Daily Notes: Unhelpful Reports on the Mostly Obscure

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

1. Assorted Headlines
2. SCOUT Leaderboards: Venezuelan Winter League
3. Largely Unhelpful Videos: Free Agent Infielder Darwin Perez

Assorted Headlines
Frazier Likely to Become Third-Base Starter for Cincinnati in 2013
Scott Rolen‘s status for the 2013 season is still unclear, MLB.com’s Mark Sheldon reports. Todd Frazier’s is less so, it seems. “Right now,” Reds general manager Walt Jocketty appears to have declared somewhere in the vicinity of Sheldon, “Frazier would be penciled in as our third baseman next year.” Frazier posted a 120 wRC+ (.316 BABIP) and 2.8 WAR in 465 plate appearances this past season.

McGuiness Named Arizona Fall League MVP
Texas first-base prospect Christopher McGuiness was named the MVP of the Arizona Fall League, reports MLB.com’s Jonathan Mayo, who’s the sort to know such a thing. McGuiness finished third (behind Minnesota’s Nate Roberts and New York Yankeeses’ David Adams) on the infallible SCOUT batting leaderboard for the AFL.

Hunter and Smith Sign Minor-League Deals
Recently, in these Notes, the author suggested that Cedric Hunter and Marquez Smith were (for not various reasons that needn’t be repeated here) among the more notable of the 500-plus minor-league free agents available this offseason. The pair, in the meantime, now appear to have signed with Cleveland (link above) and Cincinnati (link), respectively.

SCOUT Leaderboards: Venezuelan Winter League
Below are the current SCOUT leaderboards for the Venezuelan Winter League. (Ages as of July 1st, 2012. Players listed with most recent team. Click here for more on what is SCOUT.)

SCOUT Leaderboard: Venezuelan Winter League Hitters (Overall)
Below is the current SCOUT batting leaderboard for the Venezuelan 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+
C.J. Retherford	Dodgers	26	3B	143	3.0%	11.7%	12.2%	132
Darwin Perez	Angels	22	SS	105	2.3%	18.0%	18.9%	129
Alex Romero	MEX	28	OF	132	1.4%	11.7%	6.9%	124
Justin Henry	Tigers	27	OF	106	1.3%	14.4%	10.7%	122
Henry Wrigley	Rays	25	OF	129	4.1%	7.4%	18.6%	119
Josh Kroeger	Braves	29	OF	68	1.8%	14.2%	15.4%	119
Carlos Rivero	Nationals	24	3B	136	3.1%	10.0%	17.1%	118
Evan Gattis	Braves	25	C	118	3.2%	7.9%	14.6%	118
Luis Valbuena	Cubs	26	2B	95	2.0%	13.5%	16.1%	117
Carlos Maldonado	Nationals	31	C	112	3.9%	10.7%	23.3%	117

SCOUT Leaderboard: Venezuelan Winter League Hitters (Prospects)
Here is the SCOUT batting leaderboard for the Venezuelan 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+
Darwin Perez	Angels	22	SS	105	2.3%	18.0%	18.9%	129
Henry Wrigley	Rays	25	OF	129	4.1%	7.4%	18.6%	119
Carlos Rivero	Nationals	24	3B	136	3.1%	10.0%	17.1%	118
Evan Gattis	Braves	25	C	118	3.2%	7.9%	14.6%	118
Darin Ruf	Phillies	25	1B	137	4.4%	11.5%	29.6%	113
Wilmer Flores	Mets	20	SS	112	2.2%	9.7%	14.7%	111
Rossmel Perez	D-backs	22	C	27	1.8%	10.7%	15.1%	108
Yangervis Solarte	Rangers	24	OF	67	1.8%	10.8%	16.2%	107
Scott Van Slyke	Dodgers	25	1B	100	3.6%	9.2%	25.5%	105
Marwin Gonzalez	Astros	23	SS	22	1.8%	10.9%	17.0%	105

SCOUT Leaderboard: Venezuelan Winter League Pitchers (Overall)
Below is the current SCOUT pitching leaderboard for the Venezuelan 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-
Alex Torres	Rays	24	8	8	33.0	145	35.3%	10.0%	55
Seth Etherton	N/A	35	6	6	27.1	112	25.1%	7.8%	77
Austin Bibens-Dirkx	Nationals	27	5	4	21.0	84	24.5%	8.3%	80
Cesar Jimenez	Mariners	27	11	0	10.1	40	24.3%	8.8%	81
Juan Rincon	Angels	33	13	0	15.2	66	23.3%	8.8%	84
Jarrett Grube	Mariners	30	6	6	22.2	99	24.1%	9.9%	85
Marcos Tabata	N/A	26	13	0	17.1	66	23.2%	9.1%	85
Danny Farquhar	Mariners	25	15	0	15.1	62	23.1%	9.2%	86
Jon Meloan	Yankees	27	14	0	15.0	62	21.8%	8.5%	87
Vidal Nuno	Yankees	24	9	0	16.0	56	21.8%	8.6%	88

SCOUT Leaderboard: Venezuelan Winter League Pitchers (Starters)
Here is the SCOUT pitching leaderboard for the Venezuelan 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-
Alex Torres	Rays	24	8	8	33.0	145	35.3%	10.0%	55
Seth Etherton	N/A	35	6	6	27.1	112	25.1%	7.8%	77
Austin Bibens-Dirkx	Nationals	27	5	4	21.0	84	24.5%	8.3%	80
Jarrett Grube	Mariners	30	6	6	22.2	99	24.1%	9.9%	85
Josh Schmidt	Marlins	29	6	6	30.0	127	22.1%	9.2%	89
Eric Berger	Indians	26	5	5	24.2	102	19.7%	8.2%	92
Donovan Hand	Brewers	26	7	7	34.1	148	18.9%	8.1%	94
Victor Garate	Brewers	27	7	7	28.0	130	20.4%	9.7%	95
Luis Chirinos	IND	22	7	4	26.1	117	18.5%	8.6%	97
Matt Shoemaker	Angels	25	7	7	33.2	138	18.1%	8.3%	97

Largely Unhelpful Videos: Free Agent Infielder Darwin Perez
These videos are unlikely to reveal much about minor-league and middle-infielding free agent Darwin Perez, currently among the Venezuelan Winter League’s top batters, according to SCOUT (see above).

Here’s Perez hitting a home run in August for Double-A Arkansas:

And making a diving play at shortstop, also in August:

And here’s an interview with Perez (courtesy MiLB’s Ben Hill), who seems like an entirely amiable sort: