VSL Season Starts Today

1. VSL/DSL

The first of the two Latin American complex leagues starts today with the beginning of the Venezuelan Summer League.  The Phillies are coming off a 36-31 4th place finish in 2007, though may have a very young pitching staff on the 2008 roster.  Ace pitcher Freddy Ballestas is now stateside along with several others from the 2007 team.  The second best pitcher from last season, Juan Colmenarez, is still listed on the VSL roster, though he was present on the minor league Spring Training rosters earlier.  Daniel Lara is definitely back from last year to provide at least some veteran presence on the mound.

More of the offense is back as Winder Torres (OF-on the DL unfortunately) and Cesar Hernandez (SS) are two younger players looking to take a step up in 2008.  Catcher Jorge Guerra is also back after an .808 OPS season to help develop a very young pitching staff. 

To bolster the roster the Phillies have signed at least 13 new players from last year.  9 are pitchers and all are from Venezuela except for two new players from Panama.  Having Carlos Ruiz in the majors may be paying some dividends for the Phillies.  Most of the Venezuelan players did participate in the Venezuelan Winter minor league, so we have very limited stats on them.  Here are the new players:

Leonel Bastidas (age 18-RHP) 6'3" 184 - 0-3, 7.89 ERA 21.1 IP, 33 H, 16 BB, 17 K
Luis Castillo (age 19-RHP) 5'11", 181 - 1-1, 4.12 ERA, 39.1 IP, 44 H, 13 BB, 20 K
Orlando Garces (age 17-LHP) 5'11" 181, 0.00 ERA 4.1 IP, 2 H, 3 BB, 5 K
Juary Gomez (age 17-RHP) 6'2" 200, 1-0, 2.87 ERA, 15.2 IP, 12 H, 7 BB, 7 K
Jorge Guzman (age 16-RHP) 6'1: 201, 0-0, 10.12 ERA, 8 IP, 13 H, 10 BB, 4 K
Jose Hernandez (age 20-RHP) 6'1" 201, 2-4, 3.69 ERA, 31.2 IP, 35 H, 7 BB, 22 K
Luis Leon (age 18-RHP) 6'2" 166, 0-2, 3.91 ERA, 23 IP, 28 H, 9 BB, 12 K
Yosber Monzon (age 18-RHP) 6'0" 176, 1-2 6.87 ERA, 18.1 IP, 24 H, 12 BB, 11 K
Osmel Reyes (age 19-RHP) 6'1" 185
 
Edgar Duran (age 17-SS) 5'11" 154, .293 ABG, .870 OPS
Carlos Perdomo (age 18-SS) 5'10" 168, .233 AVG, .543 OPS
Eduards Tolo (age 17-SS) 5'9" 140, Panama
Vernal Bogle (age 18-OF) 6'0" 167, Panama

8 thoughts on “VSL Season Starts Today”

  1. was their any report on what winder Torres injury was.If i’m not mistaken he seemed to miss the last 2 months of the season.

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  3. Can’t find anything on Torres. If it is any consolation he is listed on the 7-Day DL and he did play a little this winter. There is also a 60-Day DL that Victor Diaz and Osmel Reyes (one of the new players) are on. Bastidas is the only other player on the 7-Day. Torres is still only 17 this season, so he is one of the players I am watching to see how he progresses.

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  5. Andy- great writup as always. Is it normal to have so many of the new players in the 18-19 year old range? I thought most players were sin the VSL were signed around 16. Also, I thought that the new bonus-baby ss that we signed was Venezualan, I may be mistaken and he could be headed to the DSL.

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  7. Usually there is a range in the ages of 17-19 with the rare 16-year-old thrown in. Most would have been signed last year during the signing period but too late to have made debuts last year. This year’s group might be a little older than last year, but does not appear to be overwhelmingly old. I am guessing the one 20-year-old played for another orgainization. And yes, Squire is correct that Valenzuela is from the D.R. Since we did not see him on the spring training rosters there is a good chance he will play DSL this year. Maybe they think they rushed Freddy Galvis a bit, or maybe he needs a year of language instruction before they bring him over.

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  8. Agree its not overwhelmingly old, but last years crop was clearly more of what we had been hoping from from the phillies- a bunch of 16 and 17 year olds that seemed to have some talent.

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