NL Wildcard Game Features Two Dominican Pitchers

The last week of the regular season got the Dominican Baseball Guy excited for baseball again. As, a Rangers fan we have had some tough years in the playoffs, and this year was no different. After making it to a wildcard play-in game they lost to the Devil Rays. I am not a fan of one wildcard team, so I think two is rather ridiculous.

Play 162 games to let a wildcard team sneak in and get hot, beat a team like the Mariners in their record wins year of 2001 have to play a wildcard team? But as a fan of a team that just sneaked into the wildcard play-in game, I must say I loved it. It was an exciting week no whether your team was playing or not.

And then as a fan of Dominican baseball I get this treat last night. Two Dominican starting pitches: Francisco Liriano versus Johnny Cueto. Johnny Cueto told MLB.com what the game means to him and his country:

I want to tell my people in the Dominican Republic to follow this game. "There are two Dominicans on the mound. I want to give advice to all the youth in the Dominican that you have to work hard and to continue working hard to do things like this.

Francisco Lirano dominated, and the Pirates won easily. His up and down play has been well followed here at the Dominican Baseball Guy. A true natural in my opionion. A near Cy Young and Rookie of the Year sweep in 2006 before getting hurt in August. He never really recovered from Tommy John surgery...until 2010 really. An entire missed season (2007) and two bad years.

Then in 2010 he returned to the Dominican Republic to play Winter Ball. He had an insane winter season, leading Escogido to the championship and then pitched well in the Caribbean World Series. It was cool having a guy of his magnitude playing daily in the Dominican Winter League that year. But he was still erratic.

After another Cy Young-worthy year in 2010 he had a down year in 2011 and 2012, and then signed with Pittsburgh for this year. And everything seemed to click -16-8 and a 3.02 ERA. And last night in the NL Wildcard game was one of the good nights. His slider was as good as it has ever been, with Reds batters swinging at it in the grass two feet from home. Vintage Liriano, allowing one run in seven innings.

The Reds scored another run in the 8th, but they were never really in it. Andrew McCutchon was doing his thing running all over the bases. He had two hits and two walks. It seemed like he was on the bases all night. Marlon Byrd had two RBI and Russel Martin had two homers. The game was over by the 4th inning the way Liriano was pitching.

The other Dominican pitcher did not fair too well. Johnny Cueto was said to have been rattled by the raucous Pittsburgh crowd. To which manager Dusty Baker said at the post-game presser: "he did not get rattled he just couldn't hit his pitches. He played in the Dominican Winter League and all that, and if you have been down there you know how intense those games are."

Interesting side note. I love that quote. Baker insulting the reporter by implying that he has never been to a Dominican Winter League game at the same time as brushing off his questions as ridiculous.

In the end it was all Liriano. "We had the expectancy to win," Andrew McCutchen said to the AP. "When he showed up with his suit on, that got me hyped up."

Dominican pitcher Francisco Liriano with Twins, photo by Marit & Toomas Hinnosaar on Flickr

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

Ex-Pirate Tony Pena elected to Latino Baseball Hall of Fame, Dominicano Tony Pena va a Salon de Fama

The Latin Baseball Hall of Fame, or Salon de la Fama del Beisbol Latino, is based in La Romana, Dominican Republic.  The organization works in coordination with MLB and the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

They recently announced their class for 2012.  Aiden Gonzalez of MLB.com covered the story from the perspective of Bernie Williams and the Yankees.  But the Dominican Baseball Guy has not seen one article covering from the perspective of the Dominican inductee and former Pittsburgh Pirate Tony Pena.  Shocking, (the Dominican Baseball Guys knows) MLB and other major media outlets covering the Yankees and not the Pirates.

So, as the Dominican Baseball Guy it is my duty to cover Tony Pena's side of this great honor.  Pena is of course one the most revered Dominican players, and the Dominican Baseball Guy would consider him one of the leaders of what he considers the "modern wave" of Dominicans coming into the big leagues since the 1980s.    He is certainly one of the greatest Dominican catchers to ever play in the big leagues.  You know what, the Dominican Baseball Guy is going to say it: Tony Pena is the greatest Dominican catcher of all-time.

Which bring the Dominican Baseball Guy to another point...THERE ARE NO DOMINICAN CATCHERS nowadays.  The Dominican Baseball Guy noticed this down in the Dominican Republic.  In all the pick up games there is rarely someone playing catcher.  The Dominican Baseball Guy also hypothesizes that there is rarely good catching equipment in La Republica Dominica, so this could be another reason for the dearth of catchers in the country.  Lastly, the Dominican Baseball Guy surmises that "it's just not cool" to play catcher in for young Dominican players.  Just the opinion of the Dominican Baseball Guy, maybe some other reasons for this anomaly.

Pena had a great career that spanned 18 MLB seasons. He came up with the Pirates and went on to play with the Cardinals, Red Sox, and Indians. Tony was known for his defense behind the plate. He won 4 gold gloves and made 5 All-Star teams. He made it to the World Series with the Cardinals in 1987, losing to the Twins.

Tony also had a long career in the Dominican Winter Baseball League, playing late into his career with his original team, the Aguilas from Sanitago. The Dominican Baseball Guy could not find any statistics on his career in the DWL, but he played for more than ten years and won several titles with the Aguilas.

Tony went strait into coaching after his career was over, as many catchers do. He has managed the Aguilas for several years, winning DWL in 1998, 2000, 2001, and a Caribbean Series Championship with the team in 2001.  He spent 2002-2005 as the Royals manager and has been the Yankees bench coach for three years. 

Tony is from Monte Cristi, Dominican Republic. His son Tony Pena Jr. has pitched in the LIDOM and has had a cup of coffee as a pitcher with the Royals, and his other son, Francisco Pena, is in the Mets organization.  He joins Felipe Alou, Juan Marichal, Tetelo Vargas, Rico Carty and Horacio Martinez as the Dominican members of the Latino Hall of Fame.

Tony Pena, Yankees bench coach, by Keith Allison on Flickr

Dominican Winter Baseball: Gigantes game canceled due to strike, Ecogido has Venezuelan Cheerleaders!

10/19/09 Games-
The Gigantes have an off night tonight, and their game tomorrow has been canceled due to protests in San Fransisco de Macoris over public transportation and electricity services.

The Dominican Baseball Guy does not blame the strikers, the electricity is really sporadic at best in my apartment. Most of the businesses are closed today and people have set up road blocks to stall public transportation. There have been ongoing clashes with police in some parts of the city. The Gigantes will play in the capital tomorrow though, and this game has been rescheduled for Thursday. Unfortunately, this is not all that uncommon in the Dominican Republic.

In other games tonight Yasser Gomez had a double, single, and three runs. He is from Cuba, and as far as I can tell this is his first experience outside Cuba. He could be a player to watch going forward. Also, Robinson Diaz had three sinlges and a run for the Estrellas Orientales from San Pedro de Macoris. Diaz played in 41 games with the Pirates last year and posted a respectable .279 average in 129 at bats as a catcher. Francisco Rosario pitched four shutout innings, but Roberto Giron got the win pitching scoreless innings in the 5th and 6th.

Astros farmhand Jose Capellan got the loss for the Bulls from La Romana.

The other game had Licey vs. Escogido, the two teams in Santo Dominigo. Aparently, the Listin Diario web site thought it was more important to publish an article about the Escogido cheerleaders being from Venezuela (not Dominicans as is the norm), than to publish the results of the game. Anyway, imported player Tobi Stoner took the win for Escogido. He was in the Mets organization last year, and allowed 1 run in 5 innings last night. Another American, Michael McKenry had a two RBI double for Escogido. He was an everyday player last year with Tulsa of the Texas League, an affiliate of the Rockies.

American player Michael McKenry had two RBI for Escogido Monday,
photo by Keith Allison on Flickr