Dominican baseball player Jose Bautista to have season ending surgery

Dominican baseball player Jose Bautista burst on to the Major League Baseball scene two years ago and led the league in home runs. He did it again last year. And he was possibly on pace to lead the majors in home runs for a third strait year, as he had 27 home runs through 92 games.

But, after trying to work through a wrist injury much of the year, the 31-year-old Dominican Republic native was examined hand specialist Dr. Thomas Graham on Monday and will have surgery sometime next week.

From the Blue Jays website:

"The only way I could have played again this year without having surgery was to do what we did. I tried, here's just too much instability in that tendon."

Perhaps Bautista could have toughed it out until the off-season to have surgery, but with the team mired at the bottom of the standings the surgery is the best route to take at this point.

The Dominican baseball player Bautista is a three-time All-Star and two-time Silver Slugger award winner. He is from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

Jose Bautista, by Keith Allison on Flickr

2 Dominican players compete in 2012 MLB Home Run Derby

The 2012 MLB All-Star Game rosters feature 8 Dominican baseball players this year. That comes out to 11% of all the players appearing in the All-Star Game. The percentage of Dominican players appearing in the 2012 MLB Home Run Derby last night was smaller, but the country still had two representatives swing away in the Derby.

Dominican player Robinson Cano was shut out in the first round of the Home Run Derby. The Dominican Baseball Guy can not remember any player getting shut out in a Derby, so it must be a long time since that has happened. This proves once again that the Home Run Derby does not mean a lot. Cano is one of the top  5 players in the game by most accounts, and he will be in the running for the AL MVP again this year.

However, Jose Bautista salvaged the competition for fans of Dominican players. Bautista has led the AL in home runs the last two seasons and is a appearing in his second strait home run derby, so he was expected to have a good showing. He made it to the second round, then snuck into the finals in a bat off against Mark Trumbo, before finally losing in the finals to Prince Fielder.

Dominican baseball player Robinson Cano is from San Pedro de Macoris, Dominican Republic and Jose Bautista is from Santo Domingo.

All-Star game voting: Baseball fans in the Dominican Republic have chance to vote this year

Every year the Major League All-Star game and festivities seem to grow. There is the Futures Game, a celebrity softball game, and of course the Home Run Derby. And the voting has expanded greatly, especially since internet voting opened a few years back.

Nowadays fans can vote at the stadiums, at a number of voting stations, and online throughout the world. So, Dominicans in the Dominican Republic have had the opportunity to vote online since that voting method was put into place. But this year they will be able to vote at Banco BHD banks throughout the country.

Banco BHD will sponsor All-Star Balloting in the Dominican Republic.  Spanish-language ballots will be available to fans in the Dominican Republic via LasMayores.com, the official Spanish-language web site of MLB, and at All-Star Balloting terminals across more than 80 branches, beginning in May.

Being that internet access is not very widespread in the Dominican Republic, this is good news for Dominican baseball fans. On the other hand, any Dominican fan that wanted to vote would have probably made their way to an internet connection and figured out how to vote. Add in the fact that the Dominican Republic has a population of only ten million, and this initiative will probably have little effect on the final All-Star rosters. 

At least it gives Dominicans that choose to vote more access to their beloved game. And enough Americans vote on Dominican baseball players that if they are the best player at their position they usually get in, nationalistic tendencies be damned.

Dominican MLB All Stars

The Major League All Star game is tonight and the Home Run Derby was last night.

Two Dominicans, David Ortiz and Hanley Ramirez fought it out in the finals of the Home Run Derby.  What can the Dominican Baseball Guy say about Hanley Ramirez.  Probably the sweetest swing in the game.  He already has a batting title and now he is winning the Home Run Derby.  And he plays shortstop.  But experience won out this time as David Ortiz paced himself.  Hanley is from Samana and Big Papi is from Santo Domingo.  Ortiz counseled a young Ramirez early in his career:

"Hanley is like a son to me. He grew up with us in  Boston" Ortiz said.  "I was all over him, because i knew he had a super talent. I'm really happy for him. He showed what he could do."  

Many young Dominicans have been unable to adjust to cultural differences and pressures of big league play.  Obviously these two have made a swell transition to the MLB.

Here is a preview of tonight's All-Star Game.  And it took me several minutes (an eternity in internet time) to find a list of the current All Star rosters.  The Dominican Baseball Guy was surprised to see that there are 81 All Stars.  Lots of All Stars.  Five out of 20 starters are Dominican, and there are 14 total Dominicans out of the 81 All Stars.  This is 17% of the All Stars, while no other country (besides the United States of course) is represented by more than 2 All Stars.  Of course, Ubaldo Jimenez will start for the NL and he says that he is happy to represent his family and the Dominican Republic in this interview.  Should be a good game tonight, we will see how these Dominican peloterros do.