Tag Archives: Dominican Republic

WBC Semi-Final Preview: Dominican Republic vs. Kingdom of the Netherlands

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It’s a showdown tonight, a grudge match four years in the making. In one corner, the mighty Dominican, now by far the biggest fish in the increasingly small WBC pond. In the other corner, the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the upstart amalgamation of the Netherlands, Curacao and Aruba. Four years ago, the Dutch upset the Dominican twice, and now the Dominican has a chance for revenge. They probably will get it, but as we saw in Puerto Rico-Japan (and Puerto Rico-USA, and Netherlands-Cuba, and… you get the idea), there are no guarantees in baseball.

Go below the jump for the tale of the tape:

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Picture of the day: Erick Aybar, Hero of the Dominican

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After his go-ahead hit last night in the instant-classic game between the Dominican Republic and Team USA, it’s unlikely that Erick Aybar will ever have to pay for a drink in the Dominican again.

This photo was taken by Keith Allison and is used under a creative commons license.

WBC Round 2 Preview: Pool 2 (Miami)

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Japan and the Netherlands have already qualified for the final four of the WBC, but who will join them? That will be decided in Miami, where three of baseball’s traditional powers are joined by the surprising Italian team to determine who will escape to San Francisco. Go below the jump for my preview of the double elimination round:

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World Baseball Classic Preview: Pool C (San Juan)

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Pool C is sure to be an interesting pool, with three big baseball countries that have plenty of history against each other as well as a Spanish team that will be able to call on some ringers that could make things interesting.

Go below the jump for the whole preview.

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WBC Roster Analysis: Dominican Republic

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The Dominican Republic, like the USA and Venezuela, has yet to live up to it’s baseball pedigree when it comes to the WBC. They went down in the semifinals in 2006, and were embarrassed by the Netherlands twice in 2009. Can they do better this time around?

Well, that remains to be seen. For one thing, the roster for Team DR that was released is only 23-men strong, probably due to the fact some players (most notably Albert Pujols) are still of an uncertain status due to various issues, such as insurance clearance. For another, they will be in a group of death, as Pool C also has Venezuela, Puerto Rico and (to a much, much lesser degree) Spain.

So, how’s it look? Go after the jump to find out:

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WBC 2013 Projections: Dominican Republic Version 2.1

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It’s time for another round of projections for the Dominican Republic’s World Baseball Classic roster. Those that have already been confirmed fully by the World Baseball Classic organizers are italicized.

As usual, the rules I used in making this roster:

  • Any player coming off a major injury or who has a history of injuries is unlikely to participate. This is especially true for the pitchers.
  • Players that will be on new teams are less likely to participate, but shouldn’t be completely ignored, with the exception of pitchers.
  • Teams are made up of 28 players, of which 13 of them must be pitchers and two of them catchers.
  • The pitch count rules make relievers extremely important.

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WBC Roster Watch: The first indications of the 2013 Dominican Republic Roster?

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The Dominican Republic national team has a official Twitter feed. It’s in Spanish, of course, but thanks to the internet, here’s what it had to say yesterday, according to Google Translate:

Tony Pena, as a leader, will lead the coaching staff Dominican.

Felix Fermin bench coach Alfredo Griffin first, Juan Samuel third, Bill Castro Launchers …

Denio Gonzales Jose Cano Hitting and Pitching, complete the team’s coaching staff.

Edwin Encarnacion, Willin Rosario, Octavio Dotel, Starlin Mars, and Carlos Santana, attended the activity.

Besides them, Ervin Santana, Edinson Volquez, Carlos Gomez, among others, were present.

General manager @ MoisesAlou18 said other players like A. Pujols, could not attend, but given the support

In short, here’s what it means:

Tony Pena will be the manager of ’13 DR team. Felix Fermin will be the bench coach, Alfredo Griffin the third base coach, etc.

And, more notably, there were some players who attended the news conference about the coaching staff. Here they are, and keep in mind my previous projections for Team DR:
Edwin Encarnacion
Wilin Rosario
Octavio Dotel
Starlin Marte
Carlos Santana
Ervin Santana
Edinson Volquez
Carlos Gomez

Rosario, Dotel, Carlos Santana, Volquez and Carlos Gomez all were in my projections, as was Albert Pujols, who wasn’t at the press conference but apparently gave Moises Alou his “support”, so I guess that means he’d presumably be willing to play as well.

So does this mean that all of these guys will be on the Dominican Republic roster? No, but this news does confirm that all of them are at least interested, and so presumably will be on the provisional rosters when they are released next week. So I guess it could be considered a preview of a preview.

WBC 2013 Projections: Dominican Republic Version 2.0

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My previous projections for the Dominican Republic are now rather out-of-date due to injuries, etc. So, here are new projections, taking into account new developments as well as injuries that might take out certain players. Like the USA projections, this is a ground-up rebuild, and not simply a cut-and-paste with changes.

The usual rules:

  • Any player coming off a major injury or who has a history of injuries is unlikely to participate. This is especially true for the pitchers.
  • Players that will be on new teams are less likely to participate, but shouldn’t be completely ignored, with the exception of pitchers.
  • Teams are made up of 28 players, of which 13 of them must be pitchers and two of them catchers.
  • The pitch count rules make relievers extremely important.

So, after the jump, my projections for the Dominican Republic WBC team:

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WBC 2013 Projections: Dominican Republic

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As I stated at the end of my 2013 Team USA projections, I’ll also do some projections on possible players for the other teams as well. Here, for example, is the Dominican Republic.

The Dominican, in some ways, has been even more disappointing in the WBC than the USA has. They only managed fourth in the inaugural tournament, and they weren’t even able to make it out of the first round in 2009, losing twice to the Cinderella team from the Netherlands. Given how much pride the Dominicans have in their ballplayers, these could only be seen as large disappointments.

In 2013, like in the previous tournaments, the Dominican Republic will almost certainly bring a team made up of MLBers, with perhaps a few top prospects and overseas players if needed.

The same rules apply for this as I used with the Team USA projections, although in some cases they might not be as stringent, due to the fact the Dominicans generally are more into the WBC than American MLBers are.

  • Any player coming off a major injury or who has a history of injuries is unlikely to participate. This is especially true for the pitchers.
  • Players that will be on new teams are less likely to participate, but shouldn’t be completely ignored, with the exception of pitchers.
  • Teams are made up of 28 players, of which 13 of them must be pitchers and two of them catchers.
  • The pitch count rules make relievers extremely important.

And so, after much research and thought, I have my projections, which can be found under the jump:

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