Daily Notes, With Just Talking About Oscar Taveras

by
November 27, 2012

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

1. In Appreciation of Oscar Taveras, Briefly
2. Video: Oscar Taveras Doing Whatever He Wants
3. SCOUT Leaderboards: Dominican Winter League

In Appreciation of Oscar Taveras, Briefly
It is not the case that the SCOUT batting and pitching leaderboards for the Dominican Winter League (below) ought to be regarded as entirely prophetic so far the respective futures of the players on those leaderboards are concerned. That said, they (i.e. those same leaderboards we’re talking about) do have some value insofar — and perhaps for other reasons — but insofar as they might help organize or reify our thoughts on certain players whose names appear within them.

In today’s edition of the Dominican leaderboards, precocious offensive force and St. Louis outfield prospect Oscar Taveras has made his way to fourth place among all batters — and is now tied for first among all batters who’re 25 or younger. The distinction isn’t particularly surprising: Taveras was one of the very best hitters in the Double-A Texas League this summer as just a 20-year-old, posting a 42:56 strikeout-to-walk ratio while hitting 23 home runs in 531 plate appearances. Furthermore, Marc Hulet’s recent Cardinals top-15 prospect list suggests that it probably wouldn’t be unreasonable to see Taveras’s name atop other types of leaderboards in the not very distant future.

Video: Oscar Taveras Doing Whatever He Wants
Here’s video of St. Louis prospect Oscar Taveras just doing whatever he wants. In this case, “whatever he wants” appears to be “hitting three home runs in 2012.”

From May 12th:

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And from August 6th:

And also from August 29th:

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

SCOUT Leaderboard: Dominican Winter League Hitters (Overall)
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 126 2.4% 12.6% 13.7% 126
Jordany Valdespin Mets 24 2B 57 2.2% 11.9% 15.2% 118
Nelson Perez Cubs 24 OF 64 2.4% 14.1% 20.3% 118
Oscar Taveras Cardinals 20 OF 112 2.5% 9.3% 13.5% 118
Diory Hernandez Cubs 28 SS 123 1.4% 12.2% 12.1% 117
Rhyne Hughes Orioles 28 1B 90 2.3% 14.3% 21.7% 114
Leonys Martin Rangers 24 OF 136 2.3% 10.6% 17.1% 113
Donell Linares MEX 28 3B 43 2.2% 8.6% 13.7% 113
Jose Ramirez Indians 19 SS 87 1.3% 12.5% 14.0% 112
Todd Linden Giants 32 OF 103 3.2% 12.7% 26.7% 110

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+
Jordany Valdespin Mets 24 2B 57 2.2% 11.9% 15.2% 118
Nelson Perez Cubs 24 OF 64 2.4% 14.1% 20.3% 118
Oscar Taveras Cardinals 20 OF 112 2.5% 9.3% 13.5% 118
Leonys Martin Rangers 24 OF 136 2.3% 10.6% 17.1% 113
Jose Ramirez Indians 19 SS 87 1.3% 12.5% 14.0% 112
Carlos Peguero Mariners 25 OF 34 2.6% 11.1% 20.8% 110
Miguel Sano Twins 19 3B 29 2.3% 10.8% 18.8% 110
Moises Sierra Blue Jays 23 OF 104 2.2% 10.2% 17.2% 110
Jean Segura Brewers 22 SS 111 1.8% 8.8% 13.0% 109
Marcell Ozuna Marlins 21 OF 120 3.8% 8.4% 24.5% 108

SCOUT Leaderboard: Dominican Winter League Pitchers (Overall)
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-
Kyler Newby Orioles 27 5 5 23.0 89 26.3% 8.8% 77
Erick Abreu Astros 28 13   18.1 68 25.5% 9.0% 80
Johan Yan Rangers 27 13   9.1 37 24.0% 9.2% 85
Kelvin De La Cruz Tigers 23 6 1 10.0 43 23.3% 9.5% 87
Dustin Richardson IND 28 11   9.0 35 23.0% 9.2% 88
Danny Salazar Indians 22 5 3 14.0 58 22.8% 9.2% 88
Fabio Castro Athletics 27 8 6 26.1 113 21.9% 8.8% 89
Tony Pena Jr. Red Sox 31 10   13.1 48 22.0% 9.0% 90
Bartolo Colon Athletics 39 3 3 11.1 45 21.7% 8.9% 90
Josh Outman Rockies 23 6 6 25.2 111 22.2% 9.6% 90

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 5 5 23.0 89 26.3% 8.8% 77
Danny Salazar Indians 22 5 3 14.0 58 22.8% 9.2% 88
Fabio Castro Athletics 27 8 6 26.1 113 21.9% 8.8% 89
Bartolo Colon Athletics 39 3 3 11.1 45 21.7% 8.9% 90
Josh Outman Rockies 23 6 6 25.2 111 22.2% 9.6% 90
Stolmy Pimentel Red Sox 22 7 5 20.0 90 21.5% 9.2% 92
Aneury Rodriguez Astros 24 7 7 29.0 122 20.8% 8.8% 92
Bruce Billings Athletics 26 6 6 21.0 95 20.8% 9.3% 94
Raul Valdes Phillies 34 4 4 11.0 46 20.9% 9.4% 94
Randall Delgado Braves 22 4 3 15.2 67 20.4% 9.4% 95





 

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

9 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Tomcat
13 years ago

Outman is 28 not 23, that said nice to see the Indians Jose Ramirez making a run at a BA top 100 spot

1
Highball WilsonMember since 2020
13 years ago
Reply to  Tomcat

Combined with Francisco Lindor and Dorssys Paulino, the Indians have a few promising hitting prospects in the low minors.

0
astrostl
13 years ago

Always fun to see national hype on STL prospects. Video 1 had an insane-sounding crack to me, which I potentially chalked up to the tin-can mic. Video 2 I have no Earthly idea how it left the park, and not necessarily in a “that’s amazing” way. It looks to me like he barely got a piece of it, and that it would be a mile-high popup to shallow left field. Video 3’s crack makes me think the crack in video 1 was legit. Can’t wait to see this dude at Busch.

2
Sparkles Peterson
13 years ago
Reply to  astrostl

Yeah, that second video is a reminder of just what a ridiculous ballpark that is in Springfield. The fact that he finally started hitting for power when he got to AA gives me pause until I remember that a year ago I was watching him swing and believing he had to start putting up power numbers soon.

1
Bad Bill
13 years ago
Reply to  Sparkles Peterson

Not quite sure how you figure it is a “ridiculous” ballpark. This year it played as a basically neutral park, at least by the standards of the admittedly homer-happy Texas League.

1
Sparkles Peterson
13 years ago
Reply to  Sparkles Peterson

The admittedly homer-happy Texas League, where Springfield consistently posts a HR park factor 20% or more over league average.

2
Bad Bill
13 years ago
Reply to  Sparkles Peterson

We must be either using different evaluations or talking about different parks. The source I checked had a PF for Springfield of exactly 100.

1
Sparkles Peterson
13 years ago
Reply to  Sparkles Peterson

The park is fair in all respects except that HRs are very easy to hit there. I don’t see any published 2012 park factors yet but in 2011, one-year 1.22 and three year 1.21 HR park factor, and it’s even friendlier to lefties than righties.

That said, another point in Taveras’s favor is that he hit for power on the road, and in some of the fairer ballparks in the league.

1
Jay
13 years ago
Reply to  Sparkles Peterson

Springfield’s ballpark is pretty ridiculous for lefties, but Taveras hit that ball the opposite way. IIRC the park plays pretty neutral in LF. It’s crazy he got that much distance on a ball he hit off the end of the bat, but I think it just shows how much power is in his swing.

Also I don’t think it’s fair to say he only started hitting for power in AA. His home run rate definitely saw an uptick, but he had an ISO near .200 in 2011.

1