Rangers hoping another young Dominican pitcher works out well after success of Dominican pitcher Ogando

Alexi Ogando made the switch from outfield to pitcher after the Rangers signed him as an outfielder back in 2005.  After the whole fake birth certificate fiasco, Ogando made his way to the states, and on to the big league roster as a closer.  After one year as a closer, he moved to the starting rotation, and made an All-Star team and pitched in a World Series.

Another young Dominican pitcher is hoping to have similar success in the Rangers system.  Johan Yan had a breakthrough year last in AA.  He pitched some as a closer and some as a starter.  Yan is still developing as a pitcher, so the Rangers are not sure where he will land in the big leagues.  But either as a starter or closure, the Rangers think he will be their next big time Dominican pitcher, to go along with Ogando and Neftali Feliz, just to name two.

Ogando and Yan are both from the famed city of San Pedro de Macoris.  Feliz is from Azua, Dominican Republic.

Johan Yan hopes to follow in steps of fellow Dominican pitcher Alexi Ogando (seen here), photo by mjl816 on Flickr

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 Player of Week 2: Alexi Ogando

Alexi Ogando only pitched one time during week two, but combined with his week one performance he is worthy of the Dominican Baseball Guy's player of week 2.  Ogando started the season by shutting out the Mariners in six innings pitched, in his first career start.  He followed that up with seven innings and no runs against the Tigers.  In his first two starts of his career here is his line: 2-0, 0.00 ERA, 13 innings, 8 K.

Ogando has been featured in two recent posts from the Dominican Baseball Guy, so just check the tags at the bottom of this post to see those.  After going through a long legal process in which he was accused of visa fraud, Ogando debuted last year and was one of the best relievers in baseball.  He ended with a 1.30 ERA in 42 innings.  He was not scheduled to start for the Rangers this season, but moved into the rotation after some injuries.  It will be hard for Ron Washington to move him back to the bullpen if he keeps this pace up.  Ogando is from San Pedro de Macoris, DR.

Other Dominicans in week 2: Neftali Feliz (Azua, DR): 3.1 innings, 3 saves, 0.00 ERA, Vladimir Guerrero (Nizao, DR) 8-25, Manny Ramirez (Santo Domingo): retired from MLB

Alexi Ogando, by Red3Biggs

Dominican Player of Week 1: Starlin Castro

Starlin Castro shared NL Player of the Week honors with Cardinals starter Jaime Garcia, so this gets him the Dominican Baseball Guy's Dominican Player of the Week.

Castro is a young talent for the Cubs, as they signed him out of the Dominican Republic at the age of 16 in 2006, and he debuted last season playing in 125 games for the big league club.  He hit .300 last year which was good for 10th in the NL, and fielding short stop is one of his strengths.  So, he should only improve this year and after week one he was leading the majors with a .615 average.  A recent fantasy update predicted him as the 12th best option at short stop in the majors.  Castro is from Monte Cristi, DR.

Other Dominicans in week 1: Nelson Cruz (Monte Cristi, DR): 3 HR, 3 RBI, .364, Neftali Feliz (Azua, DR): 2 innings, 2 K, 0.00 ERA, David Ortiz (Santo Domingo): 2 HR, 4 RBI

Starlin Castro with the Cubs last year, by Gamefreak777 

Several Dominican pitchers scheduled to close for their teams

Six Major League Baseball teams have already penciled in Dominican pitchers to close for their team.  Additionally, their are two other Dominicans that will probably see time in the closer role for their team at some point this season.

Among them are Neftali Feliz (Azua, Dominican Republic), Carlos Marmol (Bonao), and Jose Valverde (San Pedro de Macoris).

See the rest of the Dominican closers and the full article at the Dominican Baseball Examiner

Neftali Feliz pitches, by RWH on Flickr

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

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/.