{ 2007 09 12 }

Across the Affiliates 2007 - DSL (1 of 7)

Now that the minor league season has ended for the Nationals affiliates, I am going to begin a recap of each level highlighting the overall performances and top prospects at each level.

Today I start with the Dominican Summer League (DSL). Once again in 2007, the Nats had two teams in the DSL, both were based out of Loma del Sueño, Jose Rijo’s complex in the Dominican Republic. But unlike last season where both squads finished with a sub-0.500 record, the DSL Nationals1 not only finished with a winning record (49-15), they also won the DSL Championship, besting the DSL Yankees1 three games to two in the best-of-five series.

STATISTICS

Hitting

Team AB R H HR RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS SB CS
Nats1 2031 410 520 13 311 331 467 256 380 334 714 150 49
DSL Avg 2182 316 518 19 251 275 508 238 338 321 659 92 47
Nats2 1953 268 434 5 196 268 532 222 331 286 617 92 52

Pitching

Team IP ERA WHIP BA OPS BAbip K/9 BB/9 K/BB HR/9
Nats1 554 2.45 1.26 213 581 303 10.3 4.3 2.4 0.1
DSL Avg 583 3.64 1.36 238 658 298 7.8 4.2 1.9 0.3
Nats2 525 4.46 1.55 239 694 318 9.3 6.0 1.5 0.3

As you would expect, the Nats1 had both above average hitting and pitching while the Nats2 were below average versus the league as a whole. While the Nats1 did not hit as many home runs as the average team (in fact, both Nats teams combined were less than league average), they made up for it by stealing over fifty more bases with a greater success rate than league average (75% vs 66%). Add to that the pitching dominance the Nats1 demonstrated where they outperformed the league averages in virtually every pitching rate statistic.

The one thing to keep in mind when looking at these performances are the relative ages of the players involved. Below is a table showing the average of both the Nats 1 & 2 hitters and pitchers in DSL versus league average:

Team Hit Pit
Nats1 19.2 20.3
Avg 18.5 18.9
Nats2 19.2 19.6

The Nats1 were clearly a more experienced team which likely played an important role in their results, especially with the pitching staff where the bulk of their starts were made by players 20 years or older. But taking a closer look at the actual composition of the roster, there are some promising signs …

Regular Lineup

Pos Nats1, Age Nats2, Age Pos
CA Yan Carlos Hiciano, 20 Wilfri Pena, 20 CA
1B Eduardo Urbina, 19 Juan Urdaneta, 18 1B
2B Adrian Sanchez, 16 Hendry Jimenez, 17 2B
3B Ferdinand Willans, 20 Miguel Vargas, 21 3B
SS Dani Arias, 19 Francisco Soriano, 20 SS
LF Juan Beltre, 21 Samuel Gomez, 20 LF
CF Eury Perez, 17 Alejandro Hodge, 17 CF
RF Carlos Cabral, 21 Eleazar Cuevas, 20 RF
DH Danny Taveras, 20 Daniel Vinicio, 21 DH
BENCH BENCH
CA Ricardo Martinez, 18 Jose Altuve, 19 CA
MI Cladio Fukunaga, 19 Felix Fermin Jr, 22 MI
CI Yeurys Tejeda, 19 Victor Vizcaino, 19 CI
OF Francisco Mojica, 20 Weesley Hernandez, 18 OF
OF Jesus Morales, 17 OF
OF Angelberth Montilla, 18 OF
SP Federico Tanco, 21 Yael Arias, 21 SP
SP Jorge Urena, 20 Randy Almonte, 18* SP
SP Marcos Frias, 18 Francisco Vizcaino, 18* SP
SP Wilmer Blanco, 21 Miguel Aracena, 20* SP
SP Juan Martinez, 21 Manuel Rivera, 19 SP
SP Amado de los Santos, 21 Jose Taveras, 19* SP
RP Julio Perez, 19 Miguel Sabala, 20 RP
RP Juan Jamie, 19 Ruben de la Rosa, 20 RP
RP Damian Silva, 20 Juan Arana, 20 RP
RP Victor Mota, 18 Joel Campana-Ventura, 17* RP
RP Ironel Paez, 16 RP
CL Carlos Peralta, 21 Eduar Acosta, 22 CL
* = LHP

The presence of players such as Jimenez, Sanchez, Perez, Paez, Morales and Hodge show that the Nationals are in fact replenishing their pipeline in the Dominican Republic. Players are entering the system from the Dominican, Venezuela and even Argentina. The most important signs are two fold, first, will these younger players continue to populate and eventually assume the majority of the roster spots and more importantly, will these names appear again in the Gulf Coast League, Vermont, all the way to Washington in the ideal scenario.

The Newcomers

Player Age Team G AB R RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG SB CS
Castillo, Luis# 17 DSL2 19 52 2 3 8 25 096 230 115 0 0
Hodge, Alejandro 17 DSL2 60 159 43 13 35 38 264 430 296 22 7
Jimenez, Hendry# 17 DSL2 41 145 27 22 13 27 290 341 372 7 3
Martinez, Ricardo 18 DSL1 15 45 6 4 5 10 267 389 400 1 0
Martinez, Ricardo 18 DSL2 12 27 5 4 4 6 259 444 333 1 0
Morales, Jesus 17 DSL1 31 95 25 12 22 14 221 367 253 7 3
Perez, Eury 17 DSL1 51 158 41 14 32 39 253 399 297 15 5
Sanchez, Adrian# 16 DSL1 42 145 21 19 12 25 269 354 379 4 3
Soriano, Francisco# 20 DSL2 35 111 25 16 44 22 324 516 441 10 12
Urdaneta, Juan* 18 DSL2 53 167 20 10 22 43 168 278 198 3 3
Vizcaino, Francisco* 18 DSL2 11 32 2 3 5 13 156 308 219 0 0

‘#’= switch-hitter; ‘*’= lefthanded

The Nationals saw some pretty solid performances from their youngest players. Alejandro Hodge and Eury Perez were the full-time starters in center field for their respective teams and both players showed solid on-base numbers and some developing speed on the base paths. 20-year Francisco Soriano was probably the biggest surprise, showing extra-base power (8/36 hits were for extra bases) while playing 35 games at shortstop. An interesting name on the list is Francisco Vizcaino who was signed as a LHP but also saw six games at DH and five games at 1B.

Player Age Team IP ERA WHIP BA OPS BAbip K/9 BB/9 K/BB HR/9
Almonte, R* 18 DSL2 33.33 8.18 1.86 231 750 276 6.8 9.2 0.7 0.3
Campana, J* 17 DSL2 11.00 2.45 1.18 205 575 286 9.8 4.1 2.4 0.0
Castillo, R 19 DSL1 4.33 4.50 2.54 318 903 350 6.2 8.3 0.8 0.0
Castillo, R 19 DSL2 5.00 9.00 2.60 318 938 368 5.4 10.8 0.5 0.0
Costanzo, F 18 DNP
Frias, M 18 DSL2 24.00 0.38 0.63 115 320 180 10.5 2.3 4.7 0.0
Guzman, A 19 DSL2 19.67 4.66 1.53 264 788 315 7.8 5.0 1.6 0.9
Mota, V 18 DSL1 4.67 6.23 1.71 176 567 300 13.5 9.6 1.4 0.0
Paez, I 16 DSL2 10.00 3.60 2.00 212 677 280 7.2 11.7 0.6 0.0
Peralta, C 21 DSL1 36.33 1.75 0.99 167 459 241 10.4 3.7 2.8 0.2
Rivera, M 19 DSL2 33.33 4.36 1.71 280 738 360 8.6 6.5 1.3 0.3
Tejada, D 19 DSL2 22.33 6.14 1.66 319 799 387 6.5 3.2 2.0 0.0
Vizcaino, F* 18 DSL2 36.67 5.20 1.69 227 689 292 8.4 7.4 1.1 0.2

‘*’ = lefthanded

The clear stars here were Marcos Frias and Carlos Peralta. Frias became a solid starter for both the Nats1 (2-2 with 3.21ERA 1.29WHIP over 42IP) and the Nats2 (4-1 with 0.38ERA 1.53WHIP over 24IP), including a win in the championship clinching game. Though old by DSL standards, Peralta provided spectacular relief for the Nats1 with 15 saves in his 28 appearances.

Without further ado …

Top 15 DSL Prospects

  1. Federico Tanco RHSP
  2. Juan Beltre LF
  3. Marcos Frias RHSP
  4. Eduardo Urbina 1B
  5. Alejandro Hodge CF
  6. Eury Perez CF
  7. Hendry Jimenez 2B
  8. Jorge Urena RHSP
  9. Adrian Sanchez 2B
  10. Carlos Peralta RHRP
  11. Francisco Soriano SS
  12. Dani Arias SS
  13. Yeurys Tejeda SS
  14. Danny Taveras CA/DH
  15. Ricardo Martinez CA

Posted by Brian Oliver on Wednesday, September 12th, 2007, at 8:00 pm, and filed under Across the Affiliates, Dominican Summer League.

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