Record nine Dominicans to play in MLB All-Star Game

Dominican player David Ortiz is appearing in his
9th All-Star Game. Photo by Aaron Donovan.

The 2013 MLB All-Star Game features a a record nine Dominican baseball players. The total number of Latin and Dominican players has been on the upswing over the last decade-plus, and those higher numbers of total players undoubtedly leads to more Latins and Dominicans participating in the mid-summer classic. Last year in the 2012 All-Star Game eight Dominican players were featured in the game.

The American League All-Star roster features starters and perennial All-Stars Robinson Cano, Jose Bautista, and David Ortiz. It also features Dominicans Bortolo Colon, Jhonny Peralta, Nelson Cruz, and Edwin Encarnacion. No shortage of drama here, as you can see that Colon, Peralta, and Cruz are all mired in steroid accusations and could be suspended before the end of the year. But alas, they have been named to the team.

Featured on the National League roster are just two Dominican players. Jean Segura is appearing in his first All-Star game, after just a little over a years in the majors. He had a respectable season for part of last year with the Brewers, and then he tore up the Dominican Winter League in the off-season with the Gigantes del Cibao. The other Dominican player on the National League roster is Segura's teammate in Milwaukee Carlos Gomez.

This is the Dominican players that plan to play as of now. The Dominican Baseball Guy is somewhat perplexed at the All-Star carosuel. I beleive Colon is out due to injury or he is a replacement player, but is not playing. I thought Cruz was out injured as well. Big Papi will probably come up once, swing for the fences, and sit down. Who really knows?

In the end, nine Dominican players have been named to the 2013 MLB All-Star game. We will all tune in tonight to see which ones play.

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

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

Dominican player of the week: Alfonso Soriano

Dominican player and Cubs outfielder Alfonso Soriano has been named the Dominican player of the week here at the Dominican Baseball Guy blog. Soriano is no stranger to awards. Since he first appeared on the MLB scene back in 2000 with the Yankees he has made seven All-Star games. He has won the player of the week in his league six times, and the player of the month three times. And he has four Silver Slugger awards.

Last week was a short week due to the All-Star break, but in just three games Soriano had two doubles, two home runs, and five RBI, while hitting .545. He actually did most of the damage in just one game, with both doubles and both home runs, and the five RBI all coming one game.

His average has declined in recent years, but he was never a high average hitter. But he is still on pace for around 30 home runs and 90 RBI, right around his career average. Pretty good numbers for a 36 year old player in his 14th MLB season.

He had two World Series titles with the great Yankees championship teams and made the playoffs with the Cubs in 2007 and 2008. Other than that, he can be said to be a player that has had all these great numbers on bad teams. He put up great numbers on some really bad Rangers teams, and perhaps his best year came with a horrible Nationals team in 2006.

Soriano is one of the few Dominican players to be signed as a free agent into the Japanese Professional Baseball League (NIPON) where he played for three seasons before being picked up by the Yankees. He is from San Pedro de Macoris, Dominican Republic.

Dominican player of the week Alfonso Soriano, photo by EmmyMik on Flickr

Dominican player Melky Cabrera earns 2012 All-Star MVP

The National League thumped the American League last night in the annual MLB All-Star Game, winning 8-0. And with a score line like that it was going to be pretty hard for an AL player to get the MVP, considering the pitchers usually only go one innings each.

So, it was no surprise that Dominican player Melky Cabrera won the MVP for the NL. They opened the scoring with five runs in the first, and then Cabrera added a three-run home run in the fourth inning. And that was all the scoring there would be.

Cabrera won the MVP in his first All-Star Game. The Giants infielder is with his fourth team in four years, but finally seems to have found a spot with the Giants. He is hitting .353 and leading the NL in hits thus far. He is a great all-around player that can do it all at the plate and in the field. The Dominican Baseball Guy expects to see him in the All-Star Game every year.

Former teammate and fellow Dominican player Robinson Cano was happy for him:

"That's great, man," Cano said. "I'm happy. His mom was crying. It was nice. If you don't win, you want to see one of your boys do good. I'm so happy for him. He's getting better every year."

Dominican player Cabrera is from Santo Domingo, Republica Dominicana.

Dominican player Melky Cabrera wins the 2012 MLB All-Star MVP

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.

Dominican Republic baseball player of the week: Oscar Taveras

Normally the Dominican Baseball Guy goes with a big league Dominican baseball player for his Dominican Player of the Week pick. In fact, the Dominican Baseball Player of the Week has never gone to a minor league player. 

That all changes this week, as Oscar Taveras gets the Dominican Baseball Player of the Week award based on his performance in the 2012 MLB Futures Game. Taveras went 1-3 from the plate in the Futures game, as the World team was thumped by the American squad by a score of 17-5. The Dominican Republic baseball player Taveras had a few bad throws in the field to go along with his one hit.

So, that does not sound like a performance worthy of the Dominican Baseball Player of the Week huh? Well the fact is that the Futures minor league All-Star game featured 8 Dominican players and Taveras performed the best out of those eight players.

Taveras is ranked as the number 74 prospect in all of baseball by Baseball America, and he has been an all-star at every minor league stop he has made. He hit .386 last year in single-A and is hitting above .300 again this year in double-A. The Cardinals see him as an every day outfielder in the next two years.

He is from Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic, an awesome Dominican beach town on the north coast of the country.

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.

Futures minor league All-Star game to feature 8 Dominican players

The Futures All-Star game rosters were release Thursday, and both the rosters of the United States and the World All-Stars are packed with future stars.  The United States of course has a whole squad of American players, but on the World side, Dominican players lead the way with eight selections.

The World team has players from eleven different countries.  Dominican players to be featured in the game are the Diamondbacks Alfredo Marte (Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic), the Rockies Edwar Cabrera (Bani), the Royals Yordano Ventura (Samana), the Angels Jean Segura (San Juan), the Phillies Lisalverto Bonilla (Samana), the Padres Rymer Liriano (Santo Domingo), the Cardinals Oscar Taveras (Puerto Plata), and the Rays Enny Romero (Santo Domingo).

Jean Segura is perhaps the most highly touted of these Dominican prospects.  He was the highest ranked Dominican player on Baseball America's top 100 prospects of 2012, appearing at number 55 on the list.  Segura has been threatening to crack the Angels roster and should make it up this year or next.  For that matter all these prospects should be in the big leagues within the next few years.

This is the 14th annual Futures Game.  The game will take place All-Star weekend on July 8th at 5 p.m. E.T.

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.

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

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 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.