Royals winter league weekly recap

The Kansas City Royals winter league weekly recaps are back!

It was a light week in terms of Royals players playing winter ball. No new players began play (though two started playing while I was on vacation).

Let’s start in the Dominican Republic. Both Aguilas and Gigantes are tied for second place at 26-18 (two games back).

For Aguilas, Francisco Pena caught three games last week. He batted between eighth and ninth in the order and went just 1-for-9 with four strikeouts. Pena did walk twice and hit a solo home run on Sunday.

Angel Franco played third base on December 9th and went 1-for-3 with a walk. He has not played since, but did get married over the weekend (Congrats!).

For Gigantes, Michael Mariot made three relief appearances, but allowed his first runs in winter ball on December 12th (0IP, 3H, 3R, 2ER, 0BB, 0K), taking the blown save. In that outing, he allowed a three-run home run to Juan Francisco. In the other two outings, he did not allow a base runner over two innings and earned his first hold on December 11th.

Miguel Almonte made one start last week for Gigantes and earned the victory. He allowed three hits over five scoreless innings. He struck out seven and induced four ground out (to two fly outs). Almonte may be quietly putting his name back on the Royals radar for a starting job by the end of 2015.

Outfielders Moises Sierra and Carlos Peguero continue to bat 3-4 in the Gigantes order. Sierra went 4-for-8 with a double, three walks, two runs scored, and three RBIs last week. Sierra leads the DWL with 34 RBIs. Peguero went 3-for-16 with a double and a three-run home run on December 9th (his league-leading eighth of the winter ball season). He did strike out nine times last week.

One of those new to winter ball players was reliever Andrew Triggs, but he did not pitch last week for first place Estrellas (28-16). His first week of winter ball was a disaster. He pitched three times and allowed four runs on eight hits over just 1.2 innings. Triggs did earn the victory in his first relief outing, as Estrellas walked off on November 24th.

Moving on to Venezuela.

Centerfielder Paulo Orlando has moved into the fifth spot in Lara’s order (27-28). He went 6-for-18 with a double and a solo home run. He scored two runs.

Johnny Giavotella played in just three games last week for La Guaira (24-29). One of those came as a pinch runner. While playing third base, Gio went 1-for-5 with a walk and a run scored.

Finally to Puerto Rico.

Centerfielder Reymond Fuentes batted leadoff three times and ninth once for Santurce (13-16). He went 3-for-15 with a double, two runs scored, and an RBI. He did strike out five times.

Second baseman Jack Lopez played in four games last week and batted in three different spots in the Santurce order (eighth, ninth, and leadoff). He went 2-for-11 with a double, two walks, two stolen bases, and a two out RBI. Lopez also committed two errors (both on December 12th) and hit into two double plays.