2011 VSL Phillies Season Starts Monday

1. VSL/DSL

Monday is the start of the 2011 Venezuelan Summer League season.  The Phillies play a 72-game schedule through early August with games usually played in the morning Monday through Saturday each week with Sunday being an off day.  Last year the Phillies finished in 5th place with a 32-36 record.

It looks like the VSL is down to six teams in 2011 as the Cardinals are no longer listed with a team.  More major league clubs are going to multiple Dominican Summer League squads as political and social unrest in Venezuela presents challenges.  The Phillies have invested in a state-of-the-art complex in the country, however, and appear willing to keep their team as long as they can.

While the listed rosters are probably nowhere close to final, the Phillies do have a number of new players listed on their roster.  Note that none of these new players have received a published bonus as the Phillies typically announce the bonuses that exceed $100,000.  Thus it is hard to project how good this team will be.  They do appear to have a number of holdovers from last year such as 3B Willians Astudillo, CF Rosmel Fajardo and RHP Jorge Guzman.

The new players for 2011 include the following:

Keivi Rojas (age 18, RHP) 6'0" 170
Liberio Bohorquez (age 18, RHP) 6' 0" 170
Manaure Martinez (age 19, RHP) 6' 1" 155

Wilson Garcia (age 17, C ) 5' 11" 160, switch hitter
Frank Rivas (age 18, C) 5' 11" 180

Jair Morelos (age 17, SS) 5' 10" 150, left handed from Columbia
Francisco Herrera (age 17, 3B) 5' 11" 185
Alejandro Garcia (age 16, OF) 6' 3" 150 right handed Aaron Altherr clone

14 thoughts on “2011 VSL Phillies Season Starts Monday”

  3. On my unofficial roster notes I have 29 guys, and if all the XST guys are returned it is 33. So with a roster limit of 35 they could conceivably keep all these players. With the signings of the 3 pitchers lately (listed above) still I have it as 14, and if that is right they need one more. If Leonel Bastidas or Luis Morales is returned from XST, that is it, or they could sign another pitcher or convert a position player or use them as /slash type. Also, I have it as 6 catchers, only 5 IF ‘s with Alejandro Villalobos in XST, and only 4 OF’s with Bernardo Solarte and Jorge Miranda in XST.
    A new player that might have been missed is Pedro Miranda (brother of Jorge) , but he has already been placed on Restricted List, so no harm – no foul.

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    1. VSL rosters are always interesting. As you said, there are 6 catchers and 5 infoeilders. 3 of the IFs are listed as 3rd Basemen. If I remember correctly, Astudillo was listed as a catcher last year as was Davalillo (sp). They played all over the place last year (2nd, 3rd, 1st and even some OF).

      It will be nice to include another box score to look at.

      Wasn’t Ronald Mendez a bit of a bonus baby? 6’5″ Righty 18 year old.

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      1. Mendez has been around a couple of years with mediocre results, but was signed really young and is projectible. Not a bonus baby but probably a raw arm that needs some time to develop.

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      2. I think you spelled Davalillo correctly. But they listed him as released awhile back , so that skill may fade. Ronald Mendez is still the 2nd youngest pitcher on team after Audrys Mora. Think they’re still 17.

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  5. After looking at today’s rendition of the roster on Milb.com , they made some changes and it looks like it might be the opening day roster, already. They removed the players who had been released. A mistake I see I made from my unofficial list, Zael Honora should also be in XST. They have 13 pitchers on their roster, so Bastidas, Honora, and/or Morales should be sent down , maybe only until the start of Short Season Leagues.

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  6. A left-handed shortstop….It’s fun to see how they list these guys. THey seem to move all over the diamond.

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    1. Well, Sebastian Valle was listed as a left-handed thrower for several years, so don’t trust everything on these rosters which might depend on several layers of transmission (from spanish-speaking clubhouse assistant to milb intern).

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    2. I believe the roster says he bats Left and Throws Right. He played RF in Liga Paralela. I read an article online in a Colombian newspaper about him and it didn’t mention Left Throwing IF. The link goes to the current edition of Colombian newspaper, but it might still be found by searching for player on Yahoo. He signed last July 2 but it did not get much notice .

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