Odrisamer Despaigne Stats and a Comparison with Miguel Alfredo Gonzalez and Dalier Hinojosa

In Commentary And Analysis, News And Rumors by GW11 Comments

odrisamer-despaigne-2

Updates: If interested in more defector profiles and comparisons, here are Miguel Alfredo Gonzalez, Dalier Hinojosa, Aledmis Diaz, Dariel Alvarez, Alexander Guerrero, and Misael Siverio.

I have previously profiled Miguel Alfredo Gonzalez and Dalier Hinojosa. This time it’s Odrisamer Despaigne, who defected two weeks ago by walking away from the national team at an airport in Paris. No word yet whether the Cubs have interest, as Despaigne’s defection is much more recent than the other two. He has been working out in front of teams in Barcelona.

Defector Updates

  • Both Miguel Alfredo Gonzalez and Dalier Hinojosa have been cleared to sign with Major League teams by the Treasury. Any day now we can expect an announcement on those two.
  • Hot off the presses, another Cuban pitcher has defected. This time in it is Misael Siverio, who left the team last night in Des Moines. Jesse Sanchez is doing his part in carrying the water for his agents, shaving a year off his age in his tweeted announcement. Or not. Who knows? His stats actually look pretty good at first glance. I’ll profile him next.
  • I haven’t seen any updates or stats on Leandro Linares, the 19-year old who would be subject to international signing restrictions.
  • When we last saw Alfredo Despaigne, Cuba’s mini Bo Jackson, he was mercilessly taking Dalier Hinojosa deep. Now it turns out that he is playing in the Mexican League on loan from Cuba, and he is crushing. He has hit five homers in 86 plate appearances en route to a .366/.384/.598 line. I’m guessing that someone in Cuba is confident enough that Despaigne won’t defect to loan him to Mexico, but they have obviously been wrong on that front before. Outside of perhaps Jose Abreu, no other Cuban’s defection would make as big a splash as the three-time MVP. Fingers crossed that he comes over after the Dodgers waste all their money on other schlubs and before the Yankees end their bid to get under the luxury tax.

Odrisamer Despaigne Profile

Despaigne isn’t as big as Gonzalez or Hinojosa, checking in at 6’0″, 200 lbs. He is 26 and has pitched for Industriales in la Serie Nacional since he was 19. Unfortunately, I haven’t found any detailed scouting reports on his stuff, though I’m sure that sort of thing will be publicized soon enough. Youtube isn’t much help, either, as it only turns up the following video:

I’m fascinated by this because I don’t know what’s going on. From what I gather, Marti is a Miami-based news organization whose primary focus is the goings-on in Cuba. They are profiling the latest rash of defectors in beisbol, the latest being Odrisamer, and they interview a sportswriter who has himself defected, Raul Arce. Presumably they are discussing the logistics of such a defection. So far, so good. But then there is a call to la Serie Nacional that has all the trappings of “gotcha” investigative journalism, but whose purpose in unclear. Are they gloating? Trying to demonstrate Cuban baseball’s dishonesty and/or incompetence? Is there a corrupt member of the organization facilitating these defections?

Odrisamer Despaigne Stats

Team Age G GS IP W L AB TBF H R ER ERA K BB BBI 2B 3B HR
2006 Ind 19 23 1 60.7 3 1 64 26 3.86 34 29 4
2007 Ind 20 28 0 65.0 5 2 70 20 2.77 37 22 4
2008 Ind 21 34 0 83.3 3 5 78 35 3.78 47 26 3
2009 Ind 22 28 9 100.7 6 6 113 54 4.83 79 47 8
2010 Ind 23 20 20 117.3 10 7 439 515 116 63 56 4.30 106 55 4 18 3 7
2010* Ind 23 6 6 37.3 3 1 140 165 37 12 9 2.17 27 19 0 3 1 1
2011 Ind 24 21 21 130.0 8 8 506 597 143 87 68 4.71 96 62 5 30 1 13
2012 Ind 25 24 24 169.3 13 8 602 699 131 56 49 2.60 128 66 2 16 1 6
2012* Ind 25 6 6 50.7 5 1 182 201 43 10 9 1.60 32 11 2 5 1 0
2013-1 Ind 26 12 12 83.7 5 2 308 339 76 29 24 2.58 55 25 5 8 2 5
2013-2 Ind 26 11 11 59.3 5 3 227 269 63 32 28 4.25 43 28 3 10 2 1
Totals 957.3 61 43 934 378 3.55 684 390 52

 

Age IP K/9 BB/9 H/9 HR/9 K% BB% dt K/9 dt BB/9 dt H/9 dt HR/9 dt NERA
2006 19 60.7 5.0 4.3 9.5 0.6 4.6 4.6 9.2 1.0 4.87
2007 20 65.0 5.1 3.0 9.7 0.6 5.4 3.7 11.1 1.3 3.96
2008 21 83.3 5.1 2.8 8.4 0.3 4.8 3.1 7.7 0.7 4.38
2009 22 100.7 7.1 4.2 10.1 0.7 6.8 4.2 9 1.0 4.82
2010 23 117.3 8.1 4.2 8.9 0.5 20.6 10.7 8.4 4.7 8.3 0.7 4.52
2010* 23 37.3 6.5 4.6 8.9 0.2 16.4 11.5
2011 24 130.0 6.6 4.3 9.9 0.9 16.1 10.4 7.0 4.5 8.8 1.0 5.45
2012 25 169.3 6.8 3.5 7.0 0.3 18.3 9.4
2012* 25 50.7 5.7 2.0 7.6 0.0 15.9 5.5
2013-1 26 83.7 5.9 2.7 8.2 0.5 16.2 7.4
2013-2 26 59.3 6.5 4.2 9.6 0.2 16.0 10.4
Totals 957.3 6.4 3.7 8.8 0.5
*Playoffs
** The 2013 season was split into two halves, with 8 teams advancing from the first round robin to play in the second half
Sources: beisbolencuba.com, claydavenport.com (any “dt” prefix indicates a Davenport translation)

Despaigne is a workhorse. Neither Gonzalez nor Hinojosa ever started more than 20 combined games in the regular and post season, whereas Odrisamer has done it every year since being shifted to the rotation in 2010. In 2012 he managed 30 starts and 220 innings between the regular season and playoffs, an impressive total in a league whose regular season is only 96 games long. In the 2012 playoffs, he averaged eight and a half innings in six starts, going 5-1. Clutch. Here is how he compares to Gonzalez and Hinojosa overall from 2010-2013:

G GS IP TBF K/9 BB/9 H/9 HR/9 K% BB% ERA WHIP
Mig Alf G 40 38 245 1021 6.2 2.3 8.8 0.6 16.5 6.2 3.49 1.23
Dalier 62 59 396.7 1689 7.7 2.7 9.0 1.0 20.1 7.1 3.79 1.31
Odris 100 100 647.7 2785 6.8 3.7 8.5 0.5 17.5 9.6 3.38 1.35

Overall, Odrisamer has a strange profile. His K-rate is slightly better than Gonzalez’s, but his control is easily the worst of the three. What he does seem to do well is prevent runs. He sports a lower hit rate against than either of the other two, and his home run rate is also very good. Who knows? Maybe he throws a knuckleball.

Overall, though, his numbers definitely don’t point to a pitcher who is a safe bet for a big investment. Of the three, I would probably bet on Dalier, despite the homers.

Share this Post

Comments

  1. Rice Cube

    Is it me…or is it just really easy to defect from Cuba for some reason? I know they have to float on a raft for 90 miles to get to Florida sometimes, but this seems to happen quite a bit. Possibly magnified because it’s baseball players, but just strange to me.

      Quote  Reply

    0

    0
  2. Author
    GW

    @ Rice Cube:

    all of the most recent examples have been players leaving the national team when they were out of the country. no raft needed. it does seem to have been happening more often recently. maybe the security guards are getting paid off.

      Quote  Reply

    0

    0
  11. CSuárez

    @ Rice Cube:
    Mr Rice Cube:

    You are an icecube. Defecting from Cuba is not easy. Many people die in the process of “floating” across the waters on a “raft” as you so simply put it in your comment. Other people risk their lives in other ways to get off of the island including becomming prostitutes, using fake passports and crossing through several conunties to get to their final destination. You live in a place with very little restrictions and pretty simple rules to follow. Peolpe don’t tell you where you can and can’t go and with whom you can and cannot speak. Your emails and phone conversations are not monitored and you have direct access to the Internet. And If you want to fly to Mexico tomorrow, you just do it. The people of Cuba are captives in their own country. Educate yourself, or better yet, try to go to Cuba legally and see how it feels to not be the one making the decisions.

      Quote  Reply

    0

    0

Leave a Comment