Oscar Perez is the biggest name in the DSL, but could there be another Stolmy Pimentel coming to a minor league team near you? via sonsofsamhorn.net

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The Dominican Summer League is a strange place. There are 4 divisions, of which one has 4 teams, one 5 teams, and two have 12 teams. Some of said teams sport names like "DSL Yankees 2" or "DSL Brewers/O's", and at one point, the "Hiroshima Toyo Carp". A DSL game could easily mistaken for a High School game with few players over 20, and many ranging from 17-18 years old. Scouting reports are few and far between, and Box Scores tend to be put up late at night in spite of the league consisting of almost exclusively day games. The DSL is a league of significant transience, as if you don't succeed and get promoted quickly, there's little chance you ever will. In many ways, the DSL is to the world of professional baseball what spring training is to the majors. Succeed there, and you'll get your shot. Fail, and it's back from whence you came, and in a hurry.

So the question becomes "do the Red Sox have anyone there?"

The short answer is "yes". The long answer is "Yes, but not much. And what there is is kind of a crapshoot, because like I said before, it's really hard to tell given age differences, level of competition, etc. But I guess, gun to my head, I could choose some guys who might show up in the GCL or Lowell next year. And from that pack maybe 2 will go on to make the majors. Maybe."

Convinced yet?

So who do we have? Well, let's get the (most) obvious name out of the way first: Oscar Perez. This is a name some people around here may actually have heard of. The reason is that the Sox saw enough in a 16-year-old catcher called by many "an MLB bench player at best" to shell out over $700,000 in bonus money. To be frank, they have not exactly been rewarded yet. His OPS is a pathetic .575. He's not struck out excessively, but his walk rate is nigh-negligible, and he's batting .210 with an ISO under .100, reflective of his 1 homer. But let's not get too down on Oscar Perez just yet. He's said to be a great defensive catcher. The fact that he's gotten worse each month is a suggestion that he's suffering from the fatigue typical for such a young rookie (he's 17 for 2 more months), and may well be dealing poorly with the mental transition to pro ball. If there's one guy not to give up on, it's him, because there was something that made the organization shell out big money.

Other infielders of note are Lewis Urena and Pedro Chourio, who at 18 and 19 respectively are showing similar downward progressions. Urena is currently putting up .236/.385/.341 on the year at second base. His K numbers aren't high enough to explain his low BA, so that may be to do with BABIP, but his plate discipline has been paying off in spades for him. Chourio's numbers are slightly more impressive at .278/.382/.412, but that's coming from first base. He's said to have plenty of power potential, and showed a nice flash in April putting up a line of .340/.437/.510 in 100 at bats. But for Chourio, this is his third year in the DSL and time is running out. Urena is on his second year, too. If their downward trending numbers are fatigue-related, they've got to find some way to work around that fast.

Perhaps the most impressive offensive prospect this year, though, has been Keury De La Cruz. At 17, and in his first season, he's showing none of the fatigue issues of the other players, and has trended consistently upwards through July, where he managed a line of .326/.435/.495 in 95 at bats. His numbers have leveled off quickly in August, but with an OBP of .375 thanks largely in part to a 37:42 BB:K rate, he's showing tons of potential. And he's doing all this from a premium position in CF. There's no real reports on his actual speed or performance out there, but he seems to have a fair amount of zip given his 4 triples and 11 steals (albeit he's been caught 7 times, but there's a reason they're sending him at all). If Keury can keep up his performance, he should be headed stateside next year.

As far as pitching is concerned, there are 3 guys of note: Francisco Taveras, Yunior Ortega, and Nestor Lastreto--the last 2 comprising the DSL all star contingent this year. Nestor Lastreto, to be honest, is only on the list because he would have been if I'd written this a week earlier. After a .2 IP, 6 ER performance, his numbers look just above average, which isn't enough in my mind to forgive the fact that he's nearly 20 and in his 3^rd year in the DSL. Still, he shows good command, walking only 12 in 56 innings, and can strike some guys out, with 45 Ks in the same period. Of the 3, he's easily the least impressive.

Taveras and especially Ortega are rather more interesting. Francisco Taveras, 19 (and not quite going on 20), is something of a latecomer, this being his first professional season. But his fastball sits around 90 MPH, and he's got a nice curve. Or so SoxProspects' limited scouting report tells me (along with the phrase "advanced pitchability"). A strike-out ground out pitcher, he Ks 11 batters per 9 innings and has a GO:AO ratio of 1.53. If his walks have been a bit high it's still something he can work on, and it seems to be keeping guys from hitting him, as he's given up only 38 in 56 IP. The ERA is there at 1.87, and has improved as the year has gone on. But he's not as impressive as Yunior Ortega. Yunior Ortega is a name to keep your eye on. He turned 18 just yesterday (Happy Birthday!), and celebrated it by throwing 4.2 scoreless, walking a couple and striking out 6. He usually strikes out a few less people—his K/9 sits at a more than respectable 8.29—but he also is usually much more stingy with the walks, with only 15 in 63.2 IP. Perhaps most impressive is how rare a home run off him is, as he's only given up 2 all year. He gives up a few hits, but the WHIP is floating just above 1, so it's all a matter of what seems to be an attack mentality with the stuff to back it up. He had his best month right out of the gate in June, but no month has been anything less than great in any way really. Yunior Ortega could be going places. I would hesitate to call him the next Stolmy Pimentel, but I wouldn't hesitate much.