Colombian Winter League (New)
RHP Rodrigo Escobar: the MLFA had a 5.34 ERA with 27 hits and 12 walks allowed in 30.1 innings during the regular season for the Tigres while whiffing 13. Not surprisingly for the career reliever, all but one of his games came out of the pen. Posted a 4.50 ERA in round robin play, though that was in just 4 IP. His only outing of the finals was a 2/3 of an inning effort when he allowed two runs on two hits, a walk and a WP.
RHP Carlos Ladeuth: notched a 3.07 ERA in 29.1 innings (19 games) for the Toros during the regular season, yielding 23 hits and a way-too-many 17 walks while K’ing 27. Round robin play went better, as he didn’t allow a run on just one hit and one walk in 6.2 IP with 9 whiffs.
INF Ronald Ramirez: batted .217/.292/.338 in 53 games (157 ABs) for the Tigres during the regular season. He played SS in all but two of those games (the others came at 2B). Only hit .083 (2-24) in 7 games during round robin play. His troubles at the plate continued during the finals when he went just 3-15.
Dominican Winter League
LHP Wandy Rodriguez: his only appearance in the finals for Aguilas was a 3.2-inning effort this week in which he allowed 1 run on 4 hits and 2 walks. Has a 3.00 ERA in 9 innings of postseason work with 9 hits allowed and 11 ponches.
Venezuelan Winter League
RHP Paul Estrada: didn’t pitch in either of the first two games of the finals versus Aragua.
C Hector Gimenez: had a sac fly in a PH appearance in game #2, his only appearance to date in the finals.
OF Richard Hidalgo: is 2-8 over the first two games with no homers or RBIs.
RHP German Melendez: two innings of scoreless work in the second game of the finals, giving him a 1.69 ERA in 5.1 IP in the postseason.
RHP Jose Rodriguez: touched up for 2 runs on 2 hits in just 2/3 of an inning in game #2, bumping his postseason ERA to 9.95 in 6.1 IP.
Puerto Rican Winter League
RHP Raymar Diaz: pitched Arecibo to the 2-1 win in the opener of the finals versus Carolina, allowing just one run on three hits over 5 innings. (Update: started game #6 and gave up 3 runs in the first inning.)
SS Edwin Maysonet: some tardy stats indicated he hit .200 (3-15) for Arecibo in that semifinal series versus Caguas. (Update: in the finals, missed at least one game with some back problems.)
Playoffs and other notes:
- Colombia, like Nicaragua, does not participate in the Caribbean World Series. The four teams in the league played a 54-game regular season schedule in November and December. The top three finishers (Caimanes, Tigres and Toros) then moved on to a round robin series of 8 games. The top two finishers there (Caimanes and Tigres) advanced to the finals. The best-of-seven finals saw the Tigres sweep the Caimanes 4 games to none a week ago. (New)
- Magallanes lost the first three games and is one loss from elimination in the best-of-seven VWL finals versus Aragua. (Update: Magallanes staved off elimination by winning 8-4 in Saturday’s game but lost a wild shootout and the series by an 11-10 score on Sunday. Champs Aragua head to the Caribbean World Series where they play Dominican champ Aguilas in first round action. The CWS begins on Feb. 2 and lasts thru Feb. 7 with 6 games of round robin play, with each club playing the other three teams two games apiece.)
- In the best-of-seven finals in Puerto Rico, Carolina leads Arecibo 3 games to 2. (Update: Carolina won games on Saturday and Sunday to claim the championship title in what instead was a best-of-nine finals. Carolina will play Mexican champ Hermosillo in the first round of the CWS.)
- Aguilas claimed the DWL championship trophy with a 10-2 win over Licey on Friday night. Aguilas took 5 of the 6 games in the best-of-nine finals and now advances to the Caribbean World Series to be played in Puerto Rico this year.
- Updating the former Astros: Jose Lima capped a very fine DWL season by pitching 6 shutout innings on Thursday for Aguilas versus Licey in his 2nd start of the finals.