Daily Notes, Featuring SCOUT Leaders of the PCL

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

1. SCOUT Leaderboards: Triple-A Pacific Coast League
2. Today’s Notable Games (Including MLB.TV Free Game)
3. Today’s Complete Schedule

SCOUT Leaderboards: Triple-A Pacific Coast League
Regarding What Is SCOUT, First of All
SCOUT is a (likely absurd, admittedly unnecessary) metric designed by the author to assess performance in those instances — like in a minor league, for example — where small samples are ubiquitous.

The Offensive Version of SCOUT, How It’s Calculated
The offensive version of SCOUT — represented as 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 metrics (home-run, walk, and strikeout rates), all regressed duly*, as the inputs.

*By the method outlined here.

The Pitching Version of SCOUT, How It’s Calculated
The pitching version of SCOUT — represented as 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.

Regarding SCOUT, One of Its Benefits
A benefit of SCOUT is it allows one to compare the relative performances of players with markedly different sample sizes — to compare, for example, the performance of Colorado prospect Edwar Cabrera (31.2 IP, 29.3% K, 9.0% BB) to St. Louis’s Shelby Miller (136.2 IP, 26.7% K, 8.4% BB).

Regarding the Pacific Coast League, Its Regular Season
The Pacific Coast League’s regular season ended on September 3rd, it appears. As such, all following numbers are final for 2012.

Top Batters of the Pacific Coast League (Overall)
Here are the top-10 batters of the Triple-A Pacific Coast League, as determined by the methodology explained above.

Player	Team	Age	PA	xHR%	xBB%	xK%	SCOUT+
Anthony Rizzo	Cubs (AAA)	22	284	7.8%	8.1%	18.3%	164
Luke Montz	Marlins (AAA)	28	420	6.9%	10.7%	24.0%	150
Travis Snider	Blue Jays (AAA)	24	246	4.8%	13.8%	17.1%	147
Kila Ka’aihue	Athletics (AAA)	28	305	4.9%	14.4%	19.7%	146
Jedd Gyorko	Padres (AAA)	23	408	5.9%	8.3%	16.7%	145
Brandon Moss	Athletics (AAA)	28	224	5.6%	9.8%	17.9%	144
Josh Donaldson	Athletics (AAA)	26	234	4.9%	9.8%	14.5%	141
Brooks Conrad	Brewers (AAA)	32	85	5.0%	10.4%	17.8%	139
Donnie Murphy	Marlins (AAA)	29	125	5.7%	10.2%	21.7%	139
Daric Barton	Athletics (AAA)	26	336	2.4%	19.6%	15.8%	139

Top Batters of the Pacific Coast League (Age 24 and Under)
Here are the top-10 batters of the Triple-A Pacific Coast League who might still, because of their age, be considered prospects — again, as determined by the methodology explained above.

Player	Team	Age	PA	xHR%	xBB%	xK%	SCOUT+
Anthony Rizzo	Cubs (AAA)	22	284	7.8%	8.1%	18.3%	164
Travis Snider	Blue Jays (AAA)	24	246	4.8%	13.8%	17.1%	147
Jedd Gyorko	Padres (AAA)	23	408	5.9%	8.3%	16.7%	145
Jerry Sands	Dodgers (AAA)	24	522	5.0%	11.3%	20.3%	136
Wil Myers	Royals (AAA)	21	439	5.5%	10.3%	22.3%	134
Leonys Martin	Rangers (AAA)	24	260	4.3%	9.2%	15.0%	132
Matt Adams	Cardinals (AAA)	23	276	6.2%	5.4%	20.7%	132
Yasmani Grandal	Padres (AAA)	23	235	2.5%	15.7%	15.3%	129
Travis D’Arnaud	Blue Jays (AAA)	23	303	5.3%	6.3%	19.5%	126
Johnny Giavotella	Royals (AAA)	24	418	2.4%	11.0%	9.6%	125

Top Pitchers of the Pacific Coast League (Overall)
Here are the top-10 pitchers of the Triple-A Pacific Coast League, as determined by the methodology explained above.

Player	Team	Age	IP	TBF	xK%	xBB%	SCOUT-
Brian Moran	Mariners (AAA)	23	37.0	143	36.2%	8.5%	55
Brad Boxberger	Padres (AAA)	24	43.1	183	33.9%	9.2%	62
Dan Straily	Athletics (AAA)	23	66.2	255	32.2%	8.0%	64
Juan Perez	Brewers (AAA)	33	40.0	168	32.1%	9.6%	68
Cory Burns	Padres (AAA)	24	65.0	256	30.1%	7.7%	68
Yoshinori Tateyama	Rangers (AAA)	36	39.2	153	29.4%	7.4%	69
Jose Valdez	Astros (AAA)	29	43.2	205	28.8%	7.5%	71
Kevin Jepsen	Angels (AAA)	27	25.0	98	29.6%	8.7%	72
Tommy Hottovy	Royals (AAA)	30	50.0	210	29.0%	8.2%	72
Ryota Igarashi	Blue Jays (AAA)	33	21.0	76	27.6%	7.9%	75

Top Pitchers of the Pacific Coast League (Starters Only)
Here are the top-10 pitchers in the Triple-A Pacific Coast League who made at least half of their appearances as starts — again, as determined by the methodology explained above.

Player	Team	Age	IP	TBF	xK%	xBB%	SCOUT-
Dan Straily	Athletics (AAA)	23	66.2	255	32.2%	8.0%	64
Edwar Cabrera	Rockies (AAA)	24	31.2	133	28.0%	8.7%	76
John Ely	Dodgers (AAA)	26	168.2	682	24.2%	5.3%	77
Trevor Bauer	Diamondbacks (AAA)	21	82.0	347	28.0%	9.5%	78
Shelby Miller	Cardinals (AAA)	21	136.2	599	26.7%	8.3%	78
Tyler Lyons	Cardinals (AAA)	24	88.1	366	24.3%	6.1%	79
Tyler Thornburg	Brewers (AAA)	23	37.2	162	25.9%	8.4%	80
Yusmeiro Petit	Giants (AAA)	27	166.2	701	21.8%	5.1%	83
Wade LeBlanc	Marlins (AAA)	27	98.2	403	22.6%	5.9%	83
Patrick Corbin	Diamondbacks (AAA)	22	52.1	227	24.2%	7.8%	83

Three Notable Performances
• Cubs first baseman Anthony Rizzo, who turned 23 at the beginning of August, was both the best young and best overall hitter in the PCL this season, per SCOUT, largely owing to his home-run rate. Rizzo hit 23 homers in 284 plate appearances with the Iowa Cubs in a park that, according to StatCorner, features just a 77 home-run park factor for left-handed batters. Through Sunday, Rizzo had hit .300/.351/.475 (.323 BABIP), with a 119 wRC+, in 279 plate appearances as a Cub this season.
• Royals second baseman Johnny Giavotella posted an 8.0% walk and only 11.3% strikeout rate in 503 plate appearances at Triple-A Omaha last season but saw those rates deteriorate considerably (to 3.2% and 17.1%, respectively) during his almost 200 plate appearances at the major-league level. This year, he improved upon his plate-discipline stats, walking in 11.0% of his 418 Triple-A plate appearances and striking out out in just 9.6% of them. A comparable performance at the major-league level (139 PA, 5.8%, 18.7% K,.237/.281/.298, .288 BABIP, 61 wRC+, -0.3 WAR in 2012 so far) remains absent, but the control of the strike zone is very present.
• In tandem with his performance at Double-A Midland, Oakland right-hander Dan Straily, 23, led all minor leaguers this year in strikeouts, with 190 in 152.0 total innings — this, from a 24th-round draft pick out of Marshall in 2009. Straily has refined his mechanics and added velocity in the meantime, however, leading to his breakout season. He starts tonight for the A’s in a decidedly important game against the Angels.

Other SCOUT Leaderboards
International League (Triple-A)
Eastern League (Double-A)
Southern League (Double-A)
Texas League (Double-A)
California, Carolina, and Florida State Leagues Combined (High-A)
Midwest and Sally Leagues Combined (Class-A)
New York-Penn and Northwest Leagues Combined (Low-A)
Appalachian, Arizona, Gulf Coast, and Pioneer Leagues Combined (Rookie)

Today’s Notable Games
Tampa Bay at Baltimore | 19:05 ET
The Rays and Orioles are two and one game out, respectively, of the AL East lead entering play today, from which fact anyone — even an alumnus of a lesser Ivy — might conclude that this game tonight is of no little importance.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Tampa Bay Radio.

Kansas City at Minnesota | 20:10 ET ***MLB.TV Free Game***
This game features the very same Johnny Giavotella considered in painful detail above.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Minnesota Radio.

Oakland at Los Angeles AL | 22:05 ET
Player featured: likely Rookie of the Year and MVP winner in the American League, Mike Trout. Also: the very same Dan Straily considered — albeit less painfully than Johnny Giavotella — above.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Oakland Radio.

Today’s Complete Schedule
Here’s the complete schedule for all of today’s games, with our very proprietary watchability (NERD) scores for each one. Pitching probables and game times aggregated from MLB.com and RotoWire. The average NERD Game Score for today is 4.8.

Note: the following Game Scores include the poorly conceived playoff-odds adjustment discussed in a recent edition of Daily Notes. Also note: the following table is entirely sortable.

Away		SP	Tm.	Gm.	Tm.	SP		Home	Time
Nathan Eovaldi	MIA	4	5	4	4	8	PHI	Roy Halladay	19:05
Matt Moore	TB	7	6	8	2	8	BAL	Jason Hammel	19:05
Erasmo Ramirez*	SEA	9	4	5	5	7	TOR	Brandon Morrow	19:07
Hiroki Kuroda	NYA	6	6	5	5	7	BOS	Jon Lester	19:10
Kevin Correia	PIT	2	4	3	5	7	CIN	Mike Leake	19:10
Jor. Zimmermann	WAS	8	7	6	2	10	NYN	R.A. Dickey	19:10
Justin Germano	CHN	4	1	2	4	6	HOU	Jordan Lyles	20:05
Ubaldo Jimenez	CLE	2	2	2	7	5	TEX	Matt Harrison	20:05
Tim Hudson	ATL	4	7	5	9	8	MIL	Marco Estrada	20:10
Doug Fister	DET	7	4	6	4	5	CHA	Jake Peavy	20:10
Will Smith	KC	4	7	3	5	6	MIN	Scott Diamond	20:10
Mad. Bumgarner	SF	9	3	3	7	2	COL	Jhoulys Chacin	20:40
Clayton Kershaw	LAN	10	1	6	6	5	AZ	Ian Kennedy	21:40
Dan Straily*	OAK	10	6	8	8	6	LAA	Jerome Williams	22:05
Ad. Wainwright	STL	9	9	6	6	5	SD	Edinson Volquez	22:05

To learn more about Pitcher and Team NERD scores click here.
To learn how Game NERD Scores are calculated, click here.
* = Fewer than 20 IP, NERD at discretion of very handsome author.