Winter Leagues under way with Tocci, Lino and more

Just as the big league postseason is heating up, minor league players have gotten action rolling in the international off-season leagues, with top outfield prospect Carlos Tocci and promising backstop Gabriel Lino leading the way in the Venezuelan Winter League.

With Aragua on Wednesday, the 20-year-old Tocci went 3-for-6 with a stolen base.  All of his hits were singles.  Tocci, widely ranked among the Phillies’ top 10 prospects, posted a .287/.339/.363 combined slash line in 127 games with Class A Lakewood and Class A Advanced Clearwater in 2015.

Also for Aragua in the VWL, outfielder Herlis Rodriguez went 1-for-1 with two RBI as a pinch hitter and later played right field.  The 21-year-old lefty batter tallied a .284 average with 10 home runs, 61 RBI and 16 steals in 120 games for Lakewood this season.

Lino, who was acquired from Baltimore in 2012 for Jim Thome, went 1-for-3 with a walk and a strike out for Lara in the VWL on Wednesday.  The 22-year-old sported  a .234 batting average with  three homers and 30RBI in 85 combined games for Double-A Reading and Triple-A Lehigh Valley this year.

Multi-positional standout Willians Astudillo went 1-for-4 as the first baseman for Anzoategui on Wednesday.  Astudillo was the Class A Advanced Florida State League batting champion this year with his .314 mark, also hitting three homers and driving in 49 runs.

Additionally, infielder Edgar Duran was 1-for-4 with Margarita as their shortstop on opening night.  Duran missed a majority of the season with a pair of injuries as a member of the Lehigh Valley IronPigs this year.

Opening days for other off-season leagues are coming soon enough with action starting in Mexico on Friday, October 9th, Arizona Fall League is under way on October 13th while the Dominican league starts October 15th and the Australian Baseball League begins on October 23rd.