Daily Notes: The Top Minor-League Starters by kwERA

by
September 15, 2013

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

1. The Top Minor-League Starters by kwERA
2. Today’s MLB.TV Free Game
3. Today’s Complete Schedule

The Top Minor-League Starters by kwERA
Introduction
Minor-league regular seasons everywhere have come to their respective conclusions. What concerned readers want to know now — or, at least what the author is presently supposing they want to know — is which qualified minor-league pitchers have recorded the best fielding-independent numbers this year. Moreover, concerned readers are adding this caveat — namely, that they’re interested in a fielding-independent metric that accounts only for strikeout and walk rate, but not home runs, owing to how much more quickly the first two become reliable.

Leaderboard: The Top Minor-League Starters by kwERA
kwERA is an ERA estimator which accounts only for strikeout and walk rate, and was popularized — to the degree that it’s popular, at all — by Tom Tango at Inside the Book. Below are the top-10 qualified minor-league pitchers by kwERA this season. (Note: pitchers who made zero appearances above rookie-level ball have been excluded.)

Rank Name Team Level Age IP TBF K% BB% kwERA
1 Ryan Doran D-backs Rk, A- 22 77.0 310 27.4% 2.9% 2.46
2 C.J. Edwards Cubs A, A+ 21 116.1 468 33.1% 8.8% 2.48
3 Michael Feliz Astros A- 19 69.0 273 28.6% 4.8% 2.54
4 Noah Syndergaard Mets A+, AA 20 117.2 472 28.2% 5.9% 2.73
5 Edwin Escobar Giants A+, AA 21 128.2 532 27.4% 5.6% 2.78
6 Kendry Flores Giants A 21 141.2 551 24.9% 3.1% 2.79
7 Robert Stephenson Reds A, A+, AA 20 114.1 465 29.2% 7.5% 2.79
8 Christopher Johnson Giants A- 21 83.0 326 23.9% 2.5% 2.82
9 Zachary Petrick Cardinals A, A+, AA 23 113.1 453 26.9% 6.0% 2.88
10 Danny Winkler Rockies A+, AA 23 157.0 618 28.3% 7.6% 2.91

Three Notes
• While a number of notable prospects appear among the leaders here, it’s mostly anonymous right-hander Ryan Doran who appears atop the list. The 2013 season represented Doran’s first in affiliated baseball. Undrafted after playing as a senior this year for San Diego State, the 23-year-old (playing in his age-22 season, it should be said) appears to have signed with the Diamondbacks in mid-June. Per Aaron Fitt of Baseball America, Doran features “an 82-87 fastball, a slow curve and a serviceable 76-78 slider.” Not overpowering, it would seem, but effective enough for the low minors thus far.

• Among those pitchers who played at a level more appropriate for their respective age, it’s probably fair to say that either right-hander C.J. Edwards (Chicago NL) or other right-hander Michael Feliz (Houston) was most impressive by this methodology. The former, featured on multiple occasions in this site’s weekly Fringe Five column, was sent to the Cubs from Texas in July (along with others) in exchange for Matt Garza. The latter was signed by the Astros out of the Dominican in 2010, and throws a fastball that sits at 94-96 mph, according to Jason Parks of Baseball Prospectus. At The Crawfish Boxes, contributor reillocity has a detailed account of Feliz’s July 12th start.

• The calculation of kwERA in this instance makes no allowances either for park or league. Adjust conclusions accordingly.

Today’s MLB.TV Free Game
Los Angeles AL at Houston | 14:10 ET
Jerome Williams (151.2 IP, 107 xFIP-, 0.0 WAR) faces Paul Clemens (56.1 IP, 128 xFIP-, -1.2 WAR).

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Houston Radio, Maybe?

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
Miguel Gonzalez BAL 4 0 2 0 4 TOR Mark Buehrle 13:07
Jeremy Guthrie KC 2 2 4 0 9 DET Max Scherzer 13:08
Tom Koehler MIA 4 0 2 0 5 NYN Dillon Gee 13:10
Travis Wood CHN 3 0 9 8 9 PIT Francisco Liriano 13:35
Tyler Cloyd PHI 1 0 3 0 9 WAS J. Zimmermann 13:35
Burch Smith* SD 8 0 4 0 7 ATL Julio Teheran 13:35
Jerome Williams LAA 4 0 2 0 3 HOU Paul Clemens* 14:10
Bronson Arroyo CIN 5 1 3 0 4 MIL Yovani Gallardo 14:10
Zach McAllister CLE 3 9 10 0 10 CHA Chris Sale 14:10
David Price TB 8 7 8 0 1 MIN P. Hernandez 14:10
Erasmo Ramirez SEA 6 0 10 9 9 STL Shelby Miller 14:15
Jarrod Parker OAK 4 1 7 5 7 TEX Martin Perez 15:05
Jhoulys Chacin COL 5 0 3 0 7 AZ Randall Delgado 16:10
Ryan Vogelsong SF 1 0 1 0 3 LAN Edinson Volquez 16:10
Ivan Nova NYA 7 1 4 0 7 BOS Clay Buchholz 20:05

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.





 

Carson Cistulli has published a book of aphorisms called Spirited Ejaculations of a New Enthusiast.

12 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Yaya Pigwius
10 years ago

Carson, thanks for introducing us to new terminology. Whether it’s new baseball metrics or French phrases, I get more new stuff in my brain every time I click your posts.

1