Angels’ Kendry Morales is hot, just like the winter weather
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Kendry Morales admits there’s a noticeable difference between professional baseball in the U.S. and winter ball in the Caribbean. The U.S. is ‘a lot colder,’ the Angels slugger says.
But Morales’ performance has been anything but chilly this season in the Dominican Republic, where he went 3 for 4 with a triple and four RBI on Sunday to raise his league-leading average to .418. Morales also has 26 RBI in 23 games. That’s a marked difference from the .213 he hit in 27 games with the Angels last summer, a rough period he chalked up partly as a learning experience.
‘I know a little bit more after another year in the big leagues,’ said Morales, who had 119 at-bats with the Angels in 2007. ‘I got more opportunities, I got to play more freely. And that’s why you’re seeing the results you’re seeing now.’
Although Morales made the Angels’ postseason roster and played into October last summer, he took just 15 days before joining Gigantes del Cibao, his winter league team in the Dominican. And with Gigantes taking the league’s best record into December, Morales figures to be playing deep into January in the Dominican playoffs.
Look for him to cool off a bit between now and then, however -- and for reasons that have nothing to do with the weather and everything to do with pitching. One National League executive, who didn’t want to be quoted by name comparing the four Latin American winter leagues, said the Dominican League is always the most competitive because ‘they’ve got power arms out there every day. They roll that pitching over.’
But most of that pitching hasn’t shown up yet because most big-league teams hold back their top pitching prospects until January to limit workloads.
‘He’s not facing the big dogs yet,’ the executive said. ‘He’s facing those guys that are in A ball, that are in the Midwest League. Those are the hard throwers who are just waiting for the veteran guys to come out.’
Morales isn’t the only hitter feasting in the meantime. Last week the Washington Nationals’ Ronnie Belliard became the first player in Dominican history to hit grand slams in consecutive games -- both coming off of the same pitcher, the Gigantes’ Julio DePaula.
Belliard also had a two-run homer in the first game, his winter debut, as Licey and Gigantes combined for a league-record 10 home runs between them in the Gigantes’ 16-8 victory. In the second game, also won by Gigantes 21-13, the teams combined for a league-record 21 walks. (The
Gigantes are 13-6 on the road, the only team in the league with a winning record away from home.)
Former major leaguer Luis Polonia, in his 25th Dominican League season, also is breaking records. In the last two weeks he erased Miguel Dilone‘s career marks for hits (872) and runs (496). The 45-year-old outfielder, who runs a baseball academy in his homeland -- a school that has turned out the likes of Dodger minor leaguer Tony Abreu -- is hitting a respectable .315 through 34 games for Aguilas Cibaenas as he continues climbing the career lists for doubles (141, second all-time), walks (336, second) and stolen bases (181, second).
Aguilas, whose Friday night game with Licey will be televised in the U.S. on ESPN Deportes, may soon he adding another offensive threat to their lineup with rehabbing Dodger outfielder Andruw Jones expected to join the team on Dec. 10.
Records also are falling in Venezuela, where the league mark for runs in a game fell twice in November. Margarita beat Zulia, 21-17, in a game that saw the two teams combine for 46 hits, including six homers -- with four of the hits and two of the homers coming from Brewers prospect Brendan Katin of Zulia, who drove in seven runs. Last Friday, Lara beat La Guaira 22-20 in a game that broke records for combined runs (42), combined homers (12) and home runs by one team (7, by La Guaira).
Despite all that, first-place Caracas -- which will appear on ESPN Deportes on Wednesday afternoon when it meets La Guaira -- dominates the league both in the standings, where it leads Lara by five games, and at the plate, where the Leones are batting .303 and averaging nearly 10 1/2 runs a game.
But only one of those runs has come off Florida Marlins’ right-hander Jesus Delgado, who has held the Leones to one run and eight hits in eight innings, spread over three appearances. Delgado, 2-0, hasn’t given up an earned run in his last 13 2/3 innings, and his 1.37 ERA would lead the league were he not five outs short of the innings necessary to qualify for the ERA title.
Yankee prospect Ian Kennedy of Huntington Beach and USC turned in the league’s first complete game of the season for Mayaguez on Sunday, blanking first-place Arecibo on three hits while striking out seven. The shutout also dropped Kennedy’s season ERA to 1.57 -- best among starters -- while the seven strikeouts gave him a share of the league lead with 25.
Also on Sunday, Dodgers minor leaguer Ivan De Jesus Jr. upped his average to .338 with a four-hit game for last-place Carolina in a win over Santurce.
Australian Travis Blackley, who has appeared in only two big-league games since 2004, has been impressive in Mexico, where he leads the league in strikeouts (49) and is second in innings pitching (55 1/3) for Mexicali. The 26-year-old left-hander, who pitched -- poorly -- in the Phillies’ organization last summer has gone at least seven innings five times in nine starts. And just once in those five outings did he give up as many as two earned runs.
Meanwhile, Culiacan first baseman Jorge Alberto Vazquez, 26, a three-time Mexican Pacific League All-Star, may get his first invitation to big-league spring training next year. Through 41 games he leads the league in nearly every significant offensive category, including average (.369), hits (58), homers (13), slugging (.675) and on-base percentage (.435). He’s also third in RBI (34).
Los Mochis won the league’s first-half title but Mazatlan won eight of its first nine to start the second half.
-- Kevin Baxter
Photo (top): Angels teammates swarm Kendry Morales after he drove in the winning run in the 10th inning during a Sept. 7, 2007, game against the Cleveland Indians. Credit: Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times.
Photo (inset): Former Angels lead-off hitter Luis Polonia in a 1996 file photo. Credit: Don Kelsen / Los Angeles Times