That's a great picture of GQ, who John Manuel says has the raw power of Josh Phelps with defence that's even better than his offence. Forgive me for thinking he resembles a young Ivan Rodriguez.



Good news from Fordin about Aquilino Lopez, too.

Lopez thrived in the Dominican. He notched a 2.83 ERA with 15 strikeouts and just three walks in 28 2/3 innings of work. In the playoffs, he struck out a league-leading 13 batters despite walking only one.

It first I was a litte concerned about Lopez's K rate, particularly with the way it fell off later in the regular season. It looks like he picked it up in the playoffs though so maybe it was just a sample issue.

GQ does bear a resemblence to Pudge; John Manuel in the chat projected him around .270 with a chance to hit 30 homeruns which is about what I think he'll turn into. If you combine that with great defence, pitcher handling, and the decent patience he showed in 2003 that's a very special player. Better than Benito Santiago makeup and patience wise (especially at a comparative age) but about the same in terms of pure hitting/contact ability. It's the walks that will seperate GQ.

Quiroz is getting really exciting. Any chance that he was who JP really had in mind when he released Wilson? If he's this good, is he a major leaguer right now?

Has anyone done any work to look at how predictive Winter League numbers are of future performance?

I just had a Mike Piazza moment with the 'nine thumbs up' line. I've mostly surpressed it, as you can see.

Is anyone else worried that Aquilino has pitched too many innings this year? Tosca seemed to abuse his arm, leaving him in for multiple 30 pitch outings and this unnecessary winterball. Reminds of all comments about another Lopez, Rodrigo last year.

I'm pretty sure Lopez elected to pitch in the Dominican himself because it's a big deal for him to pitch at home. I supposed the Jays could have told him no but more often than not you let the player go.

I'm also mildly concerned about overuse with Lopez and 2004 will be a big test for him to see how he bounces back. The good thing is that they won't have to rely on him nearly as much as last year so they shouldn't feel the need to run him out for a large number of back to back games.

in the hijack central thread there is a link to PR winter league web page that has a Rios commentary ( actually three articles): in one of them " Alexis company " they compare Rios season numbers to players of the past: Only two had better slugging than him in the last 50 years: Willie Mays 54-55 and Vidro 98-99. He is in the company of several greats including Cepeda and our own Delgado.
Jeff, I am also worried about pitchers going to winter leagues, Chacin was sent to have his arm streched after being in the pen during summer, according to his own telling he needed some innings to be ready for his closer job waiting for him ( i guess he will set up for Peterson in AAA, but we will see )
Some pitchers seem to thrive after winter ball ( Batista an example ) other should be regretting the load imposed on their arms ( Rodrigo Lopez a good choice ). Hopefully Aquilino has enough gas for a full good year.
On a positive note he seems to thrive on big time innings...

Good news!
It's been announced that the Caribe Series ( February 1st to 6th) is going to be transmitted via cable to Canada and USA

What channel?!

That letter by Jenkins was very eloquent, in its rough-hewn fashion. I concur with Moffat: thumbs way up!

The Caribe Series on Cable? That would be outstanding!

Does anyone know who will be covering it in the US? I live near Buffalo, NY.

Fordin's column was an outstanding read. He bring us a name that we remember as a St. Catherines Stomper, Marcos Sandoval. Does anyone have a recent scouting/projection report on him?

The news came from the Dominican organizers and did not tell with whom they signed the deal. My guess is that is ESPN and the channel would be ESPN 2.

That would be most outstanding!

http://economics.about.com
Following up on the Jenkins letter, Hank Aaron is pretty pissed off as well.

Cheers,

Mike