Dominican Summer League Preview

The Dominican Summer League season starts today.  Rather than give you a rundown on the players, who are mostly guys we’ve never heard of, this is a rundown on the league itself.

There are thirty-three teams in the league.  These teams are spread over five divisions, two of which have eight teams, two of which have six teams, and one of which has five teams.  This is not perfect balance, but is a substantial improvement over what has been done in the past.  Perhaps an effort is being made to make this more of an actual league, rather than simply glorified spring training with stats.

The main purpose of the league is still player development, of course.  The roster limit is thirty-five active players.  Players must have less than four years of prior minor league service.  Draft-eligible players may not participate, with the exception of two players from Puerto Rico.  Presumably this means two players per team, although the milb.com league website did not specify that, nor did it specify a reason for this rule.  In the past, there was an age limit, but this has been eliminated.  The league plays a seventy-two game season.

The names of the teams are simply the names of the parent clubs, e.g. the DSL Twins.  With thirty-three teams, of course, a few organizations have more than one team in the league.  These teams are differentiated by numbers, e.g. DSL Cubs1 and DSL Cubs2.  There is also one combination team, called the DSL Diamondbacks/Reds.

The Twins entry is in the Boca Chica Baseball City Division, generally referred to as the B.C.B.C.  The Twins entry is managed by Jimmy Alvarez.  The oldest player on the team is pitcher Edgar Martinez, who is 21.  The youngest is pitcher Sebastian Perez, who turned 17 a couple of weeks ago.

The odds are against any of these players making the big leagues, but that’s true of anyone in the low minors.  It’s baseball, and it’s the Twins.  Let’s have some fun following them this summer.