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Cuban Update - Second Round

Tuesday, April 23rd, 2013

The Cuban Season is winding down with the Elite Eight playing 42 round robin games against each other.  Each of the Elite Eight were able to draft five players from the teams that did not make the cut.  Below is the progress of this round robin battle.  The top four teams make the playoffs.  A couple sites that myworld relies on for providing stats stopped after the first round.  Must have been a programming issue.

Cienfuegos Elefantes (44-21) 14-6

The big bat continues to be Jose Abreu (.365,18,53) who has the homerun lead.  He has clubbed five during the round robin playoffs.

Alberto Bicet (6-5, 2.84) was drafted from Santiago but has only gotten them one victory in the round robin.  Yuniel Leyva (8-2, 2.84) has picked up three wins during the round robin.  Jorge Hernandez (9-5, 3.06) has pitched well.

Sancti Spiritus Roosters (42-22) 12-8

They may have lost their lead, but they appear to have one of the final four positions locked up unless they collapse.  Frederich Cepeda (.352, 9, 47) and Yulieski Gourriel (.329, 6, 41) make the Roosters offense crow.  Cepeda has an excellent 70/35 walk to whiff ratio.  Danger Guerrero was a big bat they drafted but he has not provided much offense to the cause, swatting only one double and seeing his average drop from .342 to .305.

Ismel Jimenez (12-1, 1.76) continues to shine from the mound.  He finally took a loss in the round robin matches but he has also given them three wins.  They were hoping to get some starts from Yadier Pedroso but he was killed in a traffic accident soon after his participation in the World Baseball Classic.  They have gotten two wins from Norge Ruiz (5-4, 2.25) who they drafted from Camaguey.

Matanzas Crocodiles (37-27) 10-9

Jose Fernandez (.375, 7, 41) leads the Cuban League in batting average.  Ariel Sanchez (.348, 0, 18) keeps on slashing the singles.

Joel Suarez (10-1, 1.98) has been a big surprise, going 4-0 during the round robin.

Industriales Leones (35-29) 8-11

Yasmani Tomas (.315, 12, 44) has slugged four homeruns during the playoff run.  Stayler Hernandez (.306, 5, 36) has ripped eight doubles during round robin play and has an impressive 54/23 walk to whiff ratio.

Odrisamer Despaigne (8-4, 2.89) is the ace.  They drafted five pitchers but only Ariel Miranda (6-4, 3.34) has a stat reading.

Ciego de Avila Tigres (35-29) 11-8

The defending champs don’t really have any big bats myworld can brag about.  Their pitching though has two of the top four in ERA with Vladimir Garcia (6-5, 1.76) and Yander Guevara (10-3, 1.86).  Both pitchers have won two games during the round robin matches.  Danny Betancourt (8-1, 2.06) was a nice draft selection who has also given them two round robin wins.

Villa Clara Orangemen (34-29) 10-9

Villa Clara needed to play better than .500 to get a top four spot.  Dairon Varona (.358, 6, 26) was drafted from Camaguay and is third in the league in hitting.  He has seen his average drop 15 points in the round robin and has only hit two homeruns with four RBIs.

Diosdani Castillo (3-2, 1.23) comes out of the bullpen to eat innings.  He has appeared in enough innings to qualify for the lead in ERA.  Misael Siverio (6-7, 1.95) has been their most effective starter.  Jonder Martinez (4-4, 3.16) was drafted from the pitching rich Artemisa team and has given the Orangemen two round robin wins.

Isla de la Juventud Pinecutters (32-33) 6-14

They had a nice first round run, but when playing quality teams they collapsed.  Yordanis Samon (.335, 13, 47) was drafted from Granma and slugged six homeruns with 23 RBIs in the 20 round robin games, but that has not produced a lot of victories.  Andy Ibanez (.320, 2, 25) is one of the better younger players for the Pinecutters.  Alexei Bell dropped somewhere below .300.

Wilber Perez (11-4, 2.14) still had a heck of a year, putting himself on the WBC team but he is only 2-2 in the round robin.  Raicel Iglesias (4-6, 2.73) will be back but he is 0-4 in the round robin.

Pinar del Rio Tobacco Growers (31-34) 7-13

With the very first pick in the draft they drafted Alfredo Despaigne (.316, 13, 38) but he has only hit two homeruns and driven in five runs in the round robin.  He has drawn 17 walks.  Yosvany Peraza (.307, 12, 52)  has been their big bat with three homeruns and ten RBIs.

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Major Leagues Global Game

Monday, April 1st, 2013

Major league baseball announced that of the 856 players on major league 25 man rosters (106 of which are on the disabled or restricted list) 241 of those players were born outside the 50 United States.  That is 28.2 percent of all players, the fourth highest mark.  The year 2005 had the highest percentage with 29.2, followed by 2007 (29) and 2012 (28.4).

The countries and territories outside the 50 United States that make up this list include:

Dominican Republic (89, a drop from the 95 they had last year), Venezuela (63, a drop from the 66 they had last year), Canada (17), Cuba (15, their highest total), Mexico (14), Puerto Rico (13), Japan (11), Colombia (4), Panama (4), Curacao (3), Australia (2), South Korea (2), Nicaragua (2), Netherlands (1) and Taiwan (1).

The Milwaukee Brewers lead all teams with 14 foreign born players, followed by the Texas Rangers with 13.

You can read the press release here: http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20130401&content_id=43618468&vkey=pr_mlb&c_id=mlb

Does this mean the fact they include Puerto Rico in this list that if a player L.J. Hoes makes a major league opening day roster he would be placed on this list since he was born in Washington, D.C., which is not considered one of the 50 states?  Myworld is not aware of any current players born in Washington, D.C. currently on a major league opening day roster.

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Posted in Australia, Cuba, Canada, Netherlands, Japan, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Panama, Korea, Nicaragua, Taiwan, Mexico, Colombia | No Comments »

Havana Sugar Kings

Saturday, March 30th, 2013

A nice article on two ex-players of the Havana Sugar Kings, Asdrubal Baro and Luis Zayas, who chose to stay in Cuba when the Sugar Kings dissolved as a AAA franchise of the Cincinnati Reds after Fidel Castro took control of the country.  Another player, Cookie Rojas chose to leave for the United States to pursue his major league career.

The Sugar Kings played a seven game AAA championship in Cuba in 1959 against the Minneapolis Millers and won in seven games in front of Fidel Castro.  There was some talk that like Toronto and Montreal, who also hosted AAA minor league teams, Havana would also have been ripe for a major league franchise, drawing 30,000 for their games.

You can read the full article here: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/24/sports/baseball/remembering-cubas-minor-league-team.html?pagewanted=1&_r=0

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The Second Half for Cuba Begins

Thursday, March 28th, 2013

Cuba begins its eight team round robin to get to the final four teams for a playoff.  The Sancti Spiritus Roosters start the season in the top spot.  They got off to a good start with a 6-0 win over Pinar del Rio, Ismel Jimenez improving his record to 10-0 in Cuban play when he threw seven innings of shutout ball.  Eriel Sanchez stroked a 3-run homer for the Roosters and Yunieski Gourriel drove in three runs with a double.  Sanchez took a loss in one of his two WBC starts.

Wilber Perez continued his domination tossing six innings of shutout ball in the Isla dela Juventud’s 6-0 win over the defending champion Ciego de Avila.  You can follow all the Cuban action here: http://www.baseballdecuba.com/newsite/index.html

The eight teams left to finish out the season are 1) Sancti Spiritus, 2) Cienfuegos, 3) Idustriales, 4) Matanzas, 5) Isla dela Juventud, 6) Villa Clara, 7) Ciego de Avila 8) Pinar del Rio.

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2013 Cuban All Star Game

Sunday, March 24th, 2013

Today Cuba held their All Star Game with the West beating the East 13-9.  The West scored seven runs in the bottom of the eighth to overcome a 9-6 deficit to even their series with the East at 13 wins apiece.  You can see the box score for the game here: http://www.baseballdecuba.com/newsite/BOXSCORES/52SN-Boxscores/JuegodeEstrellas2013/__www.beisbolcubano.cu_statistic_boxscore.asp_idGame=3260.pdf

Yasmany Tomas, Stayler Hernandez and Eriel Sanchez hit homeruns for the West to drive in eight of the 13 runs.  Jose Fernandez crossed the plate three times.  For the East Yoelvis Fiss bashed two homeruns to drive in three.  He also crossed the plate three times.  Edilse Silva also hit a homerun and drove in three runs for the East.

Pitching was in short supply with Carlos Alvarez being allowed to pitch the eighth for the East and giving up seven runs on three hits and four walks.

You can see the rosters and learn some history about the game here: http://www.baseballdecuba.com/newsite/newsContainer.asp?id=3140

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Cuban Pitcher Yadier Pedroso Dies in Traffic Accident

Sunday, March 17th, 2013

Fate is a fickle foe, difficult to calculate, impossible to predict.  If Cuba had beaten the Netherlands in Japan in the WBC, Cuba would be in San Francisco, instead of returning to Cuba.  Or perhaps an agent could have convinced Yadier to defect and hide away in Japan until he could have found a possible residence for him to travel to in a quest for playing in the major leagues.  Neither of those scenarios happened.  Fate for Yadier took a different path.

Yadier Pedroso went back to Cuba, got in a car and died in a traffic accident.  He pitched for the Cuban national team and at 26 was one of their top pitchers.  He pitched for Artesima and after an injury delayed his start to the season he was 0-2 with a 5.64 ERA.  His Nacional Series season was extended for the second half when he was drafted by the Sancti Spiritus Roosters.  That second half will not happen.

You can read the story about his death here: http://www.plenglish.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1216661&Itemid=1

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Top 2013 Cuban Prospects

Tuesday, March 12th, 2013

In light of the Cuban elimination from the WBC, myworld will put together the top ten prospects from Cuba.  These players will not play for the Cuban team in any future WBC event unless politics change.  You can see last year’s list here: http://myworldofbaseball.com/wordpress/?p=512

Yoenis Cespedes has graduated to the major leagues, almost winning the rookie of the year award last year.  Yonder Alsonso and Yasmani Grandal also played significant major league time to disqualify themselves from this year’s list.  Those were the top three Cuban prospects last year, giving other players an opportunity to appear on this list.

Noel Arguelles and Gerardo Concepcion had the kind of year that dropped them off this list, creating five new spots for Cuban prospects to take.

1. Jose Fernandez RHP (Florida Marlins) - Many consider him one of the best pitching prospects in baseball.  He came from Cuba as a 15 year old youth.  He played high school ball in the United States and was drafted in the first round in 2011.  Last year he played at two levels and finished with ERAs less than 2.00 with opponent batting averages less than .200.  His fastball hits the mid-90s and touches the high 90s.  As he matures he could reach Justin Verlander territory.  With the departure of Aroldis Chapman Cuban pitchers have a hard time hitting 90 miles per hour with their fastballs.  His curveball is the best in the Marlins system and he has a strong changeup.  All he needs is experience.

2. Yasiel Puig OF (Los Angeles Dodgers) - The Dodgers paid him more in salary and bonus (seven year $42 million including a $12 million bonus) than the Athletics paid Yoenis Cespedes, despite Yasiel being the less proven player.  He does have impressive physical tools at 6′3, 215.  Some claim those looks are too impressive for a 22 year old, hinting at a much older frame.  He hit .354 in his brief less than 100 at bat debut in the United States.  He also swatted five homeruns with a slugging percentage of .634.  His speed will allow him to play center while his arm also fits right.  In the 2009/10 Cuban professional league playing for Cienfuegos in his second year Yasiel hit .330 with 17 homeruns in 327 at bats.  He is an easy five tool player.

3. Jorge Soler OF (Chicago Cubs) - He is two years younger than Yasiel but at 6′3″ 200 pounds he has the same physical tools.  He had a little over 100 at bats, hitting .299 with five homeruns and a .463 slugging percentage at a level lower than Yasiel.  His contract was not as rich as Yasiel (nine year $30 million including $6 million bonus).  Those two outfielders would have created quiet a future pair for any Cuban national team.  He lacks the burner speed to play center but his arm can play right, two tools that make him a little less than a five tool player.

4. Adeiny Hechevarria SS (Miami Marlins) - The Toronto Blue Jays signed him in 2010 but included him in the trade with the Marlins for Josh Johnson and Jose Reyes.  The Marlins have announced he will be their starting shortstop.  Myworld has seen him play and is impressed with his defensive abilities.  He also seems to have a strong bat.  The book on him is that his defense is far ahead of his offense.  His defense is Gold Glove caliber but there are some concerns on his ability to hit.  He hit .312 in Las Vegas, but almost anybody can hit .300 there and .254 in 126 at bats with Toronto.  His first year may be a challenge if he shows impatience at the plate, but given experience he will be a solid player for the Marlins.

5. Leonys Martin OF (Texas Rangers) - When Leonys Martin signed with the Rangers in 2011 he expected to be an immediate contributer to the major league lineup.  He signed a five year $15.6 million contract and with Julio Borbon struggling he seemed to be the answer in centerfield.  The Rangers thought he lacked instincts to play the game despite being the fourth outfielder for the Cuban national team and demoted him to the minors.  He has the speed to play center but poor choices with routes and throws have forced him to learn his craft in the minors.  With the departure of Josh Hamilton Leonys is expected to be the Rangers starting center fielder in 2013.  He needs to hit better than his .204 career major league average and improve on his 29 for 49 stolen base success ratio if he hopes to make an impact.

6. Onelki Garcia LHP (Los Angeles Dodgers) - Onelki missed out on a big free agent pay day because of his inability to prove foreign residency.  He lost a year as his agent contested the major league ruling.  The Dodgers drafted him third in the 2012 draft and instead of signing for a multi year million plus dollar contract he had to settle for a $382,000 bonus.  For a lefthander he throws heat, sitting in the low 90s but he can hit the mid-90s.  His curveball also has nice break.  He is 23 years old so he should rise through the minors quickly if he finds success.

7. Henry Urrutia OF (Baltimore Orioles) - Henry was supposed to get some late season AA action last year at Bowie, but he could not get his residency papers in order.  Myworld doubts he ever set foot in Haiti, but he finally has resolved his residency papers.  The Orioles signed him for a bargain price of $778,000, but at 26 years old for the 2013 season he no longer has youth on his side.  The 6′3″ 180 pounder does not have big tools, but he is above average in most.  He had a .350 career average in the Cuban professional league, relying more on contact than power to generate offense.  Those skills would work better if he can play centerfield.  His speed fits better in the corner, but his bat profiles better for a centerfielder.  Of course, if he can hit .350 in the majors his bat will profile anywhere.

8. Jose Iglesias SS (Boston Red Sox) - He signed with the Red Sox in 2009 as a 19 year old ($8.25 million with $6.25 million bonus).  He has Gold Glove level defense and would have already taken over the Red Sox shortstop job if he could develop the ability to hit.  His 74 major league at bats has produced a career .135 average.  His career minor league average is only .264, raising doubts on whether he can find his offense.  When the Red Sox were competing for the playoffs they could not afford that kind of bat to stick in the lineup.  He may get more of an opportunity to prove himself once the Red Sox realize they are a year or two away from being a playoff team.

9. Raudel Lazo LHP (Miami Marlins) - The Marlins only had to shell out $60,000 to sign him in 2011.  He made his debut last year in releif, appearing in 41 games at High A contributing a 2.44 ERA.  He will be 24 in 2013 so he could be promoted quickly if he achieves success.  His fastball is not overpowering, hitting the low 90s, but he has good command of his repetoire.  His curveball is his strikeout pitch, resulting in over nine whiffs per nine innings pitched.  Whether he can continue that success as he rises through the minors will be answered in 2013.

10. Adonis Garcia OF (New York Yankees) - He is not a big player, standing at only 5′7″, but he gets consistent barrell of the bat on the ball.  He had an opportunity to compete for an outfield job with the injury to Curtis Granderson, but he sustained an injury himself.  He lacks the speed to be a quality centerfielder and doesn’t have the power to profile well in the corners.  At 27 years of age his time to show his skills is now.  Garcia played as a shortstop for Ciego de Avila in the Cuban professional league.  In his best season in the Cuban professional league in 2008/09 he hit .355 with 21 homeruns.

Player to Watch:

Aledmis Diaz SS (Unsigned) - In the past Cuban players tried to sell themselves as younger men in order to achieve better contracts.  Diaz attempted to add a year to his age to get to 23 to avoid the cap major league baseball has put on teams for signing international free agents who are 22 or less.  Lying to major league baseball about your age could lead to a one year suspension, even if it takes a year to resolve the age dispute.  He will not be a great shortstop in the Hechevarria or Iglesias image, but he comes with a better stick.  That stick may not be good enough to become a starter at third.  Diaz could ultimately fill a utility role or become an offensive second baseman.

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Netherlands Rallies to Bounce Cuba From WBC

Monday, March 11th, 2013

Andrelton Simmons clubbed a 2-run homer in the eighth and a Yulieski Gourriel error in the ninth allowed Andrew Jones to get on base to score the winning run as the Netherlands eliminated Cuba from the WBC 7-6 and advance to the final four.  They still must play Japan to determine who is the first seed.  A disappointing 7,600 fans showed up to watch the exciting game.

The Netherlands seemed to have control of the game at the start, jumping to a 2-0 lead in the third inning on a Andrew Jones sacrifice fly and a Curt Smith single.  Cuba tied it in the fourth with Yulieski Gourriel leading off the inning with a double and scoring on a Jose Fernandez single.  Frederich Cepeda grounded into a double play, which proved critical when Jose Abreu hit a solo shot to tie the game at 2-2.

Randolph Oduber had a big game for the Netherlands.  Andrelton Simmons hit a sacrifice fly to give the Netherlands the lead again.  Oduber stole third and a poor throw by the catcher allowed the Netherlands to score their first run courtesy of the error.

Cuba came back in the fifth to tie the game on a Yulieski Gourriel 2-run double.  Cuba took the lead for the first time in the eighth scoring two runs to make it 6-4.  Yasmany Thomas had an RBI single and Eriel Sanchez a sacrifice fly.

Norberto Gonzalez was working his fifth inning for Cuba.  He had not allowed a run in the first four.  He walked Kalian Sams in the eighth to lead off the inning.  After two strikeouts Andrelton Simmons took Gonzalez deep for a game tying 2-run homer.

Yander Guevara relieved Gonzalez after one out in the ninth to face Andrew Jones.  Jones reached on an error by Gourriel.  Curt Smith and Xander Boegarts followed with back to back singles.  Diosdany Castillo relieved Guevara and the infield and outfield moved in.  Kalian Sams hit a ball deep enough to center to score Jones.

Cuba had an opportunity to take the lead in the top of the ninth with runners on first and third and one out.  Loek Van Mil struck out Frederich Cepeda and then Jose Abreu flew out to end the threat.

Oduber stole three bases for the Netherlands.  The Netherlands advances to the final four for the first time in their history.

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Cuba Eliminates Taiwan with a Shellacking

Saturday, March 9th, 2013

The Cuban bats finally woke up.  Or Taiwan did not have any arms left to counteract the Cuban bats.  It took Cuba only seven innings to dispose of Taiwan 14-0.  Every pitcher Taiwan threw out except Yu-Ching Lin gave up a dinger, but Lin still gave up four runs in his two plus innings of work.

Cuba got homeruns from Frederich Cepeda in the first, Yasmany Tomas hit a 3-run homer in the fourth and Jose Abreu and Alfredo Despaigne hit back to back solo shots in the eight run sixth.  Jose Fernandez and Cepeda drove in three runs each for Cuba.

Danny Betancourt limited the Taiwan bats to six shutout innings, giving up only three hits and walking two.  The Cubans will now play the loser of the Japan and Netherlands winner’s bracket game.  Both teams have given Cuba trouble in the past, but Victor Mesa may have given the Netherlands some chewing fodder when he stated Netherlands was not that good.

The box score for the game can be found here: http://web.worldbaseballclassic.com/wbc/2013/gameday/index.jsp?gid=2013_03_09_tpeint_cubint_1&mode=box

Posted in Cuba, Taiwan, World Baseball Classic | No Comments »

Schoop Leads Dutch Over Cuba

Friday, March 8th, 2013

You can no longer call it a shock when the Netherlands beats Cuba.  If you follow the international game they do it quite regularly now and with players from major league teams they may actually be better than the Cuban lineups, despite what Victor Mesa the manager of Cuba may think.  Jonathan Schoop proved that by collecting three hits, including a big 3-run homer in the sixth to give the Netherlands a 6-2 win over Cuba.

Curt Smith got things started for the Netherlands in the second with a leadoff homerun.  Kalian Sams doubled and was driven in by a Andrelton Simmons single to give Netherlands a 2-0 lead.  The MVP of the first round in Japan Alfredo Despaigne responded with a leadoff homerun in the bottom of the second to close the gap to one.

Diegomar Markwell, who shut out Korea for four innings in his first start had another brilliant outing in this start, scattering nine hits in his six innings of work but allowing none of them to cross the plate except for the Despaigne blast.  He walked one and struck out none, but was aided by Cuba hitting into four double plays in the first four innings.  They grounded into a fifth double play in the sixth inning.

The Schoop homerun gave the Netherlands a huge 5-1 lead.  Schoop was also responsible for turning or starting four of the five double plays.  He also drove in the last run in the eighth on an RBI double, sucking out any attempt by Cuba to gain momentum.  Yulieski Gourriel had slugged a solo homerun in the bottom of the seventh to give Cuban fans hope.

The Cubans bowed out meekly with Leon Boyd retiring them in order in the eighth in his second inning of work and Loek Van Mil disposing of them in order in the ninth.

Both teams combined for 26 hits with the Netherlands rapping out 14 of them.  Ismel Jimenez, the best pitcher Cuba could throw with a winning percentage of over .700 in the Cuba Nacional Series took the loss in this one giving up five hits in less than two innings.  The Netherlands had the opportunity to score many more runs, stranding 14 men on base.

You can see a box score from the game here: http://web.worldbaseballclassic.com/wbc/2013/gameday/index.jsp?gid=2013_03_08_nedint_cubint_1&mode=box

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Posted in Cuba, Netherlands, World Baseball Classic | No Comments »

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