Daily Notes: Statistical Update on 2013’s First-Round Picks

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

1. Statistical Update on 2013’s First-Round Picks
2. Today’s MLB.TV Free Game
3. Today’s Complete Schedule

Statistical Update on 2013’s First-Round Picks
The Purpose of This Post
The purpose of this post is to announce that the author has updated the custom leaderboard featuring every first-round pick from the most recent draft both to have signed and also played for an affiliate of the relevant drafting team.

New Additions to the Leaderboard
Here are the players who’ve been added to the leaderboard since the most recent edition of same in late July (sorted by order picked in draft):

• Trey Ball, LHP, Boston
• Hunter Harvey, RHP, Baltimore
• Ian Clarkin, LHP, New York AL

Hyperlink to the Leaderboard in Question
Click this hyperlinked text to view the updated version of the first-rounders batting leaderboard (sorted by weighted runs above average), and this other hyperlinked text for the pitching leaderboard (sorted by FIP).

Five Notes
• The leaderboard now contains 29 of the 33 first-round picks from the most recent draft. Absent are notable college players, former Arkansas pitcher Ryne Stanek (RHP, Tampa Bay) and very giant Aaron Judge (OF, New York AL). Also absent are 10th-overall pick Phil Bickford, a high-school right-hander who ultimately failed to reach an agreement with Toronto, and also Alex Gonzalez (RHP, Texas), because his name is absent from the database for some reason.

• Pittsburgh outfield prospect Austin Meadows produced the most weighted runs above average of any first-round draftee, slashing .316/.424/.554 in 211 plate appearances between the Gulf Coast and New York-Penn Leagues. He appears, at age 18, to have been the second-youngest player in all of Low-A.

• Accounting for age relative to level, either Pittsburgh catching prospect Reese McGuire or Philadelphia shortstop J.P. Crawford most excellently controlled the strike zone. Both recorded walk-to-strikeout ratios of approximately 1:1. Both earned promotions to something higher than Rookie ball, as 18 year olds, by the end of the season.

• After producing merely excellent numbers with Colorado’s Rookie-league affiliate Grand Junction, very hard-throwing Jonathan Gray posted more distinctly absurd ones in the California League, recording strikeout and walk rates of 41.9% and 7.0%, respectively, in five starts and 24.0 innings. His cumulative 1.19 FIP was the lowest among all draftees.

• Baltimore draftee, right-hander Hunter Harvey recorded rates (33.0% K, 6.0% BB) nearly identical to Gray’s overall — this, as an 18-year-old who made his last three starts in the Low-A New York-Penn League.

Today’s MLB.TV Free Game
Texas at Los Angeles AL | 22:05 ET
Matt Garza (126.2 IP, 94 xFIP-, 1.7 WAR) faces C.J. Wilson (177.1 IP, 96 xFIP-, 3.1 WAR). The former’s numbers so far following the July trade that sent him to Texas: 55.2 IP, 23.3% K, 5.7% BB, 86 xFIP-, 0.8 WAR, 0.8 RA9-WAR.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Texas 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.

Note that these NERD scores are calculated using the methodology introduced recently and designed to account for the influence of playoff odds on the watchability of games. ***Unlike in recent iterations of this table, the author has adjusted the day’s NERD Game Scores such that, combined, they average 5.0.*** This allows said table to resemble more closely the Game Scores that have appeared here over the preceding four months.

Away		SP	Tm.	Gm.	Tm.	SP		Home	Time
Kyle Lohse	MIL	4	0	2	0	3	CHN	Chris Rusin	14:20
Mike Minor	ATL	8	0	4	0	9	PHI	Cliff Lee	19:05
Felix Doubront	BOS	4	0	4	3	4	NYA	Andy Pettitte	19:05
John Danks	CHA	6	0	3	1	3	BAL	Scott Feldman	19:05
Zack Wheeler	NYN	7	0	7	6	7	CLE	Scott Kazmir	19:05
Chris Capuano	LAN	5	0	3	2	4	CIN	Mike Leake	19:10
Dan Haren	WAS	7	1	4	0	10	MIA	J. Fernandez	19:10
Anibal Sanchez	DET	9	0	3	0	5	KC	James Shields	20:10
R.A. Dickey	TOR	9	0	2	0	0	MIN	Mike Pelfrey	20:10
A.J. Burnett	PIT	8	7	10	6	4	STL	Joe Kelly	20:15
Dallas Keuchel	HOU	6	0	9	10	5	OAK	A.J. Griffin	22:05
Matt Garza	TEX	6	10	9	0	4	LAA	C.J. Wilson	22:05
Juan Nicasio	COL	3	0	3	0	10	SD	Burch Smith*	22:10
Alex Cobb	TB	7	7	8	0	7	SEA	H. Iwakuma	22:10
Patrick Corbin	AZ	9	0	4	0	9	SF	Y. Petit*	22:15

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.