Daily Notes: Top Performances of the Mexican League So Far

July 10, 2013

The author apologizes to the tens of this column’s readers for its tardiness. He (i.e. that same author) was on a Chicago-area tarmac.

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

1. Top Performances of the Mexican League So Far
2. Today’s MLB.TV Free Game
3. Today’s Complete Schedule

Top Performances of the Mexican League So Far
A Brief Introduction
Featured in this edition of the Notes are the SCOUT leaderboards for the Mexican League. Briefly stated, SCOUT represents an attempt to use our knowledge of certain metrics, and at what sample sizes they become reliable, to measure run production/prevention in instances where small samples are all that’s available. Stated less briefly, is the explanation available here.

Other recent editions: Triple-A / Double-A / High-A / Class A / Low-A.

SCOUT Leaderboard: Mexican League Hitters (Overall)
Below is the current SCOUT batting leaderboard for Mexican League hitters. 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 and above 100 is above average. Note that xHR%, xBB%, and xK% stand for expected home run, walk, and strikeout rate, respectively.

Player	Age	PA	HR	BB	K	xHR%	xBB%	xK%	SCOUT+
Jorge Cantu	31	351	31	42	66	8.8%	12.0%	18.8%	182
Japhet Amador	26	361	30	34	49	8.3%	9.4%	13.6%	179
Juan Miranda	30	356	20	75	58	5.6%	21.1%	16.3%	176
Mendy Lopez	39	280	20	50	56	6.8%	17.9%	20.0%	174
Luis Terrero	33	319	27	30	60	8.5%	9.4%	18.8%	170
Luis Garcia	35	273	21	33	56	7.2%	12.1%	20.5%	160
Ruben Rivera	39	379	18	67	54	4.7%	17.7%	14.2%	159
Barbaro Canizares	33	400	21	50	39	5.3%	12.5%	9.8%	159
Willis Otanez	40	315	19	31	44	6.0%	9.8%	14.0%	152
Jose Castillo	32	378	24	21	40	6.3%	5.6%	10.6%	150

SCOUT Leaderboard: Mexican League Hitters (Age 27 and Under)
Here are the top-10 batters from the Mexican League who are most likely not to have reached their respective peaks — again, as determined by the methodology explained above.

Player	Age	PA	HR	BB	K	xHR%	xBB%	xK%	SCOUT+
Japhet Amador	26	361	30	34	49	8.3%	9.4%	13.6%	179
Nelson Perez	25	246	7	30	46	2.8%	12.2%	18.7%	111
Leonardo Heras	23	296	8	33	52	2.7%	11.1%	17.6%	109
Yancarlo Angulo	26	325	15	17	66	4.6%	5.2%	20.3%	108
Carlos Colmenares	27	123	5	8	18	3.2%	7.1%	14.9%	108
Jesus Valenzuela	24	307	4	42	41	1.3%	13.7%	13.4%	108
Roman Pena	26	31	1	6	6	2.7%	9.8%	16.9%	106
Edson Garcia	20	75	1	11	12	2.3%	10.5%	16.1%	105
Daniel Castro	20	221	7	11	28	3.0%	5.0%	12.7%	104
Heriberto Herrera	20	5	0	1	0	2.6%	8.3%	15.7%	103

SCOUT Leaderboard: Mexican League Pitchers (Overall)
Below is the current SCOUT pitching leaderboard for the Mexican 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 and below 100 is better than average. Note that xK% and xBB% stand for expected strikeout and walk rate, respectively.

Player	Age	G	GS	IP	TBF	K	BB	xK%	xBB%	SCOUT-
Luis Vizcaino	38	33	0	34.1	132	51	7	35.9%	7.4%	52
Ricardo Gomez	35	38	0	42.2	171	61	17	35.7%	8.6%	56
Gabriel Alfaro	30	42	0	49.1	212	68	19	32.1%	8.4%	64
Jesus Barraza	22	37	0	35.0	146	43	13	29.1%	8.3%	70
Miguel Aguilar	21	41	1	31.2	151	44	14	29.1%	8.4%	71
Nelson Payano	30	28	6	47.1	197	58	22	29.4%	9.2%	72
Ken Ray	38	12	12	72.1	303	80	22	26.4%	7.6%	75
Adrian Ramirez	29	43	0	36.1	143	37	5	25.4%	6.9%	76
Victor Garate	28	15	14	75.0	327	88	33	26.9%	9.3%	78
Fabio Castro	28	6	6	29.2	125	34	10	25.4%	8.0%	79

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

Player	Age	G	GS	IP	TBF	K	BB	xK%	xBB%	SCOUT-
Ken Ray	38	12	12	72.1	303	80	22	26.4%	7.6%	75
Victor Garate	28	15	14	75.0	327	88	33	26.9%	9.3%	78
Fabio Castro	28	6	6	29.2	125	34	10	25.4%	8.0%	79
Jose Oyervidez	31	16	16	85.1	383	90	21	23.5%	6.3%	79
Paul Oseguera	29	17	17	109.1	459	109	30	23.7%	6.8%	80
Marco Carrillo	26	18	14	79.2	347	73	18	21.0%	6.2%	85
Florencio Bustillos	24	9	8	45.1	196	42	12	21.4%	7.4%	86
Mario Gonzalez	28	18	18	100.2	421	81	22	19.2%	5.9%	88
Cesar Valdez	28	13	13	70.1	313	60	13	19.2%	5.8%	88
Marco Duarte	26	17	16	82.2	369	77	27	20.9%	7.6%	88

Three Notes
• As the reader will note, the Mexican League — or, at least this leaderboard of that league’s top hitters — nearly doubles as a list of the best corner infielders both to have (a) been born in Mexico and (b) played corner infield at some point in the majors. Jorge Cantu, Juan Miranda, Luis Terrero, Barbaro Canizares, Jose Castillo: all fit that description. Also, Ruben Rivera nearly fits that description, although he played outfield exclusively as a major leaguer. And Jose Castillo is actually Venezuelan, the author has just learned. And Juan Miranda is Cuban. And Terrero is Dominican. So mostly disregard the first statement, is the point, it seems.

• Slightly younger than any from the aforementioned group, but still a corner infielder and almost certainly Mexican, is now 26-year-old Japhet Amador. As mentioned in a previous edition of the notes, but worthy of repeating always and forever, Amador’s name means something not unlike “abundant lover.”

• Right-hander Ken Ray’s name has appeared in this site’s electronic pages before, as well — specifically, during the most recent edition of the Caribbean Series, after Ray struck out nine of 24 batters faced (while walking none) against Puerto Rican champion Caguas.

Today’s MLB.TV Free Game
New York NL at San Francisco | 15:45 ET
Zack Wheeler (21.0 IP, 140 xFIP-, -0.3 WAR) faces Matt Cain (111.1 IP, 100 xFIP-, 0.6 WAR). The former, despite possessing one of the hardest fastballs among all pitchers to’ve made even one start this season, has struggled in almost every respect.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: All of Them, More or Less.

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 5.5.

Note: the following table is entirely sortable.

Away		SP	Tm.	Gm.	Tm.	SP		Home	Time
Paul Maholm	ATL	5	8	6	1	7	MIA	Jacob Turner	12:40
Mike Leake	CIN	6	3	5	4	4	MIL	John Hellweg*	14:10
Zack Wheeler	NYN	2	6	4	6	5	SF	Matt Cain	15:45
Wade Davis	KC	5	6	6	3	9	NYA	Ivan Nova	19:05
Tommy Milone	OAK	4	6	7	7	9	PIT	Fran. Liriano	19:05
Josh Lindblom	TEX	5	4	4	8	2	BAL	Wei-Yin Chen	19:05
Esmil Rogers	TOR	4	6	6	8	8	CLE	Just. Masterson	19:05
Gio Gonzalez	WAS	7	2	6	1	9	PHI	Cliff Lee	19:05
Dylan Axelrod	CHA	1	1	5	7	9	DET	Rick Porcello	19:08
Kevin Correia	MIN	2	3	4	10	5	TB	Jer. Hellickson	19:10
C.J. Wilson	LAA	4	6	6	5	9	CHN	Jeff Samardzija	20:05
Jordan Lyles	HOU	5	2	6	4	10	STL	Shelby Miller	20:15
Hyun-Jin Ryu	LAN	6	2	6	2	8	AZ	Tyler Skaggs	21:40
Felix Doubront	BOS	5	9	6	5	5	SEA	Aaron Harang	22:10
Jorge de la Rosa	COL	3	8	5	7	6	SD	And. Cashner	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.