Offseason Notes for October 21st
Jose Reyes will almost definitely play for one of the 30 MLB teams in 2012.
Table of Contents
Here’s the table of contents for today’s edition of Offseason Notes.
1. Assorted Headlines
2. SCOUT Batting Leaderboard: Arizona Fall League
3. SCOUT Pitching Leaderboard: Arizona Fall League
Assorted Headlines
Jose Reyes, Washington National?
A pair of unnamed New York Mets “wouldn’t be surprised” if Jose Reyes signed with the Washington Nationals this offseason, David Lennon of Newsday reports via his Twitter computer. While Reyes is clearly special, and likely to be worth five-plus wins in a healthy season, the Nationals already have an excellent young shortstop in Danny Espinosa, who posted a 3.5 WAR this season as the team’s second baseman. Moving Espinosa to short would open up a spot for Matt Antonelli, the former Padre prospect who had a rebound season at Triple-A Syracuse this year — and who’s also Italian, in case you didn’t even know.
Nats GM Mike Rizzo and Adam LaRoche Up in a Tree
Mike Rizzo “demonstrates irrational faith in Adam LaRoche’s offensive ability,” Mark Zuckerman of CSNWashington.com does not explicitly report, but sort of implies, merely by reporting the fact that Mike Rizzo regards LaRoche as the team’s starting first baseman for 2012.
Aroldis Chapman to Pitch in Arizona Fall League
Before moving on to the Puerto Rican League, Cincinnati left-hander Aroldis Chapman will make three appearances — on October 24th, 27th, and 31st — in the Arizona Fall League, MLB.com’s Mark Sheldon reports. Chapman is expected to begin the 2012 season in the Red starting rotation.
SCOUT Batting Leaderboard
The Leaderboard
Here is the SCOUT batting leaderboard for the Arizona Fall League. SCOUT is the average of a player’s standard deviations from the AFL mean in three important (and regressed) stats: walk rate, strikeout rate, and home-run rate. (Click here for more on SCOUT.)
| Name | Org | PA | xBB% | xK% | xHR% | BBz | Kz | HRz | SCOUT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Robbie Grossman | PIT | 69 | 11.6% | 16.5% | 3.7% | 0.14 | 0.41 | 0.40 | 0.32 |
| Wil Myers | KC | 47 | 14.3% | 19.3% | 2.8% | 0.67 | 0.01 | 0.10 | 0.26 |
| Jefry Marte | NYN | 44 | 12.0% | 17.7% | 3.2% | 0.21 | 0.24 | 0.23 | 0.23 |
| Jarek Cunningham | PIT | 47 | 10.8% | 16.7% | 3.2% | -0.01 | 0.39 | 0.22 | 0.20 |
| Corban Joseph | NYA | 48 | 10.8% | 15.9% | 2.8% | -0.02 | 0.50 | 0.10 | 0.19 |
| Alex Castellanos | LAN | 34 | 11.5% | 18.4% | 3.3% | 0.13 | 0.15 | 0.27 | 0.18 |
| Jedd Gyorko | SD | 40 | 10.2% | 16.9% | 3.2% | -0.13 | 0.35 | 0.25 | 0.16 |
| Alex Hassan | BOS | 32 | 12.1% | 17.3% | 2.3% | 0.24 | 0.30 | -0.10 | 0.15 |
| Nolan Arenado | COL | 51 | 9.1% | 14.8% | 2.8% | -0.34 | 0.65 | 0.09 | 0.13 |
| Scooter Gennett | MIL | 41 | 11.2% | 18.1% | 2.9% | 0.05 | 0.18 | 0.12 | 0.12 |
Notes
• Pirate outfield prospect Robbie Grossman has three homers, four walks, and four strikeouts in his last four games.
• Very young Met third-base prospect Jefry Marte also has three home runs in his last four games. He hit only seven in 537 plate appearances at High-A St. Lucie this year, but — according to the internet — has good raw power.
• Brewer minor-league infielder, 21-year-old Scooter Gennett, makes his debut on the leaderboard. You’ll have to search for “Ryan Gennett” to find him at FanGraphs. You won’t have to search for the gold chain in his MiLB profile photo, though; it’s pretty obvious.
SCOUT Pitching Leaderboard
The Leaderboard
For pitchers, SCOUT is the average of a player’s standard deviations from the AFL mean in (regressed) strikeout and walk rate.
| Name | Org | G | GS | IP | BF | xK% | xBB% | Kz | BBz | SCOUT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kevin Munson | ARI | 6 | 0 | 6.0 | 24 | 24.7% | 9.3% | 0.53 | 0.08 | 0.30 |
| Anthony Bass | SD | 3 | 2 | 12.0 | 48 | 23.5% | 9.0% | 0.40 | 0.12 | 0.26 |
| Bradley Boxberger | CIN | 6 | 0 | 7.2 | 33 | 24.2% | 9.9% | 0.48 | -0.03 | 0.23 |
| Chris Carpenter | CHN | 5 | 0 | 6.2 | 25 | 23.3% | 9.5% | 0.37 | 0.05 | 0.21 |
| Forrest Snow | SEA | 4 | 1 | 8.2 | 27 | 23.0% | 9.4% | 0.35 | 0.05 | 0.20 |
| Nathan Adcock | KC | 2 | 2 | 6.1 | 27 | 22.9% | 9.8% | 0.34 | -0.01 | 0.16 |
| Joe Gardner | COL | 3 | 3 | 7.0 | 33 | 22.9% | 9.8% | 0.33 | -0.03 | 0.15 |
| Evan Reed | FLA | 5 | 0 | 6.1 | 22 | 22.3% | 9.7% | 0.26 | 0.01 | 0.13 |
| Josh Wall | LAN | 6 | 0 | 6.1 | 31 | 21.7% | 9.5% | 0.20 | 0.03 | 0.12 |
| Bryan Woodall | ARI | 5 | 0 | 7.0 | 32 | 21.7% | 9.7% | 0.19 | 0.00 | 0.10 |
Notes
• Looking at the pitching leaderboard, we see Royal right-hander Nathan Adcock popping up for the first time.
• Colorado prospect Joe Gardner also makes his debut after striking out four of the 13 batters he faced Thursday night. Gardner was acquired by the Rockies as part of the Ubaldo Jimenez deal. Despite his decent performance Thursday, his strikeout rates at Double-A were quite low (about 14%) in ca. 130 innings.
Carson Cistulli has published a book of aphorisms called Spirited Ejaculations of a New Enthusiast.
Alex Castellanos is in the Dodger organization now, he was traded in the Furcal deal.
Fixed. And fixing it on my Excel file now, too.
Thank goodness to Adcock for saving this series…
During the season, I was thinking that Washington would be a potential spot for Reyes. They have money to burn so they might be able to offer him more money than other teams, and he’s young enough to still be a very good player when their young guys are ready to contribute. As for Espinosa, they can either keep him at 2B or trade him to fill another need. If he’s good enough to prevent a team from signing Reyes, then he’s good enough to get a nice haul via trade.
What about Desmond? Move him to 3rd… oh wait.
Desmond’s second half was solid-starter level, but it really depends on whether or not you believe in him. DC won’t be letting Espinosa go but Desmond could be the Major League Ready trade chip in a package of 2-4 prospects.
Desmond to the Giants for J. Sanchez ??
You’d both be dreaming there, I’m afraid. I don’t think anyone who needs more than a 2nd division placeholder is falling for Desmond. I say this because I’ve seen him play.
This is Brian Sabean we’re talking about here. Y’know 6 million to Miguel Tejada Sabean.
Between Zimmerman, Espinosa, and Rendon, a signing of Reyes would be incredibly stupid for the Nats
Antonelli not getting a call up surprised me.
As he puts it on his blog: “Because I signed a one year contract with the Nationals the possibility of me being with a different team next Spring Training is much higher than in the past. ”
Nats are in perpetual need of a leadoff hitter.
Given that LaRoche is due nine million, what else is he supposed to do?