Dominican baseball player Adrian Beltre three home runs in one game

Thursday night the Dominican Baseball Guy was live tweeting when Adrian Beltre of the Rangers had three home runs and five RBI through four innings against the Orioles. He was off to a record setting night, but alas that is all he got from the plate and he ended the night with just the three hits. The Rangers won the game 12-3.

RBIs have always been one of those curious stats. They have always been important, but they really depend on what the guys in front of you are doing. So, with three home runs, the Dominican baseball player Beltre had just five RBI.

Beltre is on pace for possibly his second 30 HR, 100 RBI, .300 average season of his career. He is a three time all-star. For a 15 year veteran he is not that old at 33. He was the youngest player in the big leagues when he came up at 19 years old in 1998.

But on this night, his three home runs were not even the most on his team this season. Josh Hamilton hit four home runs in one game against the Orioles back on May 8th.

Dominican baseball player Adrian Beltre is from Santo Domingo.

Dominican baseball player Adrian Beltre three home runs in one game, photo by Keith Allison on Flickr

2012 MLB All-Star rosters feature 8 Dominican players

The 2012 MLB All-Star game roster were announced Sunday and there are eight Dominican players among the All-Star invitees.

Interesting that six out of the eight Dominican players featured in the All-Star game were voted in by the fans of starters. Out of 18 position starters on the NL and AL squad, that means that 33% of the starters in the All-Star game come from the Dominican Republic. This is a huge number, considering that 11% of MLB players are Dominican.

But, alas the overall number of total Dominicans on the 2012 MLB All-Star rosters is right at the percentage of Dominicans players in Major League Baseball. Eight of a total of around 70 players in the All-Star game are Dominican, which comes to 11%.

Four out of the nine position starters on the AL team are Dominican players, along with one pitcher:

• Robinson Cano is starting for the third strait time and making his fourth appearance overall. He is from San Pedro de Macoris, Republica Dominicana.
• Adrian Beltre is starting for the second strait year and is playing in his third strait All-Star game. Beltre is from the Dominican capital of Santo Domingo.
• Jose Bautista set the all-time votes record last year, only to have that record broken by Josh Hamilton this year.  He is from Santo Domingo too.
• David Ortiz is an All-Star for the eighth time, also from Santo Domingo.
• Fernando Rodney is from Samana, Dominican Republic and is playing in his first All-Star game.

There are two Dominican starters and one Dominican reserve player on the NL squad:

• Rafael Furcal made his third All-Star game in his thirteenth year in the bigs. Not surprising, considering he was named the Dominican Baseball Guy player of the week earlier this season. He is from Loma de Cabrera, Dominican Republic.
• Melky Cabrera is from Santo Domingo and is appearing in his first mid-summer classic.
• Starlin Castro will play in his second All-Star game in just his third big league season. He is from Monte Cristi, DR.

See all these top Dominican players and the rest of the MLB All-Stars July 10, 2012 on FOX.

Rangers dominate Mariners in 5-2 win, behind 4 RBI from Michael Young

Derek Holland pitched 7 and 1/3 innings and allowed two runs to pick up the win for the Rangers over the Mariners on Thursday. The win was the 13th win in 14 decisions for Holland, dating back to last year. Micheal Young was 3-4, including a home and 4 RBI for the Rangers.

The defending AL champion Rangers took the series 3-1. They moved to 5-2 on the 7 day home stand to start the year, and now hit the road for 9 games. The Mariners moved to .500 on the year.

Young opened the scoring in the bottom of the first with an RBI single. He added a 2 run home run in the 5th. Young has a .329 lifetime average with runners in scoring position, and he showed once again why he is such a feared hitter in RBI situations.

Mike Adams gave up a run in the 9th, but still got the save for the Rangers.

Seattle scored three runs which would turn out to be meaningless. Alex Liddi, the lone Italian player in MLB this season, had an RBI. Kyle Seager had a solo home run for the M’s in the 6th inning.  And Dominican baseball player Miguel Olivo had an RBI in the 9th.

NOTES: Dominicans playing were Nelson Cruz (Monte Cristi), Adrian Beltre (Santo Domingo), and Miguel Olivo (Villa Vasquez).

Pre-game from the right field upper deck, photo by Bonzer Wolf aka @BonzerWolf

Dominican baseball players in World Series, Dominicanos en el serie mundial

The World Series is upon us today.  That means it is time for the Dominican Baseball Guy's list of Dominican baseball players in the World Series.

Last round, the Dominican Baseball Guy's index predicted one of two league championship series.  The Cardinals had more Dominicanos than the Brewers did, and they won the series. In the ALCS the Rangers had one fewer Dominican players than the Tigers, but managed to win the series. They only had one less Dominican than the Tigers, so that explains the Index not predicting it correctly.

Enough about last round. Here is the list of peloteros Dominicanos in the World Series:

Texas Rangers: Neftali Feliz, Alexi Ogando, Adrian Beltre, Esteban German, Nelson Cruz
Saint Louis Cardinals: Octavio Dotel, Rafael Furcal...and o yea, some guy named Albert Pujols

So there were no changes to either team regarding the Dominican baseball players.  In total there are 8 Dominican baseball players in the World Series, 16% of all players.

According to the Dominican Baseball Guy's Dominican Baseball Index the Rangers should win this thing easily as they have 5 Dominican baseball players to the Cardinals three.  But wait, one of the Cardinals Dominicanos is Albert Pujols, aka the machine.

Should be good series, as always.  The Dominican Baseball Guy is excited to see all these jugadores de beisbol Dominicano play, and he is also excited to see if the Dominican Baseball Index holds up.  But most of all he is rooting for his loved Texas Rangers and Nelson Cruz.

Dominican baseball players in ALCS and NLCS, Peloteros Dominicanos en los finales de MLB

Time to announce the list of Dominicans baseball players in the league championship series this year.  Last round, The Dominican Baseball Guy's Dominican Baseball Index proved accurate once again.  The teams with the greater number of Dominican baseball players won in three out of four series in the 2011 divisional round of the Major League Baseball playoffs.

We will see if it proves accurate for the league championship series.  Here is the list of Dominican baseball players in the second round of the playoffs:

Texas Rangers: Neftali Feliz, Alexi Ogando, Adrian Beltre, Esteban German, Nelson Cruz
Detroit Tigers: Jose Valverde, Al Alburquerque, Alex Avila, Wilson Betemit, Jhonny Peralta, Ramon Santiago
Saint Louis Cardinals: Octavio Dotel, Rafael Furcal...and o yea, some guy named Albert Pujols
Milwaukee Brewers: Carlos Gomez

The Brewers were the only team to overcome the huge odds of the Dominican Baseball Index in the first round, and they will have to do it again this round, as they have only one beisbolista Dominicano on their roster. The Tigers lead the way this round with six Dominicans on their roster.

Overall there were no changes involving the Dominican baseball players. There will be 15 Dominicanos playing in the league championship series, 15% of the 100 total players.

Texas Rangers news: Adrian Beltre nears rehab assignment, Nelson Cruz in a slump

The Texas Rangers have been one of the most active teams in acquiring Dominican talent over the last few years.  They have done this by signing free agents such as the recent signing of 16 year old Dominican Nomar Mazara for a record $5 million bonus.

They have also traded for young prospects such as when they picked up a young Nelson Cruz in 2006 via trade.  Nelson Cruz has been a solid five tool player since his true breakout year with the Rangers in 2009.  The Dominican Baseball Guy thinks he could be a legit MVP candidate if he was not slowed by so many injuries.  He is currently mired in a 3-23 slump and manager Ron Washington decided to give him a day off on Tuesday.  Says Cruz: "I'm never happy when I'm not playing," he said. "I'm here to play."

Right fielder Nelson Cruz, by Keith Allison on Flickr

The case of Adrian Beltre shows the Rangers are also happy to go after Dominican free agent talent as well.  They signed him to 6 year, $96 million deal this off season.  Seems like a lot of money for a guy that had made only two all-star games and is 35.  But hey, I am just the Dominican Baseball Guy, more of a commentator than an analyst.  Beltre turned in another all-star year this year, and has had a solid year before straining his hamstring on July 22.  He hopes to make a rehab assignment this weekend, see the report here.

Texas Rangers Adrian Beltre, by Keith Allison on Flickr

Nelson Cruz is from Monte Cristi, DR and Adrian Beltre is from the capital Santo Domingo.

Alexi Ogando fifth Ranger named to all-star team

Alexi Ogando has had a strong year as a starter and has been named as a replacement for CC Sabathia in this season's mid-summer classic.  Ogando joins other Rangers Josh Hamilton, CJ Wilson, Michael Young, and fellow Dominican Adrian Beltre on the American League all-star team.

In his first year as a starter, Ogando is 9-3 with a 2.92 ERA in 17 starts and will be making his first All-Star appearance.  This follows his first year in the big leagues in which he had a 1.30 ERA in 41 innings of releif.  Ogando was featured as the Dominican Baseball Guy player of the week for week two.

Ogando is from San Pedro de Macoris, DR.  Beltre is from Santo Domingo, DR.

Alexi Ogando, by Red3Biggs

Danny Richar and Miguel de los Santos Players of Week

The Dominican Winter Baseball League (LIDOM) has named Players of the Week for the playoffs.  In years past they only gave this award during the regular season, so the Dominican Baseball Guy was unaware they were giving out the awards the last couple weeks.

For the first week of the round robin playoffs Danny Richar and Miguel de los Santos won the award.  This was for the period December 27, 2010-January 2, 2011, and here is the press release.

Danny Richar is currently in the Florida Marlins organization and played all of last year with their AAA affiliate New Orleans Zephers, where he hit .315.  Richar has played a handful of games in the big leagues with the White Sox and Reds from 2007-2009.  Richar batted .563 last week to win the award.  He was born in 1983 in La Romana, DR, and has been playing in the states since 2005.  He plays for his hometown Toros de La Romana.

Danny Richar

Miguel de los Santos is in the Rangers organization.  The Rangers are the favorite team of the Dominican Baseball Guy and it is quite a coincidence that they are one the most successful teams in scouting and signing Dominican players in recent years.  They of course have established big leaguers like Nelson Cruz and Julio Borbon, and they recently signed Adrian Beltre.  They also have some great young players.  Alexi Ogando and Omar Beltre were both big stories last season, as was rookie of the year closer Neftali Feliz (all Dominicans).

So, hopefully Miguel de los Santos is the next in line of great young Dominican pitchers for the Rangers.  He has absolute gas and has had almost 2 strikeouts/inning in rookie leagues and A ball over the last 4 years, along with a pretty good ERA.  ESPN Dallas has a nice write up on him here, and LoneStarDugout.com has a short article on his LIDOM success this season here.  He pitched 5 shutout innings in the LIDOM last week to win the award.  Miguel is from La Romana as well, and hopefully we see him in the MLB soon.  He also plays for his hometown La Romana Toros.  It must be a great time for both these players to play in front of their friends and family in their hometown.

Miguel de los Santos

David Ortiz Celebrity Golf Classic

The David Ortiz Celebrity Golf Classic is this weekend in Cap Cana, Dominican Republic.  Here is the official website.  The tournament proceeds fund the David Ortiz Children's Fund, which provides money for pediatric medical care in Boston and the Dominican Republic.  There are a slew of articles covering his charity golf tournament, many coming from Dominican publications (see this one).  This is a huge story in the Dominican Republic, as Ortiz is one of the most famous Dominican players.  The Boston Herald covered it as well and put out a few articles: one on Ortiz's future in Boston, one on Adrian Beltre and his contract opportunities for next year, and several blog posts from Cap Cana on their Extra Bases blog.

In attendance were Dustin Pedroia, Daniel Bard, Jon Lester, Darnell McDonald, Jed Lowrie, Tim Wakefield, Adrian Beltre, Johnny Damon, Pedro Martinez, Vlad Guerrero, Robbie Cano, Ubaldo Jimenez, Placido Polanco and Francisco Liriano.  Bill Russell, Jim Rice, and some other celeberities were there too.  Ortiz is of course the star though.  Here he is with Bobby Orr:

David Ortiz is not alone.  Lots of current and former Dominican players do charity work for their home country.  Jose Bautista is currently teaming with the NCAA to recruit Dominican student athletes.

Dominican Baseball Guy MLB 2010 All-Dominican Team

It is finally time for the Dominican Baseball Guy's prestigious All-Dominican team.  This is a yearly all-star team of the best Dominican players in the MLB for each season.  It is based on numbers, the year each player had, but also on who the Dominican Baseball Guy thinks is the best Dominican Player at each position.  So here is the 2010 MLB All-Dominican Team, as chosen by the Dominican Baseball Guy.

1B Albert Pujols: He did what he always does: .312, 42 HR, 118 RBI.  There is a reason they call this guy "la maquina" or "the machine."  He has hit .300 with 30+ HR and 100+ RBI in every year of his 10 year career.  Pujols has already won a Gold Glove and a Silver Slugger for 2010.  Pujols won the August Dominican Baseball Guy Player of the month and the NL Player of the Month Award.  He is from Santo Domingo, DR.


2B Robinson Cano: This was another easy choice for the Dominican Baseball Guy.  Like Pujols, Cano won both the Gold Glove and the Silver Slugger for 2B in the AL.  So, since he is the best fielder and hitter at his position, he obviously gets a spot on the All-Dominican Team for 2010.  He made the Sporting News post season All-Star team at 2B too.  Cano won the AL Player of the Month for April.  Cano is from San Pedro de Macoris, DR.





SS Hanley Ramirez: Hanley had a self-admited down year, but he still hit .300 with 21 home runs and 76 RBI.  The Dominican Baseball guy is no sure how this guy does not have 100 RBI every year.  He won the Home Run Derby, after which the Dominican Baseball Guy tabbed him as the "sweetest swing in the game."  He has already won the Sporting News NL SS of the year award.  Hanley is from Samana, DR.






3B Adrian Beltre: Adrian won the AL Silver Slugger award for third base.  He has been in the big leagues for 13 years and had perhaps his best year at the plate this year with the Red Sox (.321, 28HR, 102 RBI).  He was the Dominican Baseball Guy June 2010 Player of the Month.  Beltre is from Santo Domingo, DR.

OF Jose Bautista:  Bautista led the MLB with 54 HR and was third in RBI with 124.  He won an AL Silver Slugger and the Hank Aaron award for the top hitter in the AL.  He won the Dominican Baseball Guy Dominican Player of the Month, and the AL Player of the Month for July and August.  Another obvious choice for the All-Dominican Team.  He is from Santo Domingo, DR.

OF Nelson Cruz: So, Nelson only had 22 HR and 78 RBI this year, but he only played in 108 games.  The Dominican Baseball Guy thinks he showed his true form in the playoffs, setting an all-time record for extra-base hits in the playoffs.  If he can stay healthy he will be an All-Star for many years to come.  Cruz is from Monte Cristi, DR.


OF Vladimir Guerrero: OK, Vlad only played a handful of games in the outfield this season.  But the Dominican Baseball Guy did not see any other Dominicans that warranted receiving this prestigious award for this season.  Vlad had an incredible year too (29 HR, 115 RBI, .300).  He is a lifetime .320 hitter, which is 5th on the active list and 54th all-time.  This from a guy that is seen as a power hitter.  One of the Dominican Baseball Guy's favorite players ever, he is from Nizao, DR.

Starting Pitcher Ubaldo Jimenez: Ubaldo got off to a great start and won the NL Pitcher of the Month for April and May.  He was 15-1 at the All-Star break.  He slowed down later in the season, but still finished 19-8 with a 2.88 ERA in 220 innings.  According to this article he is still in a 4 way race for NL Cy Young.

Relief Pitchers Rafael Soriano and Carlos Marmol: Soriano was 3rd in the MLB in saves with 45.  He won the Delivery Man of the Month Award three times this year and The Dominican Baseball Guy Pitcher of the Month award once.  Marmol won the Delivery Man of the Month award once, was 7th in the MLB in saves, and set an MLB record with 15.99 Ks per 9 innings.  Rafael is from San Jose, DR and Carlos is from Bonao, DR.

Rookie Neftali Feliz: Neftali tied for fifth in MLB in saves and set a rookie record with 40 saves.  He won the AL Rookie of the Year award already, so he is surely the top Dominican rookie this season.  Neftali is from Azua, DR.

Notice there are no catchers on the All-Dominican team.  The Dominican Baseball Guy has noticed a strange trend: there are very few Dominican catchers at any level.  The Dominican Baseball Guy does not know of any Dominican catchers in the big leagues, and even in the Dominican Winter Baseball League, a lot for the catchers are imports.  Other than this lack of a catcher, this All-Dominican team has an All-Star or someone that could play for any big league team at every position.  It would be a pretty successful club if they were to all play together.  Not sure how they keep managing to do so bad in the World Baseball Classic.

Dominican MLB 2010 Players of the Month

The Dominican Baseball Guy awarded monthly winners for the top Dominican player and pitcher in the MLB throughout the 2010 season.  These are based solely on the Dominican Baseball Guy's opinion as to which Dominican players had the best month.  Here are the winners throughout the season:

May: Ubaldo Jimenez and Vladimir Guerrero
June: Neftali Feliz and Adrian Beltre
July: Rafael Soriano and Jose Bautista
August: Wandy Rodriguez and Albert Pujols/Jose Bautista
September: Carlos Marmol and Pedro Alvarez

A number of Dominicans also won the official player of the month award for the NL and AL during the 2010 MLB season.  Here is the list of Dominicans that won these awards:

NL Pitcher of the Month (April and May): Ubaldo Jimenez
NL Player of the Month (August): Albert Pujols
NL Rookie of the Month (September): Pedro Alvarez
AL Pitcher of the Month (April): Francisco Liriano
AL Player of the Month (April): Robinson Cano
AL Player of the Month (May): David Ortiz
AL Player of the Month (July and August): Jose Bautista
AL Rookie of the Month (September): Neftali Feliz

Pretty incredible that Dominicans won 10 of the 37 player of the month awards on the year.  This from a country of 10 million people.

Look for the Dominican Baseball Guy's prestigious 2010 All-Dominican team to come out soon.

All Star Game

The Dominican Baseball Guy hoped to blog about the All Star game, but there really is not much to say.  Most of the Dominicans were shut out.  Here is the yahoo sports recap if anyone is interested.

Hanley Ramirez, Rafael Furcal, Albert Pujols, Jose Bautista, Vladimir Guerrero, Adrian Beltre, and Robinson Cano were all hitless.  David Ortiz had 1 hit.  Jose Reyes did not play because he was injured.  So, the Dominicans were 1-12 on the night.

The Dominican pitchers fared a little better.  Ubaldo Jimenez pitched two scoreless innings to start the game for the NL.  Rafael Soriano and Jose Valverde each pitched a scoreless inning for the AL.  Neftali Feliz, and Fausto Carmona did not get to pitch.

So the Dominican Baseball Guy is sad to report that not much happened with the Dominicans in the All Star game this year.  But they did have 14 Dominicans selected to the game and David Ortiz and Hanley Ramirez put on a great show the night before in the Home Run Derby, as the Dominican Baseball Guy says in his previous post.

Dominican MLB June 2010 Players of the Month

There were again, like usual, several Dominicans that got some AL and NL Player of the month votes.  No Dominicans won any of the player of the month awards, this being the first month of 2010 that this has happened.  Ubaldo Jimenez (NL Pitcher of the Month for April and May), Francisco Liriano (AL Pitcher of the Month for April), Robinson Cano (AL Player of the month for April), and David Ortiz (AL Player of the Month for May) have all won the award this year (see the MLB.com Player of the Month page).  It is pretty incredible that Dominicans have won 5 out of the 12 player of the month awards thus far this season.

For June, Adrian Beltre and Vladimir Guerrero were the only Dominicans to get any votes, both for the AL Player of the Month.  Even though the Dominican Baseball Guy loves Vladimir Guerrero, the Dominican Baseball Guy cannot pass up Adrian Beltre for the June 2010 Dominican Baseball Guy Dominican Player of the Month.  Beltre (.376, 7 HR, 19 RBI) had a huge month and would normally win the MLB award if it had not been for Josh Hamiliton's incredible month of June (.454 (49-108),9 HR, 31 RBI).  But this is the Dominican Baseball Guy's Dominican Player of the Month and Josh Hamilton is not Dominican.  Beltre also led a surge by the Red Sox who were 18-9 on the month. Beltre played for the Dominican Republic in the most recent World Baseball Classic, here he is with Albert Pujols during this competition:

As for the pitchers, amazingly no Dominicans got any votes for the MLB Pitchers of the month, this after Jimenez won the first two in the National League.  The Dominican Baseball Guy's Dominican Pitcher of the Month for June 2010 goes to Neftali Feliz.  The Dominican Baseball Guy is of course a fan of the Rangers, but Feliz is two off the MLB lead in saves with 23 thus far.  He had 8 in June.  He is from Azua on the southwest coast of the Dominican Republic.  There seem to be a lot of players from this city, so the Dominican Baseball Guy will tag this city every time it is mentioned.  Neftali is only in his second big league season, but has become the full time closer on a very good team.  Here is Neftali with Micheal Young after a save:

Also, the Dominican Baseball Guy liked the recap of the MLB Player's of the Month over at http://fullcountpitch.com/.