The Dominican Summer League (DSL), founded in 1985, is a summer league playing all of its games in the Dominican Republic. It is comprised of thirty-five teams in five divisions. Each team is affiliated with a MLB team and bears that team’s name. Five MLB organizations field two teams in the DSL – Mets, Orioles, Pirates, Reds, Yankees. It makes me wonder why the Dodgers don’t have two teams as the league was founded thirty-eight years ago at the height of Dodger farm system supremacy.

The 2013 schedule started on June 1 and will end on August 24. The playoffs start on August 26 and during a brief seasonal break an All-Star game is scheduled for July 21. The teams in the DSL play a 72 game schedule with six teams making the playoff round – the winner of each of the five divisions and one wild card with the best record. The DSL Dodgers play in the Boca Chica Northwest Division of the league. Their home field is the Campo Las Palmas complex. The other teams in this division are affiliated with Houston, Oakland, Cleveland, Seattle, Tampa Bay, Boston and Kansas City.

Campo Las Palmas is where many Dominican-born Dodgers began their careers.
(Photo courtesy of MLB.com)

One of those five divisions – San Pedro de Macoris – definitely rings a bell for many of us. According to Baseball-Reference, seventy-six players in Major League Baseball history were born in San Pedro de Macoris. The city is often referred to as “The Cradle of Shortstops.” Mariano Duncan, Pedro Guerrero, Guillermo Mota, Jose Offerman and Juan Samuel, all former Dodgers, grew up in San Pedro de Macoris. Some other well known players from that area include George Bell, Joaquin Andújar, Robinson Cano, Sammy Sosa, Tony Fernandez and Alfonso Soriano. It is not too difficult to understand why MLB offers a summer league program in the Dominican Republic.

Dodger Hall of Fame manager Tommy Lasorda has been a frequent visitor at Campo Las Palmas over the years.
(Photo courtesy of MLB.com)

The DSL Dodgers began their play on June 1 and after six games have compiled a win-loss record of 5-6. It appears that the final rosters in the DSL are made up of 35 players. The Dodger roster is 35, eighteen of them pitchers. These young players are hoping, as all young players do, to make their way in life on a baseball diamond. Heading into this season twenty-three of those players are eighteen or younger, with seven of them beginning their seasons as sixteen year olds.

Although, at this stage , we do not recognize the names of any of these young players, there may be some diamonds in the rough and it will be interesting and fun to dig for information for the next 66 games. Such information is sketchy at best and comes primarily from box scores. More information may be available if a player from the DSL Dodgers gets a mid-season promotion the Arizona League Dodgers which begin play on June 20.

In the meantime some familiar names will be keeping an eye on these truly baby Dodgers. Jose Hernandez who had a fifteen year major league career and played 95 games with the Dodgers in 2004 is the catching coach. Assistant coach, Rafael Ozuna, played most of his career in the independent leagues but did spend his first two years in professional in the Dodgers minor league system. Pitching coach, Alejandro Pena, played nine years with the Dodgers breaking in as a rookie at age twenty-two in 1981.