Offseason Notes for February 1st

This same truck once brought Jose Lopez from Seattle, WA to Peoria, AZ.

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

1. Assorted Headlines
2. Projecting: ZiPS for Cleveland
3. Crowdsourcing Broadcasters: St. Louis Television

Assorted Headlines
Teheran and Delgado Possible Bullpen Options
Atlanta Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez told David O’Brien of the Atlanta Journal Constitution on Tuesday that top pitching prospects Julio Teheran and/or Randall Delgado would be bullpen options in the event that they didn’t, either one of them, make the opening-day rotation. John Sickels recently ranked the pair first and third overall in the Atlanta system; Baseball America has them in the spots. The clubs already has what would appear to be five able starters in Tim Hudson, Tommy Hanson, Jair Jurrjens, Brandon Beachy, and Mike Minor.

Profile of Jeff Luhnow That You Will Enjoy in Terms of Reading
MLB.com’s Anthony Castrovince provides an interesting account of new Houston Asros GM Jeff Luhnow’s first days with the club.

Notable excerpt:

The Astros didn’t have a lot of life last year. Their 106 losses were the most in baseball and blew away the record for most in franchise history. And those losses were the by-product of a farm system that stopped pumping prime talent into the Majors. The club’s 2005-07 amateur Drafts have netted four Major Leaguers, the fewest of any club in that time span.

Contrast that with the Cardinals, who selected 24 eventual Major Leaguers in that period, the most of any team.

Site: Dominican Prospect League
The Dominican Prospect League produces a lot of the talent that ends up with major-league clubs. The site has videos and league leaders.

Projecting: ZiPS for Cleveland
Noted Polish wizard Dan Szymborski has published his ZiPS projections for the Cleveland Indians. Below are some of the notable ones, accompanied by veryrough WAR projections (for hitters per 600 plate appearances and pitchers per 200 innings). All numbers assume major-league competition. OPS+ and ERA+ are park-adjusted.

Carlos Santana, C, 26: .246/.361/.449, 123 OPS+, 4.1 WAR600
Here’s the difference between catcher and first-base positional adjustments. Carlos Santana’s projected WAR (per 600 PAs) as a catcher: 5.2. As a first baseman: 3.2. Playing both positions last year, he received an adjustment of 1.8, which is the number I used for the WAR figure above.

Jose Lopez, 3B, 28: .268/.296/.419, 95 OPS+, 1.8 WAR600
Lonnie Chisenhall, 3B, 23: .255/.312/.404, 96 OPS+, 1.9 WAR600
Lopez and Chisenhall are surprisingly similar players, per ZiPS, both producing below-average on-base skills, decent power, and — not included here — VG defensive ratings at third base. A platoon of the two might have a chance of being rather useful.

Ubaldo Jimenez, RHP, 28: 196.2 IP, 188 K, 80 BB, 14 HR, 4.4 WAR200
Justin Masterson, RHP, 27: 204.0, 153 K, 65 BB, 13 HR, 4.2 WAR200
Only seven clubs had two pitchers with a 4.0-plus WAR last year: Philadelphia, Detroit (if you count Doug Fister as a Tiger), Los Angeles (AL), Texas, San Francisco, Arizona, and Tampa Bay. Five of them made the playoffs.

Crowdsourcing Broadcasters: St. Louis Television
This offseason, FanGraphs is asking readers to rate the broadcast teams for all 30 major-league clubs. (Click here for more on this project.)

Rate other teams: Arizona / Atlanta / Baltimore / Boston / Chicago (AL) / Chicago (NL) / Cincinnati / Cleveland / Colorado / Detroit / Miami / Houston / Los Angeles (AL) / Los Angeles (NL, Home Games) / Los Angeles (NL, Away Games) / Milwaukee / Minnesota / New York (AL) / New York (NL) / Oakland / Philadelphia / Pittsburgh.

Image courtesy MLB.com.