The Dominican League had off on the weekend from regular games, so they could hold their All-Star game on Sunday. Mel Rojas Jr. was the only representative from the Pirates. He went 0-for-3 and played the entire game in left field. He is hitting .234/.331/.458 in 31 games.
There wasn’t much going on Sunday in winter ball, so we take a look at Luis Heredia’s winter. He pitched for the first time in two weeks on Sunday night and had a successful relief appearances, throwing an efficient two shutout innings. Heredia has been up and down this winter, looking good at times and struggling to find the strike zone in other games. On Sunday, he gave up a single, didn’t walk anyone, and struck out two batters. He needed just 24 pitches, with 19 going for strikes. I haven’t found anything explaining the layoff, and right after he pitched on November 29th, he received permission from the Pirates to continue pitching this winter. So the time off may have just been due to his command issues.
Heredia has thrown a total of 17.2 innings over 13 appearances. The low total is partially due to some poor outings, but he’s also been on a limited pitch count all winter. He has a 4.58 ERA, with 13 walks and nine strikeouts. The walk total is obviously too high, though his WHIP isn’t as bad as you would think because he’s only allowed 12 hits. Heredia has done a good job at keeping the ball on ground with a 1.35 GO/AO ratio and he hasn’t allowed a home run this winter. He also did a good job with keeping the ball on the ground and in the park during the regular season, allowing just three homers, though that came with a .309 BAA and a high walk total.
Heredia’s winter has been a lot like the summer. He’s very inconsistent and can lose the strike zone, but even when he is on his game, he doesn’t pick up many strikeouts. In relief, you would hope for more strikeouts because the pitcher can air it out more. The problem is that he doesn’t have swing-and-miss stuff and when he does try to throw harder, he tends to work up in the zone and those pitches will either be balls or flatten out and get hammered. Heredia said in an interview last month that he was sent to winter ball to work on his curve and change-up and he’s been throwing them a lot more than normal. He’s not allowing many hits, so that’s a good sign, but it also sounds like he’s having command issues with those pitches, as well as his fastball at times.
In other action on Sunday in Mexico, Carlos Munoz went 2-for-4 with two singles, before leaving for a pinch-running in the ninth inning. He is hitting .266/.365/.435 through 49 games. His .800 OPS ranks 17th in the league.
Sebastian Valle went 0-for-4 with four strikeouts, dropping him down to a .219 average.
