With just eight games left on the schedule, the Dominican Winter League is entering in the final and decisive stretch to decide which four teams are going to the playoffs beginning January 2nd. Two teams are already in: the Licey Tigers and the Cibao Eagles and three others are fighting for the final two spots. Two-and-a-half games separate the Giants, Toros and Estrellas, yet the Estrellas are at a marked disadvantage.
Before the season started, there were signals that the team from San Pedro de Macoris was working with a different agenda than the other five ballclubs. Most of their foreign players were from the Japanese League (Masato Yoshii, Takahito Nomura and Brian Mallette) or the Taiwanese League (Jeff Andra). Only three played the whole summer in organized baseball: Greg Bauer, Koyie Hill and J.D. Closser. The clear motives for this curious strategy were economic, as the ballclub was not in the same financial position as the two previous seasons, when their payroll was almost at the same level of the big-market clubs in Santo Domingo and Santiago.