The DSL season started over the weekend with two Phillies victories.  The Phillies are currently 2-0 and in 1st place in the early going in the 5-team Santo Domingo North division.    A roster has been posted at the minor league baseball site at the following link:

http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?t=t_ros&cid=623

The following list of players were not on the 2007 roster (all are Dominican except where noted):

Pitchers

Alvaro Basil - RHP - 6'3", 170 - Age 17
Domingo Brazoban - RHP - 6'2", 175 - Age 18
Felix Cespedes - RHP - 6'3", 180 - Age 17
Francique Charles - RHP - 6'0", 178 - Age 19 - from Haiti
Marcos Coca - RHP - 6'3", 156 - Age 18
Kevin De Gracia - RHP - 6'5", 225 - Just turned 18 - from Panama
Daniel De La Cruz - RHP - 6'3", 175 - Age 17 - 4 shutout IP in his first outing
Eduardo Estevez - RHP - 6'1", 180 - Age 20
Sergio Mendez - RHP - 6'2", 160 - Age 16
Richy Paulino - RHP - 6'3", 187 - Age 17
Raudy Sandoval - RHP - 6'5", 205 - Age 23 - 12.71 ERA for the Rockies last year

Position Players

Nelson Ventura - C - 5'11", 174 - Age 18
Carlos Garcia - 3B - 6'1", 190 - Age 18
Geancarlo Mendez - SS - 6'2", 170 - Age 18 - 2-8 with 1 HR so far
Anderson Moscat - 3B - 6'2", 188 - Just turned 19 - 4-9 so far
Carlos Valenzuela - SS - 5'11", 170 - Age 17 - Signed for $200K - 2-8, 2 BB, 2 SB so far
Jonathan Villan - SS - Age 17
Jose Trinidad - OF - Age 16

This is a relatively young set of signees from the Phillies, younger than the DSL group.  Many of the pitchers are projectible with 8 pitchers age 18 or less that are at least 6’2″ tall.  Valenzuela is a little smaller than I was expecting for a 5-tool prospect, so hopefully he can stay at SS.  Not mentioned is last year’s late signing, Gabriel Arias, who pitched 4 shutout innings in the first game so far.  Holdovers Pedro Carpio and Juan Sosa started the first 2 games as the younger players usually get broken in with relief appearances.

We will check back in periodically over the summer to see which of these players might earn promotions to GCL next year.