Caribbean Winter Leagues

[bigwords]

Hey, there's baseball going on and some interesting players are making noise in good ways and bad:

Jarrod Saltalamacchia: 9 HR and a .506 OBP in 66 at bats
Nelson Cruz: 8 HR, 5 steals, 1.055 OPS in 105 at bats
Pablo Sandoval: 12 HR, .396 AVG in 192 at bats
Max Ramirez: 15 HR in 191 at bats
Fausto Carmona: 4.41 ERA in 32 IP

[AquaMan2342]

Does this change your opinion that Sandoval will never hit 20 HRs?

* Caribbean btw.....sorry grammar police.

[bigwords]

No.
But I'm impressed by his ability to make contact. That sounds like a slight, but it isn't.

[Old_Style]

He never said he wouldn't hit 20 in winter ball.

[ayebatter]

He never said he wouldn't hit 20 in winter ball.

He hasn't hit 20 in winter ball.

[Field]

Good idea, I almost made a Winter Ball thread a week or so back. Jesus Guzman, Sandoval's potential teammate on the Giants big league club in 09, has been impressive breaking the league's record for RBIs. With the state of the Giant infield being highly tumultuous, it isn't out of the question that he finds his way into a starting role. Even though he plays below average defense, he's played every position in the infield. Might be a guy to watch in dynasty and deeper leagues. He's never been that highly touted of a prospect but not all guys develop in a linear fashion. He'll be 25 in June and absolutely tore up AA last season.

[horatio]

Does this change your opinion that Sandoval will never hit 20 HRs?

The way I figure it is that if Mark Ellis can hit 19 homeruns then Pablo Sandoval can certainly hit 20, he's got 50 pounds on Ellis.

Mention of the Caribean leagues makes me think of this great story:

Sunday, January 16, 2005

01-16) 04:00 PST Santo Domingo , Dominican Republic -- When Eric Byrnes arrived here for his first winter-ball season four years ago, he got a nasty shock after checking into his hotel. A man was shot dead in the lobby, and the crime-scene tape outline of the body was still there the next morning when Byrnes headed down for breakfast.

"That was my welcome to the Dominican Republic," the A's outfielder said. "And I guarantee you right now there are at least 20 pistols in our (Licey) clubhouse. Everyone carries guns, and there's only one rule -- if you pull it out, you better use it, because if you don't the other guy will. That's what happened to the guy in the lobby: He was waving his gun around and the security guard shot him. It's like the wild, wild West here."

Typically, the free-spirited, full-speed-ahead Byrnes dug that. His mom, Judy, told him to come home after the shooting. But Byrnes not only stayed that season, he went on to be the Dominican League MVP..................

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.c ... ARC441.DTL

[jlm53089]

Yea that was the last time Eric Byrnes was good at something...

As for Sandoval, I have no idea where he is going to go in drafts, someone might take him early just to grab him and on hype, but he could fall because he is on a small market team and well he hasnt shown anything in the majors yet.

[San D]

Andruw Jones is batting .188 (3 for 16) in the Dominican League as he tries to find his game.

[Wheelhouse]

i'd be careful about putting much (if any) weight into winter league stats.....the leagues favor hitters greatly and doesn't usually correlate to MLB success......for example, here are the HR leaders from last year's DWL season:

Brad Nelson
Victor Diaz
Vince Sinisi
Mendy Lopez
Caonabo Cosme

and the HR leaders from last year's VWL season:

Eliezer Alfonzo
Richard Hidalgo
Alex Cabrera
Jose Castillo
Rico Washington