With the regular season over in the Dominican League, I thought we'd take a quick look at how Twins players did there.
The first thing to note is that the highest number of at-bats any Twin had in the Dominican League is 89, and the highest number of innings pitched was 23.2. In other words, we're dealing with small sample sizes here, and it would not be wise to make too much of them. The competition tends to be somewhat uneven as well. Still, as I always say, it seems like it would be better to do well than to do poorly.
None of the batters exactly tore up the track. The best was Jorge Polanco, who only batted .236/.317/.326 in 89 at-bats for Escogido. His eleven walks gave him an almost-adequate OBP, but that was about it.
Next comes Daniel Palka, who had 80 at-bats, also for Escogido. He batted .188/.258/.338. He did hit three home runs, but he struck out thirty times.
Danny Santana had forty at-bats for the Aguilas. He batted .200/.227/.200.
Leonardo Reginatto had forty at-bats for Este. He batted .150/.209/.150.
Dan Rohlfing had only three at-bats for the Gigantes, going 0-for-3 with a walk. That makes his numbers .000/.250/.000.
New Twin Ben Paulson had twenty-four at-bats for Escogido. He batted .042/.117/.042, getting one hit and drawing two walks.
Did the pitchers do better? Well, yes, a couple of them did. The best was new Twin Justin Haley, who went 2-0, 0.38 in five starts (23.2 innings) for Escogido. He struck out 14 while walking 4 and had a WHIP of 0.68.
Confesor Lara did okay for Oriente. He was 1-0, 3.94, 1.38 WHIP in 16 innings (18 games). He struck out only 5, though, and walked 8.
Nik Turley rounds out the pitchers. He was 0-2, 4.11, 1.57 WHIP in 15.1 innings (5 starts). He struck out 12 and walked 7.
So there you have it. The Dominican League playoffs start today. It appears to be an eighteen-game round-robin playoff. The teams involved, in order of standing, are the Gigantes, Licey, the Aguilas, and Escogido. How many Twins will be involved is hard to tell--players come and go in winter leagues, plus most of them allow what in amateur ball we used to call "pick-up players" from teams that didn't make the playoffs. So, we'll have to wait and see. I plan to do reports on the playoffs, so we'll find out together.
So in essence, what you're saying is, "Not much to see here."
Pretty much. That's true of the AFL and pretty much all of the winter leagues, really. I follow them because it's baseball and it's fun, but as I said, I wouldn't make too much of how the players do, good or bad.