Venezuelan Winter League
RHP Paul Estrada: a scoreless couple of innings over the past seven days to drop his ERA for the year to 2.84 with 7 ponches in 6.1 IP.
RHP Juan Gutierrez: no action during the week, leaving him with the 1.29 ERA (1 ER in 7 IP) from the week before.
OF Jason Lane: Richard Justice’s report that Jason left the Leones club prior to the end of the season was in error. Lane evidently just returned to the U.S. for the Christmas holidays and was back in the lineup for Wednesday’s game and went 0-3 with a strikeout. On Thursday, he had a single in 4 trips and picked up just his 2nd RBI. Batting just .154 (6-39) on the season with 12 strikeouts. His 14 games have consisted of 3 games at bateador designado and 11 games in the corner OF spots.
RHP German Melendez: threw up blanks during his only inning of work during the week. Has a 5.56 ERA (7 ERs in 11.1 IP) on the season with 5 hits and 7 walks allowed while whiffing 8.
RHP Felipe Paulino: blistered in his only inning of work, giving up 3 runs on 5 hits and a walk. Season to date, the hard-throwing righty has a 5.79 ERA with 18 ERs surrendered on 37 hits and and 10 free passes with 20 strikeouts in 28 innings pitched.
C Humberto Quintero: saw action in two games during the week, going 1-5. For the season, he’s at .302/.324/.475 with 5 longballs and 20 RBIs in 36 games (42 hits in 139 ABs). The 27-year old backstop is hitting .367/.406/.700 against lefties (just 30 ABs).
LHP Enyelbert Soto: not a happy week, giving up 3 runs on 3 hits in just 1 1/3 innings. The ugly tale of the tape for the season is a 6.46 ERA with 11 ERs allowed on 23 hits and 7 walks in 15.1 IP.
Dominican Winter League
RHP Miguel Asencio: did not pitch prior to the end of the regular season. Finishes with the stats noted last week: a 9.31 ERA in 8 games (9.2 IP) with 16 hits and 4 walks allowed to go along with 9 strikeouts.
RHP Zeke Astacio: like Asencio, Astacio did not pitch in the final days of the regular season. So the final hideous numbers included the 5.16 ERA (13 ERs in 22.2 IP) served up with 30 hits while whiffing only 9.
RHP Sammy Gervacio: also did not pitch to close out the season but with his Licey club in round robin play (see below) sees the possibility of further mound work, although he has yet to actually appear. Ended the regular season with that 4.90 ERA in just 3.2 IP.
RHP Ronnie Martinez: yielded 3 runs in his final appearance of the regular season, a 2.2 inning effort. Finished with a 3.68 ERA in 8 games (14.2 IP) with 14 hits and 8 walks allowed versus 12 whiffs.
LHP Wandy Rodriguez: no appearances in the regular season other than that scoreless 1 inning of work noted last week. Has made one utterly forgettable appearance so far in round robin play for Aguilas, facing 3 batters and allowing up a walk and a couple of base hits.
Puerto Rican Winter League
1B Cirilo Cruz: hasn’t played since the last stat update, leaving him with the .375 BA (6-16).
RHP Raymar Diaz: only went 2.2 IP in his 3rd start of the season, being tagged for 3 ERs on 4 hits and 4 walks. His ERA inflated to 3.86 (6 ERs in 14 IP). The 6’7″ 22-year old has walked 8 and surrendered 11 hits while whiffing 11.
SS Edwin Maysonet: just 2-10 over his last 4 games and 3-20 in his last 8 contests, dropping him to .227 (17-75) through 27 games.
Mexican Pacific League
RHP Travis Driskill: didn’t see the mound during the past week and thus still possesses the 3.62 ERA, with 15 ERs allowed on 44 hits in 37.1 IP.
INF Jesse Garcia: went 0-3 in his only game during the week, dropping his numbers to .246/.316/.408 in 49 games on the season (47 hits in 191 at-bats).
Notes:
- Games remaining in each of the respective regular seasons: Puerto Rico (six), Venezuela (two), and Mexico (two). As far as the DR, it’s regular season ended last Saturday with four clubs entering round robin play and two clubs having been eliminated. The two clubs not advancing were Estrellas and Escogido. Thus, Asencio, Astacio and Martinez have all apparently completed their seasons.
- Al Pedrique’s Magallanes club has qualified for the VWL playoffs.
- As we’ve noted ad nauseum previously, some of the players mentioned above are minor league free agents (Melendez, Driskill) who might not be with the organization in 2007.
- Updating the ex-Astros: Richard Hidalgo is hitting .273/.385/.455 playing for Magallanes in the VWL with 9 longballs and 27 RBIs in 54 games (.259/.488/.519 versus lefties and .274/.359/.446 versus righties, but his numbers against southpaws come in just 27 ABs). Jose Lima with Aguilas of the DWL finished the regular season with that 2.65 ERA with 46 hits and 15 walks allowed in 51 IP and in round robin play has made one appearance, allowing just 1 run on 5 hits over 6.2 IP.
- All stats are as of Dec. 28, with the exception of the laggard Puerto Rican Winter League which is thru Dec. 22.