Marco Luciano and Noelvi Marte are two of the top prospects in baseball, who will put two small communities, Angelina and Pimentel, on the Major League map of the world in the not too distant future.
Traditionally, San Pedro de MacorĂs, the Azua-Perevia area or the large cities of Santo Domingo (National District) and Santiago are the inexhaustible sources from which all Creole talent comes.
The municipal district of Angelina, in the SĂ¡nchez RamĂrez province, with some 18,000 inhabitants, saw the birth of Noelvi Marte, prospect number 11 in all of baseball. Signed in 2018, received a bonus of 1.6 million dollars (Seattle), it has been transformed into a mechanical city since he started his career in 2019 until today.
The shortstop hit Class A Low last year, before Medium (.271-17-69, 23 steals), being promoted to Class A Advanced, at that level he did not stop hitting either (.290 in 8 games). In Lidom he played with the Gigantes del Cibao (.333 in 6 games), leaving all of us who had the opportunity, perhaps unique due to his talent and projection, to see him in our league speechless.
At just 20 years old, it is expected that he will start the year in Class A Advanced and that in a couple of years he will be landing in Major League Baseball.
Marco Luciano, an age-matched shortstop from Marte signed by San Francisco, receiving a $2.6 million bonus in 2018, is MLB’s 13th-ranked prospect. He was born next to the Mendy LĂ³pez Jr. stadium in Pimentel, a municipality in the Duarte province of about 35,000 inhabitants.
The shortstop registered .258-19-71 in the two Class A. His power hitting is his main weapon, it is said that he is the most powerful player in the middle of the infield of all the players who live in the Minors, he even projects that if he makes the necessary adjustments he could hit 40 home runs in a season when he makes it to the Majors in two or three years.
It is incredible that two small towns, one known for its intellectuals (Pimentel) and the other (Angelina) for its rice production, have given birth to two of the three main prospects born in the Dominican Republic.