Daily Notes: Top Performers of the Australian League
Table of Contents
Here’s the table of contents for today’s edition of Daily Notes.
1. Top Performers of the Australian Baseball League
2. Largely Unhelpful Video: Adam Buschini Homering
3. Final (!) SCOUT Leaderboards: Australian Baseball League
Top Performers of the Australian Baseball League
The championship series for the Australian Baseball League (ABL) took place this weekend, with Canberra defeating Perth, 2-0, in the best-of-three competition.
Here are the top performers of the ABL, per SCOUT (a metric explained below, but which, briefly stated, uses regressed inputs to help make sense of small samples).
Best Hitter: Adam Buschini
A native of Oakland, Canberra second baseman Adam Buschini was originally a fourth-round pick out of Cal Poly by the Philadelphia in the 2009 draft. After spending 2008-09 in the Phillies system, he was released by the club and found his way to independent ball, first with Chico (of the North American League) in 2011 and then with Amarillo (of the American Association) in 2012. This season in the ABL, Buschini almost doubled the home-run total of the next-best by that measure, hitting 15 of them to lead the league. San Diego appears to have recently signed Buschini to a minor-league deal.
Best Pitcher: Chris Smith
The Chris Smith listed here is not to be confused with the right-hander born in 1981 who pitched briefly at the major-league level with Boston and Milwaukee in the late aughts. Rather, this Chris Smith is a 24-year-old alumnus of Kentucky Wesleyan, at which school he appears mostly to have played second base. In the meantime, Smith has played independent baseball, predominantly with the Frontier League. He dominated ABL hitters, posting a 65:7 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 50.2 innings — all in a starting capacity. The Yankees appear to have signed him to a minor-league deal towards the end of January.
Largely Unhelpful Video: Adam Buschini Homering
Here’s predominantly unhelpful video of second baseman Adam Buschini homering for Canberra earlier in the Australian League season:
Final SCOUT Leaderboards: Australian Baseball League
Below are the final SCOUT leaderboards for the Australian Baseball League. (Ages as of July 1st, 2012. Player listed on team with which he ended 2012 season. Click here for more on what is SCOUT.)
SCOUT Leaderboard: Australian Baseball League Hitters
Below is the final SCOUT batting leaderboard for the Australian Baseball 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+ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Adam Buschini | IND | 25 | 2B | 185 | 5.8% | 9.2% | 14.6% | 155 |
| Chris Snelling | N/A | 30 | RF | 120 | 1.9% | 19.7% | 11.9% | 145 |
| Ji-Man Choi | Mariners | 21 | 1B | 165 | 3.6% | 14.6% | 16.4% | 141 |
| Jeremy Barnes | Phillies | 25 | 3B | 188 | 3.1% | 11.6% | 11.7% | 135 |
| Trent D’Antonio | N/A | 26 | 3B | 133 | 3.1% | 12.1% | 13.6% | 134 |
| Kody Hightower | N/A | 26 | SS | 194 | 2.4% | 12.8% | 10.8% | 132 |
| C.J. Beatty | IND | 23 | 3B | 103 | 3.3% | 12.5% | 18.1% | 128 |
| Mitch Dening | IND | 23 | CF | 190 | 2.4% | 9.0% | 7.9% | 127 |
| Angus Roeger | N/A | 22 | RF | 156 | 3.6% | 16.6% | 28.8% | 123 |
| Carlo Testa | Royals | 25 | RF | 197 | 2.7% | 13.6% | 19.3% | 122 |
SCOUT Leaderboard: Australian Baseball League Pitchers
Below is the final SCOUT pitching leaderboard for the Australian Baseball 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- |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chris Smith | IND | 23 | 9 | 9 | 50.2 | 194 | 33.6% | 7.2% | 53 |
| Steve Kent | N/A | 23 | 17 | 0 | 18.1 | 77 | 28.6% | 8.4% | 71 |
| Chris Oxspring | N/A | 35 | 12 | 12 | 79.2 | 335 | 25.7% | 6.7% | 74 |
| Anthony Claggett | IND | 27 | 12 | 12 | 73.1 | 307 | 25.1% | 6.2% | 74 |
| Matthew Williams | N/A | 25 | 19 | 0 | 21.0 | 83 | 27.2% | 8.7% | 75 |
| Dustin Loggins | IND | 21 | 21 | 0 | 23.1 | 101 | 26.9% | 9.7% | 79 |
| Sean Toler | IND | 25 | 22 | 0 | 25.1 | 111 | 26.3% | 9.2% | 79 |
| Richard Olson | N/A | 23 | 18 | 0 | 32.2 | 122 | 25.0% | 8.1% | 80 |
| Zachary Arneson | Yankees | 23 | 18 | 0 | 20.1 | 78 | 25.2% | 9.3% | 83 |
| Todd Van Steensel | N/A | 21 | 15 | 0 | 18.0 | 80 | 24.3% | 9.7% | 87 |
Carson Cistulli has published a book of aphorisms called Spirited Ejaculations of a New Enthusiast.
I’m sure Dave Nilsson is still playing somewhere.