	15.4%	107

SCOUT Leaderboard: Puerto Rican League Hitters (Prospects)
Here is the SCOUT batting leaderboard for the Puerto Rican 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+
Brandon Snyder	Rangers	25	1B	12	2.0%	10.2%	18.0%	108
Enrique Hernandez	Astros	20	2B	72	1.6%	8.9%	14.5%	107
Michael Perez	D-backs	19	C	15	2.3%	9.6%	19.7%	106
Martin Maldonado	Brewers	25	C	40	2.2%	9.4%	19.2%	105
Angelo Gumbs	Yankees	19	SS	11	2.0%	9.3%	18.2%	105
Roberto Ortiz	Orioles	23	OF	1	2.1%	9.2%	18.7%	104
Jesmuel Valentin	Dodgers	18	SS	12	1.7%	11.2%	19.4%	104
Sergio Miranda	Braves	25	2B	66	1.7%	8.7%	15.9%	104
Daniel Ortiz	Twins	22	OF	61	1.7%	9.0%	16.5%	103
Juan Centeno	Mets	22	C	39	1.8%	8.0%	16.0%	103

SCOUT Leaderboard: Puerto Rican League Pitchers
Below is the current SCOUT pitching leaderboard for the Puerto Rican 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-
Jose De La Torre	Red Sox	26	9	0	12.0	45	23.5%	8.3%	84
Kelvin Villa	IND	26	5	4	22.1	89	22.1%	8.4%	88
Joe Colon	Indians	22	5	4	18.0	76	22.4%	9.0%	89
Mark Cohoon	Mets	24	4	4	19.1	86	21.1%	7.9%	89
Josh Walter	IND	27	7	1	15.1	62	22.0%	8.9%	89
Scott Kazmir	N/A	28	3	3	15.0	65	21.7%	9.0%	91
Sergio Espinosa	IND	26	8	0	8.1	34	22.1%	9.5%	91
Rob Bryson	Indians	24	8	0	9.2	38	21.7%	9.5%	92
Randy Fontanez	Mets	23	5	0	9.1	38	20.9%	8.7%	92
Giovanni Soto	Indians	21	6	0	7.2	32	21.8%	9.6%	92

SCOUT Leaderboard: Puerto Rican League Pitchers (Starters)
Here is the SCOUT pitching leaderboard for the Puerto Rican 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-
Kelvin Villa	IND	26	5	4	22.1	89	22.1%	8.4%	88
Joe Colon	Indians	22	5	4	18.0	76	22.4%	9.0%	89
Mark Cohoon	Mets	24	4	4	19.1	86	21.1%	7.9%	89
Scott Kazmir	N/A	28	3	3	15.0	65	21.7%	9.0%	91
Shoki Kasahara	NPB	21	4	4	19.0	80	20.5%	8.6%	93
Shinya Kayama	NPB	22	4	4	24.0	101	20.6%	8.8%	93
Josh Romanski	Yankees	25	4	4	21.2	85	20.0%	8.7%	95
Javier Vazquez	N/A	35	1	1	2.0	8	20.0%	8.9%	95
Fernando Hernandez	Blue Jays	27	4	4	19.0	84	18.7%	8.3%	97
Gaby Hernandez	D-backs	26	4	2	12.0	57	19.3%	9.2%	98