Dominican Republic Update
Escogido Leones (21-14)
They are last in hitting but first in the Dominican League. Carlos Gomez had a couple of multiple hit games and finished the week 10 for 25. At one point he had a streak where he scored a run in seven straight games. He is hitting .372 with one homerun and nine RBIs in his 12 games. Alex Valdez has the most runs scored for Escogido with 19, but he is tops in the league in triples with 5. Alex is 9 for 19 in his last five games. Fernando Martinez made his appearance in the Dominican League. He would like to make up for all the time he missed on the Mets major league roster because of a knee injury. So far, it is not a good start to the season as he opened the Dominican League hitting only .167 with five whiffs in 6 games.
The starting pitching has been the most effective resource for the Leones. This wasn’t true for Tobi Stoner’s last start where he was raked for seven runs in just over six innings of work. This put a dent to his overall ERA, rasing it to 3.10. Nerio Rodriguez pitched five additional shutout innings for his second straight win and his second game in a row in which he has yet to give up a run, lowering his ERA to 1.57 in four starts.
Licey Tigres (21-14)
Licey has put together a four game winning streak to put them in a share for first with the Leones. Anderson Hernandez has taken over the shortstop position from Ian Desmond and then Carlos Truinfel. He’s only hitting .261 but he has five stolen bases in six attempts. He should see a lot of playing time as the Mets utility man next year. Jake Fox is back with Licey and he continues to pump the hits off his bat. His first week he is 7 for 23 for a .350 average. He hit two doubles and went deep once for a four bagger. Jake drove in seven runs in his five games. Wily Mo Pena is starting to show some power, hitting homeruns in two straight games. The four homeruns are his only extra base hits and he still strikeouts frequently (18 in 16 at bats)
Matt Wright continues to pitch well getting his first win of the season and pitching four shutout innings of relief to lower his ERA to 1.73. It was his second relief appearance after five starts. Jorge Sosa lodged his fourth victory against one loss with a one run performance agains the Gigantes. The Gigantes got revenge against Jorge today, ripping him for six runs in four innings.
Toros del Este (19-16)
Not much to talk about from the hitting front in their 3-7 record for the last 10 games. Manuel Mayorson went 0 for 5 in his last game to drop his average to .316. He had a four game hitting streak in which he was 6 for 13 prior to the O fer.
The pitching has a solid threesome in Wesley Wright (3.58), Fernando Abad (3.69) and Jose Capellan (3.86), but they are starting to show some cracks in their armor. Wesley Wright leads all Dominican pitchers in strikeouts with 38. He’s given up nine runs in his last two starts covering only six innings so there is some concern about him. He’s walked eight in those two appearances. Fernando Abad also gave up a five spot in his last start, lasting only three innings. It was the worst start of the winter for Fernando. In Jose Capellan’s last start he only faced two batters, walked both of them and was pulled from the game. He had a 21/8 walk to K ratio in only 23 innings of work. Even Julio Manon blew a save in one of his two appearances. With the poor starting pitching this week he didn’t get a lot of opportunities to work, but his 12 saves are still tied for the lead.
Gigantes Cibao (17-18)
Juan Francisco slugged four homeruns for the week and drove in seven runs. He is the undisputed leader in homeruns and RBIs now with 8 and 29 respectively. On the downside he also struck out four times and is the leader there with 32 whiffs. Ramon Santiago has put a little spark in the Cibao’s offense going 5 for 10 in three games. He also went deep with a solo shot in his last game. The Gigantes also hope to get some extra base hit offense from Andy Tracy, who went 6 for 20 in his opening week. He went deep once and drove in five runs. Nelson Cruz has also been added to the offense and went 5 for 23 in his debut. Three of his five hits were doubles, but he has yet to drive in any runs while scoring four times.
Fabio Castro is third in the Dominican in ERA with a 2.47 ERA in nine starts. He rarely appears into the fifth inning, the reason for his 0-1 record to this point. On the other hand, he has yet to give up more than three runs in his nine starts. His 36 whiffs is second to Wesley Wright. Jose F. Capellan threw six shutout innings today to pick up win number four against three losses and lower his ERA to 3.26. He had a 7.07 ERA last year in AAA for the Astros farm team. He still gives up a lot of hits (.294 opponent average) but his command appears to be much better than it was in AAA. Rafael Perez tossed another four shutout innings and hasn’t given up a run in three appearances, two of them starts. He didn’t get a decision in both starts since he only went four innings in each, but he only gave up three hits. In 54 appearances for the Cleveland Indians he had a 7.31 ERA after going 0.83 ERA in AAA. Dario Veras picked up four saves in four appearances to up his save total to nine. He still hasn’t walked a hitter in his 15 innings of work.
Aguilas Cibaenas (16-19)
Kory Casto’s bat is smoking with a nine game hitting streak, translating into a 15 for 33 week. He also got his first three extra base hits during that streak, two doubles and one homerun, to raise his average to .381. Julio Borbon is not going to win the leadoff job with the Rangers based on his .220 average with Aguilas. He’s struck out five times in his last three games, going 1 for 14.
John Halama has turned in his 4-3, 2.15 performance with Aguilas into a minor league contract with the Brewers. His last two starts have been the worse of his Dominican winter, giving up nine runs in 11 innings. He’s a Jamie Moyer light, never reaching 90 with his fastball and normally sitting in the 85 mph range. He relies on command and breaking pitches to get hitters out. Ben Jukich is having a good Dominican winter (3-1, 1.71). Ben won his last start with over eight innings of shutout ball. Ben is leading the Dominican League in ERA while John is second.
Estrellas Oriente (12-23)
Estrellas is tops in hitting, but as we’ve learned that doesn’t equate to being on top in the standings. That takes good pitching. They are last in the league in ERA by more than a full run. Juan Richardson and Fernado Tatis are tied for the league lead in doubles with nine. Tatis is hitting .273 while Richardson is hitting .283. They each have one homerun.
Estrellas has one good starter in Evan MacLane, who is 5-1, 2.68 in eight starts. Radhames Liz has not pitched since he was claimed on waivers from the Orioles by the Padres so his season may be done.