Wednesday, February 25

Mondesi problems are not over

Remember that Raul Mondesi was sentenced to pay 1% of earnings, well in recent comments Mondesi said that he had reach an agreement with Mario Guerrero, he denied that in a recent news paper report, last night Guerrero appear in a TV Show saying that not only he has not reach a deal with Mondesi and he will fight until he gets what he deserve.

Asked if he was not askin to much he said that other players made the same deal and have paid him.

He said that when Mondesi was a rookie in the Dominican Winter League he paid for his food and transportation, at the time Mondesi considered Guerrero his tutor and right hand, and now he refuse to talk to him or meet him.


Guerrero hopes to reach a deal with Mondesi and he have no intentions of droping the case

Tuesday, February 24

Coming soon...

Since last Friday I have not been able to post any news, first some electrical problems at work, now some health problems, soon I will getting a PC at home to be able to post every day, also Dominican Players will be available in Spanish and English.

See you soon...

Friday, February 20

Who is Francis Beltran?

He beat Dodgers Guillermo Mota and Giants Felix Rodriguez for the Closer job for National and Caribbean Champions Licey Tigers.
Watching him pitched reminds of Erik Gagne, of course, there's no comparison...

Cubs Fans, follow him...

Francis Beltran is a 25 years old rookie from the Dominican Republic, Beltran pitch for the Cubs, he pitched last year mostly in triple A for the Chicago Cubs, but what I really want you to know is about his performance in the Winter League.

Beltran belongs in the Dominican Republic to the Licey Tigers the National and Caribbean Champions, Licey was building the team and had a bullpen that any MLB Team only dreams to have, they had Dodgers Guillermo Mota , Giants Felix Rodriguez, Tampa Gorge Sosa and Cubs Francis Beltran.

By the end of December manager Manny Acta thought he will use Francis Beltran and Guillermo Mota as set-up’s man, and Felix Rofriguez as the closer, but Mota and Rodriguez delay their debut to the final days of December, so Beltran had to jump up to be the teams closer after an injury Licey closer Julio Manon, Beltre finished strong and when Giants Felix Rodriguez was in shape the manager designed him as the team closer, putting Mota and Beltre as set up man’s. Beltre did not like that and he quit the team but he made his mind and return to the team the next day beginning his great performance.

By the end of the regular season Beltre won the closer spot over Mota and Rodriguez and became a great attraction to the fans, imaging having to face Guillermo Mota in the 7th, Felix Rodriguez in the 8th and then Francis Beltran in the 9th, it was really hard for the other teams.

In the Finals Licey won in 5 games and Beltre did not allow any runs in 2 games, but he was greater in Caribbean World Series where he won the Series MVP by saving 3 games of the 6 won by Dominican Republic, and winning 1, so he had a decision in 4 of the six games, and 1 of them was won in extra innings, he just allow 3 hits, walked 1 and had 6 K’s.

Cubs fans, keep an eye on him in spring training.

Thursday, February 19

Gagne Loses arbitration case

Eric Gagne lost today in arbitration and will received 5.0 millions instead of 8.0 millions he was asking, i hope that does not affect Dodgers-Gagne relationship.

Gagne News

Pujols Signing

As i posted yesterday Albert Pujols report , ESPN is reporting that Pujols and the Cardinals have a tentative agreement.
See link Pujols story on ESPN

Wednesday, February 18

Fred Claire open Letter to Paul Depodesta

Open letter to Paul Depodeste.

Interesting letter...

Albert Pujols will sign with Cardinals

A sport radio program reports (La voz del fanatico) that Slugger Albert Pujols will sign tomorrow a 7 year-100 million contract, according to the report Pujol is traveling to St Louis and will meet tomorrow with his agent and Cardinals officials.

La Voz del fanatico is aired in 98.1 Fm Radio Universal in Santo Domingo, Radio Universal in Santo Domingo, According to Bienvenido Rojas, co-host of the radio show and Sport Editor for Listin Diario in Santo DomingoRojas Daily Column.

Will post more news tomorrow.

Dodgers 40 man roster and Non Roster Invitees

Here i'll try to offer some information on the Dominican players or that played in the Dominican Winter League and are on roster or invited to Spring Training.

Yhency Brazoban
Obtained by the Dodgers in the Kevin Brown trade, belongs to Licey in 3.0 innings, 1 hit, 1 walked, 3 SO, 0.00 ERA
Guillermo Mota
Pitched also for national and Caribbean Champions Licey Tigers, Mota is supposed to be Eric Gagne setup man, he was not very effective in his debut, but then settle down and was a key player for Licey.
In the regular season 5.39 ERA, 1.2 innings, 2 H, 4R, 1 ER, 2 BB
In the Round Robin 2-1 record, 1.00 ERA, 9.0 I, 9 H, 4 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 8 SO.
Finals: 3.00 ERA, 3.0 I, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 6 SO

Guillermo Mota showed no fear and an intimidation to batters.

Odalis Perez, Odalis only pitched 3 games, his team Estrellas Orientales from San Pedro de Macoris did not make the Playoffs, Odalis was out of shape and did not pitch well, in 3 games he had a record of 0-2 and a 7.62 ERA, 13.0 I, 15 H, 12 R, 11 ER, 6 BB and 14 SO. He was training in mid january to stay in shape and according to radio reports he claims to be in shape.

Duaner Sanchez obtained by the Dodgers in the Rule 5 draft from the Pirates, pitched in the Dominican Winter League with the Cibao Giants, who made the playoff only in their 6th year, the team is owned by ex-Dodger Stanley Javier Stanley Javier , Duaner in the regular season pitched in 17 gamesDuaner info with a 1-1 record, 7.13 ERA, 17.2 I, 26 H, 15 R, 14 ER, 17 BB, 18 SO. In the Round Robin went worst for Duaner, in 2 games, 16.17 ERA, 4 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB and 4 SO. Duaner will start the Season in the Minor Leagues. In the finals Duaner did not pitch and was scratched from the roster by manager
Miguel Dilone.

Koyie Hill
Hill struggled in winter league, showed some contact in the final days, was released by Estrellas Orientales in mid december, in 24 games and 87 at bats he hit 3 HR, 9 R, 12 RBI's, 2 2B, 4 BB, 15 SO, 149 Avg and a 194 OBP. I don't have any defense stats, sorry.

Willy Aybar Did not play in Winter League, but was training in Campo Las Palmas along with other prospects.

Adrian Beltre, I think that the moment Adrian decides to play Winter League he'll have the season the Dodgers expect from him, Winter League helps player to stay in shape and correct problems, did not hear from him all winter.

Juan Encarnacion, Juan did not play either, but was training.

Wilkin Ruan, did not watched him a lot, in 36 games and 94 at bat he had a 213 Avg, 250 Obp, 12 R, 20 H, 3 2b, 11 Rbi's and 14 SO.

Non Roster Invitees.

Eric Knott, signed as a free agent and invited to spring training pitched for Licey in the regular season, left after he signed with the Dodgers, in 5 games had a 1-2 record, 4.91 ERA, 22.0 IP, 26 H, 12 R, 12 ER, 4 BB and 12 SO.

Agustin Montero, Montero's Stats, pitched in 21 games with a 3-1 record, 2.25 ERA, 3 saves, 24.0 IP, 21 H, 7 R, 6 ER, 13 BB, 17 K.

Jose Lima, did not pitched in Winter League, was supposed to make debut for Escogido Lions but di not showed up, signed a minor league contract with the Dodgers, he claims to be in good shape and ready to win 5th spot in the rotation.

Let's hope for the best to these players.

Monday, February 16

The offseason in the Dominican Republic

God is everywhere, but he lives in the Dominican Republic.

We have here most of the Fast food restaurants that are operating in USA, all of them have a Drive Thru, you go there and you order a Hamburger with fries and a Coke.
We also have drive thru here, but we have something that in the United States of America does not exist, we have alcohol in our cars, here the alcohol related accidents are very low, but in the US it’s not like that.

In the DR people start drinking at very low age, that’s does not mean that the DR is a AA branch, but we do have very high tolerance to alcohol, our beer is 6% of alcohol.

I know you are asking your self what that have to do with Baseball? Well, when our players come here in the off season they come with money to spend, lot’s of money and a bunch of friends to impress.

Some players spend the months of October, November and December going into clubs and drinking staying late and buying fancy cars.

Just imagine for a kid that had nothing and suddenly having it all, most of them does not get proper guidance and have the wrong friends.

The most recent case was Milwaukee’s Luis Martinez who shot three times a man in a parking lot, he claims it was in self defense, but I ask myself, why did he had a gun in the first place?

In the 70’s Ex Astro Cesar Cedeño was with a woman in a Motel Room, the woman was shot to death, The Astros pull some connections and Cedeño was released and flew to Houston.

Dominican Players Belongs to Baseball Teams here, most of them play here until they are established in MLB, to some players playing here had give them a second chance to play in the big leagues, the most recent examples are ex-dodgers Henry Rodriguez and Jose Offerman, both of them were key player for Licey to obtain their 18th national championship.

In the other hand are player like Raul Mondesi that spend their Winter Partying, he also sponsors a local Basketball team in his native town of San Cristobal and a Merengue Band, Mondesi also owns Mondi Disco, a discotheque. Mondesi only played 3 or 4 games with The Cibao Eagles, but in contrast is Miguel Tejada, that guy sign a 72 million contract and played like a Rookie trying to win a spot in the team.

Many players have been involved in legal troubles here, but if we consider that these guys grew up in extreme poverty with no education most of them have accomplished a lot and deserve our respect and love.

To give and example Sammy Sosa is one the most popular person’s in Chicago and many cities. But here people look at him in a wrong way, when he was younger he got in a lot of trouble here, but now he’s a model citizen.
Some player arrived in the united states without knowing a word of English, now they learned basic English in the academies, that way they can at least communicate with their coaches and fellow ballplayers.

Problems with my blog

I'm having with the blog, some information is missing, some post are looking weird, the links are missing, i'm trying to figure it out, if someone knows why this happens pls email me

Tks

Odalis Perez involved in Brawl

An unconfirmed report link Dodger's Odalis Perez into a fight in a night club last week. According to reports the left hander was involved in a fight in jetset nightclub in Santo Domingo, according to a newspaper column and radio program the incident involved gun shots.




For comments or questions please e-mail me

Saturday, February 14

Some other news

Congratulations to Dodger Thoughts for his new website, New Dodger Thoughts Websiteand will like to thank Jon for all the advises that he had given me.

Also i would like to thank the Bench Coach for his comments on his website The Bench Coach, thanks...

Dominican Player start leaving to Spring Training.
I has been a long winter season here, most player had left to Spring Trainings, some have a spot on the roster, but many others are looking for a spot. more info soon...

The agony of being a Dodger Fan

I’ve been a Dodger Fan since 1981 and I became a loyal fan because all the Domincan Player they had in the team and in the farm. My home town team the Licey Tigers had a working agreement with the Dodgers at the time and we saw many Dodger prospects play for licey, players like Mike Scioscia, Orel Hershiser, Greg Brok among others, that agreement was broken after the 1988 season, the last season the Dodgers won a playoff game. I’m not saying that’s the reason why the Dodger’s have not won a playoff game.

Later in the early 1990’s I lost a little interest in Dodger’s baseball and I began to follow the Toronto Blue Jays, again for all the Dominican Players they had, in that years the Blue Jays won 2 World Series and the GM was Dodger candidate Pat Gillick.

But why I’m suffering as a Dodger Fan?

I’ve been following the Dodgers very closely in the past seasons, specially in the last 3 or 4, I remember Kevin Malone coming to the Dominican Republic trying to convince Felipe Alou, now manager of the Damn Giants, Mr Alou almost accept the job but turn it down to stay with the expos, many people thought he did not take it because he can’t manage a big market team.
Instead of Alou we hire another manager, it’s the 2nd or 3rd option.

But moving forward to last year, the 2003 season was a frustrating season for me, first I install at the end on 2002 a DirecTV system to follow Dodgers games, I was very excited about it, in the Dominican Republic they show a lot of Red Sox Games because of Pedro Martinez.

Most of the games start at 7:00pm (Pacific Time) we are in Eastern time, so I had to stay late most of the weeks, to one point I said that I would not watch any more dodgers games, it was too hard for me.

Last season every morning first thing I looked out in the local newspaper was the scoreboard, but the Dodgers were not there because the time they finished the game, sometimes they had a score thru the 6th or 7th inning, so first thing at work was to look for the result, the Answer? The Dodger offense blew another great effort from a pitcher.

When the July 31 trade deadline approach I remember a lot of rumors of players going to the Dodger, but guess what? None came to the Dodgers, I was frustrated, it was July 31 and the deadline was at 4:00pm, Aaron Boone was rumored to go to the Dodgers, but no, he went to the Yankees.

That was during the season, the off-season has been no different, I still have hope that something good will happen to the Dodgers. In October they announced that the team has been sold to some guy from Boston, HOPE, There still HOPE, but NO, again I had to suffer watching all the other teams signing players and the Dodgers sign Jeremy Giambi.

Every day, twice a day I check the web on Dodger news to see if anything has happens, but no, all I see it’s old news and more rumors.
Now we have the dilemma of searching for new GM, but with our luck, the one we like will no take the job and we will hire a 2nd option.

I hope for the best this season, but honestly, I’m loosing any hopes.

Thursday, February 12

To good to be true

Remember the predictions made by ESPN on early november? i recall them with the prediction of Miguel Tejada landing in LA, many other rumors of players going to the Dodgers, now Peter Gammons reports that the Dodgers expect to name Depodesta GM this weekend, but a report from The Costa Contra Times refute that report About Landing Depodesta.
Sometimes i think that nothing good will be happening to the Dodgers soon, i hope that channges in the new future.

I disagree on what is going on with Dan Evans, either you fire him or you retain him, but not put him in limbo, but if we were to hire someone else, i hope it will Depodesta, the thing is to see if he will accept any offers from the Dodgers.

Wednesday, February 11

Dodgers may hire Depodesta

Oakland assistant general manager Paul DePodesta is expected to be named the new GM of the Dodgers this weekend, ESPN's Peter Gammons reports.


The Athletics granted the Dodgers permission to speak to assistant general manager Paul DePodesta about the job and the 31-year-old DePodesta reportedly met late last week with the McCourt family in Los Angeles.

Depodesta

Guillermo Mota agree on terms

Reliever Guillermo Mota agree today to 1 year contract and avoid arbitration hearing, he agreed on a 1.475 contract, that leaves all-star/cy young Erick Gagne with a arbitration hearing for feb 18.


Guillermo Mota pitched this winter in the Dominican Winter League for the national and Caribbena Champions Licey Tigers, that will assure the Dodgers that Mota will be in shape for spring training.Mota Signing

The Pedro Martinez Interview

Last December Pedro Martinez gave an interview to a local news station
Cadena de Noticias, the reporter was Alicia Ortega, in that interview Pedro remembers his days in the Dodger Organization.

He recalls that his dream was to pitch aside his big brother Ramon, his last season with the dodgers 1993, he had a 10-5 record coming from the bullpen, he said that has proven to the Dodgers his capabilty to pitch in the majors.

But in that offseason he was in a Vacation in the town of Samana and when he returns home his brother Ramon told him that Dodgers GM Fred Claire called to tell him that he was traided to the Expos, hi did not believed and thought his brother was kidding, he called Claire and heard the news himself.
He was shoked by the news, his brother was very encouraging.

When he went to expos training camp Manager Felipe Alou gave him confidence and earned a spot in expos rotation.

Campo Las Palmas, Paradise that Saw Pedro Martinez Rise

Article published on the Official Dominican Baseball League Webpage about Dodgers Training Facility in the Domincan Republic Dodger's Campo Las Palmas.

Campo las Palmas is 40 minutes from Santo Domingo, has developed players for the Dodgers like Pedro and Ramon Martinez, Pedro Astacio, José Offerman, Henry Rodriguez, Juan Guzman Juan Guzman, Who by the way was traded to the Blue Jays for Mike Sharperson Another Bad Trade for the Dodgers, Mariano Duncan, Omar Daal, Ismael Valdez and Recently Victor Alvarez.

Al Campanis and Ralph Avila founded Dodger Academy, Avila moved to the DR in 1974, he first came in 1971 when Campanis realized that with closed due to the revolution, the next best country was the DR, he order Avila to work in the country and in 1974 he finally moved to the DR.

The Academy started in 1974 in Quisqueya Stadium and in the Olympic Center, moved later to the City Of La Romana, and in 1984, Peter O'Malley decide to build in the Town of San Luis Guerra, it was a sugar cane field.

"Peter O'Malley liked the place, for it's privacy, the construction began in 1984 and it took 3 years and finally was open in march 21, 1988.

In Campo Las Palmas they teach player everything, from english , american culture and baseball fundamentals.
The Dodger play in the Domincan Summer League, they have 2 teams.

Jose Lima's comments

Jose Lima, recently signed by the Dodgers to a minor league contract, worth a guaranteed 1.0 million if he makes the roster.
Lima told reporters from local news paper El Caribe.Lima Interview that he's confidence that he will gain a spot in the rotation, that he's in very good shape at 191 lbs, similar to 1999 when he won 21 games for Houston Astros.

If Lima put he's mind into baseball like he did last season with the Royals he can be a tremendous addition to Dodgers pitching staff, what i don't like is that he's going to Spring Training looking for a spot in the rotation, Lima have a big mouth and a see a problem if he see a demotion to the minor or refusal to go to the bullpen.
Lima is a Amateur musician and has a Merengue Band, i hope he puts a his musical career behind an focus on his baseball career. If Lima does that and accept a Bullpen Job i see a tremendous season for him as a Dodger Pitcher, he can be a guarantee in case of injuries by Dodgers pitching staff.
Lima also said that he's 2 months shy of getting Major League Baseball Pension, he's not it for the money, he had plenty of it, for my readers to have an idea US 1 million = 52 million pesos.

Monday, February 9

My first post.
Hi everyone, i hope someday someone reads my posts, i intend to post regarding dominican baseball players in major and minor league baseball and Baseball in my native country The Domincan Republic.

Thanks
Caribbean World Series Won by Dominican Republic

The Dominican Republic (Licey Tigers) Beat Puerto Rico to win the tournament, it was Licey's 9th championship and Domincan's 15th.

Licey had in their roster players like Miguel Tajada SS (Baltimore) Luis Castillo 2B(Florida) Rafael Furcal 3B (Atlanta), pitchers Jose Jimenez (Cleveland), Rafael Soriano (Mariners), Guillermo Mota (Dodgers), Felix Rodriguez (Giants) as many other prospects and ex major leaguers.