Dominican Republic baseball player of the week: Ervin Santana

Ervin Santana of the Angels is this weeks Dominican Republic Baseball Player of the Week.  Interestingly, this is the first time that Santana has appeared on the Dominican Baseball Guy blog.  The Dominican Baseball Guy was thinking that this may be due to the fact that he is new to the big leagues, but he has actually been a pretty successful major leaguer for eight seasons.

He has been in the top ten in the American League in wins three times, and has consistently eaten up innings for the Angels.  He made one All-Star team back in 2008.  Overall, the Dominican Baseball Guy assesses Santana as a very good middle of the rotation to end of the rotation starter.  I liken him to another Dominican pitcher, Wandy Rodriguez of the Astros, as far as overall skill as a starting pitcher.

Santana is having not the best year.  Through Monday, he had a 5.16 ERA and was 4-7.  He is still a middle of the rotation workhorse in any case, having pitched 89 innings in 14 starts.

With this said, he wins the Dominican Republic baseball player of the week this week due to his one-hitter against the Diamondbacks.  He pitched 6 and 2/3 innings of perfect baseball, and got the shutout victory for the ultra-hot Angels.

Santana also threw a no-hitter last season.  He is from San Cristobal, Dominican Republic.

Dominican Republic baseball player of the week Ervin Santana,
photo by Keith Allison on Flickr

Astros next owner looks to increase team's presence in Dominican Republic

Astros ownership could change hands as soon as next week, and the new owner should continue to increase the team's presence in the Dominican Republic.  General Manager Ed Wade has made inroads in the country and convinced current owner to make some big deals regarding Dominican players.

They currently have five pitchers on the big league roster that come from the country, most notably Wandy Rodriguez.  The Dominican Baseball Guy recently blogged about the rest of the pitchers and some minor leaguers in the Astros system that are Dominican, so you can see that here.

Recently, the Astros gave 16-year-old  Ariel Ovando a $2.6 million signing bonus, which was the second highest signing bonus handed to a Dominican prospect last year.  They expect to see him in the big leagues as soon as 2015.

So, regarding the Astros presence in the Dominican Republic, Ed Wade seems to have done a good job.  Other insiders say he has done a decent job of rebuilding the club in other areas.  Probable owner Jim Crane will have to decide if Wade has done well enough to keep his job.

Houston Astros sign several Dominican players, add to Dominicans on roster

The Houston Astros have added some key arms to their roster this offseason.  First, they resigned Wandy Rodriguez (see the AP article).  The Dominican Baseball Guy thinks Wandy is an ace or at least a number two starter.  He won the Dominican Baseball Guy player of the month for August 2010.  Wandy is from Santiago, DR.

Next, they signed Enerio del Rosario.  He debuted for the Reds last year and should see time in the Astros bullpen this season, after he had a strong winter season in the Dominican Winter Baseball League (LIDOM).  They also resigned Jimmy Paredes, who is on the 40 man roster, but will most likely start next year in the minors.  Parades came to the Astros in the Lance Berkman deal.  Enerio is from Santa Lucia, DR and Paredes is from Haina, DR.  Brian Mctaggart reported these deals here.

Most recently the Astros resigned Alberto Arias (see the details from Sports Blog Nation Houston).  Arias missed all of 2010 with an injury, but should see time in the Astros bullpen if he continues to recover from the rotator cuff injury.  Alberto is from the capital of the DR, Santo Domingo.

These signings are in addition the following Dominican players on the Astros 40 man roster: Fernando Abad (La Romana, DR), Henry Villar (Bonao), Jorge DeLeon (La Cega Azua), and Aneury Rodriguez (Higuey).  There are also several non-roster Dominican invitees to spring training.

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 August 2010 Players of the Month

Wow, this is gonna sound like "Groundhog Day," and there are going to be a couple of obvious choices for the prestigious Dominican Baseball Guy all-Dominican Team that will be announced at the end of the year.  But any time a Dominican wins one of the league player of the month or pitcher of the month awards, it is going to be hard for the Dominican Baseball Guy to give the Dominican player of the month award to another Dominican.

For the first time, there are co-Dominican Players of the Month.  Albert "Winnie the" Pujols won the NL Player of the Month for August and Jose Bautista won the AL award.  As the Dominican Baseball Guy has said before on this previous post, fullpitchcount.com has the best recap of the MLB players of the month.  Albert had another crazy month (.379, 11 HRs, 23 RBI) on the way to winning his 5th NL Player of the Month Award.  Jose Bautista won the AL award for the 2nd strait month with 12 HRs and 24 RBI.  He is the first Dominican to win the Dominican Baseball Guy's Dominican Player of the Month Award 2 months in a row.  Albert and Jose are both from the capital of the DR, Santo Domingo.

Even though Rafael Soriano won the MLB Delivery Man of the Month Award, and could certainly be given the Dominican Pitcher of the Month Award for a second strait month, the Dominican Pitcher of the Month goes to Wandy Rodriguez.  Wandy is a starter for the Dominican Baseball Guy's hometown Houston Astros and has pitched well for years.  He is an inning eater and has had an ERA hovering in the 3.00 range, while pitching around 200 innings the last two years.  Wandy received votes for the NL Pitcher of the Month Award and actually had the best overall numbers out of any NL Pitcher, other than the win-loss (2-1, 1.34, 43 SO, 40.1 IP).  But he plays for the Astros so what can he do.  Wandy is from Santiago, DR.

 

 Gotta love the Astros 1980's Nolan Ryan Era throwback jerseys.