Daily Notes: RECK Leaders So Far This Season

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

1. Reckless Power (RECK) Leaderboards
2. Today’s MLB.TV Free Game
3. Today’s Complete Schedule

Reckless Power (RECK) Leaderboards
On Reckless Power, or RECK
Last year in these Notes, the author submitted for the readership’s consideration a stat that doesn’t actually exist, but is nevertheless called Reckless Power — or RECK, for short. It’s calculated by dividing Isolated Power by Isolated Patience — or, stated differently, (SLG – AVG) / (OBP – AVG). Essentially, it’s designed to identify players whose power far outstrips their patience. The results appear to approximate the Richter Scale, such that less than 2.0 is barely felt, 5.0 is moderate, and 9.0-and-up happens less than every 10 years and is totally destructive.

RECK Leaders: Qualified MLB Hitters
Here are the major-league RECK leaders so far in 2013:

Rank	Name	Team	PA	AVG	OBP	SLG	RECK
1	J.P. Arencibia	Blue Jays	236	.211	.233	.417	9.4
2	Adam Jones	Orioles	294	.298	.323	.514	8.6
3	Domonic Brown	Phillies	256	.282	.324	.576	7.0
4	Jeff Keppinger	White Sox	209	.229	.234	.263	6.8
5	Carlos Gomez	Brewers	257	.326	.366	.594	6.7
6	Carlos Beltran	Cardinals	241	.307	.340	.518	6.4
7	Matt Dominguez	Astros	242	.227	.253	.389	6.2
8	Jean Segura	Brewers	273	.339	.374	.545	5.9
9	Ian Desmond	Nationals	259	.293	.326	.483	5.8
10	Wilin Rosario	Rockies	210	.239	.271	.418	5.6

RECK Laggards: Qualified MLB Hitters
Here are the qualified major-league batters with the lowest RECK figures so far:

Rank	Name	Team	PA	AVG	OBP	SLG	RECK
1	Placido Polanco	Marlins	224	.227	.286	.256	0.5
2	Elvis Andrus	Rangers	293	.254	.309	.303	0.9
3	Ruben Tejada	Mets	204	.209	.267	.262	0.9
4	Miguel Montero	Diamondbacks	243	.218	.300	.294	0.9
5	Ben Revere	Phillies	223	.266	.306	.304	1.0
6	Juan Pierre	Marlins	227	.245	.296	.298	1.0
7	Michael Young	Phillies	241	.278	.353	.361	1.1
8	Billy Butler	Royals	256	.273	.383	.403	1.2
9	Michael Brantley	Indians	252	.289	.349	.360	1.2
10	Ike Davis	Mets	207	.161	.242	.258	1.2

RECK Leaderboards: Qualified MiLB Hitters
And here are the qualified minor-league* RECK leaders so far in 2013:

Rank	Name	Team	Age	PA	AVG	OBP	SLG	RECK
1	Gustavo Pierre	Blue Jays (A)	21	230	.304	.309	.454	30.0
2	Jose Castillo	Mexican (AAA)	32	275	.374	.404	.717	11.4
3	Chris Rahl	Nationals (AAA)	29	180	.264	.277	.402	10.6
4	Juan Silverio	Reds (A+)	22	251	.273	.289	.405	8.3
5	Jose Castaneda	Mexican (AAA)	28	248	.257	.275	.405	8.2
6	Isaac Galloway	Marlins (A+)	23	266	.302	.322	.460	7.9
7	Elmer Reyes	Braves (A+)	22	217	.309	.324	.425	7.7
8	Rubi Silva	Cubs (AA)	24	234	.262	.291	.484	7.7
9	Ronny Rodriguez	Indians (AA)	21	252	.276	.297	.431	7.4
10	Zach Walters	Nationals (AAA)	23	241	.211	.242	.439	7.4

*Excluding Rookie League seasons that have basically just begun.

Three Brief Comments
• It would be fair to say, were one compelled to do so, that Toronto catcher J.P. Arencibia has exhibited the most reckless power so far this season among qualified major-league hitters, having hit 12 home runs while posting a 6:76 walk-to-strikeout ratio in his 236 plate appearances.

• That same Blue Jays organization also appears to have produced the minor-league hitter to have demonstrated the most reckless power, 21-year-old third baseman Gustavo Pierre in the Class-A Midwest League. Here’s a fact about Pierre: he was signed for probably $0.7 million in 2008. And another one: Pierre has recorded a 1:59 walk-to-strikeout ratio, and five home runs, in his 230 plate appearances. And a third: he’s currently in the middle of his third consecutive Midwest League season.

• It should, of course, be noted that there has been absolutely no attempt to adjust the minor-league numbers for age relative to level or park effects.

Today’s MLB.TV Free Game
St. Louis at Miami | 19:10 ET
Jake Westbrook (39.0 IP, 115 xFIP-, 0.5 WAR) faces Jose Fernandez (65.1 IP, 90 xFIP-, 1.0 WAR). With regard to the (rather low) NERD score for the Cardinals, it should be noted that they are presently 24th overall in fielding runs and second-to-last in the majors as a team in runs produced from baserunning. It should also be noted that, despite their low Team NERD score, that most of their games are rated quite highly overall because of their excellent starting rotation.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: St. Louis Radio.

Today’s Complete Schedule
Here’s the complete schedule for all of today’s games, with our very proprietary watchability (NERD) scores for each one. Pitching probables and game times aggregated from MLB.com and RotoWire. The average NERD Game Score for today is 4.9.

Note: the following table is entirely sortable.

Away		SP	Tm.	Gm.	Tm.	SP		Home	Time
Ryan Dempster	BOS	5	9	6	8	5	BAL	Chris Tillman	19:05
Stephen Fife*	LAN	7	3	5	6	3	PIT	Jeff Locke	19:05
Gio Gonzalez	WAS	6	1	6	7	7	CLE	Just. Masterson	19:05
Edwin Jackson	CHN	6	5	6	6	6	NYN	Shaun Marcum	19:10
Luis Mendoza	KC	2	4	4	9	3	TB	Matt Moore	19:10
Kyle Lohse	MIL	5	4	4	4	4	CIN	Bronson Arroyo	19:10
Jake Westbrook	STL	1	3	5	0	10	MIA	Jose Fernandez	19:10
Mad. Bumgarner	SF	7	6	6	8	5	ATL	Kris Medlen	19:30
Mark Buehrle	TOR	3	6	5	3	6	TEX	Justin Grimm	20:05
Chris Sale	CHA	9	0	4	3	0	HOU	Erik Bedard	20:10
Rick Porcello	DET	9	7	6	3	3	MIN	Scott Diamond	20:10
Kyle Kendrick	PHI	3	2	4	10	4	COL	Juan Nicasio	20:40
Andy Pettitte	NYA	5	4	5	6	4	LAA	C.J. Wilson	22:05
Joe Saunders	SEA	2	4	4	7	5	OAK	Tommy Milone	22:05
Trevor Cahill	AZ	4	3	4	8	4	SD	Eric Stults	22:10

To learn how Pitcher and Team NERD Scores are calculated, click here.
To learn how Game NERD Scores are calculated, click here.
* = Fewer than 20 IP, NERD at discretion of very handsome author.