It was announced last night that Justin Howard has returned to the states and will require elbow surgery. According to the article, he hopes to be ready by the start of Spring Training. In his place, Quincy Latimore will join the Adelaide Bite after Christmas. Latimore played for Adelaide during the 2010 season, hitting .313 with a .923 OPS in 31 games. Howard was on a tear recently, hitting .429 with five doubles and five RBI’s in his last nine games. One week ago, he was named the ABL Player of the Week.
In a light night of action yesterday, Anderson Hernandez went 0-for-4, with a walk and a run scored. With 53 hits, he still remains one ahead of Robinzon Diaz for the DWL lead.
Nate Baker came on during the third inning last night with his team already down 7-2. He walked the first batter he saw, then watched that batter steal second and advance to third on a throwing error by the catcher. Baker struck out the next batter to end the inning. In the fourth inning, Baker got a ground out, then a pop out, before allowing an infield single that ended his night. He has been on a 3-5 batter limit in each of his seven outings this year. Baker has pitched a total of 6.1 innings, allowing two earned runs on nine hits, two walks and he has recorded seven strikeouts.
The leagues in Puerto Rico and Mexico were both off last night. They resume their schedule today. The Dominican League had just one game on the schedule for last night, a make-up game. That league also resumes a full schedule tonight.
The ABL returns to action on Friday. Zac Fuesser will be on the mound for Adelaide that night, making his seventh start. He has a 2-2, 4.02 record, with 29 strikeouts in 31.1 innings.
The remaining schedule for each Winter league can be found here.
