Around the DSL: Week 2

Welfrin Mateo-Mandatory Credit: dominicansummerleague.com

At Yanks Go Yard, we continue our look inside the two Dominican Rookie Summer League teams that the Yankees have. We give you some of the best performances of the week as well as some profiles of players that you may be hearing for the first time. Read more about the week’s DSL action below:

Dominican Summer League: Boca Chica South 

After an 8-1 start, the Yankees’ team in the Boca Chica South Division has hit a little bit of a slide losing three of their last four games (as of Sunday night), setting their current record at 9-4. 19-year old Pedro Urena had a great game last Tuesday. In a 7-6 week over the Nationals’ DSL South team, the left fielder hit two home runs in the contest and had three over those two games against the Nationals’ side. He has nine hits in his last 24 at-bats. The other star at the plate for the South side is second baseman Welfrin Mateo. The 18-year-old has three multi-hit games in his last five. He is hitting .375 on the season with two home runs and five RBI’s. 19-year-old catcher Jerry Seitz is currently on a seven-game hitting streak and has nine of his 14 RBI’s over the last six games. Even though Seitz hasn’t hit any home runs to this point, six of his 15 hits have gone for extra-bases.

On the mound, two starts were made this week by 19-year-old Raudy Guzman and he did not disappoint. Guzman went 1-0 in the two games, giving up just one run in ten innings, but the most impressive stat of this week for him was his command, considering he had 13 strikeouts to only one walk. Guzman has the most strikeouts for the team on the young season with 17. This is his third season in the DSL, but his walks went down to 15 in nine starts last season as opposed to 31 walks in 14 games during the 2012 campaign. 22-year-old Aderlis Reyes has done a solid job in the bullpen, giving up one hit in three relief appearances.

Dominican Summer League: Boca Chica North 

As for the second DSL team in the Yankees’ organization, the team has a 9-4 record and went 4-2 over the course of this past week. The reason behind all these wins for the North squad has been their offense as they averaged near ten runs a game. 17-year-old first baseman Kevin Gonzalez has been on a tear over the last four games. During that stretch, Gonzalez has eight hits in 16-at bats (.500) with one home run and five RBI’s. 19-year-old shortstop, Ricardo Ferreira, has a hit in each of his last five games and four RBI’s in his last two. This includes a three-hit game on Saturday afternoon against the Pirates’ DSL squad. Center fielder Andy Diaz picked up two more triples this week, improving his total to four triples on the season.  One more name that has had a good last couple games is 18-year-old left fielder Carlos Vidal who went 4-9, had four runs scored, and three RBI’s in his last two games.

While 20-year-old Abel Duarte does not have a win in three starts this year, that does not mean he has not pitched well. Over the course of 11 innings, Duarte has given up one three runs. His stats do not suggest that he is a high strikeout guy since he has averaged less than a strikeout per inning. Amauris Sanchez, a 20-year-old reliever, had one of the best performances of the week. On Tuesday against the Mets’ DSL2 squad, Sanchez threw four innings of two-hit ball and struck out seven of the 13 batters that he faced. He has a 1.29 ERA in two relief appearances. 21-year-old reliever, Rodrigo Cortez, had a game on Thursday against the Cubs’ North squad where he threw three innings of one-hit ball without walking or striking out a batter. That being said, opponents are hitting just .154 in three games against him.