Dominican Winter League
RHP Miguel Asencio: continues to be battered, surrendering 4 runs on 4 hits and 2 walks in 2.1 relief innings during the week. The 26-year old ballplayer on his 5th organization now has a 9.31 ERA in 8 games (9.2 IP) with a .348 BAA. He’s walked 4 and has 9 ponches.
RHP Zeke Astacio: working out of the pen as he has all season, he was touched up for 3 earnies over 6 IP during the week. His ERA currently is at 5.16 (13 ERs in 22.2 IP), being blistered for 30 hits while whiffing only 9.
RHP Sammy Gervacio: made only one appearance during the week, giving up a run over one frame. His ERA in limited action (just 3.2 IP over 4 games) now stands at 4.90, with 5 walks and 4 hits allowed.
RHP Ronnie Martinez: finally saw action this week after not pitching for a month, going 2.2 innings and surrendering a run. The 23-year old CC Hook pitcher now has a 3.00 ERA through 7 games (12 IP), with 9 hits and 7 walks allowed versus 11 whiffs.
LHP Wandy Rodriguez: debuted with Aguilas this week, throwing a scoreless inning but allowing 2 hits.
Venezuelan Winter League
RHP Paul Estrada: gave up two runs on three hits in 3.1 IP during the week. Has a 4.15 ERA through 5 games (4.1 IP) with six whiffs.
LHP Victor Garate: didn’t see any action this week. Still has the 6.75 ERA (2 ERs allowed on 4 hits and 2 walks in 2.2 IP).
RHP Juan Gutierrez: debuted with a couple of excellent performances during the week, allowing just a run on 5 hits over 7 frames.
OF Jason Lane: went just 2-14 during the week but did pick up his first extra-base hit (a triple) and RBI. Batting .156 (5-32) on the season with 10 strikeouts. Still no central gardening going on, with 3 games at bateador designado and 9 games in the corner OF spots.
RHP German Melendez: hurled just a 1/3 of an inning during the week but yielded up two runs in the process. The ERA currently stands at 6.10 (7 ERs in 10.1 IP) with 5 hits and 7 walks while whiffing 8.
RHP Felipe Paulino: his latest appearance (one run, 3.1 IP) was in line with his recent work. After giving up 9 runs in his first 9 innings of the season, the 23-year old has an ERA of 3.00 over his last 18 innings. Overall, he has a 5.00 ERA (15 ERs in 27 IP with 32 hits allowed).
C Humberto Quintero: after slumping the last two weeks, picked up the pace by hitting .300 (6-20) this week. For the season, he’s now at .306/.329/.485 with 5 longballs and 20 RBIs in 34 games (41 hits in 134 ABs).
LHP Enyelbert Soto: gave up a run in a couple of innings pitched during the week, which actually reduced his ERA slightly to 5.14 on the year (8 ERs in 14 IP).
Puerto Rican Winter League
1B Cirilo Cruz: batting .375 (6-16) in limited play over 12 games, but has whiffed 8 times with no walks.
RHP Raymar Diaz: got his second start of the season and went 5 scoreless frames, shrinking his ERA on the year to 2.38 (3 ERs in 11.1 IP with 7 hits and 4 walks allowed).
SS Edwin Maysonet: just 1-10 of late to drop his batting average to .231 (15-65) through 23 games. Has just 2 RBIs and only 3 extra-base hits (all doubles).
Mexican Pacific League
RHP Travis Driskill: the 35-year old Texas Tech-ex who’s toiled 14 years in the minors (and 55 games in the big leagues) has allowed 44 hits in 37.1 IP this season for Caneros de los Mochis to go along with that 3.62 ERA.
INF Jesse Garcia: the Robstown native is batting a combined .250/.321/.415 in 48 games split between Caneros de los Mochis and Aguilas de Mexicali.
Notes:
- The fact that they’re in Spanish is the least of the issues when attempting to glean information from the winter league websites. More problematic is when they fail to update stats and/or don’t upload box scores. That in particular was the case this week as the Liga de Be?sbol Profesional de Puerto Rico website hasn’t updated their stats since last Monday and the stats for the Ponce ballclub are again missing as they were last week. (12/25 Update: the Ponce stats, though dated, finally showed up.)
- The MiLB.com website does track the goings on in the winter leagues but only in regards to Venezuela and the Mexican Pacific League, which is why the esteemed Mr. Eric “couldn’t hold Alyson Footer’s..um..garter” Justic only covers those two leagues in his weekly updates and does a pretty shitty job of it. At least someone finally pointed out he was an idiot for continuing to discuss Carlos Hernandez and Jorge Cortes.
- As we’ve noted in the past, some of the players mentioned above are minor league free agents (Melendez, Driskill) who might not be with the organization in 2007.
- As far as ex-Astros, Richard Hidalgo is hitting .266/.377/.462 playing for Al Pedrique’s Magallanes club in the VWL while Jose Lima has a 2.65 ERA for Aguilas of the DWL with 46 hits and 15 walks allowed in 51 IP.
- All stats are as of Dec. 21, with the exception of that tardy Puerto Rican Winter League which is thru Dec. 18.