Offseason Notes for October 25th
A bearded man attempts to steal Jim Thome’s tie during a Cleveland-area event Monday afternoon.
Table of Contents
Here’s the table of contents for today’s edition of Offseason Notes.
1. Assorted Headlines
2. Discovery: Winter League Stats by Organization
3. SCOUT Leaderboards: Mexican Pacific League
Assorted Headlines
News as it happens about 16 hours after it happens.
Phillies Decline Options on Lidge, Oswalt
The Phillies declined options on both Brad Lidge and Roy Oswalt, Todd Zolecki of MLB.com reports. Oswalt would’ve made $16 million in 2012; Lidge, $12.5 million. The players’ respective buyouts were $2 million and $1.5 million. Oswalt finished with an xFIP- above 100 for the first time in his career this season, although he still managed to post a 2.5 WAR in 139 innings — or roughly $12.5 million dollars of value. Brad Lidge, for his part, struck out 42.6% of the 369 batters he faced in 2004. His 2011 was less productive.
Jimmer Jammer, 2012
Speaking at the City Club of Cleveland on Monday, country-strong baseball hitter Jim Thome confirmed that he’s interested in playing again in 2012, MLB.com’s Jordan Bastian reports. “I want to keep playing. I’ll keep playing,” Thome said. “I just have to have teams that call me.”
Chapman Makes AFL debut
Four-hundred and twenty-seven fans watched with rapt attention Monday as Cincinnati’s Aroldis Chapman made his Arizona Fall League debut. Chapman, who the Reds plans to utilize as a starter in 2012, faced three batters, stiking out one, walking one, and also getting a fly out. No specific word on his velocity, but “effing fast” is a pretty good guess.
Discovery: Winter League Stats by Organization
Bold Heading
I don’t remember it from last year, but MLB.com definitely now offers individual players stats for all players in fall and winter leagues sorted by organization. Link is here.
SCOUT Leaderboards: Mexican Pacific League
A Note on the Mexican Pacific League
Many of the players in the Mexican Pacific League (MPL) are not involved in affiliated baseball. Most of them play during in the summer in the Mexican League (a different, but also similar, enterprise). A few of them play independent baseball. Others of them are free agents. All of which is to say: do not be shocked when you recognize zero of the following names.
Batting Leaderboard
Here is the SCOUT batting leaderboard for the Mexican Pacific 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.)
Note that “MEX” in the organization column denotes that the player spent 2011 in the Mexican League. Likewise, “IND” denotes independent baseball and “FA” represents players who are free agents.
| Name | Org | PA | xBB% | xK% | xHR% | BBz | Kz | HRz | SCOUT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Barbaro Canizares | MEX | 49 | 11.3% | 11.8% | 4.0% | 0.26 | 0.45 | 0.14 | 0.28 |
| Jesus Catillo | MEX | 46 | 11.5% | 12.8% | 3.7% | 0.28 | 0.33 | 0.04 | 0.22 |
| Iker Franco | MEX | 42 | 12.2% | 13.9% | 3.7% | 0.39 | 0.20 | 0.06 | 0.22 |
| Flavio Romero | MEX | 47 | 11.9% | 12.7% | 3.3% | 0.35 | 0.34 | -0.07 | 0.21 |
| Mike Jacobs | FA | 45 | 10.0% | 12.3% | 4.0% | 0.05 | 0.40 | 0.15 | 0.20 |
| Roberto Saucedo | MEX | 49 | 11.8% | 13.8% | 3.6% | 0.34 | 0.21 | 0.03 | 0.19 |
| Brandon Sing | IND | 48 | 11.9% | 18.6% | 5.0% | 0.35 | -0.36 | 0.47 | 0.15 |
| Oswaldo Morejon | MEX | 49 | 9.3% | 11.8% | 3.6% | -0.06 | 0.45 | 0.03 | 0.14 |
| Ramon Orantes | MEX | 43 | 9.1% | 13.8% | 4.0% | -0.09 | 0.22 | 0.16 | 0.09 |
| Jermaine Curtis | STL | 36 | 10.0% | 12.5% | 3.1% | 0.04 | 0.37 | -0.14 | 0.09 |
Notes
• Internet searches for him are largely fruitless, but Jermaine Curtis (a) is the only player from affiliated ball who appears on the batting leaderboard and (b) slashed .315/.414/.435 (.340 BABIP) in 329 plate appearances as a 23-year-old at Double-A Springfield. The plate discipline and contact rates look pretty excellent (11.6% BB, 9.4% K in 2011); the power doesn’t as much (5 HR).
• Brandon Sing was a 20th round pick by the Cubs in the 1999 draft. He left affiliated baseball after 2007 and has played three of the last four years in the independent American Association, where he outperformed Reggie Abercrombie — and almost everyone else — this year.
Pitching 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sergio Lizarraga | MEX | 2 | 2 | 11.1 | 48 | 20.7% | 7.0% | 0.52 | 0.10 | 0.31 |
| Blake Parker | CHN | 7 | 0 | 7.0 | 22 | 19.6% | 7.3% | 0.38 | 0.03 | 0.20 |
| Francisco Cordoba | MEX | 3 | 3 | 15.1 | 60 | 18.0% | 6.6% | 0.17 | 0.18 | 0.17 |
| Garrett Parcell | FLA | 5 | 0 | 6.0 | 27 | 19.0% | 7.3% | 0.30 | 0.04 | 0.17 |
| Pat Venditte | NYA | 7 | 0 | 6.1 | 23 | 18.8% | 7.1% | 0.27 | 0.07 | 0.17 |
| Amauri Sanit | FA | 5 | 1 | 10.1 | 40 | 19.5% | 7.6% | 0.37 | -0.04 | 0.17 |
| Miguel Ruiz | MEX | 3 | 1 | 11.0 | 49 | 19.2% | 7.5% | 0.33 | -0.01 | 0.16 |
| Sergio Valenzuela | MEX | 1 | 1 | 6.0 | 23 | 18.8% | 7.3% | 0.28 | 0.03 | 0.15 |
| Andres Meza | MEX | 2 | 2 | 12.2 | 51 | 19.1% | 7.5% | 0.31 | -0.01 | 0.15 |
| Mauricio Lara | MEX | 2 | 2 | 10.0 | 39 | 19.0% | 7.5% | 0.30 | 0.00 | 0.15 |
Notes
• Sergio Lizarraga has struck out 14 of the first 48 (29.2%) batters he’s faced in the MPL. A member of the Diamondbacks organization through 2005, Lizarraga has played in the Mexican League since 2007, although hasn’t put up particularly stellar numbers in that time.
• Switch-pitcher Pat Venditte, 26, continues not to fail.
Image by Gus Chan, Cleveland Plain Dealer.
Carson Cistulli has published a book of aphorisms called Spirited Ejaculations of a New Enthusiast.
Are you sure that Chapman didn’t face 4 batters?
Since he allowed a baserunner (via the walk), he would have needed a double play (or Tony LaRussa to have been managing the opposing team) to face the minimum number of batters.
Since he got 1 of his 2 outs against lefties via strike out, he could not have gotten a double play. Since he only got 1 out against righties, he could not have gotten a double play.
The article states he faced three batters, not that he finished an inning.
It appears as though the walked batter was caught stealing afterwards.
Problem: solved!