If you have MLB Network, you can watch baseball right now. In early February. Holy mother, it is glorious.
What you can’t really do is watch a bunch of Royals players contribute for the four teams in the Caribbean Series: No team has more than one KC farmhand on its roster.
But, we do have three representatives playing there, so let’s take a look at what they’re doing.
Venezuala – Jose Duarte
What is the opposite of “light tower power?” Whatever it is, Duarte has it. In 43 games this winter, Duarte produced a line of .260/.377/.323, with five extra base hits and, of course, no homers.
The powerless outfielder did get on base, though, walking almost as often as he struck out (17:20). He’s not in Venezuela’s lineup right now.
Puerto Rico – Mario Santiago
The RHP was used almost exclusively as a starter in Wilmington last summer, but split time between the rotation and the ‘pen this winter.
He was today’s starter for PR, and took the loss. His line was actually pretty impressive, but he got no support from his offense – Puerto Rico lost to the Dominican Republic 2-1.
| IP 7.0 |
H 3 |
R 2 |
ER 1 |
HR 1 |
BB 1 |
K 8 |
(An aside: Do you know how refreshing it is to have live action to blog about? Sweet, sweet baseball.)
Lots of strikeouts and not many walks is pretty consistent with Santiago’s usual M.O., both during the season and in the winter. The 16th-round pick from 2005 struck out 97 and walked 34 in 136 innings for Wilmington last summer, and struck out 33 and walked just 8 this winter (excluding the start today) in 47 innings.
His K/9 isn’t going to blow anyone away, but his control is good.
Dominican Republic – Brayan “B-Pain” Pena
I….can’t find B-Pain’s winter stats. They’re strangely absent from his player page, but I know he did play. I have to go to work now, but if I can scrape together his winter numbers, I’ll fill them in later.
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