Winter League Wonders

For me, spring training marks the start of spring, just like the postseason marks the start of fall. No vernal or autumnal equinoxes necessary. So, with spring only a few weeks away, now is a good time to take a look at what happened in winter leagues across the globe.

Winter league baseball does not receive much press stateside, but it is an important part of the game. In places like Venezuela and the Dominican Republic, winter leagues give a chance for many MLB players to go back to their homes and play in front of their compatriots. Franchises will send younger players to various winter leagues for extra development time too. Other players recently out of the league will go to winter leagues too in hopes of reviving their career.

All the Caribbean Leagues (Mexico, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, and the Dominican Republic) can be found here. It is nice to see the Puerto Rican winter league come back after a short hiatus. Also, new this year is the Australian Baseball League, which from a prospect development standpoint, seems to have replaced the defunct Hawai'i baseball league.

Here are some players that caught my eye over the winter:

Mariners Prospects Among Best

MLB.com unveiled their top 50 prospect list for 2011. It is just one list, but it is from an independent source (well, independent of any individual team) that does its homework. As I looked at the list, I thought it would be fun to try to come up with some sort of ranking system to devise how strong each team's farm system is, based on the MLB.com rankings.

Here's the method I came up with:

Angels Acquire Vernon Wells

For my money, the Angels have had the most surprising offseason in baseball. I wasn't stunned that they didn't get Carl Crawford, especially since he ended up in Boston. I was stunned though that they couldn't entice Adrian Beltre. They just about had to do something after missing out on both premier free agents, with an offense that sagged in 2010.

Of all the possible answers out there though, it ended up being Vernon Wells?

As a Mariners fan, I like this solution that Los Angeles of Anaheim came up with (if they are dumb enough to continue to use such a convoluted "city" name, the least I can do is use it).