2010 Performance Evaluations – Eastern League Hitters

Kalish may have struggled a bit in Boston, but he had no trouble in the ESL

Today we take a look at the Eastern League, as we look at the ESL hitters, as we continue our annual examination of Performance for each of eighteen Minor Leagues that have affiliations with MLB organizations. Over the next two weeks we will finish posting the Performance analysis for approximately three leagues each week until we have run through them all. Dominic Brown may have been the one that received the majority of the press in the ESL this season, but it was the Red Sox’s Ryan Kalish that easily posted the League’s best Performance. They weren’t alone either, as Brandon Belt put together a huge breakout season and Kalish’s teammate, Anthony Rizzo, established himself as the Sox first baseman of the future.

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 2010 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. Players listed as ‘DNQ’ did not qualify for the rankings because of their limited playing time, but we felt their scores were worth noting. If you have further questions on the methodology, feel free to email me at baseballnumbers@ix.netcom.com.



2010 Eastern League Top Hitting Performances


Name Org POS TOTAL Reach Base Strike Zone Judgement Power Speed
1 ) Ryan Kalish , BOS , LF - 1.46 … 75 … 73 … 75 … 79
2 ) Domonic Brown , PHI , RF - 0.58 … 59 … 49 … 79 … 66
3 ) Brandon Belt , SFG , 1B - 0.51 … 67 … 57 … 77 … 40
4 ) Anthony Rizzo , BOS , 1B - 0.48 … 38 … 40 … 74 … 67
5 ) Nick Weglarz , CLE , LF - 0.29 … 66 … 59 … 76 … 37
6 ) Lonnie Chisenhall , CLE , 3B - 0.22 … 56 … 66 … 62 … 50
7 ) Che-Hsuan Lin , BOS , OF - 0.16 … 78 … 73 … 28 … 76
8 ) Ben Revere , MIN , CF - 0.16 … 77 … 77 … 26 … 79
9 ) Brandon Laird , NYY , 3B - 0.09 … 53 … 53 … 77 … 38
10 ) Brad Emaus , TOR , 2B - 0.04 … 79 … 73 … 63 … 64
11 ) Yamaico Navarro , BOS , SS - 0.02 … 64 … 68 … 51 … 76
12 ) Matt Rizzotti , PHI , 1B - (0.01) … 76 … 51 … 79 … 35
13 ) Joseph Mahoney , BAL , 1B - (0.02) … 57 … 54 … 73 … 72
14 ) Freddy Galvis , PHI , SS - (0.17) … 38 … 63 … 30 … 77
15 ) Josh Harrison , PIT , 2B - (0.18) … 57 … 78 … 36 … 76
16 ) Chris Marrero , WSN , 1B - (0.21) … 59 … 57 … 61 … 32
17 ) Adeiny Hechavarria , TOR , SS - (0.27) … 48 … 69 … 34 … 55
18 ) Jason Kipnis , CLE , 2B - (0.29) … 62 … 57 … 62 … 68
19 ) Austin Romine , NYY , C - (0.31) … 49 … 53 … 54 … 43
20 ) Thomas Neal , SFG , LF - (0.33) … 54 … 62 … 56 … 65
21 ) Chih-Hsien Chiang , BOS , OF - (0.34) … 30 … 71 … 59 … 44
22 ) Jordan Henry , CLE , CF - (0.34) … 80 … 53 … 24 … 77
23 ) Joe Benson , MIN , CF - (0.34) … 28 … 24 … 78 … 63
24 ) Kirk Nieuwenhuis , NYM , CF - (0.39) … 32 … 42 … 73 … 66
25 ) David Adams , NYY , 2B - (0.41) … 61 … 54 … 64 … 55
26 ) Lucas Duda , NYM , OF - (0.42) … 64 … 66 … 74 … 38
27 ) Daniel Brewer , NYY , RF - (0.42) … 58 … 44 … 52 … 79
28 ) Ryan Lavarnway , BOS , C - (0.42) … 72 … 32 … 73 … 31
29 ) David Cooper , TOR , 1B - (0.43) … 43 … 71 … 68 … 31
30 ) Danny Espinosa , WSN , SS - (0.47) … 40 … 39 … 69 … 76
31 ) Nate Spears , BOS , 2B - (0.48) … 68 … 62 … 66 … 79
32 ) Andy Dirks , DET , LF - (0.51) … 53 … 70 … 53 … 79
33 ) Sean Ratliff , NYM , CF - (0.52) … 47 … 35 … 78 … 33
34 ) Eric Thames , TOR , LF - (0.52) … 50 … 39 … 75 … 55
35 ) Chris Parmelee , MIN , 1B - (0.52) … 62 … 65 … 42 … 42
36 ) Zach Lutz , NYM , 3B - (0.54) … 56 … 29 … 80 … 30
37 ) Jose Iglesias , BOS , SS - (0.56) … 47 … 47 … 27 … 54
38 ) Chase D'Arnaud , PIT , SS - (0.56) … 43 … 58 … 40 … 80
39 ) Nick Noonan , SFG , 2B - (0.64) … 42 … 56 … 29 … 58
40 ) Nick Evans , NYM , 1B - (0.64) … 48 … 60 … 76 … 31


DNQ Steve Lombardozzi , WSN , 2B - 0.49 … 60 … 72 … 72 … 50
DNQ Lars Anderson , BOS , 1B - 0.39 … 63 … 35 … 80 … 36
DNQ Reese Havens , NYM , 2B - (0.03) … 59 … 47 … 80 … 31
DNQ Michael Burgess , WSN , RF - (0.12) … 33 … 21 … 80 … 31
DNQ Xavier Avery , BAL , CF - (0.47) … 28 … 23 … 54 … 79