Fifth-starter candidates Fernando Nieve and Nelson Figueroa delivered strong auditions in winter ball. Nieve, 27, emerged as the front-runner (apologies to any Josh Fogg fans out there) by striking out 26 batters and walking just three in 26 innings for Magallanes of the Venezuelan League. Figueroa, 35, answered with a sterling postseason for Dominican club Escogido, including a complete-game, eight-strikeout gem Wednesday in the Caribbean Series - link
Daniel Murphy – Daniel has essentially been given the keys to the ignition here. This became undeniably true once the Mets decided to close the book on the Carlos Delgado era. I for one believe that this was a good move. I say this because I was only given two choices here. Murphy or Delgado. Of those two, Murphy is the better choice. He is young. He is healthy (a rare attribute for a player on this team). He has some measure of untapped potential. These are all characteristics that Carlos Delgado does not possess. My reasoning is fairly simple to follow. - link
Mariners Re-Sign Erik Bedard, 1 Year/$1.5 Million Dollars Pending a successful physical (in Seattle, they do those!), the Mariners will have supposedly re-signed Erik Bedard to an incentive-laden 1 year contract, with a base of $1.5 million - link
Active Winter League players wanting to leave Latin America to participate in baseball development programs or fan festivals for their MLB clubs in the United States will have to get permission from their Winter League teams, according to the terms of the new Winter League Agreement. On Thursday, Lou Melendez, MLB's vice president of international baseball operations, Caribbean Confederation president Juan Francisco Puello and baseball executives from the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Mexico and Puerto Rico made the agreement official in a rooftop press conference at The Lidotel Hotel. - link
Puerto Rico sent the Dominican Republic down to defeat for the first time 7-3 with Danny Valencia leading the way with three RBIs. Two three run outbursts by Puerto Rico proved to be the Leones undoing. In the opening frame Raul Casanova hit an RBI doulbe and Danny Valencia a 2-run double to put the Indios up to a quick 3-0 lead. Danny Valencia drove in his third RBI of the game with a single in the 3-run sixth to ice the game for Puerto Rico. Orlando Roman pitched two plus innings of perfect baseball to pick up the win, not allowing a hit or walking a batter. Venezuela chose to walk Karim Garcia intentionally with a base open to face Vinny Castilla. Vinny made them pay with a game winning single to give Mexico win number two over Venezuela who is 1-3. Karim had homered in the sixth inning to tie the game at 2-2 so you can’t blame Venezuela for not pitching to him. Juan Delgadillo tossed eight innings of two run ball for Mexico, but it was Mario Mendoza that got the win based on his one plus shutout innings. Michael Ryan went deep in the second inning in a losing cause for Venezuela. - link
2 comments:
So, with 26 strike outs and 3 walks in 26 innings in the Venezuelan League, Nieve emerged as the front-runner. But he didn't help his team win the Venezuelan Winter League Championship.
Figueroa pitched in 6 games, the last two as a starter, with a 1.35 ERA, helping his team win the Dominican Winter League championship for the first time in 17 years and get into the Caribe Series. It's a six game round-robin series. In game 2, he pitched a 3-hitter, striking out 8 and walking none; his ERA is 1.00. Going into tomorrow's finale, the Dominican Republic is in first place, 4-1. Last year, Figgy was the Caribe Series MVP. He followed that with 7 scoreless innings of relief for Team Puerto Rico in the 2009 WBC.
Remember, I just cut and paste these things...
my opinion has been consistent...
Nelson Figueroa should be... at least... the SP5 on opening day.
He earned it LAST year, and confirmed it in winter ball.
Mack
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