Observations From Dominican Republic
By Howard Megdal ~ November 25th, 2009. Filed under: Howard Megdal.
No, I can’t produce a Dominican dateline, much to my disappointment. Instead, I’m in New York, but with ESPN Deportes, I was able to get a look at several players, including Tobi Stoner (written up by the terrific Jed Weisberger below) during a broadcast from the Dominican Winter League last night.
Let’s start with Stoner. Overall, his performance was quite good- 87 pitches, 56 for strikes through six innings, mixing his slider and curveball with his fastball nicely. But I noticed a similar inability to one he displayed with the Mets- a lack of a consistent out pitch. He tried early on to make it his fastball, but hitters deposited between the fielders. (His fastball also landed in the seats, after he fell behind Alejandro de Aza 3-1.)
Stoner’s ability to command both his slider and curveball were impressive, however, and it would be a mistake to give up on him. Still, until I see him find a way to consistently put away major league hitters, I’m a skeptic.
Some other notes:
I didn’t see Argenis Reyes take a pitch. Not one. He also waited on a bouncing ball to second base, and his failure to charge ended up costing his team a run… apparently, former Met Carlos Gomez still can’t hit or lay off a decent curveball. He did a nice job on a fastball off the plate outside, taking it up the middle for an RBI single. He’s still so young, there’s hope for him… Sadly, not much to report on Fernando Martinez, though the mere fact that he’s healthy is good to see… and not Mets-related, per se, but holy cow is Starlin Castro, the Cubs’ shortstop super-prospect talented. It’s Mets-related in the sense that he’s going to beat them in the years to come. Love his range, his arm, his speed, and he hit .288/.347/.396 as a 19-year-old playing Double-A this year.
