For those players who are not ready for the Caribbean leagues but who are from that country, there is the Parallel league. Yesterday, I found the Venezuelan League’s page for it’s liga paralela. Houston has a team by itself in the league for the time being. I am sure this will cease now that the Astros are closing their academy in Venezuela. Here are some notable performances from the Parallel League Season:
Jose Altuve – The little 2nd baseman was 5th in the league in average (.341), tied for 3rd with 3 triples and finished 9th with a slugging % of 0.480. He lead the team in the following categories: hits (42), doubles (8), RBI (20), total bases (59), walks (19), Stolen bases (9 in 12 attempts), on base % (.441). Altuve did commit 15 errors in 35 games, which also lead the team.
Frederico Hernadez – The young backstop who did well in the Appy League had a solid season at the plate. He hit .292 with a solid .803 OPS. He committed no errors in the field.
Alfredo Gonzalez – This is the debut for the 16 year old outfielder signed last summer. He went 4 for 29 in 15 games. He committed 2 errors in the field.
As for pitchers:
Carlos Quevedo – The 19 year old RHP followed up a solid VSL with a good winter season. He finished with an ERA of 2.57 in 21 IP. He K’d 17 and only walked 2 with no long balls surrendered.
Antionio Noguera – Had 17 K’s in 17 innings pitched. The tall lefty who pitched in Tri Cities last season, is expected to be in Lexington this spring.
Gabriel Garcia – The 19 year old little lefty (5’11” 147) was the team leader in Ks. He sat down 30 in 39 1/3 IP. He did have some trouble keeping the ball down as he gave up 4 HR.
Jury Perez – RHP is a bit of a mystery. He didn’t pitch in the VSL so I can only assume he was signed this year. I also couldn’t find a Date of Birth so I don’t know how old he is. What I do know is that he had a decent parallel league season. In 38 2/3 IP, he had an 2.09 ERA and K’d 23 (EDIT: muircheartaigh has suggested to me that this could be Yuri Perez who pitched in the VSL )
Danilo Del Rio – The RHP (5’11, 179) just turned 18 in September. He pitched in 9 games including 7 starts. In 36 IP, his ERA was 1.75. This may have benefited from bad defense as he gave up 15 runs but only 7 were earned.