Updates from the Dominican 09-10

Awesome! Gil's back!

Great to hear from you and thanks again in advance for all your reports!

Daniel Cabrera: I saw him last year and his velocity was down to 89-90, with his lack of control, that speed just calls for a lot of trouble. A friend of mine talked to him at the gym where he works out, he has been working on strenghtening his shoulder and is paying off, saw him hit the 93-94 mark on his second outing this year. Problem with him is that he is too tall and seems to have trouble with finding his release point, if he finds it he is unbeatable for other times seems to have a hard time locating the ball.

Jovanny Rosario: He started as the regular CF for Estrellas, but is unbelievable how a guy with no power, good speed, can have such a low OBP, he was benched the last time Estrellas played here in Santo Domingo so i did not see him play. He must work very hard on raising his OBP if he is going to have some value someday.

Jamie Hoffman: I have been seeing this guy from day one playing for Escogido (the OTHER team from Santo Domingo, the capital) and i did not know he was in the Dodgers farm system. He hasnt shown anything yet, i see him come to the plate as a sure out. 245-0-4 in 49 abs.

Tony Abreu: Question is not how good or bad he is playing, the question is "is he healthy enough to play", so far he is. Hitting well, 282-0-4 and a 311 OBP.

Hector Luna: A slow start compared to last year, but seems to be picking it up, 284-0-8, what has impressed me the most is his ability to be on base, 385OBP.

Tim Corcoran: He looks impressive for 3-4 innings, then he seems to loose his stamina, he is striking out batters like crazy, at least last saturday the game i saw him performing, he looked like Bob Gibson for 4 innigns, then in the 5th he lost everything, got to the 5th with a 4-0 lead and by the end of it the game was 6-4.

Ramon Ortiz: He has been lights out this year, i just come from Quisqueya Stadium, he threw 7 innings of 3 hit ball. Dont understand with all the bad pitchers around the majors why some team does not give him a chance. He did hit the 93 mph at times but he was consistently 89-91.

gilmiguel55:

Tony Abreu: I am not sure whether this is news or not, i was watching Licey against Aguilas on tv and the commentator said that Abreu was unable to play and will not be able to play for several games due to an injury....again!!!!!

I think that Tony Abreu is the Darren Dreifort of this decade. Guy is more fragile than Hot Lips' ego.

gilmiguel55:

Blake DeWitt: His 227 avg does not speak the whole truth, he leads the world in well hit balls that have been caught, those who only see the box-score would not know how well he has been hitting the ball.

James McDonald: Both times he has been in he has been hit hard, dont know if he is trying on a new pitch or what is it, but he has been very hittable.

Thanks, Gil. I am gladdened to hear that. I see his ba is up and I suspect he will show much improvement, this winter, as long as he doesn't have to fly back and forth to Venezuela or Puerto Rico.

James Mcdonald: He is coming to shape, his last two outings have been superb, although he seems to get tired and looses his command by the 4th or 5th inning i hope it is due to the lack of work. I didnt know he was a strikeout type of pitcher.

grabarkewitz:

I honestly think that McDonald has a better future as a closer or set up guy as his stuff doesn't seem to play well as a starter because he seems to lose about a foot off of his fastball by the 60th pitch.

I would have to agree. Having seen in him the minors a number of times. He usually is one type of pitcher for the first couple of innings (fastball breaking ball) and then around the 4-5 he starts becoming more of a finesse pitcher (albeit with stuff up in the zone).

gilmiguel55:

I guess you all heard about Jose Offerman's latest gig...i had a front row seat to witness one of the worst incidents ever to occur on a baseball field. After the bat incident we all thought that Mr. Offerman would never attempt something like that, seems we were all wrong. Punching an umpire is the worst a person can do...I remember last year, Offerman called Eric Aybar to bunt in the first inning after Bonifacio had doubled, to bunt the second hitter in the very first inning to advance a runner from second to third, we all thought "My god this is stupidity", my father yelled at Offerman (we seat very close to the Dogout), nothing offensive just "Offerman bunting the second hitter in the first inning", Offerman had to restrained, he was on his way of jumping into the stands to fight with my dad who by the way is 67.

Just read where he was suspended for life from the Dominican Winter League. Gotta wonder if a similar edict will come from Bud Lite. This guy has some serious issues.

Francisco Liriano: he is back, and in what way...he looks like the most dominant pitcher i've ever seen. Last year his fastball was 89-91 and had no zip on the slider, this year he is consistently 93-96 and with that deavastating slider makes him almost unhittable. Seems to me he was afraid of letting his arm go last year due to the recent surgery.

Well, last year in the "who's going to have a breakthru year" thread everybody choose either Nelson Cruz or Kendry Morales, both had huge years here with Gigantes de San Francisco, what a year they both had in the bigs. I see Liriano coming up with big numbers this year.

The Yankees have a kid in their farm named Juan Miranda, this kid can flat out hit, he had 3 HR in the regular (cut short due to injury) all against lefthanders, he is a lefty Cuban-Dominican nationalized 1st baseman, we all know that with Teixeira there his chances are thin....