Daily Notes: Top Performances of the Puerto Rican League

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

1. Top Performances of the Puerto Rican League
2. Mostly Relevant Video: Boston Prospect Jose De La Torre
3. Final (!) SCOUT Leaderboards: Puerto Rican League

Top Performances of the Puerto Rican League
The playoffs for the Puerto Rican League (PRL) have begun — and, as such, the regular-season stats for the players in said League are final.

Here are the top performers of the PRL, per SCOUT (a metric explained below, but which, briefly stated, uses regressed inputs to help make sense of small samples).

Best Hitter (Overall): Pedro Valdes
A one-time member of both the Rangers and Cubs organizations — and owner of 93 major-league plate appearances — Pedro Valdes has spent the past 10-plus seasons in Japan and Mexico, predominantly. Provided his Baseball Reference page is accurate, he appears actually not to have played professional ball in 2012. Provided the author understands three words in Spanish, Valdes appears to be retiring from baseball completely following the completion of the Puerto Rican League. While hitting just two home runs in the PRL, Valdes owned the strike zone, posting a 30:16 walk-to-strikeout ratio in an estimated 116 plate appearances.

Best Hitter (Prospects): Jeff Dominguez
After playing his first seven professional seasons in the Seattle system, Jeff Dominguez spent 2011-12 with Miami, although the results weren’t much different. Dominguez, who turned 26 at the end of July, is a .245/.303/.328 career hitter in over 3,200 minor-league plate appearances — nor, if his early Total Zone figures are any indication, he’s of no great benefit at either shortstop or second base, either. Perhaps more notable among prospect-age hitters in Puerto Rico this winter was Houston minor leaguer Enrique Hernandez. Taken in the sixth round of the 2009 draft, the second baseman reached Double-A in his age-20 season in 2012. Hernandez struck out in just 10.5% of his 411 plate appearances at High-A Lancaster this past season — a rate he very closely approximated (10.8%) in his 158 plate appearances in the PRL.

Best Pitcher (Overall): Jose De La Torre
Right-hander Jose De La Torre has been a reasonably effective minor-league relief pitcher for the better part six seasons now, striking out over a batter per every one of 339.2 professional innings. Originally signed by the Mets, he began 2012 with the Indians and then moved to the Red Sox (in exchange for Brent Lillibridge) at the end of July, with which club’s Triple-A affiliate he posted a 16:3 strikeout-to-walk ratio and 3.36 FIP in 18.1 innings. According to Baseball America’s Matt Eddy, De La Torre features a 90-94 sinking fastball, although lacks a dominant secondary offering.

Best Pitcher (Starters): Javier Vazquez
Former major-leaguer Javier Vazquez joined the PRL at the beginning of December with a view towards preparing to the upcoming World Baseball Classic. In a mere five starts, he established himself as the best starting pitcher in the league — something of an accomplishment, considering his numbers, in a smaller sample, were subject to greater regression. Vazquez posted a 30:6 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 23.0 innings with Ponce. He made a playoff start on Friday with another team, Caguas. His line from that (box): 6.0 IP, 4 K, 0 BB, 0 HR, 3 H, 5:6 GO:AO.

Mostly Relevant Video: Boston Prospect Jose De La Torre
Here’s footage of Boston minor-league right-hander (and, as noted above, Champion of Puerto Rican League Pitchers) Jose De La Torre striking out three Syracuse batters this August, on what appears to be a changeup (although the announcer refers to it as a breaking ball) and then fastball and then slider. Click this hyperlinked text for other video of De La Torre.

Final (!) SCOUT Leaderboards: Puerto Rican Baseball League
Below are the final SCOUT leaderboards for the Puerto Rican League. (Ages as of July 1st, 2012. Players listed with last organization actually played for. Click here for more on what is SCOUT.)

SCOUT Leaderboard: Puerto Rican League Hitters
Below is the final SCOUT batting leaderboard for the Puerto Rican League. SCOUT+ is calculated using regressed home-run, walk, and strikeout rates, where 100 is average and above 100 is above average.

Player	Team	Age	Pos	PA	xHR%	xBB%	xK%	SCOUT+
Pedro Valdes	N/A	39	DH	146	1.5%	17.4%	11.2%	139
Carlos Rivera	MEX	34	1B	138	3.2%	11.3%	14.8%	134
Andy Gonzalez	Brewers	30	3B	161	2.4%	14.8%	18.6%	127
Johnny Monell	Giants	26	DH	121	3.3%	11.6%	20.9%	123
Luis Matos	MEX	33	LF	124	1.3%	11.4%	10.6%	119
Angel Sanchez	Astros	28	SS	133	1.6%	10.5%	11.4%	118
Ruben Gotay	Braves	29	1B	156	0.8%	13.0%	10.9%	117
Irving Falu	Royals	29	2B	156	1.1%	9.0%	7.1%	117
Jesus Feliciano	Rays	33	CF	168	0.7%	9.4%	5.4%	117
Jeff Dominguez	Marlins	25	3B	126	1.6%	14.3%	18.3%	116

SCOUT Leaderboard: Puerto Rican League Hitters (Prospects)
Here is the SCOUT batting leaderboard for the Puerto Rican League, but only populated with players who are 25 or under — i.e. something more like “prospect” age relative to the league.

Player	Team	Age	Pos	PA	xHR%	xBB%	xK%	SCOUT+
Jeff Dominguez	Marlins	25	3B	126	1.6%	14.3%	18.3%	116
Jaime Ortiz	Marlins	23	LF	52	2.4%	9.7%	16.9%	114
Enrique Hernandez	Astros	20	2B	158	1.4%	7.4%	10.8%	109
Ivan De Jesus	Pirates	25	2B	156	1.8%	8.5%	14.7%	108
Brandon Snyder	Rangers	25	1B	12	1.9%	10.0%	17.8%	108
Michael Perez	D-backs	19	C	15	2.2%	9.3%	19.5%	106
Anthony Garcia	Cardinals	20	RF	118	2.0%	10.7%	20.6%	105
Roberto Perez	Indians	23	C	70	1.3%	11.3%	17.3%	105
Juan Centeno	Mets	22	C	101	1.4%	9.0%	14.8%	105
Christian Colon	Royals	23	2B	166	1.1%	8.0%	11.4%	105

SCOUT Leaderboard: Puerto Rican League Pitchers
Below is the final SCOUT pitching leaderboard for the Puerto Rican League. SCOUT- is calculated using regressed strikeout and walk rates where 100 is average and below 100 is above average.

Player	Team	Age	G	GS	IP	TBF	xK%	xBB%	SCOUT-
Jose De La Torre	Red Sox	26	19	0	24.1	93	26.8%	7.9%	74
Javier Vazquez	N/A	35	5	5	23.0	98	26.2%	8.2%	76
Jason Urquidez	Red Sox	29	18	0	25.1	104	24.1%	7.6%	80
Julio Rodriguez	Phillies	21	10	3	27.0	114	24.3%	9.0%	84
Scott Kazmir	N/A	28	5	5	22.2	103	23.7%	8.5%	84
Ricardo Gomez	IND	34	16	0	17.2	71	24.2%	9.0%	84
Randy Fontanez	Mets	23	12	0	25.0	98	22.2%	7.5%	85
Rob Bryson	Indians	24	15	0	15.1	57	23.8%	9.0%	85
Tyrelle Harris	Cubs	25	5	2	12.2	51	23.2%	8.6%	85
Giovanni Soto	Indians	21	11	0	15.1	57	23.8%	9.2%	86

SCOUT Leaderboard: Puerto Rican League Pitchers (Starters)
Here is the SCOUT pitching leaderboard for the Puerto Rican League, but only populated with pitchers who’ve made at least half of their appearances as starts.

Player	Team	Age	G	GS	IP	TBF	xK%	xBB%	SCOUT-
Javier Vazquez	N/A	35	5	5	23.0	98	26.2%	8.2%	76
Scott Kazmir	N/A	28	5	5	22.2	103	23.7%	8.5%	84
Kelvin Villa	IND	26	9	8	43.0	189	21.7%	7.9%	88
Shoki Kasahara	NPB	21	7	7	31.0	137	21.6%	8.0%	88
Derek Blacksher	IND	27	2	2	10.0	39	21.3%	8.0%	89
Tomas Santiago	N/A	30	10	6	43.2	180	22.3%	9.1%	89
Dennis Suarez	IND	28	12	6	35.2	150	22.7%	9.6%	89
Josh Romanski	Yankees	25	7	7	35.0	144	20.1%	7.8%	92
Mark Cohoon	Mets	24	7	7	31.1	140	18.5%	7.2%	94
Shinya Kayama	NPB	22	7	7	37.1	168	20.2%	8.9%	95