Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Ramos leads Aragua to winter league title

Associated Press photo
Wilson Ramos went 9-for-20 in the Venezuelan Winter League championship series.
Wilson Ramos wanted desperately to get back to playing baseball in Venezuela earlier this offseason, even though the haunting memories of his November abduction were still fresh in his mind.

Nearly three months later, it doesn't appear Ramos' on-field performance has suffered at all.

The Nationals catcher just completed a strong run through the Venezuelan Winter League playoffs and on Sunday helped lead Aragua to the league championship and a berth in the prestigious Caribbean Series.

Ramos' third-inning sacrifice fly brought home one of Aragua's three runs; he then guided his club's pitching staff through nine strong innings to produce a 3-1 victory over La Guaira in Game 6 of the best-of-seven series.

Aragua won the series, four games to two, and Ramos was among his team's top performers. He started all six games behind the plate and wound up hitting .450 (9-for-20) with two doubles, two RBI and two walks.

Ramos' numbers steadily improved over the course of the winter. After hitting just .218 in 25 regular-season games, he raised his average to .281 in 19 postseason games. His total stats over 44 games in Venezuela this offseason: a .245 average, one homer, eight RBI and five doubles.

Ramos will now catch for Aragua in the Caribbean Series, which annually pits the champions of the Venezuelan, Dominican, Puerto Rican and Mexican winter leagues in a round-robin tournament. The Series begins Thursday in Santo Domingo, D.R.

29 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nice way to finish an absurd winter league season for Ramos.

dfh21

natsfan1a said...

Atta way, Ramos! Hope that someday soon you'll be doing that for a Nats playoff team.

Wish that they'd show the CWS on MLB Network, as they did in the first year of the network. I really enjoyed watching the games. Quite the atmosphere!

natsfan1a said...

His mom and family must be very proud.

MicheleS said...

Is MLB Network going to show these games? I would love to see them!

Doc said...

Glad to see Ramo rebound. Hope in future VWL seasons he's more at 1B or DH.

As FP stated during one telecast last season, I'd like to see Ramo save his catching duties, which add up quickly in a career, for the Nats.

natsfan1a said...

MicheleS, I wish but I don't think so. They've not carried them on MLB Network since that first year.

Tcostant said...

Caribbean Series in the past were on TV on the MLB Network, they are always fun to watch with great crowds.

natsfan1a said...

I thought it was just the first year, but my memory could be faulty. The 2012 CWS is not currently listed in the February schedule on the MLB Network site. The first year they carried it, one of the series broadcasters was Cookie Rojas. Now *that* was a fun listen. I also like the dude who sings the nononono HR call (I'd have to Google it to give more specific info on that). :-)

There's a blurb on the CWS here. On the same page is a short recap of the game mentioned in Mark's post, along with a link to the boxscore.

In other news, just ordered some flex plan tixs for this year. Had hardly any wait on the phone and the young lady with whom I dealt was very helpful and friendly.

natsfan1a said...

Ah, Ernesto Jerez with call. If I recall correctly, I first heard him when I was watching ESPN Deportes because there wasn't an English language broadcast of the Caribbean series in question. I don't speak Spanish but I got the gist of it. ;-)

Here's a sample video from the NLCS (sorry about that, Rangers fans).

natsfan1a said...

Corrections from your humble correspondent.

Cognitive fail #1: CWS blurb is here.

Cognitive fail #2: That would be the World Series, of course, not the NLCS.

That is all (but To Be Continued, no doubt).

natsfan1a said...

Maybe all of y'all streaming video gurus can tell whether CWS games might be broadcast here. This Luddite can't quite figure it out.

erocks33 said...

ESPN Deportes will be showing the CWS starting on Thursday. While I don't speak Spanish, I will be checking out some of the games because once it's February, I have to watch some live baseball (can't wait 3+ more weeks for the ST games to begin).

natsfan1a said...

Thanks much, erocks! I don't speak Spanish (other than a few words and phrases) but I do speak baseball. I'm also going to check out some of the games.

erocks33 said...

FWIW ... the Nats will be giving out three bobbleheads this season:

4/14 -- Strasburg
8/5 -- Morse
9/8 -- Zimmerman

Plus a good bunch of other goodies http://washington.nationals.mlb.com/was/ticketing/flex_plans.jsp?affiliateId=292N35Y1-2H61BH)

natsfan1a said...

Seems to be a (Spanish language) game/championship story here. That second guy from the end on the right looks familiar...hmmm...

SCNatsFan said...

One great problem would be having too many live arms this year.

Another would be having two catchers who deserve to play every day, except for rest.

Better then having the problem of scouring the minors for starters!

natsfan1a said...

Okay, now we're getting somewhere on tv schedules for the CWS. Looks like the Venezuela game airs in the afternoon.

erocks33 said...

if i knew how to embed the url i would. but i don't so here's the espn deportes serie del caribe tv schedule:

http://espndeportes.espn.go.com/news/story?id=1451456&s=tel&type=story

natsfan1a said...

Thanks, erocks.

Here's a link to an HTML "cheat sheet" for embedding.

N. Cognito said...

erocks33 said...
"FWIW ... the Nats will be giving out three bobbleheads this season:

4/14 -- Strasburg
8/5 -- Morse
9/8 -- Zimmerman

Plus a good bunch of other goodies http://washington.nationals.mlb.com/was/ticketing/flex_plans.jsp?affiliateId=292N35Y1-2H61BH)"

That list looks familiar.

gonatsgo said...

Should we be worried that Ramos will have had no rest at all this off-season? With him going to the CWS, it looks like he will play there and then re-pack for Viera. At least he will be in shape! Just seems like they should take some time off, especially in such a demanding position.

Steve M. said...

Vamos Ramos! A great story!

Section 222 said...

Thanks for that embedding link natsfan1a. Now can you tell me how people italicize the quote of another comment that they are about to rip to shreds?

natsfan1a said...

You're welcome, sec222. For italics, use an "i" rather than an "a" within the opening brackets (before the quoted material), and an "/a" in the closing brackets (after the quoted material). For bold type, you'd use a "b."

Quit typing so loud!

natsfan1a said...

^Of course, that's an example, not an imperative. :-)

Cwj said...

Thanks for those tips Natsfan!
I have been wondering how to do that.

Gonatsgo- Yeah I was thinking the same thing.
Oh well at least he wont be rusty this spring.

JaneB said...

Hurrah for Livan having a place to go next month!

natsfan1a said...

You're welcome, cwj.

Good for Livo! (And Mark has it in the new post.)

Anonymous said...

Jesus Flores also had a very good VWL season, hitting .307 (combined regular season and round robin - their playoffs) and 11 homeruns.

Post a Comment