Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Cespedes, De La Cruz, and pray for a better rhyme
Posted by Jeff SackmannI've written a couple times in this space about Felix Cespedes, a pitcher for the DSL Phillies. Based on his recent performances, I think he could outduel Patrick Schuster and Austin Wood simultaneously.
Cespedes's real competition is coming from his own teammate, Daniel De La Cruz. Yesterday, De La Cruz threw a no-hitter, walking none and striking out an even dozen. The only baserunner came as a result of a fielding error. On the next play, De La Cruz started a double play to clear the bags again. All told, he faced the minimum 27 batters in nine innings.
The DSL isn't a very offense-friendly environment, but this is getting ridiculous. The most plausible theory I can come up with is that the Phillies have developed some kind of giant wind machine that prevents batted balls from traveling more than 110 feet. That doesn't explain the strikeouts, but the only other workable scenario I've got involves aliens.
In any event, by the time Jamie Moyer retires, the Phillies may well have a couple of Dominican youngsters more than ready to step in to the rotation.
Jeff Sackmann is the creator of MinorLeagueSplits.com. With Kent Bonham, he founded CollegeSplits.com. Jeff and Kent blog about college baseball and the draft, and you can follow them on Twitter for bite-sized snacks of minor league and college stats. Jeff also has an email address.