The LIDOM named Emilio Bonifacio the Most Valuable player of the Round Robin after the 18 second phase games of Dominican winter ball tournament, but if you let the numbers tell it they might suggest that Cuban Dairon Blanco was actually the most valuable player.
Let’s look at the numbers and see if Blanco isn’t deserving of the prize. Blanco slashed .345/.406/.517/.923 while Bonifacio slashed .319/.375/.472/.847. Although Bonifacio hit more longballs three to , knocked in more runs 10 to 5 and stole one more base, but Bonifacio to be honest had 15 more trips to than Blanco skewing the statistics a little.
Outfielder Dairon Blanco of the @EOBASEBALLCLUB finishes as the batting leader in the @LIDOMRD Round Robin. #CubanBaseballDigest #LIDOM pic.twitter.com/g4nYksIeOZ
— Cuban Baseball Digest (@CBaseballDigest) January 19, 2024
With those numbers it shows that the outfielder from Florida, a city in the province of Camagüey on the island was actually the better player over the 18 game Round Robin. Could Bonifacio playing in the capital with Licey have helped him a little more? Possibly, because playing for the Tigres is like playing for the Yankees.
But let’s remember that Blanco led the Round Robin in hitting , the Estrellas were the best during that phase of the tournament and the speedster was the catalyst for the team’s offense. In my opinion this smells like home cooking and Blanco a victim of the Dominican press electing one of their instead of a player more deserving of the prize.