Smart teams are always looking for ways to improve – even if it’s only a marginal improvement. To do this, you need to be looking everywhere, leaving no stone unturned. One place to look is the independent leagues. In North America, there are seven different professional baseball leagues where the teams have no affiliation with Major League clubs. The independent leagues are mostly filled with has-beens and never-weres, but some players come out of the independent leagues and have solid MLB careers. For example, Angels reliever Brendan Donnelly and Mariners reliever George Sherrill both came from independent leagues, and Marlins closer Joe Borowski got a second chance at a Major League career by pitching in the independent leagues.
However, one player that I would like to see back in a Major League organization is Santos Hernandez. Here is some information on Hernandez…
Full Name: Santos Hernandez
POS: P
B/T: R/R
HT/WT 6’3” / 190 lbs.
DOB: 1/19/1984 in Santo Domingo, DR
Hernandez’s
Baseball Cube page appears to be messed up. There must have been another Santos Hernandez that pitched in the Giants system in the late 90’s. However,
this Santos Hernandez was signed by the Colorado Rockies in 2000. That would have made him 16 years old and his Baseball Cube page doesn’t show anything for two more years, so he was probably in the Dominican League or an instructional league. He made his stateside debut for the Casper Rockies in 2002, where he was a Pioneer League All-Star, posting an 8-1 record through 14 starts with a 3.50 ERA. However, his peripherals weren’t that impressive. Through 72 innings, he struck out 39 and walked 32. However, 2002 would be his only season in the Rockies organization. He doesn’t have any statistics for 2003, so perhaps it was an injury that led to his release. But, even though the Rockies gave up on Hernandez, he didn’t give up on baseball. He resurfaced in 2004 and pitched for the Pensacola Pelicans of the American Association for a year and a half before switching to the Mexican League to pitch for the Puebla Pericos and Tabasco Olmecas for the second half of the 2005 season.
This season, Hernandez led the
Alexandria Aces to a United League title. He started 19 games, pitched 121 innings, gave up 108 hits, 11 HR, struck out 105 and walked 51. That’s a K-rate of 7.80 and a BB-rate of 3.79. Sure, the walks are high – as they have always been with Hernandez, but he struck out the second-most batters in the league. So, while he might not work out a starter in a Major-League organization, it never hurts to have live arms that can compete for Big League bullpen spots.
While I don’t know what kind of repertoire Hernandez has, it sounds like it’s pretty good and it also sounds like he has a good approach to pitching. He threw a one-hitter in the United League playoffs this year, and here is a quote from Bob Tompkins’
recap from The Town Talk…
"I was really concentrating on trying to throw the ball down and get as many ground balls as I can," said Hernandez, who allowed only four Edinburg batters to reach base -- one on a walk and two on errors.
The only hit he allowed was a two-out double lined to right by Rodney Medina in the sixth. Only five of the 24 outs in his eighth innings made it to the outfield.
So, while he has put up decent stats and seems to have a groundball mentality, the main reason I want to see Hernandez get another chance is that he’s still only 23 years old! The Major Leaguers that have had success out of the independent leagues have been in their late 20s. I’m sure there are plenty of Major League organizations out there that could use a 23-year-old that can get nearly 8 Ks per 9 innings. Those numbers would probably decline if he got another shot with a MLB organization, but you never know…maybe working with a better pitching coach would help him cut down on his walks. Maybe a teammate would teach him a new pitch that would allow him to get more hitters to swing and miss. Or maybe, just moving to the bullpen would allow him to let it fly and he could be a solid reliever. Or, maybe he gets picked up by a MLB organization and just can't cut it. But, hopefully we’ll get the chance to find out!