2009 Performance Evaluations – Southern League

Heyward’s 2009 SOL Performance was of historic levels

The Southern League is next up in our series of age-adjusted performance analysis of 19 Minor Leagues, over a period of just more than three weeks. Approximately every day, we will give you a run-down of the top age-adjusted performances of both hitters and pitchers in a different 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% - 2% 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 ) Jason Heyward , ATL , RF - 2.15 … 76 … 74 … 79 … 56
2 ) Gerardo Parra , ARZ , CF - 0.86 … 80 … 73 … 50 … 53
3 ) Desmond Jennings , TBR , CF - 0.74 … 67 … 70 … 58 … 80
4 ) Logan Morrison , FLA , 1B - 0.74 … 77 … 62 … 67 … 60
5 ) Chris Heisey , CIN , CF - 0.71 … 73 … 72 … 78 … 79
6 ) Starlin Castro , CHN , SS - 0.44 … 56 … 75 … 29 … 67
7 ) Sean Coughlin , ARZ , 1B - 0.34 … 79 … 74 … 73 … 31
8 ) Juan Francisco , CIN , 3B - 0.28 … 27 … 47 … 78 … 56
9 ) Yonder Alonso , CIN , DH - 0.20 … 56 … 69 … 67 … 37
10 ) Gordon Beckham , CHA , SS - 0.17 … 38 … 63 … 76 … 37
11 ) Tyler Flowers , CHA , C - 0.16 … 77 … 23 … 79 … 48
12 ) Mike Stanton , FLA , RF - 0.10 … 29 … 21 … 79 … 35
13 ) Dayan Viciedo , CHA , 3B - 0.07 … 46 … 59 … 50 … 50
14 ) Christian Marrero , CHA , 1B - 0.06 … 44 … 44 … 78 … 34
15 ) Freddie Freeman , ATL , 1B - 0.03 … 41 … 72 … 41 … 31
16 ) Josh Bell , LAD , 3B - (0.04) … 58 … 47 … 74 … 35
17 ) Ezequiel Carrera , SEA , CF - (0.06) … 80 … 55 … 29 … 73
18 ) Todd Frazier , CIN , LF - (0.07) … 40 … 67 … 73 … 42
19 ) Andrew Lambo , LAD , LF - (0.19) … 30 … 53 … 61 … 43
20 ) Jonathan Lucroy , MIL , C - (0.22) … 69 … 65 … 61 … 34
21 ) John Shelby III , CHA , CF - (0.27) … 37 … 58 … 64 … 79
22 ) Tyler Colvin , CHN , RF - (0.32) … 34 … 56 … 75 … 56
23 ) Sean Henry , CIN , RF - (0.33) … 51 … 65 … 57 … 76
24 ) Willie Cabrera , ATL , LF - (0.42) … 53 … 70 … 52 … 33
25 ) Taylor Green , MIL , 3B - (0.50) … 57 … 73 … 42 … 29
Note: Matt Dominguez did not accumulate enough ABs to qualify


Top Pitching Performances

Name , ORG , POS - Total … Allow HRs … Control … Dominance … Stamina
1 ) Daniel Hudson , CHA , R - 1.17 … 74 … 75 … 79 … 75
2 ) Jarrod Parker , ARZ , R - 0.55 … 72 … 45 … 62 … 65
3 ) Jeremy Hellickson , TBR , R - 0.54 … 49 … 70 … 78 … 68
4 ) Travis Wood , CIN , L - 0.43 … 75 … 63 … 66 … 75
5 ) Aaron Poreda , CHA , L - 0.40 … 75 … 31 … 74 … 73
6 ) Jose Ortegano , ATL , L - 0.24 … 65 … 63 … 61 … 74
7 ) Scott Elbert , LAD , L - 0.23 … 45 … 39 … 80 … 68
8 ) Bryan Augenstein , ARZ , R - 0.11 … 78 … 75 … 64 … 67
9 ) Zachary Stewart , CIN , R - (0.02) … 72 … 68 … 61 … 69
10 ) Jay Jackson , CHN , R - (0.06) … 41 … 40 … 65 … 68
11 ) Dan Cortes , SEA , R - (0.15) … 48 … 24 … 67 … 70
12 ) Scott Diamond , ATL , L - (0.39) … 67 … 50 … 51 … 72
13 ) John Ely , CHA , R - (0.43) … 56 … 62 … 53 … 73
14 ) Josh Lindblom , LAD , R - (0.45) … 51 … 70 … 53 … 56
15 ) Edgar Osuna , ATL , L - (0.45) … 37 … 68 … 35 … 74
16 ) Aneury Rodriguez , TBR , R - (0.49) … 26 … 48 … 49 … 69
17 ) Andrew Cashner , CHN , R - (0.49) … 78 … 41 … 42 … 65
18 ) Kyle Winters , FLA , R - (0.52) … 71 … 55 … 36 … 66
19 ) Wes Roemer , ARZ , R - (0.59) … 35 … 62 … 43 … 75
20 ) Aaron Thompson , FLA , L - (0.64) … 54 … 54 … 34 … 72
Note: Chris Withrow, Daniel Sclereth, Hector Ambriz and Jeremy Jeffress didn’t have enough innings to qualify


A cumulative listing of all of our, to-date, league evaluations can be found here: http://www.scribd.com/doc/20122682/2009-Top-Performances-by-League

Next up – Wednesday, September 23, 2009: The Eastern League