Offseason Notes, Featuring RECK Leaderboards

by
January 10, 2012


It’s three Shawon Dunstons!

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

1. Shame-Filled Introduction
2. Reckless Power (RECK) Leaderboards
3. SCOUT Leaderboards: Australian Baseball League

Shame-Filled Introduction
Announcement
It’s with, like, 75% chagrin that I present today’s edition of Offseason Notes — which, it turns out, is mostly a collection of leaderboards and omits entirely any “news” or “current events.”

On Whose Fault That Is
Decidedly not mine.

On Whose Fault That Is, Part II
Probably either my parents’ or society’s.

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On What the Name Is of the Game I’m Playing
The Blame Game.

Reckless Power (RECK) Leaderboards
In yesterday’s edition of the Notes, we looked at the players from 2011 who displayed the most reckless power, as calculated by dividing Isolated Power by Isolated Patience — or, stated differently, (SLG – AVG) / (OBP – AVG). Essentially, it’s designed to identify players whose power far outstrips their patience. The results appear to approximate the Richter Scale, such that less than 2.0 is barely felt, 5.0 is moderate, and 9.0-and-up happens less than every 10 years and is totally destructive.

Here are the top-10 most reckless (qualified) player seasons from 2002 to 2011, or what is also known as the FanGraphs Era:

Num Name Team Season PA AVG OBP SLG RECK
1 Ivan Rodriguez Tigers 2005 525 .276 .290 .444 12.0
2 Ivan Rodriguez Tigers 2007 515 .281 .294 .420 10.7
3 Garret Anderson Angels 2002 678 .306 .332 .539 9.0
4 Bengie Molina Giants 2009 520 .265 .285 .442 8.9
5 Jorge Cantu Devil Rays 2005 631 .286 .311 .497 8.4
6 Randall Simon Tigers 2002 506 .301 .320 .459 8.3
7 Robinson Cano Yankees 2006 508 .342 .365 .525 8.0
8 Alfonso Soriano Yankees 2002 741 .300 .332 .547 7.7
9 Marquis Grissom Giants 2003 618 .300 .322 .468 7.6
10 Adrian Beltre Rangers 2011 525 .296 .331 .561 7.6

And here are the top-10 most reckless player seasons going back to the dawn of baseball time (or, the beginning of the 20th century, at least):

Num Name Team Season PA AVG OBP SLG RECK
1 Shawon Dunston – – – 1997 511 .300 .312 .451 12.6
2 Ivan Rodriguez Tigers 2005 525 .276 .290 .444 12.0
3 Dante Bichette Rockies 1995 612 .340 .364 .620 11.7
4 Carlos Baerga Indians 1994 469 .314 .333 .525 11.1
5 Garret Anderson Angels 2000 681 .286 .307 .519 11.1
6 Ivan Rodriguez Tigers 2007 515 .281 .294 .420 10.7
7 Ozzie Guillen White Sox 1996 528 .263 .273 .367 10.4
8 Kirby Puckett Twins 1988 691 .356 .375 .545 9.9
9 Ivan Rodriguez Rangers 1999 630 .332 .356 .558 9.4
10 Deivi Cruz Tigers 2000 615 .302 .318 .449 9.2

SCOUT Leaderboards: Australian Baseball League
Batting Leaderboard
Here is the (totally sortable) SCOUT batting leaderboard for the Australian Baseball League (ABL). SCOUT represents an attempt to derive something meaningful from small samples and is the average of a player’s standard deviations from the ABL mean in three important (and regressed) stats: walk rate, strikeout rate, and home-run rate. (Click here for more on SCOUT.)

Num Name Org PA xBB% xK% xHR% BBz Kz HRz SCOUT
1 Brian Burgamy IND 153 14.2% 11.1% 4.0% 1.17 1.23 0.27 0.89
2 Justin Huber IND 141 15.7% 12.5% 3.5% 1.53 1.02 0.02 0.86
3 Tim Kennelly FA 143 10.6% 13.6% 4.8% 0.34 0.85 0.64 0.61
4 Matt Kennelly ATL 141 11.2% 11.1% 3.5% 0.48 1.23 0.02 0.58
5 David Sutherland FA 145 10.0% 8.0% 2.8% 0.20 1.72 -0.31 0.54
6 Tyler Collins DET 139 11.3% 11.4% 2.8% 0.50 1.19 -0.28 0.47
7 Boss Moanaroa BOS 140 12.3% 13.9% 3.2% 0.72 0.79 -0.13 0.46
8 Kody Hightower GER 93 10.9% 15.2% 3.7% 0.41 0.59 0.13 0.37
9 Alexander Burg SF 147 10.9% 19.7% 5.1% 0.41 -0.12 0.78 0.36
10 Allan De San Miguel FA 143 14.6% 21.6% 3.8% 1.28 -0.41 0.17 0.35

Notes
• Since the last time we looked at the ABL, 30-year-old corner-type Brian Burgamy has unseated 29-year-old corner-type Justin Huber atop the SCOUT leaderboard.
• Matt Kennelly is a catcher who played at Double-A Mississippi in 2011 as a 22-year-old, which is actually on the young side for the level. As with his ABL showing, he’s shown fine plate discipline without much power in minors.
• Boss Moanaroa’s real first name is Crew.

Pitching Leaderboard
For pitchers, SCOUT is the average of a player’s standard deviations from the AFL mean in (regressed) strikeout and walk rate.

Num Name Org G GS IP BF xK% xBB% Kz BBz SCOUT
1 Yohei Yanagawa NPB 7 7 35.2 153 28.2% 10.0% 1.98 -0.41 0.78
2 Mike Mcguire PHI 10 8 48.0 204 26.5% 9.6% 1.66 -0.31 0.67
3 Cameron Lamb SF 11   23.1 100 22.5% 8.0% 0.91 0.06 0.48
4 Ryan Searle CHN 3 3 16.0 70 22.8% 8.5% 0.96 -0.05 0.45
5 Alex Maestri IND 8 7 50.2 211 21.8% 8.2% 0.78 0.02 0.40
6 Matthew Williams FA 11   22.0 85 21.0% 7.5% 0.62 0.18 0.40
7 Aidan Francis IND 8 8 43.1 185 20.0% 6.8% 0.43 0.36 0.40
8 Todd Van Steensel PHI 8   16.0 70 21.4% 7.9% 0.71 0.08 0.39
9 Steve Kent ATL 17   26.1 113 21.0% 8.2% 0.62 0.02 0.32
10 Benn Grice FA 16   22.0 89 19.9% 7.5% 0.41 0.19 0.30

Notes
• Yohei Yanagawa is a (soon-to-be) 26-year-old Japanese right-hander who pitched just 7.0 innings in the NPB this past year. Per Patrick Newman’s NPB Tracker, we discover that Yanagawa throws a fastball at about 86-90 mph, a forkball, and a slider at 75-80 mph. So far, he has both the highest regressed strikeout and regressed walk rates in ABL play.





 

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

2 Comments
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siggian
13 years ago

Re: RECK is a pretty cool name for the stat, but I’m thinking that perhaps HACK (Hammering a Cookie or K’ing) is better. You know that when a guy puts up 300/312/451, he’s a hell of HACKer

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