There is probably no hotter hitter in the Caribbean than Oscar Salazar. He hit his second and third homerun of the winter and his 2 for 4 day dropped his average to .511. His slugging percentage is .844. That .511 average is after 45 at bats.

And in the Dominican, Julio Manon is the saves leader with 6. He has an 0.82 ERA after 8 games. Expect to see him in the O's bullpen in 2009 if he continues to pitch like this. The O's need bullpen help.

He is doing really good

Eider Torres and Luis Hernández are playing good baseball too.

I'm interested in what you say about Manon. I don't know much about winter baseball in the Carribbean.

Are Manon's numbers something to be excited about, or is it just a reflection that he is getting by with his fireball against inferior hitting?

Normally, I would say no, but the offensive numbers in both the Dom Rep and Venezuela are up. But a couple bad outings and his ERA can get inflated again.

He got save number seven yesterday. I don't recall being impressed by him when he was pitching for Bowie so his success surprises me. But most of the big names do not play in the Caribbean Leagues anymore, so the caliber of ball is AAA at most.

My recall of Manon is that he was a one-pitch pitcher, and that one pitch was pretty straight and flat. I was hoping to hear that he broadened his repertoire of pitches.

Geronimo Gil goes deep for homerun number 4 in less than ten games down in Mexico. Someone give this guy a drug check or a reality encounter.