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.)

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.

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.