(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photo by Henk Seppen)
  Another promotion for Cuban Yulieski Gurriel
Nederlands
  LANCASTER, California / CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas (USA) -
Cuban infielder Yulieski Gurriel has been promoted for the second time since making his professional debut on July 30.
On that day, he played in his first game in Rookie League, the promoted to Single-A Advanced on August 2.
On Monday (August 8), Gurriel was promoted to Double-A.
On Tuesday, the Cuban will join the Corpus Christi Hooks, the Double-A team of the Houston Astros in the Texas League.
...Yulieski Gurriel playing for Cuba during...
...the 2013 World Baseball Classic...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
It is expected that Gurriel will be promoted to the Major League-team of the Astros maybe as early as next week.
Corpus Christi Hooks is currently in third place in the Southern Division of the Texas League.
On Tuesday, the team plays against Northwest Arkansas Naturals (Kansas City Royals) in the first of a series of six home games.
The Naturals are in first place in the Northern Division.
The 32-year old Gurriel left the Cuban squad in February of this year after completion of the Caribbean Series in the Dominican Republic together with his younger brother Lourdes Gurriel.
When the necessary paperwork was done to make Gurriel eligible to play in the USA, some Major League-clubs gave him a try-out or had talks with him.
On July 16, he was signed by the Houston Astros for a reported 5-year, 47,5 million dollar contract.
The Astros assigned him to the GCL Astros in the Gulf Coast League, which is at the Rookie League-level.
On Monday, his brother also was declared Free Agent, making him eligible to do workouts or try-outs for Major League-teams.
After his work visa was approved, Yulieski Gurriel made his debut last Saturday (July 30) in the Rookie League-team and then went 0-for-3 with two strikeouts.
He then played his next game on Monday (August 1) and then batted 2-for-4 with a double.
The next day, Gurriel was promoted to Single-A Advanced and joined his new team Lancaster JetHawks.
He went on to play in four games for the JetHawks and batted .429 with two doubles, a homerun and nine runs batted in.
In his last game for the JetHawks, last Sunday, Gurriel hit a grand slam homerun.
(August 8)
| 
