Top Performances from Two Other Summer Leagues

Other Lists
Cape Cod League
Northwoods League
Coastal Plain League
New England Collegiate League

The people have spoken and “We don’t care that much about these collegeiate-summer-league posts,” is mostly what they’ve said.

In the tradition both of Seneca and post-Deconstructing Harry Woody Allen, however, the present author has decided to ignore entirely the thronging, vulgar masses and write about collegiate summer leagues harder than ever before.

Below are the players to have performed most ably in this year’s edition of both the Alaska Baseball and the Cal Ripken Collegiate Baseball Leagues. Offensive production (represented as the totally made-up SCOUT+, where 100 is league average and above 100 is above average) is essentially a version of wRC+, except using the three main defense-independent inputs (home-run, walk, and strikeout rate), all regressed duly*. Pitching performance (represented by the also entirely made-up SCOUT-, where 100 is league average and below 100 represents above-average run prevention) is calculated using a version of kwERA, with regressed strikeout and walk rates as the relevant inputs.

*By the method outlined here.

The idea here — as in preceding posts — is not to suggest that the following players are/were the actual best prospects from their respective leagues this summer. Outlets like Baseball America and Perfect Game will certainly do a much better job of that. Rather, it’s to (a) represent as accurately and responsibly as possible the best performances of those leagues this season and to (b) acquaint ourselves with those top performers.

Alaska Baseball League

Batters
First baseman Chase Compton (Anchorage, Univ. of Louisiana-Lafayette) led all batters with a 138 SCOUT+. Center fielder Bill Cullen (Matsu, VCU) was second on the list and first among those who play a premium-type position. Blake Miller (Alaska, Western Oregon) had the highest offensive mark (117 SCOUT+) among shortstops.

Pitchers
Left-handed reliever Carl Robinson (Alaska) led ABL pitchers with a 74 SCOUT- by posting a 40:9 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 30.0 innings. He’s a teammate of Dylan Moore’s — one of the top players in this year’s New England Collegiate League season — at Cypress (CA) Community College. Mike Jeffreys (Chugiak, Geneva College) was the top-ranked pitcher (82 SCOUT-, fifth overall) to’ve made the majority of his appearances (all eight of them, in fact) in a starting capacity.

Cal Ripken Collegiate Baseball League

Batters
Hunter Renfroe (Bethesda) led all batters with a 165 SCOUT+. He’s listed as a catcher by the league but appears to’ve played the majority of his games — or, the last nine of them, at least — in center field. He’ll be a junior at Mississippi State. Two other players join Renfroe atop the batting leaderboard before a distinct break: outfielder Alex Buccilli (Alexandria, Coastal Carolina) and first baseman James Vasquez (Herndon, Central Florida) produced a 162 and 158 SCOUT+, respectively. Next on the list: third baseman Trent Higginbothem (Vienna, Tallahassee CC) at 133.

Pitchers
Connor Bach (Vienna) led the Cal Ripken League in pitching (60 SCOUT-) while also making the majority of his appearances (six of nine) as a starter. The 6-foot-6, 210-pound left-hander will be a junior (it appears) at Virginia Military Institute this year and, per Ryan Sullivan of NatsGM, sits in the low-90s with his fastball. Notably, in a departure from the other summer leagues considered over the last week, the next six pitchers on the leaderboard for the CRCBL were all utilized as a starters. Regard: