Daily Notes: Top Performances of the WBC, Conclusively

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

1. Top Performances of the WBC, Conclusively
2. Final SCOUT Leaderboards: World Baseball Classic
3. Video: Puerto Rico and Boston’s Jose De La Torre

Top Performances of the WBC, Conclusively
The 2013 edition of the WBC has ended, and the Dominican Republic — by way of a 3-0 victory over Puerto Rico (box) — are now World Champions of the World until 2017.

What follows is a totally infallible record of the WBC’s top performances, according to SCOUT (a metric explained below, but which, briefly stated, uses regressed inputs to help make sense of small samples).

Best Hitter: Hanley Ramirez
Dominican infielder Hanley Ramirez was forced to leave the WBC championship game in the sixth inning after injuring his thumb earlier in the contest while attempting to field a sharply hit ground ball between himself and shortstop Jose Reyes. Before that play, however, Ramirez established himself as the most proficient batter of the tournament, posting a 7:2 walk-to-strikeout ratio while also hitting two home runs in fewer than 30 plate appearances.

Best Pitcher: Kenta Maeda
The right-handed Kenta Maeda was less effective in Japan’s 3-1 semifinal loss to Puerto Rico (box) than he’d been in his previous two WBC starts. Still, he ended the tournament with an 18:3 strikeout ratio in 15.0 innings.

With regard to Maeda, the author is plagiarizing his own self when he blockquotes the following:

Maeda, who turns 25 in April, has pitched for Hiroshima over his five-year NPB career, having posted strikeout and walk rates of 19.5% and 5.2%, respectively, while recording a 2.47 ERA in 940.2 innings.

Other Notable Performances
• As the present author started to suggest and Alex Remington finished suggesting last week, Cuban outfielder Frederich Cepeda is probably the greatest player in WBC history. After posting a 2:1 walk-to-strikeout ratio in ca. 26 plate appearances, while also hitting three home runs, in the 2009 tournament, Cepeda recorded a 7:3 walk-to-strikeout ratio and single home run over ca. 26 plate appearances in this one.

• Puerto Rican reliever Jose De La Torre, acquired by the Red Sox at the end of last July (from the Indians, in exchange for Brent Lillibridge), struck out nearly half of opposing batters during his six WBC appearances — including the only Dominican hitter he faced in the championship game. He finished with the best regressed line of the Puerto Rican League this past winter, as well.

• While right-hander Samuel Deduno’s 109 ERA- last season in 79.0 innings for the Twins last season is neither great nor even very good so far as shakes are concerned, it’s a fantastic mark in light of the fact that Deduno walked nearly as many batters as he struck out (57:53 K:BB) during his 15 major-league starts. For the Dominican, he was considerably more effective, posting a 17:5 strikeout-to-walk ratio in three starts and 13.0 innings — five of which (i.e. which innings) he recorded during the DR’s championship victory over Puerto Rico.

Final SCOUT Leaderboards: World Baseball Classicc
SCOUT Leaderboard: WBC Hitters
Below is the final SCOUT batting leaderboard for the WBC. 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 WBC hitters) and above 100 is above average. xHR%, xBB%, and xK% stand for expected home run, walk, and strikeout rate, respectively.

SCOUT Leaderboard: WBC Pitchers
Below is the final SCOUT pitching leaderboard for the WBC. 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 WBC pitchers) and below 100 is better than average. xK% and xBB% stand for expected strikeout and walk rate, respectively.

Video: Puerto Rico and Boston’s Jose De La Torre
Here’s video of both Puerto Rico and Boston right-handed reliever Jose De La Torre striking out consecutive Japanese hitters en route to a WBC semifinal win for Puerto Rico this past weekend: