Island Update: Soto to be pitchng coach in baseball classic, Vólquez is is signed up to play

by Verka Serduchka on Nov 22, 2008 9:18 AM EST Comment 7 comments

From the Diaro Libre last Tuesday, November 18:

SANTO DOMINGO. El comité organizador del equipo dominicano que participará en el Clásico Mundial 2009 presentó este lunes a Mario Soto como el nuevo coach de pitcheo de la novena quisqueyana en sustitución de William Castro, quien fue designado en las mismas funciones por los Cerveceros de Milwaukee en Grandes Ligas.

Hablando para los periodistas en presencia del doctor Leonardo Matos Berrido, presidente de Lidom, el gerente general Stanley Javier resaltó que tanto él como Felipe Rojas Alou se sienten muy contentos porque saben el tipo de persona que es Mario Soto.

"Tanto Felipe como yo estamos muy contentos porque conocemos a Mario y sabemos la persona que es", destacó Javier.

Aprovechó para anunciar que fueron integrados, en adición a los ya existentes, nuevos coaches entre los que cuentan Luis Pujols, Luis Silverio, Mariano Duncan, Nelson Silverio y Miguel García. Anteriormente se dieron a conocer los nombres de Alfredo Griffin y Junior Noboa.

Dijo que otros nombres aún no pueden salir a la luz pública debido a que los reglamentos del Clásico así lo impiden, aunque resaltó que jugadores como Robinson Canó, Santiago Casillas, Edinson Vólquez y Aramis Ramírez firmaron el acuerdo de participación.

El recién designado dio las gracias a todos los miembros del comité organizador y de manera especial a Felipe y Stanley, con quienes dijo tener magníficas relaciones.

SANTO DOMING. The organizing committee of the Dominican team that will participate in the 2009 World Baseball Classic announced yesterday former pitcher Mario Soto will be their team's pitching coach. Soto will replace William Castro who was recently named the pitching coach of the Milwaukee Brewers. The general manager of the Dominican team, Stanley Javier said that both he and team manager, Felipe Rojas Alou are very content with this selection because the understand the value of Soto.

"Both Felipe and I are very happy because we know Mario well and we know the kind of person he is," said Stanley. Stanley also announced the selection of other new coaches who will join the existing managers, including Luis Pujols, Luis Silverio, Mariano Duncan, Nelsion Silverio, and Miguel García. Alfredo Griffin and Junior Noboa had already been neamed as coaches on the team.

Stanley mentioned that other names of participants still have not been announced to the public due to the rules of the Classic, but he did highlight that players like Robinson Canó, Santiago Casillas Edinson Vólquez, and Aramis Ramiraz have signed up to play.

Soto thanked the organizing committee of the Dominican team, and gave special thanks to Stanley and Alou. Dating back to their years as players, Soto said he has a great relationship with both Stanley and Alou. "I give thanks a everyone who has made it possible for me to replace Castro on the team," said soto. "Everyone is involved the Classic and for that reason the Cincinnati Reds organization didn't have any problem with granting me permission to participate."

Could this be the experience/recognition that Mario Soto needs to become the next Reds' pitching coach? After his work with Vólquez and Cueto, and his general ability to teach his devastating backdoor slider ("puerta atras") shouldn't he be a pitching coach somewhere, preferably with the Reds?

How do we feel about Vólquez participating in the Classic? Weren't a lot of players, especially pitchers, kind of wiped out last time around going straight into the season after the competition?

In other Dominican news, the governement here is trying to push through a a youth emplyment act that is very similar to the law that led to so much unrest in France in 2006. It is a law that basically says that folks between 18-30 who are enterng their first formal job, should have limited rights including the right to be fired without warning or reason, and also are exempt from severence pain. The idea is to stimulate the economy by making young people more exploitable, I mean, hirable.

Here in Justicia Global we are currently working on mobilizing young folks to take action against the law which is now in the senate after gaining approval in the house. Our goal is to use this event as an entrance point for young people into the work of creating a broader, more long term movement towards more fundamental socio-economic change.

Things seem to be getting pretty bad in terms of unemployent in the States. What is the feeling like there these days?

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The problem with the law in France

is how stratified the population is over there. The youth bill was basically made to exploit the immigrant youth in France because they look bad if they exploit folks abroad. I don’t know the first thing about the Dominican Economy (outside of Jose Rijo’s “Mountain of Dreams” covered in Slate), but it strikes me as a better idea if its going to try to make ALL youth more “hirable” instead of “those” youth. Is Domincan Society as screwy as France’s?

Speaking of France, I’m too lazy to look it up right now, but I was told that there isn’t a single minority member of the French Parliament. Their parliament looks like a Pre-Civil-Rights US Congress, which probably doesn’t bode well for, you know, civil rights.

...because there's already someone posing as Jacob Brumfield

by Cy Schourek on Nov 22, 2008 11:18 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

Well france just doesn't have that many Negroes.

They therefore take it out on the youth. Fucking Frogs.

And Oh yeah Mario Soto would be a great pitching coach. I understand that he actually works with the players to improve their technique and to teach them how to pitch, not just throw pitches. If would good to have another guy like him (Gullet wasn’t so bad) in the role as Dick Pole seems to have done very little of anything with the staff in 2008.

The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.

Sir Winston Churchill

by Madville on Nov 22, 2008 9:39 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Is there a way

to measure a pitching coaches effectiveness statistically?

Would running the stats of a pitcher before, during, and after a prolonged experience with a certain coach to create a comparison of how their effectiveness measures in relation to time under a different coach be meaningful?

Or are their just too many wild cards- age, team dynamics, contract year, etc.?

I ask, because I honestly don’t know how to come to a conclusion about Gullet or Pole or Soto other than what people who worked with the have said, and the general success or failure of the pitchers they have worked with.

Tanzen!

by Verka Serduchka on Nov 24, 2008 1:52 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

I think ultimately there are too many factors to get a good read on it

A few years back there were some studies looking for a Mazzone-effect in Atlanta and speculating what affect he’d have on the pitchers in Baltimore. Then he washed out and everyone moved on.

by Red Menace on Nov 24, 2008 2:16 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

I still wouldn't kick Dave Duncan out of my bullpen

…if you know what I mean.

by Brendanukkah on Nov 24, 2008 2:21 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Yes, the France situation was greatly complexified

by the civil unrest that had occurred the year before as a result of frustrations boiling over from immigrant communities when 2 immigrant youth were electrocuted after hiding out in a power substation to escape the police. The bill was in great part a response to this unrest, to try and provide incentives for employees to hide the vastly underemployed youth of these communities.

The bill, however, also effected the entire population of youth. Even though “native” French youth are not marginalized from work opportunities to the extent that immigrant youth are, they were still held to the same standards and conditions of the law. For this reason, thousands of university students took the streets over the course of a few months in 2006 in protest of the bill, before and after it passed. I don’t know enough about the situation to say whether it was the faces of these primarily white, upper middle class French born youth in the streets that persuaded the government to repeal the law, but given the long history of the active and direct colonial exploitation of many of the populations of people who are now immigrants to France, and the more recent “post-colonial,” indirect exploitation of and/or ambivalence towards these communities domestically, it wouldn’t have surprised me if the law had remained in place if only immigrants had protested against it. If it is not clear, this is more of a condemnation of unjust governance than praise for the students that mobilized against the law.

In terms of the Dominican situation, it is young economically poor women who are one of the largest underemployed population in the country. So what we have before us in the DR now is a way to continue and formalize the exploitative double standards that women face all over the world. The danger of giving an employer the right to fire their employees at anytime for no reason at all can not be overstated. Wages are driven down to the minimum level because if you complain or organize you can be fired immediately. Abuse of workers whether through unsafe work sites, sexual harassment, or inhumane work schedules becomes more possible because workers have no voice to question these practices. And, this could easily have ripple effects on other working populations. While the law states that youth in their first employment should not take the place of other workers already on the job, the law does gives room to employees to make this kind of replacement in “justified” situations. Basically, employees will be able to threaten all workers that if they don’t comply to their demands, they will be replaced with young workers who will have to because of the law in place. That and older workers or youth seeking their second employment will never be hired in the first place.

Tanzen!

by Verka Serduchka on Nov 24, 2008 1:46 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

hm, I'll have to remember this when I usurp power in a Central Asian Banana Republic

but seriously, this is interesting to me. I look at the more obvious types of oppression, the nightsticks-and-tanks type. So the more subtle stuff is interesting too.

...because there's already someone posing as Jacob Brumfield

by Cy Schourek on Nov 24, 2008 9:19 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs