Daily Notes: Top Performers of the Dominican Winter League

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

1. Top Performers of the Dominican Winter League
2. Totally Irrelevant Video: Rey Ordonez, Superstar Defender
3. SCOUT Leaderboards: Dominican Winter League

Top Performers of the Dominican Winter League
The playoffs for the Dominican Winter League (DWL) have begun — and, as such, the regular-season stats for the players in said League are final.

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

Best Hitter (Overall): Hector Luna
Hector Luna, who turns 33 in February, isn’t a player about whom one is compelled to think very often — although, to his credit, he’s been slightly better than replacement level in 800-plus major-league plate appearances with five teams since 2004. Also to his credit, he was excellent in the DWL, posting a 29:30 walk-to-strikeout ratio while hitting seven home runs in ca. 200 plate appearances.

Best Hitter (Prospects): Nelson Perez
A Cubs prospect signed out of the Dominican Republic about six years ago now, it appears, Nelson Perez has struck out more than four times as often as he’s walked in 2,000-plus minor-league plate appearances. By that measure, the now 25-year-old’s DWL has been a success: Perez posted a 29:28 walk-to-strikeout ratio this winter in 113 plate appearances. Credit to St. Louis outfield prospect Oscar Taveras, too, who’s four years younger than Perez and finished third overall among prospect-age hitters.

Best Pitcher (Overall): Erick Abreu
Originally a member of the Yankees organization, Erick Abreu has pitched in the Astros minor leagues since 2008. Also, he’s apparently nicknamed “Tortuga,” which is Spanish for “turtle.” In the DWL, he threw 31.2 innings over 21 appearances, recording 28 strikeouts against just eight walks. Per Baseball America, the 29-year-old right-hander is currently a free agent.

Best Pitcher (Starters): Kyler Newby
Originally taken by Arizona as a draft-and-follow in 2004, Kyler Newby has pitched in the minors since then, striking out 10.1 batters every nine innings over that span — although, largely in relief and hardly ever at Triple-A. In this case, all seven of Newby’s DWL appearances were made in a starting capacity, over which seven starts he posted a 37:11 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 31.0 innings. According to Orioles Nation, Newby throws mostly a fastball (at 87-90 mph) and slider (at 79-81 mph). He was signed by Oakland this offseason.

Totally Irrelevant Video: Rey Ordonez, Superstar Defender
Here’s video of former Mets shortstop Rey Ordonez — across which the author came while actually looking for footage of Hector Luna — video of Ordonez from 1999, during which season he was worth ca. 30 runs above average defensively :

And here’s a GIF of that play’s most relevant sequence — for use at parties or whatever:

SCOUT Leaderboards: Dominican Winter League
Below are the final (!) SCOUT leaderboards for the Dominican Winter League. (Ages as of July 1st, 2012. Players listed with last team played for. Click here for more on what is SCOUT.)

SCOUT Leaderboard: Dominican Winter League Hitters
Below is the current SCOUT batting leaderboard for the Dominican Winter 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+
Hector Luna	Phillies	32	3B	204	2.9%	14.2%	14.7%	136
Mauro Gomez	Red Sox	27	1B	212	3.2%	14.2%	20.8%	127
Nelson Perez	Cubs	24	RF	113	2.5%	18.6%	23.4%	127
Jordany Valdespin	Mets	24	2B	111	2.2%	13.2%	14.9%	123
Ricardo Nanita	Blue Jays	31	RF	135	1.3%	12.1%	9.2%	121
Donell Linares	MEX	28	3B	102	2.2%	8.1%	8.8%	121
Oscar Taveras	Cardinals	20	RF	166	2.5%	8.6%	12.7%	118
Miguel Tejada	Orioles	38	2B	150	2.3%	6.9%	8.7%	118
Todd Linden	Giants	32	1B	108	3.5%	13.4%	26.0%	118
Moises Sierra	Blue Jays	23	OF	176	2.8%	10.6%	18.2%	116

SCOUT Leaderboard: Dominican Winter League Hitters (Prospects)
Here is the SCOUT batting leaderboard for the Dominican Winter 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+
Nelson Perez	Cubs	24	RF	113	2.5%	18.6%	23.4%	127
Jordany Valdespin	Mets	24	2B	111	2.2%	13.2%	14.9%	123
Oscar Taveras	Cardinals	20	RF	166	2.5%	8.6%	12.7%	118
Moises Sierra	Blue Jays	23	OF	176	2.8%	10.6%	18.2%	116
Wilin Rosario	Rockies	23	C	40	2.6%	11.1%	18.0%	116
Yan Gomes	Blue Jays	24	3B	64	2.8%	8.9%	19.6%	109
Juan Francisco	Braves	25	3B	139	4.0%	8.9%	26.7%	109
Arismendy Alcantara	Cubs	20	SS	16	2.1%	10.7%	18.3%	108
Kole Calhoun	Angels	24	LF	83	2.3%	11.0%	20.5%	108
Miguel Sano	Twins	19	3B	57	2.8%	10.8%	23.1%	108

SCOUT Leaderboard: Dominican Winter League Pitchers
Below is the current SCOUT pitching leaderboard for the Dominican Winter 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-
Erick Abreu	Astros	28	21	0	31.2	119	29.2%	8.7%	69
Kyler Newby	Orioles	27	7	7	31.0	128	27.4%	9.1%	75
Tony Pena Jr.	Red Sox	31	19	0	23.2	94	27.0%	8.9%	76
Samuel Deduno	Twins	28	6	5	25.2	105	26.9%	10.0%	79
Johan Yan	Rangers	27	21	0	17.2	73	25.6%	9.1%	80
Jose De Paula	Padres	22	14	7	40.0	169	24.9%	8.4%	80
Dustin Richardson	IND	28	18	2	21.0	84	24.8%	8.7%	81
Kelvin De La Cruz	Tigers	23	11	1	15.1	68	24.1%	9.2%	85
Fabio Castro	Athletics	27	12	10	41.2	182	23.1%	8.9%	87
Juan Cruz	Pirates	33	3	0	6.2	24	23.0%	9.2%	88

SCOUT Leaderboard: Dominican Winter League Pitchers (Starters)
Here is the SCOUT pitching leaderboard for the Dominican Winter 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-
Kyler Newby	Orioles	27	7	7	31.0	128	27.4%	9.1%	75
Samuel Deduno	Twins	28	6	5	25.2	105	26.9%	10.0%	79
Jose De Paula	Padres	22	14	7	40.0	169	24.9%	8.4%	80
Fabio Castro	Athletics	27	12	10	41.2	182	23.1%	8.9%	87
Danny Salazar	Indians	22	5	3	14.0	58	22.7%	9.0%	88
Esmil Rogers	Indians	26	3	3	13.0	53	22.0%	8.9%	90
Josh Outman	Rockies	27	6	6	25.2	111	22.2%	9.4%	90
Aneury Rodriguez	Astros	24	8	8	32.0	135	21.2%	8.4%	91
Randall Delgado	Braves	22	7	6	26.2	115	21.7%	9.1%	91
Stolmy Pimentel	Red Sox	22	8	6	23.0	101	21.4%	8.8%	91