Winter Ball Wrap-Up: Venezuela

The Venezuelan Professional Baseball League (Liga Venezolana de Beisbol Profesional, or LVBP) has a very similar format to the Dominican League (if you need a refresher, my Dominican wrap-up is here). The LVBP consists of eight teams: Aguilas del Zulia, Bravos de Margarita, Cardenales de Lara, Caribes de Anzoategui (the team that Magglio Ordoñez is part owner of), Leones del Caracas, Navegantes del Magallanes, Tiburones de la Guaira, and Tigres de Aragua. Their regular season is made up of 63 games from mid-October to the end of December (and like the Dominican league, there are no divisions, so it's a balanced schedule). The top five teams make the playoffs, which is a 16-game round robin. The top two teams after that play a best-of-seven final, and the champion goes on to play in the Caribbean Series. And like the Dominican league, there is a selection draft after each round (though this year's selection draft before the final was wrought with controversy, mostly involving an "old friend" of ours who recently signed with the Baltimore Orioles). Also, each team's roster consists of 34 players, which generally means that starting pitchers (and relievers, to a lesser extent) have a much shorter leash than they would in the United States. A good start from a pitcher would generally consist of 5-6 innings. A seven-inning start is unusual, and anything beyond that is extremely rare (I don't think there were any complete games this season; I know there was one last season, but that was because the starting pitcher threw a no-hitter).

More details and player analysis below the jump...

I was actually able to watch quite a few Venezuelan games this season, so I'm able to be a little more detailed than I was for the Dominican wrap-up (which may be a good thing or a bad thing). Most of you may already know a couple of stories from the LVBP this year, most notably the kidnapping (and fortunately safe return) of Wilson Ramos, as well as Yorvit Torrealba hitting an umpire and subsequently receiving a 60-game suspension from the LVBP. Here are some more storylines that you may have not heard: The Tiburones de la Guaira held the best record in the league for most of the regular season and clinched the top playoff spot with ease. The other four teams who qualified (plus the sixth place team) were all bunched up, and the final standings weren't decided until the final day of the season. Once the round robin started, the Caribes de Anzoategui (who had won their regular season finale on a walk-off steal of home in extra innings, something I've never seen in the big leagues) raced out to an 8-1 start, and everyone considered them a shoo-in for the final. However, they proceeded to lose six of their last seven games, which allowed the Tigres de Aragua to slip past them and clinch the top spot (and home field advantage) for the final, and which landed the Caribes in a three-way tie for second place with the Tiburones de la Guaira and the Navegantes del Magallanes. This meant that they had to play not one, but two one-game playoffs to determine who would be the other team in the final. Using the regular season standings as a basis for who would play when (and who would be the home team), the Caribes and Navegantes would play each other in the first game, and the winner of that game would play the Tiburones in the second game. The Navegantes won the first game in 13 innings, giving the Caribes the dubious distinction of having the biggest postseason collapse in the history of the LVBP. The Tiburones launched themselves into the final by drubbing the Navegantes in the second game. The final went six games, with the Tigres de Aragua emerging as the Venezuelan champions. It was a bittersweet victory for the Tigres. They dedicated their championship to one of their pitchers, Rosman Garcia, who had died in a car accident in late December. The Tigres got off to a horrible start in the Caribbean Series, going 0-3 and quickly eliminating themselves from the championship. They did regroup and win their final 3 games to finish 3-3 and tie for second place with Puerto Rico.

The Tigers (not to be confused with the Tigres) had several players participate in the LVBP this year, although only two of them were around in the playoffs (and one of those wasn't signed by the Tigers until sometime during the playoffs, so one wrap-up is going to be a lot longer than the others). How did they do? Let's find out!

Josue Carreno-RHP, Bravos de Margarita (16 G, 2-1, 1.73 ERA, 26.0 IP): Carreno spent 2011 with West Michigan, going 7-10 with a 4.55 ERA as a starter in all except one game. The Bravos used him out of their bullpen. I never saw him, because the Bravos do not have their games televised very often. For one thing, they probably have the smallest fan following of any of the Venezuelan teams. For another thing, they quickly fell to the worst record in the LVBP and they remained in last place for most of the season, so there really wasn't much incentive for the networks to televise their games. Carreno did a good job for them, though. He didn't appear in very many games (although the Tigers have the final say in how many games a player can participate in and how many innings he can pitch; I don't if this had anything to do with it, though). He started the season as a long man, but as the season went on, most of his appearances were one inning. He only walked seven and he struck out 22 batters.

Argenis Diaz-SS, Navegantes del Magallanes (41 G, 111 AB, .252 AVG, 14 RBI): Diaz appears to be a good glove man and he had a decent season offensively in Toledo, hitting .279, although he did suffer a late-season slump. Outside of a period of about five weeks where he was the starting shortstop, he was largely a utility player, but he was a utility player who was in the lineup almost every day, be it at shortstop, third base, or second base. He was in the lineup reguarly for Magallanes (I almost never see them get called the "Navegantes;" it's almost always "Magallanes") at the start of the season, but he struggled at the plate. His playing time got more sparse as the season went on, but his average picked up, although he only appeared in two games after December 11th, neither of them starts. He's likely headed to Toledo again, although as I said before, their infield is pretty crowded.

Darin Downs-LHP, Tigres de Aragua (9 G, 2-3, 3.35 ERA, 40.1 IP): The Tigers signed Downs to a minor league deal this offseason (He's from Southfield, if that makes any of you Michiganders excited). I guess he's headed for Toledo (the Mud Hens logo is on his player page), but I don't know if they intend on making him a starter or reliever (He did both last year). He had a minor league ERA of 4.66 last year, and split time between Double A and Triple A. With the Tigres de Aragua, he was a starter, and I guess you could say that he was in the middle in terms of success. He wasn't dominant, but he went five innings or more in most of his starts. He did start to slip a little bit towards the end. He only lasted four innings in each of his last two starts, giving up three runs and two runs. His last appearance was on December 6th.

Avisail Garcia-OF, Caribes de Anzoategui (9 G, 12 AB, .250 AVG): Garcia was one of the prospects that the Tigers added to the 40-man roster this offseason. I can tell you from personal observation that he's really tall, about as tall as Miguel Cabrera (actually, it's possible to mistake him for Cabrera if you look at him from a distance). He seems to be highly regarded. For whatever reason, the Tigers were being really protective of him in winter ball. He barely played at all, and when he did, it was usually as a defensive replacement late in games, with an occasional start against a left-handed pitcher. All three of his hits came in his first two games, and the Tigers would not let him play after December 5th, so there's not much to glean from his winter ball experience.

Justin Henry-OF, Aguilas del Zulia (52 G, 198 AB, .328 AVG, .404 OBP, 20 RBI): My guess is that Justin Henry will be one of the starting outfielders for the Mud Hens this year. He had a good season last year, hitting .314 combined between Erie and Toledo (mostly Erie). He continued that good hitting into Venezuela, becoming one of the Aguilas' best hitters (In case you're wondering, "aguila" is Spanish for "eagle"). From what I can tell, this guy has no power whatsoever. He didn't hit any home runs in the minor leagues last year, and he didn't hit any home runs in Venezuela, either. However, he did get a lot of hits, and he's got decent speed (23 stolen bases in the minors, six in Venezuela). He's also good at getting on base. His walks and strikeouts are fairly even (26 walks and 25 strikeouts in the LVBP). As I said, he was one of the best hitters for the Aguilas. He came back to the United States over the Christmas break (as a lot of American players do). Apparently, the plan was for him to return to Venezuela for the final week of the regular season, as well as the postseason, but once he was back in the States, they discovered he had dengue fever and that put an end to his winter ball season. And the Aguilas missed his bat. They ended the season on a five-game losing streak and went 0-9 to start the postseason (they finished 3-13 in the round robin).

Victor Larez-RHP, Leones del Caracas (14 G, 1-2, 3.81 ERA, 28.1 IP): Larez is still in the low minors, so I'm not real familiar with him, but he spent most of last season at Lakeland, with a 5-game cameo at West Michigan, and compiled a 4.55 ERA, mostly as a starting pitcher. The Leones mostly used him as a long reliever, with an occasional spot start (And the Leones had plenty of pitching problems; They're regarded as the Yankees of the LVBP in that they have a large fan following, they've won the most championships, and they're a perennial playoff team. However, this season they played themselves out of contention really early and never got back into it). Funny enough, Larez did a much better job as a reliever than as a starter. He only gave up two earned runs in 17.2 innings as a reliever, and 10 runs in 10.2 innings as a starter. He may have hit a wall late in the season, however. Most of the earned runs he gave up came late in the season, and I know of another appearance where he didn't give up any runs of his own, but he came in with the bases loaded and let all three runners score. However, in a season where the Leones had pitching problems, he was a valuable swingman for them.

Fu Te Ni-LHP, Leones del Caracas (6 G, 0-3, 4.00 ERA, 27.0 IP): I'm actually a little surprised that Ni didn't get a spring training invite. He had a good season at Toledo last year (6-3, 3.24 ERA). He became a starting pitcher for the Mud Hens late in the season (mostly out of necessity, because the Hens starting pitchers kept either getting injured or called up to Detroit, or both in some cases), and he did a good job in that role. He continued serving as a starting pitcher for the Leones (and there was quite a bit of publicity surrounding his arrival). And let me tell you, it was a tale of two seasons for Ni. His first three starts were terrible. He really struggled through them. He didn't last five innings in any of them, and in the one start where he only gave up one run, he walked three, threw a lot of pitches, and only lasted 4.2 innings. This was sandwiched by starts where he gave up four and five runs. Then all of a sudden, he got things turned around. His last three starts were very good. They included a 5.2-inning shutout, a 6-inning one-run game, and a 5-inning one run game in which he struck out six. He didn't get a win out of those starts as he got very little run support, but at least he ended his season on a positive note.

Jose Ortega-RHP, Navegantes del Magallanes (6 G, 0-0, 8.44 ERA, 5.1 IP): Has anyone else noticed that, as all these different prospect ranking lists come out, that they only tend to agree on the top two or three players and then everyone else varies wildly? Admittedly, I don't have access to some of the more widely-used prospect lists (such as Baseball America or Baseball Prospectus), but on the ones I do have access to, I've seen Jose Ortega ranked as high as 10th and as low as 43rd. He's definitely got raw talent but he's coming off a rough year in Toledo (1-3 with a 6.30 ERA in 55 innings of relief, although I saw him enough times to see that he could be a force if he puts it together). It wasn't much better in Venezuela. I don't know why he only appeared in six games (whether that was an injury, the Tigers limiting his playing time, or Magallanes deciding he was too ineffective, although I'm leaning against the latter because six games isn't enough to make that judgment). Granted, he started out pretty good, but things went really sour in his final appearance. He gave up three runs on four hits (including two very long home runs, and I should point out that even though he struggled in Toledo, he only gave up seven home runs) in two-thirds of an inning, and then I never saw him again. I'd imagine he's headed for Toledo again this year, although if he gets it together this time around, we could see him in the big leagues at some point in 2012.

Hernan Perez-2B, Leones del Caracas (4 G, 3 AB, .333 AVG): Perez played in the Arizona Fall League (unusual for a Latin player, it seems), where he batted .302 in 18 games. However, like Avisail Garcia, he wasn't used very much in the LVBP. He never started a game, and was mostly used as a pinch-runner or defensive replacement. He picked up his one hit in his final game of the season, which was December 4th.

Niuman Romero-3B/SS, Caribes de Anzoategui (77 G, 263 AB, .293 AVG, 7 HR, 22 RBI): The Tigers signed Romero to a minor league deal shortly after the LVBP postseason began (He and Brayan Villarreal were the only two in the Tigers organization to participate in the playoffs). He's a switch-hitter who has pretty much been a career minor leaguer, although he had a handful of at-bats in the big leagues in 2009 and 2010. He spent last year in the Blue Jays and Phillies organizations, hitting .231 combined between four different minor league teams. However, he had a nice season in Venezuela. He spent most of the season as their leadoff hitter and did a nice job in that regard. He was the starting third baseman during the regular season, but saw a lot of time at shortstop during the postseason (mostly because the guy who had been their shortstop in the regular season was not allowed to play in the postseason). Romero hit .338 in the postseason and was one of the few Caribes who didn't enter a big slump once their hot 8-1 start cooled off, although he was the final out in that one-game playoff the Caribes had against the Navegantes del Magallanes. I do not know if the Tigers plan on him going to Erie or Toledo (I'm thinking Erie, since there's a ton of infielders set for Toledo already).

Luis Angel Sanz-RHP, Leones del Caracas (3 G, 0-0, 6.23 ERA, 4.1 IP): Sanz was at short season Connecticut last year, although he did make one appearance in Lakeland. He was a starter for the C-Tigers. He only made three appearances for the Leones, all out of the bullpen, and none after November 5th. Either the Tigers made him stop pitching or he was sent to the Liga Paralela (which is Venezuela's version of the minor leagues), but it's hard to tell using the Venezuelan rosters (because they list more people than who are actually with the team; for example, Joel Zumaya is on the roster for the Caribes de Anzoategui even though he was never active and never pitched for them this season).

Shawn Teufel-LHP, Leones del Caracas (3 G, 0-1, 23.14 ERA, 2.1 IP): Shawn Teufel is the son of Tim Teufel. He spent most of the minor league season last year with Lakeland, although he made one start for the Mud Hens late in the year. He had three appearances (two starts) with the Leones at the beginning of their season, with the last one coming on October 23rd. His longest outing lasted 1.1 innings and he gave up four runs. He also walked eight in his time in Venezuela, so it was a struggle for him, albeit a brief one.

Brayan Villarreal-RHP, Caribes de Anzoategui (32 G, 4-3, 3.69 ERA, 46.1 IP): This guy continues to be incredibly fascinating to me. I've got so much material I could probably write him up as a separate post (which I'm not going to do unless someone wants me to). This means that this profile is going be longer than the others, partially because he made more appearances than any other Tigers pitcher in the winter leagues, and partially because it seems nothing with him is ever simple. I can't make grandiose predictions about his or anyone else's future in the big leagues. All I can say is that he's very talented and it's up to him to execute. I think his winter ball performance was a step in the right direction. He was often described by the Venezuelan TV broadcasters as "an important part of the Caribes bullpen." The reason for that longwinded description is that his role kept changing. He started out as the eighth inning setup man, then took on more of a multi-inning role (usually he covered either 2 to 3 innings of setup duties or he would be brought in if the starter got chased early and it was still a close game), and then in the playoffs he was moved into the starting rotation. And he turned in good performances in all of those roles. One thing that was kind of interested is that he turned into a ground ball machine during the regular season. It was ridiculous how many ground balls he was getting. He was especially adept at getting ground balls back to himself, which worked to his advantage, because he's a good defender and he's very quick (Anyone else remember the lightning pickoff move?). The ground ball/fly ball ratio evened out more during the postseason, but at the same time, his strikeouts went up (He had 12 in the regular season and 18 in the postseason). His ERA is a little deceptive, because over half the earned runs he gave up came in three bad outings (out of 32). He had a couple other outings where he struggled, but one of the things I've noticed is that he generally doesn't go into long slumps and he's reasonably good at bouncing back from a bad outing. There are still some things that he needs to work on. He could hone his command a little bit better. He was pretty good about not walking people (only 18 in 46.1 innings), but he did sometimes have a problem with hitting batters (this also happened in Toledo) and at times I felt like he wasn't locating the way he wanted to but he was able to work around it. The other thing is that sometimes I think he just makes bad decisions. There are times he gets fastball-happy, which doesn't always work (and he has a good slider), and there are times where he tries to stick with a game plan that's not working for too long. However, there are some big positives that I observed. One is that he became quite good at pitching out of jams, whether they were his own creation or someone else's. His tendency to get ground balls led to a lot of double plays, and this trend continued even after the ratio leveled off. Another is that he demonstrated the ability to come up big when his team needed him to. A couple of examples: While the Caribes were in the midst of their postseason collapse, they had a stretch where they played a couple of extra-inning games, their starters weren't going many innings, their bullpen was taxed, and it was Villarreal's turn to start. Up until that point, the longest he'd gone had been four innings, and he'd only thrown about 50-60 pitches. He responded to the pressure by throwing a seven-inning gem where he threw 94 pitches, only walked one, gave up one (unearned) run, struck out four, and retired the last eight batters in order (He left with the lead, but unfortunately, their closer had a meltdown so they still didn't win that game). Now, in fairness, the clutch pitching was not a 100% occurrence. His start after that one was one of the three bad outings I mentioned earlier, and the timing of that was not good (since a win would've put them into the final), but he came up big again two days later in the one-game playoff. Both the starting pitcher and the first reliever they brought in could not throw strikes at all, and it looked like Magallanes was going to run away with it. Villarreal was able to calm things down, going 3.2 scoreless innings with no walks and four strikeouts. At one point it looked like he'd be the hero of the game, because the Caribes managed to tie the score, but they ultimately lost in extras. However, at least he ended his season on a positive note individually (Actually, he was supposed to have been available to be taken in the selection draft for the final, but someone at the LVBP messed up and he ended up on one team's list of available players but not the other, so he was declared ineligible). As far as making the Tigers' Opening Day roster, I'd say he's a dark horse. He could win that open bullpen spot if he pitches well in spring training, but I don't think that would be a good idea. I want him to be successful with the Tigers long term, and to that end, I want him to demonstrate that he's ready by pitching well in Triple A first, because when the Tigers call him up again, I want it to be for good. There will be an opportunity at some point in 2012. Someone will get hurt or be ineffective, and when that happens, I want him to be in position to take advantage of it.

Thad Weber-RHP, Leones del Caracas (7 G, 0-1, 3.45 ERA, 31.1 IP): Weber was kind of the fifth-starter innings-eater type for the Mud Hens last year (He went 5-11 with a 5.65 ERA, but he did log 151.1 innings and he was generally a much faster worker than Brad Penny). I saw him quite a few times, both at his worst (in what ended up being a 17-2 loss; every Hens pitcher gave up at least one home run in that game) and at his best (a complete-game loss in a close pitching duel). He was actually a decent pitcher for the Leones. He had one really bad start where he only lasted a third of an inning and gave up five runs, but other than that, he was very serviceable. He generally pitched five or six innings and kept his team in the game, which is what you want from a fifth-starter type. I have no idea what role he's going to have with the Mud Hens this year (I can think of about six or seven rotation candidates off the top of my head, not including him).

Danny Worth-3B, Tiburones de la Guaira (5 G, 18 AB, .389 AVG, 2 HR, 7 RBI): Poor Danny Worth didn't have a good time of it in Venezuela. He got off to a red-hot start and was mashing the ball. He was on his way to being the Andy Dirks of the Venezuelan league. Then the ailments started to set in. First, he fouled a ball off his foot and missed a few games because of it. Then, in his first game back, he was hit in the head by a pitch from fellow Mud Hen Thad Weber and had to leave that game with dizziness. Finally, he came down with tonsillitis (which confused me at first, because the Spanish for "tonsillitis" is "amigdalitis," and so I thought that the Weber pitch hit him so hard that it caused inflammation in his amygdala, which is the part of the brain that controls emotion; turns out that "amygdala" comes from the Greek word for "tonsil," so English got that screwed up somewhere). At that point, he decided he'd had enough and headed back to the United States to get rested up for spring training.

And so that's my wrap-up of the Venezuelan league. I hope you enjoyed reading it. I certainly enjoyed watching these games and the time, effort, and (dare I say) love that I put in to writing about them.