Skip to main content

Winter Leagues under way with Tocci, Lino and more

Carlos Tocci
Carlos Tocci, image- Jay Floyd
Just as the big league postseason is heating up, minor league players have gotten action rolling in the international off-season leagues, with top outfield prospect Carlos Tocci and promising backstop Gabriel Lino leading the way in the Venezuelan Winter League.

With Aragua on Wednesday, the 20-year-old Tocci went 3-for-6 with a stolen base. All of his hits were singles. Tocci, widely ranked among the Phillies' top 10 prospects, posted a .287/.339/.363 combined slash line in 127 games with Class A Lakewood and Class A Advanced Clearwater in 2015.

Also for Aragua in the VWL, outfielder Herlis Rodriguez went 1-for-1 with two RBI as a pinch hitter and later played right field. The 21-year-old lefty batter tallied a .284 average with 10 home runs, 61 RBI and 16 steals in 120 games for Lakewood this season.

Lino, who was acquired from Baltimore in 2012 for Jim Thome, went 1-for-3 with a walk and a strike out for Lara in the VWL on Wednesday. The 22-year-old sported a .234 batting average with three homers and 30RBI in 85 combined games for Double-A Reading and Triple-A Lehigh Valley this year.

Multi-positional standout Willians Astudillo went 1-for-4 as the first baseman for Anzoategui on Wednesday. Astudillo was the Class A Advanced Florida State League batting champion this year with his .314 mark, also hitting three homers and driving in 49 runs.

Additionally, infielder Edgar Duran was 1-for-4 with Margarita as their shortstop on opening night. Duran missed a majority of the season with a pair of injuries as a member of the Lehigh Valley IronPigs this year.

Opening days for other off-season leagues are coming soon enough with action starting in Mexico on Friday, October 9th, Arizona Fall League is under way on October 13th while the Dominican league starts October 15th and the Australian Baseball League begins on October 23rd.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

PhoulBallz Interview: Reading second baseman Jesmuel Valentin

Jesmuel Valentin, image- Jay Floyd Switch-hitting infielder Jesmuel Valentin has been a bit of an underrated contributor with the Double-A Reading Fightins. Heading into action on Friday, Valentin was batting .339 over his last 14 games. Overall this season, the 22-year-old is batting .282 with four home runs and 35 RBI in 64 games. Valentin, who plays mostly second base, but dabbles at shortstop a bit also, is the son of former big leaguer Jose Valentin . The Puerto Rico native was a supplementary round pick (51st overall) of the Dodgers in 2012. He was acquired by the Phils as part of the Roberto Hernandez trade in 2014. Recently, I spoke with Jesmuel about his team's success, growing up around the game and more. Read ahead for that full interview. -The Reading team has been great and you've contributed very nicely to the club's success. What are your thoughts on competition in the Eastern League this year? I just came here with the mindset that...

2018 Phillies Prospect Countdown: #25 Second Baseman Jesmuel Valentin

Jesmuel Valentin, image- Jay Floyd Second baseman Jesmuel Valentin has become a solid contributor at each level he has played and could possess the ability to continue that success as he approaches the big leagues. Last year in spring training with the big league team Valentin proved he could contribute and earned consideration at making the Phillies opening day roster. His 2017 was cut short at the Triple-A level due to an injury in May, so he wasn't healthy for a call up during the season. But now, fully healthy and on the diamond in the Roberto Clemente League (the Puerto Rico Winter League), Valentin is hopeful he'll get another shot at his big league dream this year. Selected as the 51st overall draft pick in 2012, Valentin was quickly a well-hyped prospect in the Los Angeles Dodgers system. Upon signing his initial professional contract fresh out of high school, the switch-hitter debuted in the rookie level Arizona League, posting a .211 average while...

Rappers in Phillies Caps

Weekend greetings to you phine pholks out there. Today's post features pictures of rappers wearing Phillies caps. Why rappers in Phillies caps, you ask? Because... Any other questions? We will start things off properly by going with a highly recognizable hip hop star. 50 Cent stays constantly relavant by consistantly creating radio friendly material to help sell (G) units, while he "keeps it real" by still rapping about the thug life he lived before becoming the 2nd highest earning black entertainer in America. 50 is seen here in a recent interview rocking a throw-back Phillies cap. Next up we'll use a throw-back screen cap from what may be the very first major appearance by a rapper wearing Phillies gear. Chuck D, of legendary rap group Public Enemy, wore a Phillies cap in the music video for rap anthem Fight The Power in 1989. The song was the lead single from the soundtrack for Spike Lee's film Do The Right Thing . Next up we'll go with some home grown tal...