In the final day, Venezuela was pitted against Mexico for the third place game as both Dominican teams battled for the championship game. The end result in this week of pretty much Dominican dominance was DR2 (Licey Tigres) beating out DR1 (Eagles) for the Caribbean title. The final scores yesterday:
MEX (2-4) - 7
VEN (2-4) - 5

DR2 (5-1) - 8
DR1 (3-3) - 2

What we have seen over the past few days is a team without any wins, Mexico, going into action to pull out two wins in the last two days to tie for third best record. We have also seen the mighty DR1 team with Tejada go from a 2-0 start to dropping one, winning one, then dropping two more in a row. For Licey, this is their 10th Caribbean Crown (mlb.com)
Here are the usual stat lines:
Offerman 1-5
Tejada 0-4
Diaz 1-4

As you can see, our friend Anderson Hernandez is not listed. Yesterday, after having to straight games of no hits, he did not play. So his series average stays at .136. Don't feel to bad for him because he and Jorge Sosa are both champions for the moment, and hopefully are hungry to get the bigger, MLB title in October.

Last night was the last night before the championship game in the Caribbean Series. DR2 was trying to make it a perfect week while DR2 was hoping to keep pace. DR1 found out before their game that there was a chance that they would enter the Championship with the same record as DR2 as long as they won their game.
DR2 lost to Mexico 7-4 in the tenth inning last night. Mexico with that win went 1-4, and dropping DR2 to 4-1. Later that night Venezuela beat DR1 8-5 which improved Venezuela to (2-3) and  lowered DR1 to (3-2).

Some stat lines:
A Hernandez 0-5
Tejada 1-5, R
Diaz 0-1
Colon 4.1 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 2 R, 2 K's

With that second straight game without any hits for Hernandez, his BA dropped down to .136. At some point, when hitting second in the line up, you need to do something. Hopefully he will have a good game tonight.
Colon had 2 perfect innings to start. But the rest can be seen in the box score.

Tonight Venezuela and Mexico will play for the third place game tonight. Both Dominican teams will square off tonight for the title.

And we are so close to Spring Training

Dayn Perry recently wrote a story for Fox Sports that explains his picks for the worst player at each position. The list can be found here:
http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/7737168/Position-by-position-look-at-MLB's-worst

Here is a quick rundown tho:
C- Jason Kendall
1B- Kevin Millar
2B- Ray Durham
3B- Rich Aurilia
SS- Omar Vizquel
LF- Juan Pierre
CF- Mark Kotsay
RF- Mark Teahan

So there are somethings I agree with and somethings I don't. I agree with the Kotsay listing because I have been saying all along, as many others have as well, that if the Braves think that Kotsay is the answer for the CF problems, they are so wrong. For them, it might have been a better idea to find a bench player somewhere that has promise to the play CF. Furthermore, giving up Devine was too much for the deal, as Devine will prove to be a good pitcher out of the pen.
When reading entry for Teahan, you can see he's listed because many teams have good players out in RF. He is in the unfortunate position that the Royals do not have anybody to platoon with him. With age he will get better, he is only 26 and I believe much of his problems originate with him being rushed through the minors (like Burgos before him). That being said, at this time next year, he will not be listed as the worse RF in the league.
How bout the Giants with three players on the list?
Check out the original article, its a good read.

Yesterday's results are in and the 3-0 DR team improved to 4-0 yesterday with a 2-1 win over Venezuela (1-3) and the 2-1 DR team improved to 3-1 with a 4-1 win over Mexico, who falls to 0-4. This is important because if both DR teams win today, they will play each other in the final where one can win or they could end up with the same record. This year, the Series has a chance to go down to the wire.
Here are the normal stat lines:

Tejada: 0-3, R, BB
Diaz: 1-3, R, BB
A Hernandez: 0-4
Offerman: 1-4, R
Sosa: 0.2 IP, H, ER, 2 BB, 1 HR

It looks like there is very little chance for A Hernandez to hit like he normally does at this time of the year with only two games left in the Series. His average so far in the Series has been a submendoza line .167.
This is the first run of the season, including regular winter play, that Sosa has given up a run. During this outing as you can you see by the line, he had some trouble, but it puts his Series ERA at 2.70, which if he maintains a 2.70 during the regular season, I would be all smiles as most fans would be. (It is his first run over all during 8.1 IP).

In terms of playing teams above .500, June was a tough month. Will the Mets get relief in the month before the dog days of summer? Well lets find out. These are the Games the Mets will be playing in July:

STL 6 games
PHI 7 games
SF 3 games
COL 3 games
CIN 4 games
FLA 3 games

The Breakdown:
The Mets will play 26 games, 14 away, 12 home, 10 against the NL East, 10 against playoff teams, 10 against teams above .500 last year and 16 games against teams below .500 last year.

That being said, July on paper looks to be the best month for the Mets. Between playing 16 games that should be out of the box wins, they will play 7 against the Phils, so in theory the Mets can really build up some steam in July to bring into the dog days of summer. The Mets also get a nice three day break for some of the team, even though most of the team will be playing in the allstar game.
Overall, July has the making to be a great mont for the Mets.

In other news, some big deals have happened recently if you haven't heard yet. Granderson has an extension from the Tigers and the Pirates signed Sanchez to an extension as well. There is also the Bedard deal that looks almost certain. More analysis on these deals later.
Don't forget to check the Caribbean Series action tonight, and if you do miss it, I'll have another recap of it tomorrow morning.

Before yesterday's games, there were two teams that were 0-2 and two teams that 2-0. The games yesterday featured the 0-2 Venezuelan team against an 0-2 Mexican team while both 2-0 Dominican teams went at it. Venezuela beat Mexico 5-0 yesterday as the Dominican team, the Tigers, beat the the Eagles 5-2. (A good reference point is the Tigers have Anderson Hernandez (and Jorge Sosa) while the Eagles have Tejada).

So what about the lines? Did Hernandez turn into Ted Williams yet?

Tejada 1-4
Diaz 0-2, BB
A Hernandez 2-4, R
Offerman 0-4

That 2-4 for Hernandez put him at a .214 average for the series. Jorge Sosa did not pitch last night, but his team used three pitchers so I am assuming that he will get some action tonight. Venezuela will play the 3-0 DR team tonight while Mexico battles with the 2-1 Mexico team tonight.

In today's edition of Get To Know A Prospect, I decided to look in a place for a prospect that is not normally looked at. Juan Feliciano was the winner of the IBL (Israel Baseball League) most valuable pitcher. During last season he was 27, but before we look at his stats then, lets look at his other stats.

He has never played in the minors. At age 25 and 26, he played two seasons in the Japanese Baseball League. He played for Hiroshima. His first year, his ERA was 6.92, then it was 7.39. (Over 11.2 and 35.1 IP pitched respectively). Both seasons he had 11 K's, which means his K/9 went from 8.46 to 2.80.
Last season, over 50.1 IP, he posted a 1.97 ERA, went 7-1 (12 G), 6 CG, 2 shutouts, and 73 K's. Thats the result of two things. One could be that he really did get a lot better last year. It is also because he went from a Japanese League which is like AAA, to IBL, which many feel is somewhere in the A level.
In winter ball so far, over 13.2 IP, he has posted a 3.29 ERA with 13 K's.

When taking his winter time in account, he has made an improvement. That league is harder to pitch in then the IBL and those are still pretty good numbers. One of the two MVP's from IBL last year got signed by the Yanks. As far as I know he will remain to be in the IBL, but he could be someone to keep an eye on.
To be clear, I do not see him making the MLB as a starter, I see him possibly making it as a player from the pen to pitch for injuries. But he is important because he is an international star and spreading the game of baseball to different areas of the world.

The  DR had a double sweep again yesterday as DR team 2, the one with A Hernandez beat Mexico 2-1 and then DR team 1, the one with Tejada, beat Venezuela 3-1.
Here are some stat lines:

Jorge Sosa: 2.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 3 SO
A Hernandez: 0-5
Offerman: 0-4, BB
Tejada, 0-4
Diaz: 0-4

First off, glad to see Sosa get some action and glad to see that it was for positive results. He is another contender in Spring for the fifth spot in the rotation vs Pelfry and El Duque, and a long shot, but he should factor in to be an important part of the pen (and I still feel that if he starts to ware out, Lugo is a great option to get him some rest).
What is up with Hernandez, he is looking more like himself in the regular season than the Hernandez that generally hits .400 in the winter leagues. Diaz and Tejada also returned human as both games turned into pitching matches instead of offensive shows like they were on day 1.

The Caribbean Series kicked off yesterday and there are a few interesting stat lines to point out. If you didn't know, Puerto Rico was unable to send a representative to the series this year, so two DR teams have made the cut into the series. Yesterday was a good day for the DR as both of their teams won their opening games (vs Venezuela and Mexico). Here are some batting lines that I picked up from the box scores:

Miguel Tejada: 3-4, 4 R, 2 RBI, 1 BB, 2 HR, 1 SB
Victor Diaz: 2-5, 2 R, 2 RBI, 1 2B
Anderson Hernandez: 1-5, 1 RBI
Jose Offerman: 2-3, 2 R, 1 SB


Interesting, so fare Hernandez does not look like the Ted Williams of the Winter Leagues. Maybe later on this week.

The scores of the games were:
DR (2) -13
Mex - 6

DR (1) -6
Ven -  4

In April, the Mets will play 19 games vs the NL East. In May, the Mets will play 10 games against the East. In June 2008, the Mets will play 0 games against the NL East. Here is a breakdown of the games the Mets play in June 2008:

LAD (1)
SF (3)
SD (4)
ARI (3)
COL (3)
STL (1)
TEX (3)
LAA (3)
SEA (3)
NYY (3)

The Mets play 27 games in June, 13 Home, 14 Away. Out of these 27 games, 20 of them will be against teams that were above .500 last year. 12 of these games will be against teams that made the playoffs last year. When they play LAA, they will have played 6 of last years 8 playoff teams.
Although, one can argue when they play San Diego this month, they will play 7 of 9 teams that made the playoffs last year because of the one game wild card playoff last year. Either way, the Mets will not be playing the Red Sox or the Indians this year during the regular season, so they will not complete the cycle of playing all the Playoff teams thisyear.
On paper this looks like a hard month for the Mets in terms of playing teams that by lasts years standards were very good. As I have said before in the previous installments of this series, I highly doubt that will be the issue. It is June, there is not a lot of pressure in the games yet, and the only games that have pressure no matter what time of year are the games against division teams. No division teams this month, so all they have to do is go out and win.

We are about 15 days away from Spring Training so its that time of year that we start looking at position battles and health of players. These are some of the questions that should be affecting the NL East this season in terms of Spring Training position battles and overall questions for the season:

1. Luis Castillo is the Mets second basemen. Who will his back up be? Will it be the young Ruben Gotay, or will we see a return Valetine?
2. The Braves say Mike Hampton is back to full health? How effective will he be?
3. With the McPherson signing, who will be the starting 3B for the Marlins?
4. The Mets have their old setup man in Sanchez back. Will he be effective? Will Heilman go back to mop-up? Will they platoon?
5. Now with Lugo and Strokes, will they actually get a spot in the pen? Will they beat out Schowenwies? What about Sosa?
6. Where will Pelfry play? (minors or majors)
7. Will the 2006 or 2007 Delgado show up to play this year?
8. With Victorino not platooning this year, how will he hold up in terms of stanima? What about their right field?

Over the next two weeks I will be attempting to answer these questions and add more. If you have some, please post or send them to me: eteich@umd.edu

So close to Spring