All Things Valley League

The Gary DiSarcina Award in the Valley

I enjoy quirky statistics and weird awards- I admit it.

So when Baseball Prospectus came up with a "Gary DiSarcina Award," they had me hooked.

It turns out that BP gives the fictional award to whatever player takes the longest to work his first walk in the major leagues during a given season. DiSarcina had a few amazing seasons, like 1997, when he walked 17 times in 583 plate appearances. Personally, I think they could have named it the "Mariano Duncan Award," but that's just me. Duncan walked 17 times and struck out 108 times in 605 plate appearances in 1992 for the Phillies- and he often batted second.

I, of course, started thinking about the Valley League. Who hasn't walked yet? Who might win the award? (Maybe we should call it the "Non-Rob Kral Award" for the VBL. Rob has walked 19 times in 72 plate appearances so far this year.)

When I started looking at stats, Steve McQuail was far and away the leader for the Non-Rob Kral Award, as he had not walked in over 65 at-bats. However, he's now walked not just once, but twice in the past week or so (he's also hitting .310).

So, who is leading right now?

1. Anthony Melchionda, from Rockbridge. Anthony has 0 walks and 11 strikeouts in 79 at-bats. He's surpassed McQuail for first place in the Non-Kral sweepstakes.

2. Adam McConnell, also Rockbridge. Adam has a 0/5 ratio in 29 at-bats. (Adam hasn't batted for a while- he may not be on the Rapids' active roster)

3. Kevin Mahoney, Staunton- 0/7 in 29 at-bats.

4. Clay Alexander, Front Royal- 0/7 in 18 at-bats.

How about players with only one walk?

1. Luis Llerena, Staunton- 1/8 in 39 at-bats
2. Will Owens, Staunton- 1/5 in 34 at-bats
    Austin Smith, Waynesboro- 1/4 in 34 at-bats
4. Daniel Heatwole, Harrisonburg- 1/10 in 30 at-bats
    Jairo Acevado, Covington- 1/7 in 30 at-bats
6. Peter Goudeau, Front Royal- 1/8 in 27 at-bats
    CJ Lauriello, Luray- 1/5 in 27 at-bats
8. Robert Maddox, Winchester- 1/7 in 25 at-bats
9. Lee Murray, Haymarket- 1/17 in 21 at-bats
10. Derrick Washington, Covington- 1/7 in 20 at-bats

Just a little fun here on a Thursday afternoon....

Batting Leaders, So Far

Here is a quick look at the leaders in the main statistical categories- stats are through June 17!

Batting Average

Greg Hopkins, Haymarket   .457
Joe Witkowski, Rockbridge .444
Blake McDade, Staunton    .423
Jared Simon, Front Royal  .400
Tony Caldwell, Waynesboro .395
Chris Clinton, Staunton   .387
Drew Martinez, Luray      .385
Rob Kral, Waynesboro        .375
Alex McClure, Waynesboro  .371
Jacob Wilson, Luray       .370

 

Runs Batted In

Blake McDade, Staunton     13
Tony Caldwell, Waynesboro  9
Ryan Durrence, Covington   9
Kevin Deese, Fauquier        9
DJ Hicks, Luray                  9

Home Runs

Steve McQuail, Front Royal             5
Ryan Durrence, Covington              4
Jared Simon, Front Royal              3
Zach Helgeson, New Market              3

Stolen Bases

Bobby Rauh, Winchester             14
Michael Vargas, Winchester        12
Rob Froio, Rockbridge               6
Justin Wilson, Fauquier              6
Chris Clinton, Staunton              6

K/9 or K%?

Yesterday, Chris Constancio, over at FirstInning, posted an interesting argument against K/9 and BB/9, statistics that I've been using quite often on this blog.  K/9 is strikeouts per 9 innings, while BB/9 is walks per 9 innings.

Constancio writes that K% and BB% (percentage of strikeouts and walks per batter faced) "are better descriptors of pitchers' skill in striking out batters and avoiding walks."  He's right, of course. He explains further: "Pitchers who do surrender many hits or walk a lot of batters have inflated K/9 rates because they face more batters per inning and therefore have more opportunities to record strikeouts...K% and BB% do a better job of isolating the skills they measure, so it should come as no surprise that K% and BB% are more strongly correlated from season-to-season than K/9 and BB/9."

The problem with using K% and BB% is the statistic "total batters faced" (needed to compute K% and BB%). While firstinning.com carries the stat for minor league players, most college team statistics pages do not list TBF, adding several more computations than a standard K or BB/9.   

Therefore, faithful readers, I'll need to continue to use K/9 and BB/9.... for college players, anyway.