Daily Notes: Top Performances of the Eastern League, Mostly

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

1. Three Notable Eastern League Performances
2. SCOUT Leaderboards: Double-A Eastern League
3. Today’s Notable Games (Including MLB.TV Free Game)
4. Today’s Complete Schedule

Three Notable Eastern League Performances
The leaderboards for the Double-A Eastern League are below. Here are brief notes on three players from those leaderboards.

• J.R. Murphy and Christian Vazquez are both (a) among the Eastern League’s top prospect-age hitters per SCOUT, and (b) 22-year-old catching prospects. The former is in the Yankees system; the latter, in the Red Sox system. They’ve both posted walk-to-strikeout ratios above 1.0 so far, while also showing above-average power relative to the league. Sox Prospects refers to Vazquez as an “excellent defensive catcher.” Murphy split time between catching and third base in the low minors, which could potentially stall his development, although reports suggest that he’s improving constantly.

• Right-handed Cleveland prospect Danny Salazar has recorded 30 strikeouts (and just four walks) against just 56 batters faced in his last three starts for Double-A Akron. Signed out of the Dominican in 2006, recent reports indicate that Salazar is now touching 98 mph with his fastball — which pitch he complements with a changeup that was named best in the Cleveland system this past offseason by Baseball America.

SCOUT Leaderboards: Double-A Eastern League
Previously considered: Triple-A International League (April 25) / Triple-A Pacific Coast League (April 26) / Double-A Southern League (April 16) / Double-A Texas League (April 17) / High-A Carolina League (April 22) / High-A California League (April 23) / High-A Florida State League (April 24).

Below are the present SCOUT hitting and pitching leaderboards for the Double-A Eastern League.

“What is a SCOUT leaderboard?” a reader might reasonably ask. In brief, it’s this: an attempt to use our knowledge of certain metrics, and at what sample sizes they become reliable, to measure run production and prevention in instances where small samples prevail. (A longer explanation is available here.)

Below, as notes, are those leaderboards for the Double-A Eastern League. (Note: statistics current as of Sunday night.)

SCOUT Leaderboard: Eastern League Hitters (Overall)
Below is the current SCOUT batting leaderboard for the Double-A Eastern League. SCOUT+ combines regressed home-run, walk, and strikeout rates in a FIP-like equation to produce a result not unlike wRC+, where 100 is league average (in this case, for all Eastern League hitters) and above 100 is above average. xHR%, xBB%, and xK% stand for expected home run, walk, and strikeout rate, respectively.

Player	Team	Age	PA	HR	BB	K	xHR%	xBB%	xK%	SCOUT+
John Murphy	Yankees (AA)	22	99	4	14	11	2.4%	11.9%	14.4%	129
Ryan Schimpf	Blue Jays (AA)	25	115	6	21	28	3.0%	14.6%	23.5%	126
Christian Vazquez	Red Sox (AA)	22	74	2	13	6	1.9%	12.6%	14.5%	124
Tyler Collins	Tigers (AA)	23	94	7	7	16	3.5%	8.6%	18.4%	123
Jose Pirela	Yankees (AA)	23	123	2	17	15	1.6%	12.2%	13.7%	122
Clint Robinson	Blue Jays (AA)	28	117	3	18	19	2.0%	13.0%	17.2%	121
Anthony Rendon	Nationals (AA)	23	69	2	15	11	1.9%	13.8%	18.6%	120
Joe Panik	Giants (AA)	22	129	0	16	10	0.9%	11.4%	9.6%	119
Tyler Kelly	Orioles (AA)	24	133	1	22	20	1.2%	14.2%	15.7%	119
Ricardo Nanita	Blue Jays (AA)	32	99	3	11	12	2.1%	10.4%	15.1%	119

SCOUT Leaderboard: Eastern League Hitters (Age 23 and Under)
Here are the top-10 batters of the Double-A Eastern League who might still, because of their age, be considered prospects — again, as determined by the methodology explained above.

Player	Team	Age	PA	HR	BB	K	xHR%	xBB%	xK%	SCOUT+
John Murphy	Yankees (AA)	22	99	4	14	11	2.4%	11.9%	14.4%	129
Christian Vazquez	Red Sox (AA)	22	74	2	13	6	1.9%	12.6%	14.5%	124
Tyler Collins	Tigers (AA)	23	94	7	7	16	3.5%	8.6%	18.4%	123
Jose Pirela	Yankees (AA)	23	123	2	17	15	1.6%	12.2%	13.7%	122
Anthony Rendon	Nationals (AA)	23	69	2	15	11	1.9%	13.8%	18.6%	120
Joe Panik	Giants (AA)	22	129	0	16	10	0.9%	11.4%	9.6%	119
Michael Almanzar	Red Sox (AA)	22	114	5	11	21	2.7%	9.7%	19.0%	116
Travis Shaw	Red Sox (AA)	23	116	0	25	22	1.0%	16.6%	19.4%	116
Ramon Cabrera	Tigers (AA)	23	107	0	12	7	1.1%	10.5%	10.6%	116
Jose Ramirez	Indians (AA)	20	127	1	13	13	1.3%	10.0%	11.9%	115

SCOUT Leaderboard: Eastern League Pitchers (Overall)
Below is the current SCOUT pitching leaderboard for the Double-A Eastern League. SCOUT- combines regressed strikeout and walk rates in a kwERA-like equation to produce a number not unlike ERA-, where 100 is league average (in this case, for all Eastern League pitchers) and below 100 is better than average. xK% and xBB% stand for expected strikeout and walk rate, respectively.

Player	Team	Age	G	GS	IP	TBF	K	BB	xK%	xBB%	SCOUT-
Danny Salazar	Indians (AA)	23	6	6	28.2	113	43	9	33.8%	9.3%	62
Joel Carreno	Blue Jays (AA)	26	12	0	13.1	47	24	2	30.3%	9.2%	71
Rafael Montero	Mets (AA)	22	6	6	34.1	137	40	4	28.5%	8.0%	73
Brandon Workman	Red Sox (AA)	24	5	4	29.2	106	34	6	28.8%	8.9%	75
Jesse Biddle	Phillies (AA)	21	6	6	31.2	125	40	16	30.1%	10.4%	75
Pete Ruiz	Red Sox (AA)	25	7	0	11.2	50	24	8	29.9%	10.3%	76
Justin Fitzgerald	Giants (AA)	27	5	5	26.0	112	35	8	28.6%	9.2%	76
Anthony Ranaudo	Red Sox (AA)	23	5	5	27.0	97	30	6	27.3%	9.1%	79
T.J. House	Indians (AA)	23	4	4	22.1	88	27	3	26.6%	8.7%	80
Mauricio Robles	Phillies (AA)	24	10	0	18.0	70	25	8	27.8%	9.9%	81

SCOUT Leaderboard: Eastern League Pitchers (Starters Only)
Here are the top-10 pitchers in the Double-A Eastern League who have made at least half of their appearances as starts — again, as determined by the methodology explained above.

Player	Team	Age	G	GS	IP	TBF	K	BB	xK%	xBB%	SCOUT-
Danny Salazar	Indians (AA)	23	6	6	28.2	113	43	9	33.8%	9.3%	62
Rafael Montero	Mets (AA)	22	6	6	34.1	137	40	4	28.5%	8.0%	73
Brandon Workman	Red Sox (AA)	24	5	4	29.2	106	34	6	28.8%	8.9%	75
Jesse Biddle	Phillies (AA)	21	6	6	31.2	125	40	16	30.1%	10.4%	75
Justin Fitzgerald	Giants (AA)	27	5	5	26.0	112	35	8	28.6%	9.2%	76
Anthony Ranaudo	Red Sox (AA)	23	5	5	27.0	97	30	6	27.3%	9.1%	79
T.J. House	Indians (AA)	23	4	4	22.1	88	27	3	26.6%	8.7%	80
Alex Meyer	Twins (AA)	23	5	5	28.0	118	34	11	27.1%	9.6%	82
Nathan Karns	Nationals (AA)	25	5	5	27.2	112	32	11	26.6%	9.7%	83
Matt Barnes	Red Sox (AA)	23	5	5	20.0	93	27	8	25.9%	9.5%	85

Today’s Notable Games (Including MLB.TV Free Game)
Oakland at Cleveland | 19:05 ET ***MLB.TV Free Game***
Cleveland enters the week leading the majors both in park-adjusted batting (122 wRC+) and WAR among field players (7.1). The club currently features four players who’ve crossed the one-win threshold: Carlos Santana (102 PA, 1.8 WAR), Ryan Raburn (68 PA, 1.1 WAR), Nick Swisher (109 PA, 1.0 WAR), and Mark Reynolds (113 PA, 1.0 WAR).

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Cleveland Radio.

Philadelphia at San Francisco | 22:15 ET
Are Cliff Lee and Madison Bumgarner the best left-handers in the National League not named Kerhsaw? In fact, “No” is the answer. A lot of people don’t know this, but both Bumgarner and Lee were born with the surname Kershaw, but changed to their present respective surnames for personal reasons.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: San Francisco Radio or Television.

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
Chris Sale	CHA	7	1	6	7	7	KC	J. Shields	14:10
Jarrod Parker	OAK	2	6	4	10	4	CLE	U. Jimenez	19:05
Paul Maholm	ATL	5	8	5	3	4	CIN	B. Arroyo	19:10
Vance Worley	MIN	4	3	6	9	7	BOS	C. Buchholz	19:10
Mark Buehrle	TOR	1	2	4	9	6	TB	J. Hellickson	19:10
Nick Tepesch	TEX	6	4	4	5	2	CHN	S. Feldman	20:05
Trevor Cahill	AZ	5	5	5	2	5	LAN	C. Capuano*	22:10
Wade LeBlanc	MIA	3	0	4	4	7	SD	A. Cashner*	22:10
Cliff Lee	PHI	6	2	6	6	8	SF	M. Bum’ner	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.