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.

Dominican baseball players on playoff rosters, Dominicanos en los finales de MLB

Every year, the Dominican Baseball Guy puts out a list of Dominican players on playoff rosters for each round.  So, here is the 2011 list of Dominican players on active MLB 25-man rosters for the Divisional round of the playoffs:

Texas Rangers: Neftali Feliz, Alexi Ogando, Adrian Beltre, Esteban German, Nelson Cruz

Tampa Bay Rays: Joel Peralta, Juan Cruz 

Detroit Tigers: Jose Valverde, Al Alburquerque, Alex Avila, Wilson Betemit, Jhonny Peralta, Ramon Santiago 

New York Yankees: Ivan Nova, Rafael Soriano, Robinson Cano, Eduardo Nunez

Milwaukee Brewers: Carlos Gomez

Saint Louis Cardinals: Octavio Dotel, Rafael Furcal...and o yea, some guy named Albert Pujols

Arizona Diamondbacks: NOT A SINGLE DOMINICAN...they are definitely going to lose

Philadelphia Phillies: Placido Polanco, Michael Martinez, Wilson Valdez, Antonio Bastardo

This is 26 of the 200 players on active rosters for the first round of the playoffs.  This is the exact same number that were on Divisional playoff rosters last season.  It comes out to 13% of the 200 active players, which is slightly ahead of the 10% represented on opening day rosters.  The Tigers lead the way with 7 Dominican players on their playoff rosters and the Rangers have 6.

Interesting that the Dominican Baseball Guy has seen several of these players pop up in the Dominican Winter Baseball League (LIDOM), and they are now playing at the highest level of baseball.  See the tags for Esteban German, Nelson Cruz, Wilson Betemit, Ramon Santiago, Wilson Valdez...all players that the Dominican Baseball Guy has seen in LIDOM action in recent years.

Dominican Team Loses on Final Day of Caribbean Series, Mexico Takes Title

Cuban Raul Valdes pitched 7.2 innings of scoreless ball and the Toros de la Romana defeated the Puerto Rican host team Criollos de Caguas in the final game of the 2011 Caribbean Series.  Julio Manon earned his third save of the tournament in finishing out the shutout for the Dominican team.

Alejandro de Aza (White Sox) had a two RBI triple to open the scoring for the Toros in the 4th inning.  De Aza later scored an insurance run off an Esteban German (Rangers) infield single to finish off the scoring.

Puerto Rico had a chance to tie Mexico for the series lead and force a one game playoff, but they ended up in a tie for second with the Dominican Republic.  Both teams had a 3-3 record.

Mexico won their earlier game over Venezuela to finish the tournament 4-2 and take the title. This is the sixth time a Mexican team has won the title and first since 2005 when the Venados de Mazatlan took the title.  It is also the first Caribbean Series title for the Yaquis de Obregon.

Mexico Celebrates the 2011 Caribbean Series Title

Next year's tournament will be in the Dominican Republic with La Romana and Santo Domingo both vying to host the event.

Caribbean Series Final Standings:

Mexico: 4-2

Puerto Rico: 3-3

Dominican Republic: 3-3

Venezuela: 3-3

Dominican Republic wins 4-3 on third day of Caribbean Series

The Dominican team came back with two outs in the ninth inning and down 3-1 to defeat the Puerto Rican squad in day three of the Caribbean Series.  Esteban German scored the game winning run after knocking in two runs on a triple to tie the game in the ninth.  German is a non-roster invitee to Rangers spring training camp in a few weeks.

Fernando Abad pitched 4.2 innings and allowed 1 run for the Dominican team represented by the Toros de la Romana.  Abad is a roster invitee to the Astros camp.  Julio Manon got his second save of the tourney.

Major League veteran Alex Cora had a strong game for the host Puerto Ricans, going 3-3 with two walks.

Alex Cora, By Keith Allison on Flickr 

Mexico beat Venezuela 7-3 in the other game on the day.

Caribbean Series standings:
Dominican Republic: 2-1
Mexico: 2-1
Venezuela: 1-2
Puerto Rico: 1-2

Toros de la Romana Sweep Estrellas, Win LIDOM Championship

The Toros de la Romana defeated the Estrellas from San Pedro de Macoris to win the Dominican Winter Baseball League (LIDOM) championship for the 2010-11 season.  This is the Toros first championship since 1994-95.

The Toros won the 5th game of the 9 game series with an explosion of four runs in the seventh inning.  Martin Maldanado (Brewers), Esteban German (Rangers), Ricardo Nanita, and Eduardo Nunez (Yankees) each had RBI for the Toros in this frame.  The victory went to reliever Jairo Asencio (Braves) and Julio Manon got the save.

For the Estrellas, Eugelio de la Cruz got the loss, even though he gave up no earned runs in six innings.  Andres Rodriguez and Argenis Reyes had RBI in a losing cause for the Estrellas.

The Toros won the title on their home field, and the atmosphere was second to none.  The crowd was standing for most of the contest and it was extremely loud throughout.  The great home fans even rushed the field at the end of the contest, something the Dominican Baseball Guy has never seen at a baseball game.  See the official video from ligadom.com or some youtube clips like this one:


The Toros go on to the Caribbean Series to face the champions of the winter leagues in Mexico, Venezuela, and Puerto Rico.  It takes place from February 2-7 in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico.

Congratulations La Romana and Toros