3/14/2012 3:38:05 PM
The Dominican Prospect League players matched off against each other early this afternoon at the Yankees minor league complex.
The pitchers the Yankees choose to have throw against the young Dominicans were of a markedly more impressive talent level than those the Red Sox choose to throw yesterday (another victory for the Yankees in the endless battle against the Red Sox). Specifically, most could throw either a change up or curveball for a strike and didn't hesitate to do so once they figured out they were facing 15 and 16 year old hitters who weren't used to seeing that level of stuff.
So the game went along very briskly, with plenty of strike outs.
A couple of hitters really stood out, though. SS Richard Urena had two hits, including driving a double over the left fielder's head to score a run. Urena has had five or six quality at bats over the last two days and been really impressive as a hitter. He also made a nice far ranging play up the middle today to get an out at first base.
The DPL guys have been telling me that left handed hitting OF/1B Luis Barrera is one of the top hitters in this class since late January and I'm finally starting to buy into it. Barrera hits the ball hard a couple of times a game regardless of the quality of pitching and regardless of whether it is right or left handed pitching. He's not very toolsy but he has that left handed bat tool, which could take him far.
A couple of hitters showed mature two-strike approaches, which stood out. C Deivy Gullon drove in a runner from third base with a ground ball on an 0-2 pitch after being completely overmatched the first two pitches and shortened up his swing impressively. 3B Alberto Sanchez did the same thing and was rewarded with a run scoring double down the right field line. A number of other hitters didn't make the adjustment and realistically couldn't have been expected to. You almost wanted to call out "Hey, next pitch is a curveball in the dirt, DON'T SWING!", but they wouldn't have understood the English anyway.
The DPL players have another game tomorrow at the Phillies complex, then are taking the red eye out to Arizona tomorrow night. We'll pick up the coverage from there.
Flight's about to leave Tampa, adios amigos!