IBL stars in the Dominican Winter League

The latest IBL press release reports glowingly: "IBL stars playing well in the Dominican Republic"

It continues:

Juan Feliciano, winner of the IBL's most valuable pitcher award and Eladio Rodriguez co-winner of the IBL's Most Valuable Player Award are teammates on the Santiago Aguilera's of the Dominican Winter Baseball League.

Juan Feliciano, who played for the Hiroshima Carp of Japan's major leagues before signing with the IBL has appeared in six games for the Santiago Aguilera's. In nine and two thirds innings of work Feliciano has yielded only five hits while striking out eight and has a 3.78 ERA.

Eladio Rodriguez, who has been signed by the NY Yankees after his superb performance in the IBL this past summer, has been to bat five times and has two hits including a double giving him a batting average of .400.

Now, it's nice to see that Juan and Eladio are keeping their skills up in the offseason. And it's nice to see that the IBL is following the careers of its leading alumni.

But c'mon! Two for five over three games? Nine and two-thirds innings pitched over six games? Those are good performances, yes, but over such small samples that to draw any conclusions from them would be absurd. Let's see how their playing holds up after dozens of at bats or innings, and then we'll have some idea how good they are.

The full stats lines can be found here, in Spanish, at the team's website. (It actually gives Feliciano's ERA as 3.72, not 3.78.) Hey! Eladio's leading the team in batting average! Just like in the IBL!

Not. At least not yet.