Report. Matt Kemp to play in the Dominican Winter League

According to a report from sports talk radio "La voz del Fanatico" (The Fan voice) Dodgers rookie Matt Kemp will play this winter with Estrellas, a team who has not won a championship since... well, late 1950's.

Good luck to him, playing here will do him very good.

More news when available.

Mondesi's troubles and other news from the DR

Former MLB player Raul Mondesi and current congressman for his native San Cristobal is jumping from trouble to trouble.

In his first assembly day he gave a declaration that he will play baseball in the winter with Escogido, but he is not playing or training.

Last monday at a local club he was involved with a journalist, the journalist complaints that Mondesi threaten him to "broke his mouth" because of some comments he made in his program.

Mondesi is also accused of not paying the electrical bill in one of his business in San Cristobal.

I guess he we will give us plenty to write about in the next four years.

Night game to start earlier

Due to the new government resolution that not alcoholic beverage can be sold after 12:00pm on weekdays baseball games will start at 7:30pm instead of 8:00pm

Dodgers deals

The Dodgers had made today before the deadline two deals, first getting Greg Maddux from the Cubs for Cesar Izturis and Julio Lugo from Tampa Bay for prospects/rookies Joel Guzman and Sergio Pedroza.

For me the best deal was to get rid of Odalis Perez, the fact is that his mind is not on baseball, since the winter, when he was traded to Escogido Lions, ask for opening day and then getting lost and never returning, he just made clear that he did not care.

Mondesi to Congress? Willy Aybar Traded

I've been meaning to post this for about 4 days, but elections where last Tuesday and today... we don't know many of the results, anyway, Raul Mondesi was a candidate for congress for his hometown San Cristobal, so his party won and there's a good chance Mondesi will have a seat on the Dominican Congress, what projects you think he'll summit?

In other news Dodgers Willy Aybar was traded in the Winter Leagues from Estrellas to Licey, Estrellas got Tony Blanco from Licey.

Willy will play with his brother Erick in the winter, Willy had seen limited play time with Estrellas.

Who needs them anyway!

The Dominican team is 2-0 so far in the WBC, the players in the current roster are the one who wanted to play for their country, for their pride or whatever reason they had to do it, the one's that are not on the roster and were invited will regret not playing for the team.

The most recent case is Vladimir Guerrero who because of his cousins dead, who by the way was driving at 200 km/h at the time of the crash decided to withdraw from WBC, then told team officials that he would play, then denied it.

Dominican Players some times forget to shut their mouth, is not the first time Vlad does somthing like this, in fact during the Winter he told Licey several times he was going to play, even asking for ball and bats to practice, eventually he did not play, but Licey won anyway.

I always believe the the best player is the one who really wants to play.

We wanted A-Rod, Manny and Vlad, but thankfully we had Adrian, Moises, Big Papi, Soriano among others, those are the players that the Dominican people should like, not the ones that did not come.

Trying to keep up

Some old news that you might already knew, writing had been very difficult in the last couple of months, but some interesting happened while I was away.

First Licey won their 19th championship over an superior Aguilas team who had players such as Miguel Tejada, Willy Mo Peña, Victor Diaz on their rosters, but the bog difference for Licey was the work of two young players, Angels Erick Aybar and Mets Anderson Hernandez, Hernandez started the season on the bench, but eventually gained the 2b position, and at the end of the regular season was replaced by Luis Castillo, who in the last game was hit by a pitch in the right foot and Hernandez took back his position driving a triple that started a winning rally giving Licey a ticket to the Finals to face Aguilas.

Aguilas was the favorite to win the best of five series, Licey won the first game, and then Aguilas won the next two putting Licey behind 1-2, but Licey tied the series and never looked back, one great experience for me was to watch Jose Lima take a beat and arguing with Aguilas Manager Felix Fermin when he tried to pull him out.

Finally Won the series 5-2 and begunarrangementss to travel to Venezuela to avoid last year experience of getting late to the tournament.

So now Venezuela is leading the series after yesterday win over the Dominican Republic.

So, more updates later.

Lima close to deal with Padres

According to his own words Jose Lima is close to sign a deal with the San Diego Padres, he did not reveal any details like money involved or duration, he gave this declarations during an interview in La Semana Deportiva.

In the interview he also made accusation to the umpires and questioned their work, the Dominican Winter League is working only with local umpires since last season and their authority in the field and has generate many discussions during games.

A little change... Grady new Dodgers manager

Grady Little was hired as the new LA Dodger Manager

Dominican Winter League update

The tournament is heating up, Licey and Aguilas are tied in first, Escogido just 2 games behind, and Azucareros and Estrellas fighting for the last spot to the playoffs.

Teams like Licey have their roster filled with promising rookies like Hanley Ramirez at 3B, SS and 2B, Anderson Hernandez at 2B, Erick Aybar at 2B, Felix Pie at CF among others, and the return of veterans like Henry Rodriguez, Willis Otañez and Jose Offerman.

LA Dodgers donate three buses

The Los Angeles Dodgers donated three buses to the Sports and recreational ministry of the Dominican Republic. The Buses with 60 seats each will be used in several youth programs to develop new talents in different areas, the vehicle are already in Dominican customs and will be available in the next few days.

This is not the first donation from the Dodgers a few months ago they did the same to the community if Guerra, where their academy is located.

Tom Lassorda was representing the team, he also met with President Leonel Fernandez, threw the first ball in a Licey game and was with Hall of Famer Juan Marichal and participate in a golf tournament held by President Fernandez foundation.

Lassorda comes every year to the Dominican Republic where he has many friends and is very popular, he was manager for Licey and Escogido in the 70's.

Furcal a Dodger, his drinking problems and his quality

Reports from LA and in Santo Domingo shows that Rafael Furcal had agreed to sign with the Dodgers for 3 years and around 40 millions.

Furcal had drinking problems in the past, in fact he was in jail for that, according to some people near him he is done with that (at least DUI, he gets a driver now), but Furcal is an excellent player an very versatile one.

He play in winter at SS, 2B or 3B, depends on where his team needs him, and all of three positions played above average, he played 3B for the national team (Licey) in the Caribbean series here in Santo Domingo, and Dodgers fans will enjoy his hard playing, he always run hard and gives an extra to the team.

Personally I don't like him very much, he played for teams that I hate (Braves and Escogido), but that can not take away from him his conditions as a player.

His drinking problems?

Let's really hope that those days are behind him, he's a good man and a family man, but please!!!!!, I can't stand another distraction for the Dodgers!

Frank McCourt to be honored?

A lot of lines had been written about how bad are the Mcourts, or how they handling a once proud organization named the Los Angeles Dodgers.

And now he'll be honored in the Latin sport awards next November 14th.

"McCourt will be honored for the efforts of the Los Angeles Dodgers to Dominican Baseball by Campo Las Palmas, operating since 1987.

McCourt will be here with Tommy La Sorda."


The Dodgers donate a bus to the Guerra Community a few months ago.

Of course, they are eliminating a team from the Dominican Summer League and are leasing half Campo Las Palmas. (Tks to Rob for the tip)

So I wonder if the good reporters of the Dominican Republic will ask him some good answers or will just talk to La Sorda... Will they ask him about the GM and Manager search... I don't Think so.

Mondesi will run for mayor

Yes, you read it!, Raul Mondesi will run for mayor of his hometown San Cristobal, he plans to keep both careers, baseball ans politics.

For now he is a pre-candidate, but he have the money and support from a big member of the party.

Odalis Traded!

NO, the Dodgers did not trade Odalis, his former team Estrellas Orientales traded him to Leones del Escogido for AAA pitcher Greg Aquino. Odalis demanded a trade after his bid to buy Estrellas was rejected, he was almost dealt to Licey but after rookie Felix Diaz told Estrellas that he was not sure of pitching to them they turned to their second option, Leones del Escogido.

I doubt that OP will pitch this winter, and if he does is not going to be with Licey, thanks god for that, Licey was going to give away a great rookie pitcher for him.

This blog is not over yet!

It's been almost two months since my last post, I've just been so busy and dealing with a few things, since my last post a lot of things had happened in the baseball world.

The Baseball World Cup, a upcoming disaster for the Dominican Republic.

Next year will be held the famous baseball world cup, every country is making arrangements to have the best posible team, what the DR have done so far? NOTHING... I can imagine biulding a team in December or January on the run, and making the same thing that we did in the last Caribbean Series.

Well, I Promise to post more often, thanks to those people who have e-mailed me, some encouraging me to keep writting and some other to insult me or some of my countrymen.


See you soon...

Mondesi strikes back

Now Raul Mondesi is suing Mario Guerrero for 1.7 millions seeking moral and mental repairs made by the Guerrero lawsuit.

Guerrero never presented any evidence, he always claimed that it was a verbal agreement.

I'm sure this will end Mario Guerrero crazy pursuit of other peoples money

Raul Mondesi favored by Dominican court

A Dominican court ruled in favor of Raul Mondesi ruling out Mario Guerrero lawsuit of the infamous 1% of Mondesi earnings.

Now Mondesi can focus on baseball, and Mario Guerrero can look somewhere else to try to gain his money.

This will clear the way to other lawsuit's including Geronimo Berroa who Guerrero took his apartment and some other values.

Odalis bid rejected, Sammy will operate Estrellas

Odalis Perez bid to buy Estrellas Orientales, the team from San Pedro de Macoris was rejected by the Dominican League, Odalis was offering US$ 1.0 million to buy the team. Instead the LIDOM (Liga dominicana de beisbol) decided to give the operation of the team to a group of businessman led by Domingo Dauhare, who is the Financial advisor for Sammy Sosa, so Sammy's money will be running the team next year.

Estrellas have a bunch of talent in their roster including Dodgers prospects Joel Guzman, Willi Aybay, Odalis Perez and Agustin Montero.

Regarding Sosa, he was critized for not being able to make more contribution to his home team, but now with Sosa's money and the apparent new sponsor for the team, the biggest beer company in the world will make things very interesting since Estrellas has not won a championship since late 60's.

Cuban players arrested while pursuing the American Dream

Eight cubans where arrested near the Dominican Border with Haiti and three others, including two American citizens where also arrested for trying to introduce the players to the United States.

According to El Nacional Story they used mostly Haiti and the Dominican Republic as a bridge to introduce the players to the United States.

Cuba, Cubans and Cubas

Cuban baseball players sometimes are over rated, as amateurs they have all the scouts all over them.

Kendry Morales was considered a national hero in cuba, as a rookie he set several records in 2002, playing for Industriales had 352 appearences at the plate, 60 runs, 114 hits, 21 hr's, 82 rbi's and 46 extra base hits, he also played at third, first, right field and pitched.

Now Kendry is a traitor in Cuba, all records he set have an asterisk, this according to some Cubans I talked with here.

Morales is stuck in the Dominican Republic with some visa problems, the Angels are making arrangements to make him a Dominican Citizen, but it seems that is a little hard due to the way he came to the DR.

But if you think Kendry is in some kind of trouble think twice, Alay Soler, a fellow cuban is here without a passport, his former agent, Joe Cubas was suspended by the players association for confiscating his passport.


According to three baseball sources who independently confirmed the information on condition their names not be used, shortly after Cubas negotiated a three-year, $2.8 million contract for the 25-year-old right-hander last summer, he confiscated Soler's immigration documents and refused to return them until the player paid money the agent said was owed him. Soler disputed the claim, saying Cubas was asking for 15 percent commission -- more than three times the normal rate, and contacted the union, which sided with Soler.