Dominican player of the week: Pedro Alvarez

The Pirates are gravitating back toward their below .500 normal winning percentage after a stellar start to the year in which they looked like playoff material. They went 2-4 last week. But just because the team does badly, that does not mean that one of their players cannot be the player of the week.

Dominican player Pedro Alvarez won the National League Player of the Week award, and by default that also makes him the Dominican Baseball Guy Player of the Week. This is his second career NL Player of the Week Award and second time he has won the Dominican Baseball Guy Player of the Week award. He also won the Dominican Player of the Week award back in May of this year.

This week, Alvarez went 11 for 24 (.458) in the week that ended Sunday. He hit four home runs, two doubles and drove in eight runs.

The former Rookie of the Year winner, Alvarez is from Santo Domingo, Republica Dominicana.

Dominican player of the Week Pedro Alvarez, photo by Keith Allison on Flick

Dominican player of the week: Pedro Alvarez

Wow, this is a rare occasion. The Dominican Baseball Guy has not heard of this week's Dominican Player of the Week. And he is in his third year in the majors. So it goes, for members of the Pirates organization. EDIT: upon further review the Dominican Baseball Guy blogged about Pedro Alvarez a couple times back in 2010.

Until this year, the Pirates have been mired in obscurity since the days of Barry Bonds pirouetting down the first base line. But this year's group of young Pirates has them reaching toward a playoff appearance. Andrew McCutchen is of course the leader of this requrgent Pirates team, but there are a bunch of other young players helping him out. And one of them is this week's Dominican Player of the Week, Pedro Alvarez.

Alvarez was born in Santo Domingo, but grew up in New York City where he was a star in high school. In that sense he is one of many Dominican York living mostly on the upper west side around the Washington Heights area in New York City. He went on to attend Vanderbilt before being drafted second overall by the Pirates in 2008.

He seems to be living up to expectations that come with that lofty number two overall pick. He made the majors in just his second year and almost instantly became an everyday starter at third base for the Pirates. Alvarez went on to win a National League Player of the Week award last season, and is poised for maybe an All-Star run this season with the resurgent Pirates.

His nickname is 'El Toro' which means 'The Bull' for those of you that do not habla Espanol. And again, he is from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

Dominican player of the Week Pedro Alvarez, photo by Keith Allison on Flick

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.

Dominican MLB September 2010 Players of the Month

The Dominican Player of the Month for September could easily go to one of the co-players of the month for August, Albert Pujols or Jose Bautista.  Both had huge months yet again, and Bautista received voted for the AL Player of the Month (see the MLB press release).  So consider them runners up for the Dominican Baseball Guy Dominican Player of the Month for September 2010.

But the Dominican Baseball is going with an little known Dominican for the Dominican Player of the Month for September.  And the award goes to Pedro Alvarez, of the Pittsburg Pirates.  The Dominican Baseball Guy knows, few of you have heard of him...and he plays for the Pirates.  But he had a huge September.  Over the last 30 days of the regular season he had 5 HRs, 24 RBIs, and hit .320.  And he is a rookie, and may still have his rookie eligibility for next year, though the Dominican Baseball Guy is not sure on this.  He did play in 95 games this year, and made it to the big leagues after just two plus years in the minors.  He actually went to Vanderbilt, which is not the most common route to the big leagues for Dominican Prospects.  He did not have the best year in the 95 games he did play, but was hot in September and maybe he has a more consistent year next year.  Pedro is from Santo Domingo, DR.

The Dominican Pitcher of the Month for September 2010 was an easier choice.  Carlos Marmol of the Cubs won the MLB Delivery Man of the Month award (see MLB press release), and he is the Dominican Baseball Guy's Dominican Pitcher of the Month for September 2010.  In September he was 13 for 13 in saves and did not allow a single run.  He finished the season with an MLB record 16K/9 innings.  Carlos is from Bonao, DR and has been in the big leagues for 5 seasons, but just became the everyday closer for the Cubs this year.  He has an interesting side arm style on some pitches that you can kind of see in this picture: