
The four teams competing this year in the Dominican Winter Professional Baseball Championship that starts on Thursday, 20 December 2018 fortified their rosters by grabbing the better players from the Aguilas Cibaeñas and the Gigantes del Cibao that did not make the semi-finals.
With these roster additions, the round robin involving the Estrellas Orientales, the Tigres del Licey, Leones del Escogido and Toros del Este is sure to be an exciting affair. Expectations are that the tournament may result in a playoff between the old time rivals from the National District, Licey and Escogido, but that may be merely wishful thinking of the city team fans.
The Estrellas Orientales have high hopes that this may be their year. The team has consistently reached the semi-finals in recent years, but has struggled to win the finals. This year, Robinson Cano, now with the New York Mets, promises to play two games in the round robin to help the Estrellas team win a championship. Fernando Tatis of the San Diego Padres has also announced he would join the team during the round robin.
The series opens with Licey taking on Escogido at the Quisqueya Ball Park and the Toros visiting the Estrellas at the Tetelo Vargas in San Pedro de Macoris. The games continue on Friday, 21 and Saturday, 22 December, and then the Dominican League breaks until games resume on Thursday, 27, Friday, 28 and Saturday, 29 December. The round robin is off for the New Year celebrations. Matches resume on Wednesday, 2 January through 14 January 2019.
The semifinal round is formatted as “all against all,” in which the four teams play a total of 18 games, six against each of the rivals. The two teams with the best record during the round robin face off in the finals. If before the 18 games are completed two teams classify, the round would end at that moment and 48 hours later the final series the tournament would begin.
The winner of the Dominican Professional Baseball Winter Championship then goes on to battle the best teams from Venezuela, Mexico, Cuba and Puerto Rico in the Caribbean Series scheduled to be played in Venezuela from 2 to 8 February 2019.
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Lidom
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El Caribe
20 December 2018