In two days, the DSL season will be complete.

It’s been an interesting year in the Dominican. I interviewed roving pitching instructor Carlos Chantres a couple of months ago about the pipeline of pitching in the DSL and what they were working on. Now that the season has just two games left, let’s see what has come to fruition.

Let’s take a look at the winning pitcher for each award.

Starting Pitcher of the Year

Alfredo Romero is this year’s winner! While he has been in Mesa about a week now, the 20-year-old righty posted a 2.25 ERA in 10 starts in the DSL. He struck out a guy an inning or 28 in 28.

Runner up Zhiorman Imbriano is a 19-year-old lefty who made 11 starts with a 2.98 ERA. He struck out 32 in 42.1 innings.

Second runner up Diego Dugarte is the third candidate in this category. Of the three, he had the lowest walk rate, but his 3,21 ERA is a bit higher than the others. Then again, he had 43 Ks in 47.1 innings.

What is most interesting for me was that there were a lot of other arms who did really well this summer in the rotation but were not in contention for the award. David Bracho had a 3.68 ERA in 11 starts. 16-year-old (Yes, 16) Emannoel Madeira put up a 3.81 ERA and struck out 34 in 28.1 innings. He is the youngest pitcher in Boca Chica by two years. Miguel Cruz, he was the July Pitcher of the Month, had a rough August, but he’s a guy who could impress next year as well as he builds up some arm strength.

I would expect to see a lot of starting pitchers from the two squads head north to Mesa next summer.

Reliever of the Year

This race was a little more clear cut. 

Francis Reynoso, who is all of 20, had 42 Ks in just 27 innings. His ERA is 2.33 in his first year as a pitcher. Before this year, he played 1B and, as you have probably surmised by now, the hitting thing did not go well in 2021 and 2022. The pitching, on the other hand, looks very promising! Very promising!

As for the big news of the week…

2B Elizaul Chalas retired. He was all of 18. He struggled to hit after two seasons in the DSL

This Week in the DSL

Rainouts have been an issue as of late as warm water has been bringing some storms into the Caribbean.

The Blue team went 1-4 on the week. They now sit at 16-37. It’s been a rough month for this squad as their offense just went kaput.

The Red team has been faring a little better as of late. Although, they went 1-3 this week but are at 23-28 on the season. The pitching came on in the second half to go along with some quality hitting.

Next Week – I will do the Hitter of the Year award and go over the stat leaders for the year.