Daily Notes, With Atlantic League Final Leaderboards

by
October 10, 2012

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

1. Final SCOUT Leaderboards: Indepedent Atlantic League
2. Video: Atlantic League Excellent Pitcher Matthew Way
3. Today’s Playoff Games

Final SCOUT Leaderboards: Indepedent Atlantic League
Regarding What Happened Recently
What happened recently is the independent Atlantic League’s 2012 season ended, with Long Island defeating Lancaster on Sunday in the fifth game of a five-game championship series (box).

Regarding What Else Happened Recently
What happened even more recently is, is the author prepared hitting and pitching SCOUT leaderboards for the now completed and very independent Atlantic League.

Regarding What Is SCOUT
SCOUT is a metric calculated using regressed defense-indepedent numbers (walks, strikeouts, and — for hitters — home runs). The offensive version is SCOUT+, where 100 is league average and above 100 is above average. Its pitching counterpart is SCOUT-, where 100 is league average and below 100 represents above-average run prevention. (Read more here, if you’re even interested.)

Regarding SCOUT, One of Its Benefits
A benefit of SCOUT is it allows one to compare the relative performances of players with markedly different sample sizes and/or batted-ball luck.

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Atlantic League Leaderboard: Hitters
Here are the top-10 batters of the indepedent Atlantic League, as determined by the methodology explained above:

Player Team Pos Age PA xHR% xBB% xK% SCOUT+
Chris Nowak YRK CIF 29 548 6.2% 13.0% 15.9% 164
Brock Peterson BPT 1B 28 395 5.3% 11.4% 16.5% 147
Blake Gailen LAN OF 27 579 3.8% 11.7% 13.0% 137
Casey Benjamin SMD 2B 31 518 4.1% 13.5% 17.6% 136
Brian Burgamy CMD 1B 31 548 3.6% 14.6% 16.8% 136
Jesse Gutierrez SMD 1B 34 310 4.5% 7.1% 11.0% 136
Andres Perez YRK 2B 28 566 4.1% 8.0% 9.7% 135
Brandon Sing LI 1B 31 526 4.9% 11.0% 21.9% 131
Travis Denker LAN 1B/3B 26 198 4.4% 10.1% 18.2% 129
Jesse Hoorelbeke SOM 1B 34 409 4.9% 11.0% 22.5% 129

Atlantic League Leaderboard: Pitchers (Overall)
Here are the top-10 pitchers of the independent Atlantic League, as determined by the methodology explained above:

Player Team Age IP TBF xK% xBB% SCOUT-
Roberto Giron SL 36 37.1 142 33.5% 8.6% 54
Andy Sisco SOM 29 34.2 136 30.9% 8.5% 62
Ricardo Gomez YRK 34 47.1 189 31.7% 9.7% 63
Joe Bateman LAN 32 28.2 121 29.9% 8.2% 64
Jason Bergmann CMD 30 22.1 87 29.0% 8.9% 68
Jon Meloan LI 27 27.1 112 28.2% 8.1% 68
Tim Hamulack LAN 35 46.0 190 27.9% 8.0% 69
Daryl Thompson SMD 26 49.0 205 26.8% 8.2% 72
Paul Oseguera BPT 28 146.2 604 24.2% 6.0% 74
Gaby Hernandez SMD 26 39.0 168 26.8% 9.5% 76

Atlantic League Leaderboard: Pitchers (Starters)
Here are the top-10 pitchers in the independent Atlantic League who made at least half of their appearances as starts — again, as determined by the methodology explained above:

Player Team Age IP TBF xK% xBB% SCOUT-
Daryl Thompson SMD 26 49.0 205 26.8% 8.2% 72
Paul Oseguera BPT 28 146.2 604 24.2% 6.0% 74
Gaby Hernandez SMD 26 39.0 168 26.8% 9.5% 76
Matt Wright SL 30 49.0 194 24.2% 7.1% 77
Nick Singleton LI 29 48.1 211 25.1% 8.4% 78
Matthew Way LI 25 13.1 47 24.1% 8.4% 81
Ben Moore SMD 31 53.0 212 22.6% 7.2% 81
Dwayne Pollok LAN 31 145.0 591 19.1% 4.9% 85
Mike Loree LI 28 104.1 455 19.5% 6.2% 87
Rich Rundles LAN 31 47.2 193 20.8% 7.5% 87

Three Notable Performances
• Chris Nowak was drafted by Tampa Bay out of the University of South Carolina in the 19th round of the 2004 draft and played affiliated ball through 2011, first with the Rays and then (in 2010-11) within the Milwaukee organization. After showing only marginal power as a minor leaguer, he’s now hit 59 home runs in 889 Atlantic League plate appearances. At 6-5, 230, he’s likely defensively limited.
• Blake Gailen was undrafted out of UNLV in 2007 and played in multiple independent leagues until 2011, when he signed with the Angels at midseason and received an assignment to Double-A Arkansas. Though the plate-discipline numbers (14.3%, 12.6%) were fantastic there in 119 plate appearances, Gailen posted just a .226 BABIP, which led to an underwhelming overall line from a 26-year-old corner outfielder.
• Left-hander Matthew Way was in the Philadelphia organization until just this past March, actually, but after back injuries prevented him from pitching at all in 2011, he was released by the Phillies. A fifth-round draft pick out of Washington State in 2009, Way’s minor-league numbers were quite impressive while he was healthy. For example, from his last full season, at Class A Lakewood: 15 G, 14 GS, 86.1 IP, 8.44 K/9, 2.71 BB/9, 0.52 HR/9. Way pitched most of 2012 with Laredo of the independent American Association.

Video: Atlantic League Excellent Pitcher Matthew Way
Here’s video of Matthew Way from Mike Newman, who described (at the 8:43 mark of this chat) Way as his favorite pitcher to watch from 2009, when he (i.e. Newman) saw Way dominate with a fastball at 83-86 mph.

Today’s Playoff Games
NLDS, Game 3 (1-1 Tie) | St. Louis at Washington | 13:00 ET on MLBN
STL: Chris Carpenter (17.0 IP, 114 xFIP-, 0.2 WAR)
WAS: Edwin Jackson (189.2 IP, 97 xFIP-, 2.7 WAR)

NLDS, Game 4 (2-1 CIN) | San Francisco at Cincinnati | 16:00 ET on TBS
SF: Barry Zito (184.1 IP, 126 xFIP-, 0.8 WAR)
CIN: Mat Latos or Mike Leake

ALDS, Game 3 (1-1 Tie) | Baltimore at New York | 19:30 ET on TBS
BAL: Miguel Gonzalez (105.1 IP, 112 xFIP-, 1.1 WAR)
NYA: Hiroki Kuroda (219. 2 IP, 89 xFIP-, 3.9 WAR)

ALDS, Game 4 (2-1 DET) | Detroit at Oakland | 21:30 ET on TNT
DET: Max Scherzer (187.2 IP, 78 xFIP-, 4.6 WAR)
OAK: A.J. Griffin (82.1 IP, 97 xFIP-, 1.3 WAR)





 

Carson Cistulli has published a book of aphorisms called Spirited Ejaculations of a New Enthusiast.

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