6-4-2 — an Angels/Dodgers double play blog: Dominican Update

Proceeds from the ads below will be donated to the Bob Wuesthoff scholarship fund.

Thursday, December 02, 2004

Dominican Update

In Baseball Prospectus, Carlos Lugo has an update on the Dominican... here's the deals of interest:

Raul already wrote about Lima and Mondesi getting traded. "The Lions think they've greatly upgraded their team with both Mondesi..." wrotes Lugo, but it sounds like the team's more interested in a name than in production.
Cubs prospect Felix Pié is slumping: "In 80 at-bats, Pié is hitting .238/.299/.375, with a worrisome strikeout rate--29 already--and just five walks."
But -- my favorite whipping boy, the Nerf-like Neifi Perez, has suddenly started hitting like he knows how. After a fiasco where a local talk show host criticized him for failing to show up for the games early,
Perez was in uniform a couple of days later and promptly had consecutive four-hit games, leading the Lions to three wins in a row. Every single time that Perez got a hit, he signaled and gestured to the press box, enjoying his sweet revenge. Perez is now hitting .667/.700/.889 in 18 at-bats, and if we take into account that he hit .371/.400/.548 with the Cubs, is it possible that he is actually becoming a good hitter?
On the other hand:
Ervin Santana made his first start of the season last Sunday for Licey, in the infamous 21-2 slaughter at the Escogido's hands. Santana, who previously had made five relief appearances, was on a 65-pitch limit and lasted just 2 2/3 innings, allowing four hits and two runs, with three strikeouts. Santana's fastball was consistently clocked between 92-94 mph and touched 95 several times, but his command of the pitch was erratic, missing high in the strike zone several times. His best pitch that afternoon was a tight slider, which was breaking hard, low and inside to left-handed hitters. With the pitch, Santana had three consecutive strikeouts in the second inning.
Santana's supposedly one of the Angels' top pitching prospects. This is only one outing -- (TINSTAPP) -- but given the club's record with guys like Jenks (TINSTAPP) and Bootcheck (TINSTAPP) it makes you wonder whether they'll ever be able to develop quality starting pitching.
"Dodgers shortstop Joel Guzman is staying above .300 (.311/.345/.437), not an easy task for a soon-to-be 20-year-old kid. Guzman showed a flash of his enormous power potential hitting a long home run to the right-center field bleachers of Estadio Cibao…"
Other players of note: For the Giants, Duaner Sanchez. For the Tigers, Vlad Guerrero may be brought in for the last week of the season, with Ramon Ortiz expected later in the month.