Readers tell us again and again that they love top 10 lists. Assuming you're not overloaded with ballpark effects at this stage, keep reading this post to learn the 10 best and 10 worst ballparks in the full-season minors to see runs, hits and home runs. All samples cover the 2010-12 period except where noted.

* Installing a humidor reduced R/G from 14.37 in 2010-11 to 11.61 in 2012
^ Rate for 2011-12 only
# Rate for 2010-11 only; club moves to new park in 2013

* Installing a humidor reduced H/G from 23.55 in 2010-11 to 20.88 in 2012
^ Rate for 2011-12 only
# Rate for 2012 only
& Club moves to new park in 2013

& Club moves to new park in 2013

Factors such as altitude, humidity and wind affect how ballparks at all levels play for hitters and for pitchers. High altitude, low humidity and a steady jet stream are the perfect recipe for hits, homers and runs. No parks exemplify this quite like High Desert and Lancaster, the high Class A California League's two most hitter-friendly locales.

A park at or near sea level with still, humid air will almost always favor pitchers. Examples include Savannah of the low Class A South Atlantic League and Wilmington of the high Class A Carolina League. For league-by-league ballpark characteristics for the full-season minors, check out the recently published feature Minor League Parks Drive Performance. Go ahead and click—it's free.

A ballpark's features really come into focus, though, when a player in a hitter- or pitcher-friendly park ventures onto the road. Take High Desert as an example. In the three seasons from 2010 to ’12, Mavericks hitters and pitchers combined to score and allow 14.65 runs per game in High Desert, compared with 10.07 per game away from High Desert. That ratio works out 1.455, which implies that playing in Mavericks Stadium during the past three seasons increased the frequency of runs by about 45.5 percent in a typical game (compared to that same rate in road parks the Mavericks visited).

Given that home-road comparison for Mavericks games, we can arrive at a simple park factor to apply to individual High Desert players. To get there, we take the 1.455 ratio and reduce its impact by half—in this case, 1.228—to reflect the fact that a team's players spend only half their games at home.

Here are the highest and lowest three-year park factors for runs scored for the 10 full-season minor leagues:

* Scranton/W-B had lowest PF for 2010-11 (.922) but had no home park in 2012
** Birmingham moves into Regions Field in 2013; next lowest was Mississippi (.937) [...] Continue Reading »

The proliferation of advanced analytical tools in the past decade has enhanced the enjoyment level of baseball for many fans. Yet one overlooked aspect of the data explosion is the benefit derived by major league clubs, particularly in the fields of player development, advance scouting and performance forecasting.

Research presentations and panel discussions at last week's SABR Analytics Conference in Phoenix fully illustrated, in particular, the harmonious relationship between data collection and analysis, traditional scouting and player development. All endeavors strive to predict players' future value by weighing many inputs and assessing the probability of various outcomes.

Baseball America reported from the Analytics Conference, focusing on presentations and discussions with obvious currency in the field of scouting and player development, and this blog post collects all the links in case you missed them the first time.

Day One

• Research Confirms Hard-Throwers' Advantage. Analysis of a batter's point of contact, as measured by Hit f/x, tells us a lot about his expected power output.

• Observations From Day One Of The SABR Analytics Conference. Pitchers Javier Lopez and Brandon McCarthy discuss the role of detailed analytical information in major league clubhouses. [...] Continue Reading »

PHOENIX—The first event of Day Two of the SABR Analytics Conference gathered three of the game’s youngest general managers for a panel discussion with moderator Brian Kenny. Jon Daniels of the Rangers, Jed Hoyer of the Cubs and the recently-promoted Rick Hahn of the White Sox discussed everything from the place of analytics in the game to the importance of scouting to future areas for competitive advantage.

Hahn said the White Sox employ five full-time data analysts, Hoyer said the Cubs plan to hire six, and Daniels, GM of the two-time American League champions, said Texas has no one dedicated solely to the job of analyst.

"We’ve talked about adding a full-time data analyst," Daniels said, "but for now we’re pretty organic in the way our front office functions. We want people to think outside the box and be fluent in different areas.

"We don’t have one guy locked in a back room building a database."

Daniels said all Rangers acquisitions must be vetted by scouts, from minor league free agents and waiver claims to $100 million decisions like Yu Darvish in 2012.

"We had 40 in-person looks at Darvish in Japan," Daniels said. "We watched every start on video and had 12 different guys see him." [...] Continue Reading »

PHOENIX—Two pitchers from National League West clubs took part in a player panel on Thursday, focusing on areas of baseball where reality and analytics intersect.

Diamondbacks righthander Brandon McCarthy and Giants lefty reliever Javier Lopez discussed their first-hand exposure to modern baseball performance metrics, both saying they make use of such data to at least a small degree.

Lopez said that his first exposure to the game’s rapidly-flowing data stream occurred in 2006 when he joined the Red Sox in a June trade. He said the presentation of analytical data was both impressive and overwhelming at first, but that he absorbed what he could while being mindful of avoiding so-called paralysis by analysis.

"I’m most interested in the simple stuff," Lopez said, "first-pitch swing tendency, hot and cold zones, a batter’s performance over the past two weeks and how lefthanded batters fare against other lefthanded pitchers.

"I prefer to keep the game as simple as possible. With everything in baseball becoming more specialized, I feel like the information gives me a competitive advantage and helps keep me around."

McCarthy talked about how he altered his pitching mindset and mechanics to emphasize lower walk and higher groundball rates. He recognized that his flyball tendencies and proneness to home runs were holding him back. After all, he allowed 1.3 homers per nine innings through 2009 but nearly halved that to 0.7 per nine the past two seasons with Oakland. [...] Continue Reading »

J.J. Cooper filled you in on the Astros' dramatic turnaround in terms of minor league winning percentage. In this post, we'll take things a step further and call attention to the various minor league champions and the most successful parent organizations.

The standings table below ranks all 30 organizations by the cumulative winning percentage of their domestic farm clubs. The +/- category indicates the difference between wins and losses—games above or below .500. A + indicates an organization with seven affiliates instead of six.

We also have 2011, 2010 and 2009 organizational standings with league champions. [...] Continue Reading »

Because postseason minor league all-star teams are selected by league managers, coaches, broadcasters and media they typically contain a good mix of top performers and top prospects. On this page we'll collect all the all-star teams in one place as they're announced.

Most of the abbreviations are self-explanatory, but a few are unique. Pitch is short for pitcher of the year (if the league awards one), Rook is rookie of the year (if applicable), Mgr is manager of the year, and Pros is prospect of the year (as awarded in the low Class A leagues). Many leagues select a righthanded and lefthanded all-star selection, and some also select a relief pitcher (or two). We've simply listed an asterisk (*) following the name of any lefthanded pitcher.

• According to a league press release, a host of prospects received votes for the PCL rookie of the year award, including Wil Myers (Omaha), Adeiny Hechavarria (Las Vegas), Jedd Gyorko (Tucson), Kole Calhoun (Salt Lake), Jake Elmore (Reno) and Grant Green (Sacramento). Adam Eaton's win gives Reno back-to-back PCL ROY award winners after Collin Cowgill won it last year.

• Ernesto Mejia became the third consecutive Gwinnett player to win the IL rookie of the year, following Julio Teheran last year and Freddie Freeman in 2010. [...] Continue Reading »

Fittingly, Billy Hamilton speedily eclipsed Vince Coleman tonight.

In the first game of a doubleheader against Montgomery, the Reds shortstop prospect stole four bases to surpass Coleman's single-season minor league record. Hamilton now has 147 steals, two more than Coleman. Hamilton's 147 steals are a record for any professional league. Rickey Henderson holds the Major League record with 130 steals.

Hamilton led off the bottom of the first by walking. He took off for second base as Biscuits pitcher Kyle Lobstein tried to pick him off. Lobstein's throw was wide of the mark, allowing Hamilton to reach second on the error. He then stole third for his 144th steal. Hamilton's next at-bat came with two outs in the third. He singled to right field, then quickly stole second and third before Ryan LaMarre struck out. When Hamilton swiped the record-breaking base, he quickly called time before breaking out in a large grin. Grounds crew quickly exchanged the batting helmet he was wearing and the base he stole to set them aside.

Hamilton added another steal in the eighth inning. With 43 steals since his promotion to Double-A Pensacola, he now leads all of Double-A in steals. With 104 steals for high Class A Pensacola before his promotion, he also leads all Class A players. In the second game of the doubleheader, Hamilton was held without a steal.

[...] Continue Reading »

Billy Hamilton is getting closer and closer to becoming the first minor leaguer to break a significant minor league single-season record in 29 years. Here's a look at the players he's chasing and the ones he's already passed.

Each player who makes his major league debut this season had a scout and/or scouting director recommended him to his signing organization. To give credit where credit is due, we'll track those scouts and those directors for each player to make the big leagues for the first time in 2012.

Players are sorted in alphabetical order by debut date. Included with each listing is signing organization, year and draft round in parentheses where applicable. Source indicates the high school, college or country from which each player signed. The BA Executive Database supplies the names of scouting directors.

Players listed with an asterisk (*) were major league Rule 5 draft selections last December, while a cross (†) indicates players who were drafted one year and signed the next as part of baseball's defunct draft-and-follow process.

[...] Continue Reading »

Now that all of the 2012 draft picks who are going to sign have signed, it's time to take another look at who are the youngest players in each league. But before we do that, it's also worthwhile to take a look at what are the median ages in each league. What's notable is that the International League's median player is roughly half a year older than the other Triple-A league and the Eastern League's median age is a half year older than the other Double-A leagues.

When looking at the youngest players in each league, there are a couple of roster quirks. Phillies prospect Carlos Tocci hasn't played a game in the South Atlantic League this year, but he is on the Lakewood disabled list because of roster technicalities. Any player who is on the disabled list is marked by an asterisk.

Bryce Harper is not only the youngest player in the majors by over a year, but he'd also be the youngest player in both Triple-A leagues by over a year, two of the three Double-A leagues and the high Class A California League [...] Continue Reading »

The top four prospects in baseball entering the season—Bryce Harper, Matt Moore, Mike Trout and Yu Darvish—all have spent the majority of 2012 in the big leagues. All but Moore appear on the midseason all-rookie team, and his exclusion might be the most unexpected given the lefty’s dominance for the Rays last September and October.

Despite the extreme youth of Harper and Trout—their combined age of 39 is younger than 12 active big leaguers—both the batting and pitching rookies skew older at an average age of 24 years old. The Athletics, Rangers and Reds each placed multiple rookies on the midseason team, including Oakland No. 1 prospect Jarrod Parker, Texas No. 1 Darvish and Cincinnati No. 5 Zack Cozart.

Statistics here capture a snapshot of each player's performance at the end of the day July 8, the final Sunday prior to the all-star break. Rookies are organized into four groups so that performances can be compared more directly. Players are divided into starting pitchers, relief pitchers, up-the-middle defenders and corner players, because no one ought to expect a middle infielder's raw offensive production to look like a corner outfielder's.

For rookie rundowns going back five years, check out the 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 or 2011 midseason lists.

An asterisk (*) denotes a lefthanded batter or thrower and a pound sign (#) signifies a switch-hitter.

UP-THE-MIDDLE ROOKIES
Catcher, Second Base, Shortstop & Center Field

• The Mariners' Jesus Montero and the Reds' Devin Mesoraco entered the season with more rookie fanfare (and attendant No. 1 prospect status in their organizations), but the Rockies' Wilin Rosario wrested the starting job away from veteran Ramon Hernandez in May and hasn't looked back. Rosario belted 14 homers in the first half to lead all rookies, so despite an acute on-base deficiency (eight walks, 53 walks and a .279 OBP) he gets the nod at catcher—at least for now. [...] Continue Reading »

The unveiling of the Top Prospect Performers page today provides a suitable backdrop to reflect on (and provide context for) the top game scores in the minors during the first half of the season. If you're not familiar with the game score metric, please see the Wikipedia entry before proceeding.

Here we divvied up pitchers by level, presenting a top 20 list for each full-season classification—but with a catch. Only pitchers who are age-appropriate for their level of competition were considered. That means that to qualify for one of the lists, a pitcher must meet (or be younger than) his classification's median age as of July 1 this year. The median cutoff ages are as follows: 26 for Triple-A, 24 for Double-A, 23 for high Class A and 22 for low Class A.

All performances up through Sunday, June 24, were considered. Lefthanded pitchers denoted with an asterisk (*). To qualify, a pitcher must either have started the game or thrown at least five innings in relief. The second clause sometimes triggers when minor league starters begin in the second inning (or later) in games in which rehabbing major leaguers start the game.

Youngest Pitcher: Only 22-year-old Marlins lefty Brad Hand can challenge the Diamondbacks' Trevor Bauer when it comes to youth. The third pick in last year's draft, Bauer doesn't turn 22 until January. In eight starts for Reno he went 4-0, 2.82 with 11.3 strikeouts and 4.4 walks per nine innings. Slated to make his big league debut on Thursday, Bauer leaves the minors as the overall leader in wins (11) and strikeouts (116). [...] Continue Reading »

As Reds prospect Billy Hamilton races toward the minor league record for stolen bases in a season—he's gone 71-for-85 in 60 games for high Class A Bakersfield—it's a fitting time to acknowledge those players who hold the single-season records for thefts in each of the 16 extant minor leagues.

We chose to draw the cut-off line at 1962 because that's when the minor leagues as we know it took shape. That's the point at which baseball instituted the Player Development Plan with the minor leagues, guaranteeing the survival of 100 teams and making those clubs official cogs to the big league machine.

[...] Continue Reading »

Here we present the top 10 single-start pitching performances, as measured by game score, at each classification of the minors in May. To make up for late publication date of this piece, find a ranking of the top 10 game scores in the big leagues at the bottom of this post.

• Righty Chris Tillman hasn't done much with a full season's complement of starts for Baltimore the past three seasons (5.58 ERA, 1.58 WHIP in 181 innings), but the 24-year-old may be turning a corner in Triple-A this season. He went 2-5, 3.64 with a 38-14 K-BB ratio in 42 innings with Norfolk in May, topped off by the one-hit, nine-strikeout effort against Pawtucket shown above. Tillman's pitching so well that he may force his way into big league rotation conversation, where he could vie for starts with fellow Tides Zach Britton and (soon) Jamie Moyer. It's shocking to consider now, but Tillman was viewed as a similar talent to Adam Jones at the time the Orioles completed the Erik Bedard trade with the Mariners in February 2008. [...] Continue Reading »

For those who believe that 140-game seasons offer only arbitrary endpoints, too, we present all-stars at each minor league classification for the month of April. This installment is very by the book. At each level, the player with the most runs created at each position in April—and who also appears in the 2012 Prospect Handbook—gets the nod. (Yes, this makes it easier for players in hitter-friendly leagues to pad their résumés and thus make the list.)

Click through the player links for draft history, minor league splits, game logs, career transactions, prospect rankings, scouting reports and more (BA subscription required in some cases). Doubles and triples folded into one statistic (2B).

IL Runner-Up: Columbus 2B Cord Phelps, Indians, 13.8 RC. PCL Runner-Up: Omaha 1B Clint Robinson, Royals, 17.9 RC. [...] Continue Reading »

Pitchers condense their work into short bursts. A minor league starter will face 20 or more batters in one outing, providing repetitions that it would take a position player five-to-seven games to accumulate. For that reason, one particularly good start by a pitching prospect carries a fair amount of weight. String together three or four such starts and a pitcher may be on to something.

Here we present the top 10 single-start pitching performances, as measured by game score (Wikipedia explanation), at each classification of the minors in April. (In case you're wondering, the top major league game score thus far is a tie (96) between Phil Humber's April 21 perfect game against the Mariners and Matt Cain's April 13 one-hitter—with 11 whiffs—against the Pirates.

• The Yankees recently called up D.J. Mitchell to work in a bullpen role, and Pirates lefty Justin Wilson could receive a similar call from the Pirates this season if he can carry forward the control he showed in his last start, a combined no-hitter against Durham.

• Though he delivered seven strong innings in his lone home start in Colorado Springs, Rockies lefty Christian Friedrich turned in his gem above on the road in Tacoma.

• Major league veteran Jeff Francis is the only pitcher who appears on a chart in this blog post who allowed a home run in his exemplary start. [...] Continue Reading »

So how old is the average minor leaguer? You often see us refer to a player as young for his league or old for the circuit. But to be more precise, here is a look at the median age of every full season minor league. We used median instead of average to better reflect what is the true midpoint of the league's players, as a few 35 year-olds could start to skew an average age.

The rosters were as of the first week of the season. And the median age of a league logically can be expected to skew older than the average significant prospect in a league as role players and other less-heralded prospects are more likely to be repeating a league or otherwise pushed slowly up the ladder.

The opening of baseball season is anticipated for many reasons, not the least of which is, you know, the games. But almost as much fun as watching them is sifting through the numbers that all those games produce. And we've worked hard throughout the offseason to make our statistical offerings better than ever this season. Here are a few highlights:

[...] Continue Reading »

Just two minor league teams repeated as league champions in 2011, one at the Triple-A level and one at the Rookie-level classification. As a point of comparison, four teams repeated as champions in 2010 after winning their leagues in ’09. 

Columbus repeated as champion of the International League, winning six of seven playoff games while dispatching Durham and Lehigh Valley to win the Governors' Cup. During the regular season, the Clippers led the IL in runs per game (4.97), home runs (152), walks (570), on-base percentage (.347) and OPS (.770). To top it off, Columbus won its second consecutive Triple-A National Championship game, this time knocking off Omaha by an 8-3 score.

Johnson City averaged more than six runs per game in Appalachian League regular season on its way to a league-best 45 wins. They rolled through Danville and Bluefield in the playoffs, winning four of five games.

The standings table below ranks all 30 organizations by the cumulative winning percentage of their domestic farm clubs. The +/- category indicates the difference between wins and losses—games above or below .500, if you will. We also have 2010 and 2009 organizational standings with league champions. [...] Continue Reading »