Sebastian Valle singled home Yunesky Sanchez with the winning run in the ninth inning as Mexico rallied to defeat the Dominican Republic 3-2 Thursday night.
The Mexican team advanced to Saturday night's Caribbean Series final at Margarita Island, Venzuela, against the winner of Friday's semifinal between Puerto Rico and Venezuela.
For information purposes, I'll designate the contract status and other pertinent information for the players mentioned in this post because most of them are 1) who's he or 2) I didn't know he was still playing.
Valle is a 23-year-old catcher in the Phillies' organization. He backslid last season, but he has hit 25 homers the last two seasons for Double-A Reading. 3B Sanchez, 29, played last summer in the Mexican League but has been as high as Triple-A in the U.S.
LHP Oliver Perez (32, free agent) was the winning pitcher even though he walked one batter and hit another in his one inning, the ninth. Mexico had tied the game with a run in the bottom of the eighth.
On Wednesday, the Dominican Republic had defeated Mexico City 7-6 in the final game of the round-robin qualifier. OF Eugenio Velez (31, Brewers) hit a two-run home run in a four-run third inning. It was the second homer of the series for Velez, better known as a base stealer.
The losing pitcher was RHP Guillermo Mota (40, Royals), who entered the game with a 2-1 lead, the bases loaded and two out in the eighth inning. He didn't retire any of three batters in the ninth. In addition to blowing a save, he had two of the Dominicans' three losses and a 10.80 ERA in the series.
Puerto Rico qualified for the semifinals by handing Venezuela its only loss of the round robin, 5-4. RHP Tyler Herron (27, Nationals) retired 2B Alberto Callaspo (30, Athletics) with the tying run at first base for Herron's second save of the series. He could be someone to watch. Herron, a converted starter, had six saves in high-A and Double-A ball last summer, then was a Puerto Rican All-Star with 12 saves during the winter season.
Puerto Rico finished the round robin tied with Mexico and the Dominican Republic at 2-2. If the Puerto Rican team had lost, it would have been eliminated at 1-3 because it lost to Cuba, which did finish 1-3 in the five-team event.
The starting pitchers for Friday's semifinal were teammates last season at Triple-A Las Vegas (Mets organization. Giancarlo Alvarado, 36, is scheduled to start for Puerto Rico against Venezuela's Daryl Thompson, 28.
Other statistical leaders during round-robin play:
Batting average -- C Ronny Paulino (32, Tigers) .545 (6 for 11), Dominican Republic; and 2B Emilio Bonifacio (28, free agent) .462 (6 for 13), D.R.
Home runs -- 3B Zelous Wheeler (27, Yankees) 3, Mexico. He spent the last three years in Double-A and Triple-A in the Orioles organization.
RBI -- Wheeler; OF Chris Roberson (34, has played three of the last four seasons in Mexico, a former Phillie), Mexico; and C Ramon Hernandez (37, Royals), Venezuela, all with 5
ERA -- Alfredo Aceves (31, Orioles), Mexico; Juan Delgadillo (31, Mexican League veteran), Mexico, and Jon Leicester, D.R., who hasn't played in organized baseball since 2011, all 1-0, 0.00 in seven innings. Aceves started Thursday's semifinal game as well.
RHP Joel Pineiro (35, free agent) was 0-1 but with an 0.00 ERA in 6 2/3 innings.
Saves -- Jean Machi (32, Giants), Venezuela, 3
Carlos Marmol, 31, pitched a perfect inning in each of two games during the round robin for the Dominican Republic with a save, an 0.00 ERA and an 0.00 WHIP. On Thursday, Marmol's representatives said he had agreed to a 2014 contract with the Marlins. He could offer an alternative if RHP Steve Cishek struggles as Miami's closer.
Showing posts with label Ramon Hernandez. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ramon Hernandez. Show all posts
Thursday, February 6, 2014
Wednesday, January 8, 2014
Baseball fans: Try to stay awake during Countdown to Tanaka
The Countdown to Tanaka has overshadowed what little real news there has been about Hot Stove League acquisitions.
Oh, there will be announcements about the Hall of Fame in a few minutes as I write this, and the sacred names most likely will appear farther down in this post. But that really has nothing to do with fantasy baseball.
Or if you're a relative of Ramon Hernandez, Robert Andino or Xavier Nady, you might be interested to know that they have signed minor league contracts with the Royals, Pirates and Padres. Re-signed in the case of Andino and Nady -- and possibly with Hernandez, who has been with more teams than I can remember.
Oh, Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine and Frank Thomas. No Jack Morris? It helped Glavine to be associated with Maddux, but after all, Glavine was a 300-game winner in his own right. Thomas might have stayed a year or two too long, but before that he was clearly a dominant player.
In case you haven't noticed, there's a new look to the blog.
* * *
Football. We're going through the draft for the playoff semifinals in the Andy Memorial Football League. I'll keep you posted. Remaining from my regular-season team were RB D'Angelo Williams, WRs Keenan Allen and Danny Amendola and Seattle's D/ST. My first draft pick was San Diego's QBs, which I'm hoping is Philip Rivers alone. The top four teams in the league are taking part in the championship playoffs draft. This is a scoring-only league.
* * *
Hockey. Lately, for every point or half-point my team has gained, I have lost a corresponding point or half-point. So I'm spinning my wheels at 66 points, in third place. Currently, I'm five points behind the second-place team, which has been fluctuating more than I have.
There are areas where I can gain: 1 power play point out of the league lead, 10 penalty minutes away from a point, 7 seconds from another point in ATOI. My goalkeeping still sucks. I'm 8 wins away from another point and .18 away from the ninth-place team in goals against average. There are three teams within .055 in save percentage. The problem with being close is that there are teams similarly close behind me.
My team was plus-6 Tuesday, so I'm up to 31 points but still 19 behind the next-higher team total.
* * *
Basketball. I made a mistake by not updating my lineup Tuesday. I was up late Monday working on fantasy baseball projections, up late Tuesday morning and as a result I missed out on Joakim Noah's double double by leaving him on the bench. I'm down 5-3 to the team immediately ahead of me in the division, and need to win at least 5-3 to move ahead of that team. Noah's strong points were not in the areas where I'm trailing, but my feeling is that you can't have too big a lead in any category. I understand that if I have 100 more assists than the rest of the league heading into the final few weeks, I could deal assists for shooting percentage or something else I'd need. (You're on notice, Ricky Rubio. Don't be surprised when you hear those trade rumors.) Though first I'd have to get ahead by 100 assists. Another problem is that it's a head-to-head league, so my final Rotisserie (R) totals have no impact on the final standings.
I'm very close in field goal percentage, steals and blocks. It should help in steals, at least, that six of the eight players in my lineup tonight are guards. I don't believe that I have lost since Week 3, and I don't intend to lose this week.
Oh, there will be announcements about the Hall of Fame in a few minutes as I write this, and the sacred names most likely will appear farther down in this post. But that really has nothing to do with fantasy baseball.
Or if you're a relative of Ramon Hernandez, Robert Andino or Xavier Nady, you might be interested to know that they have signed minor league contracts with the Royals, Pirates and Padres. Re-signed in the case of Andino and Nady -- and possibly with Hernandez, who has been with more teams than I can remember.
Oh, Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine and Frank Thomas. No Jack Morris? It helped Glavine to be associated with Maddux, but after all, Glavine was a 300-game winner in his own right. Thomas might have stayed a year or two too long, but before that he was clearly a dominant player.
In case you haven't noticed, there's a new look to the blog.
* * *
Football. We're going through the draft for the playoff semifinals in the Andy Memorial Football League. I'll keep you posted. Remaining from my regular-season team were RB D'Angelo Williams, WRs Keenan Allen and Danny Amendola and Seattle's D/ST. My first draft pick was San Diego's QBs, which I'm hoping is Philip Rivers alone. The top four teams in the league are taking part in the championship playoffs draft. This is a scoring-only league.
* * *
Hockey. Lately, for every point or half-point my team has gained, I have lost a corresponding point or half-point. So I'm spinning my wheels at 66 points, in third place. Currently, I'm five points behind the second-place team, which has been fluctuating more than I have.
There are areas where I can gain: 1 power play point out of the league lead, 10 penalty minutes away from a point, 7 seconds from another point in ATOI. My goalkeeping still sucks. I'm 8 wins away from another point and .18 away from the ninth-place team in goals against average. There are three teams within .055 in save percentage. The problem with being close is that there are teams similarly close behind me.
My team was plus-6 Tuesday, so I'm up to 31 points but still 19 behind the next-higher team total.
* * *
Basketball. I made a mistake by not updating my lineup Tuesday. I was up late Monday working on fantasy baseball projections, up late Tuesday morning and as a result I missed out on Joakim Noah's double double by leaving him on the bench. I'm down 5-3 to the team immediately ahead of me in the division, and need to win at least 5-3 to move ahead of that team. Noah's strong points were not in the areas where I'm trailing, but my feeling is that you can't have too big a lead in any category. I understand that if I have 100 more assists than the rest of the league heading into the final few weeks, I could deal assists for shooting percentage or something else I'd need. (You're on notice, Ricky Rubio. Don't be surprised when you hear those trade rumors.) Though first I'd have to get ahead by 100 assists. Another problem is that it's a head-to-head league, so my final Rotisserie (R) totals have no impact on the final standings.
I'm very close in field goal percentage, steals and blocks. It should help in steals, at least, that six of the eight players in my lineup tonight are guards. I don't believe that I have lost since Week 3, and I don't intend to lose this week.
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