Best Performances of the 2014 Cape Cod League
Insofar as the Cape Cod League — that is, the country’s most notable collegiate, wood-bat summer league — insofar as it ended on August 15th, it is either (a) entirely absurd or (b) almost entirely absurd that one would choose to return to it on a Thursday in mid-September. Insofar, however, as that same league produced nearly half of this year’s first-round draft picks — and has a history of serving as a summer home to many future major-leaguers — it’s also the case that really any occasion is an appropriate one to consider the Cape Cod League in some depth.
To the end of doing that, below are the final SCOUT leaderboards for this year’s top Cape League hitters and pitchers — and notes concerning same. (All data courtesy Pointstreak. Find last year’s best performances here.)
SCOUT Leaderboard: Cape League Hitters
Here’s the final top-10 SCOUT batting leaderboard for all this year’s Cape League hitters. SCOUT+ combines regressed home-run, walk, and strikeout rates in a FIP-like equation to produce a result not unlike wRC+, where 100 is league average and above 100 is above average. Note that xHR%, xBB%, and xK% stand for expected home run, walk, and strikeout rate, respectively.
| # | Player | Team | Pos | PA | HR | BB | K | xHR% | xBB% | xK% | SCOUT+ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Patrick Mazeika | CHA | C | 115 | 2 | 23 | 18 | 1.6% | 19.5% | 15.7% | 146 |
| 2 | LaMonte Wade | BRE | OF | 75 | 1 | 17 | 10 | 1.3% | 17.4% | 13.3% | 140 |
| 3 | Jesse Jenner | YD | C | 84 | 2 | 12 | 8 | 1.8% | 12.6% | 9.5% | 140 |
| 4 | Donnie Dewees Jr. | HYA | OF | 173 | 3 | 20 | 16 | 1.7% | 11.6% | 9.2% | 137 |
| 5 | Kevin Newman | FAL | SS | 144 | 1 | 18 | 9 | 0.8% | 12.5% | 6.3% | 134 |
| 6 | Josh Vidales | BRE | IF | 82 | 0 | 11 | 4 | 0.6% | 11.9% | 4.9% | 133 |
| 7 | AJ Murray | CHA | 1B | 194 | 6 | 21 | 35 | 3.1% | 10.8% | 18.0% | 133 |
| 8 | Matthew Eureste | FAL | SS | 139 | 3 | 17 | 19 | 2.0% | 12.2% | 13.7% | 133 |
| 9 | Ian Happ | HAR | OF | 180 | 4 | 25 | 32 | 2.2% | 13.9% | 17.8% | 132 |
| 10 | Chris Shaw | CHA | RF | 187 | 8 | 13 | 37 | 4.3% | 7.0% | 19.8% | 132 |
SCOUT Leaderboard: Cape League Starters
Below is the final SCOUT pitching leaderboard for all Cape League pitchers who made at least a third of their appearances as a starter. SCOUT- combines regressed strikeout and walk rates in a kwERA-like equation to produce a number not unlike ERA-, where 100 is league average and below 100 is better than average. Note that xK% and xBB% stand for expected strikeout and walk rate, respectively.
| # | Player | Team | G | GS | IP | TBF | K | BB | xK% | xBB% | SCOUT- |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Marc Brakeman | HYA | 9 | 4 | 33.0 | 135 | 47 | 7 | 34.8% | 5.5% | 44 |
| 2 | Travis Bergen | BOU | 6 | 6 | 32.0 | 132 | 36 | 4 | 27.3% | 3.7% | 62 |
| 3 | Kolton Mahoney | ORL | 7 | 6 | 37.1 | 150 | 47 | 12 | 31.3% | 8.0% | 63 |
| 4 | Brock Hartson | WAR | 5 | 5 | 26.2 | 110 | 33 | 10 | 30.1% | 9.0% | 69 |
| 5 | Andrew Sopko | BOU | 8 | 7 | 31.2 | 142 | 36 | 6 | 25.4% | 4.5% | 70 |
| 6 | Matt Hall | FAL | 8 | 8 | 42.2 | 178 | 47 | 10 | 26.5% | 5.6% | 70 |
| 7 | Ryan Kellogg | BOU | 7 | 7 | 41.0 | 167 | 37 | 3 | 22.2% | 1.8% | 72 |
| 8 | Alex Young | FAL | 5 | 5 | 30.0 | 122 | 28 | 3 | 23.0% | 3.6% | 75 |
| 9 | Cody Poteet | YD | 7 | 7 | 40.2 | 168 | 43 | 11 | 25.7% | 6.6% | 76 |
| 10 | Jimmy Herget | BOU | 7 | 6 | 33.0 | 142 | 37 | 10 | 26.1% | 7.1% | 76 |
Notes
• With the exception of Boston College corner-type Chris Shaw, catcher Patrick Mazeika is the only sophomore to appear among the league’s top hitters this season — and not just among them, actually, but at the very top of that list of top hitters. Despite hitting just .207 due to an uncommonly low BABIP, Mazeika exhibited an otherwise excellent hitting approach — the sort, for example, which earned him a place among Baseball America’s Freshman All-America Team last year and allowed him to lead Stetson in hitting each of the last two seasons. Regarding his fielding, there’s little information available publicly, although the fact that he played considerable amounts of first base might be the most concise comment about his defensive future.
• Arizona junior and Falmouth shortstop Kevin Newman is the player to have produced the best batting line while also demonstrating the ability to play a more challenging/valuable defensive position. Kiley McDaniel discussed him earlier Thursday in his piece on 2015 draft prospects — and compared him on his more recent (and forthcoming) appearance on FanGraphs Audio to a Joe Panik sort of player, with more in the way of performance than tools.
• The Cape’s top pitcher this summer by the likely, but not terribly, flawed methodology used here, was right-handed Stanford junior Marc Brakeman. Ranked 33rd among draft-eligible prospects by McDaniel in his entirely premature rankings of same, Brakeman exhibited better velocity for Hyannis than he had during the spring back in Palo Alto.
Carson Cistulli has published a book of aphorisms called Spirited Ejaculations of a New Enthusiast.
Back in the early 70’s, I played for the Wareham town team. Not to be confused with the Cape Cod League, the town teams played on the same fields as the CCL. What I remember most was Bourne’s home field. Right field abutted the Cape Cod Canal and, on a good day, you could loose plenty of balls. What the leagues/town (?) did was erect a huge screen in right field to catch fly balls hit there. Think Green Monster height, only in right. I bring this up because I noticed two things on you lists. No Bourne player was listed offensively and three Bourne pitcher’s were listed. If they’re still playing on the same field, this tells me that these pitchers must have some real nasty stuff to make the list. Conversely, their batters lack power. Even I hit a HR at Bourne, and I stunk!
They no longer play on that field. They now play on a much nicer and larger field at Upper Cape Tech down the street.