2009 Performance Evaluations – Arizona League

Cody Decker may have the same last name, play for the same organization (Padres), and have the same bad body as last year’s AZL MVP (Jaff Decker), but don’t expect the same sort of upside

As we move stateside, the Arizona League is the focus of our latest installment in our series of age-adjusted performance analysis of 19 Minor Leagues, over a period of just more than three weeks. Approximately each day, we will give you a run-down of the top age-adjusted performances of both hitters and pitchers in each league.

A couple of things to remember about our Performance evaluations: 1) these are not necessarily prospect lists. While it is fair to assume that the best prospects will put up the best performances, these lists focus only on a player’s offensive performance while they were in the league during the 2009 season. They do not consider things like defensive ability, offense vs. required offense for a given position, or projectability. Prospect evaluation is a combination of art and science and this is the science part of that equation. Later in the fall, we will breakdown each team’s ‘prospects’ and rank them in ‘prospect value’ order. 2) What it is, is a comparative statistical look at each players performance, placed in context of their age, their home park, and the league. We rate each player in the five categories that we have found most significant in predicting future Major League performance. The players that rate the highest, have assembled the best ‘Performance’ in these areas. For a more detailed look at the statistics involved you can refer to previous articles on the site (http://baseballnumbers-diamondfutures.blogspot.com/2009/09/do-it-yourself-quantitative-examination.html).

A quick note about the rankings…The total is the weighted numerical value of the combined statistics that we use. It is scaled for the level of play. Typically, a player with a positive score will rank in the top 1% of all Minor League players. After the total we list the sub-scores in 4 areas of significance. These scores are presented, for ease of understanding, in a typical 20-80 scouting format. They represent how the individual player performed in those areas in relation to THE LEAGUE in question. A score of 50 represents league average. If you have further questions on the methodology, feel free to email me at baseballnumbers@ix.netcom.com.

Top Hitting Performances

Name , Org , POS - Total … Reach Base … Strike Zone Judgement … Power … Speed
1 ) Rymer Liriano , SDP , CF - 0.50 … 74 … 49 … 76 … 69
2 ) Jonathan Galvez , SDP , SS - 0.47 … 64 … 59 … 77 … 66
3 ) Mike Trout , LAA , CF - 0.18 … 76 … 71 … 44 … 76
4 ) Tomas Telis , TEX , C - 0.05 … 36 … 79 … 53 … 67
5 ) Rafael Rodriguez , SFG , LF - (0.17) … 75 … 70 … 39 … 39
6 ) Randal Grichuk , LAA , LF - (0.42) … 35 … 47 … 73 … 43
7 ) Julio Morban , SEA , CF - (0.43) … 23 … 35 … 75 … 58
8 ) Cody Decker , SDP , 1B - (0.44) … 43 … 63 … 80 … 26
9 ) Roberto Perez , CLE , C - (0.44) … 75 … 63 … 74 … 44
10 ) Nick Akins , LAD , LF - (0.47) … 35 … 53 … 80 … 39
11 ) Jonathan Garcia , LAD , RF - (0.47) … 33 … 48 … 70 … 50
12 ) Alex Llanos , KCR , CF - (0.49) … 62 … 43 … 66 … 73
13 ) Giovanny Urshela , CLE , 3B - (0.59) … 71 … 77 … 27 … 43
14 ) Rolando Gomez , LAA , SS - (0.59) … 73 … 56 … 60 … 67
15 ) Jesus Brito , CLE , 3B - (0.62) … 67 … 67 … 77 … 34
16 ) Ydwin Villegas , SFG , SS - (0.62) … 67 … 76 … 32 … 72
17 ) Jorge Minyeti , SDP , SS - (0.76) … 78 … 64 … 29 … 73
18 ) Yunior Figueroa , KCR , 3B - (0.77) … 50 … 76 … 49 … 33
19 ) Luis Piterson , KCR , 2B - (0.88) … 72 … 67 … 34 … 68
20 ) Hector Sanchez , SFG , C - (0.94) … 72 … 70 … 53 … 26

Top Pitching Performances

Name , ORG , POS - Total … Allow HRs … Control … Dominance … Stamina
1 ) Fabio Martinez Mesa , LAA , R - 0.05 … 70 … 25 … 80 … 68
2 ) Edwin Escobar , TEX , L - (0.39) … 69 … 50 … 58 … 46
3 ) Carl Webster , LAD , R - (0.39) … 75 … 59 … 75 … 60
4 ) Joshua Blanco , LAA , L - (0.49) … 49 … 63 … 78 … 65
5 ) Richard Alvarez , TEX , R - (0.65) … 68 … 36 … 36 … 53
6 ) Anthony Fernandez , SEA , L - (0.74) … 75 … 64 … 56 … 62
7 ) Carlos Frias , LAD , R - (0.84) … 70 … 45 … 62 … 68
8 ) Leonel Santiago , KCR , R - (0.93) … 53 … 61 … 60 … 71
9 ) Danny Danielson , LAD , R - (0.94) … 38 … 69 … 76 … 69
10 ) Adys Portillo , SDP , R - (1.06) … 60 … 30 … 29 … 62
11 ) Pil Joon Jang , LAA , R - (1.18) … 49 … 75 … 47 … 80
12 ) Pedro Hernandez , SDP , L - (1.21) … 47 … 75 … 52 … 74
13 ) Cameron Lamb , SFG , R - (1.22) … 70 … 34 … 55 … 69
14 ) Edward Concepcion , SFG , R - (1.23) … 51 … 35 … 74 … 65
15 ) Argenis Paez , OAK , R - (1.30) … 69 … 43 … 44 … 45

Next up – Monday, September 7, 2009: The Gulf Coast League