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B a s e b a l l
M e x i c o
Monday,
August 13, 2 0 1 8
ALVAREZ OUT AS
OAXACA MANAGER,
REPLACED BY GASTELUM
The Joe Alvarez
Era in Oaxaca is over after 30 games. After
some early success in the Mexican
League's Fall season, winning eight of their first 12 games and brief
ownership
of first place in the LMB South standings, the Guerreros lost 12 of
their next
18 games before Alvarez was shown the door last Tuesday with a 14-16
record and
the usual platitudes from the people firing him. "The
Cuban-born Alvarez achieved the
necessary harmony in the dressing room and field of play," a Guerreros
press release said, "but unfortunately, the results were not positive
for
the team. We wish him a lot of success
in his next project."
Alvarez was
hired June 11 after former Mexico City Diablos
Rojos star Jose Luis "Borrego" Sandoval piloted Oaxaca to a 22-35
record and last place in the South for the Spring season.
The 62-year-old Alvarez has had some past
success in the Liga, leading Puebla to the South championship in 2014
after
replacing Alfonso "Houston" Jimenez during the season and piloting
Durango to a .500 record over the first month of the 2017 season after
the
Generales were forced to play the first four weeks of the schedule on
the road
while belated renovations to their ballpark were being completed. However, Alvarez was sacked in Durango after
the Generales faded down the stretch amid player discontent stemming
from late
paychecks while top talent was traded away for cash so payroll could be
met.
Prior to his
June hiring in Oaxaca, the three-time
pennant-winning manager during his stint in the Dodgers system was
preparing
for his first winter managing the Mazatlan Venados, where Alvarez will
return
to another situation in which ballpark renovations are falling behind
as the
clock ticks toward a season opener.
Alvarez will be replaced in the Guerreros dugout by former
second
baseman Sergio Gastelum, a 39-year-old Sonoran who retired as a player
last
winter after compiling a .310 batting average with 82 homers and 1,054
runs
scored in 22 seasons, the first 12 with the Tigres while they were
located in
Mexico City and then Puebla.
The Guerreros
lost their first six games under Gastelum to
see their losing streak drop to nine while sinking deeper in the
standings with
a 14-22 record, one game ahead of last-place Quintana Roo (13-23). Defending champion Yucatan has won four
straight, including a three-game weekend home sweep of Oaxaca, to pull
into a
virtual tie with Leon at the top of the LMB South standings. The 19-15 Bravos are .003 percentage points
ahead of the 20-16 Leones, half a game ahead of 19-16 Puebla and
one-and-a-half
games up on 18-17 Mexico City. In the
LMB North, Monclova (27-9) has won eight of their last ten games to
maintain a
six-game lead over Dos Laredos (21-15), who have played well since
Felix Fermin
assumed the reins from former manager Eddie Castro in May near the end
of the
Spring season. Tijuana (20-15),
Monterrey (20-16) and Aguascalientes (18-17) round out the top five
teams in
the North with Saltillo, Durango and Union Laguna fading out of playoff
contention with three weeks left in the abbreviated regular season.
Former Padres
shortstop Everth Cabrera has taken over the
batting lead, with the Yucatan infielder posting a .423 average to lead
teammate Leo Heras (.422) and Oaxaca's Yuniesky Betancourt (.401) at
the top of
the table. Saltillo outfielder Leandro
Castro belted three solo homers last week to bring his season
roundtripper
total to 12, one ahead of Monterrey's Felix Perez and two up of
Francisco
Peguero of Monclova. Perez was sent to
the Sultanes along with pitcher Gabe Aguilar by Aguascalientes in a
five-player
trade last Tuesday that netted the Rieleros first sacker Ricky Alvarez,
outfielder Francisco Lugo and pitcher Nestor Molina.
Puebla outfielder Delmon Young continues to
lead the Liga in RBIs with 43 over 35 games.
The ex-MLBer had no ribbies in a weekend series in Quintana Roo
after
driving in five runs in three midweek games at Yucatan.
Aguascalientes outfielder Tony Campana stole
two bases last week to bring his season total to a Liga-leading 19,
five more
than Dos Laredos' Johnny Davis.
Leon pitcher
Rogelio Martinez won at Tabasco last Saturday in
his only start of the week and while the three earned Olmecas runs he
allowed
brought his ERA up from 1.21 to 1.63, he still leads the LMB in that
category. After going 5-13 with an ERA
above 5 over six previous seasons for four teams, the 26-year from
Jalisco is
having a breakout season for the Bravos and a big reason they occupy
first
place. Another breakout year is coming
from
Mexico City righty Patrick Johnson, who beat Campeche for the second
time in
seven days last Friday to run his season record to 6-0 in seven starts
and 9-0
since coming to the Diablos from Oaxaca during the Spring season. The former University of North Carolina
hurler was 2-3 for the Guerreros before being dealt to Mexico City on
May 4 but
hasn't lost since. Puebla's Enrique
Oquendo struck out three Yucatan batsmen over 1.1 innings last
Wednesday before
being pulled (he allowed five walks and a hit in that start, a
no-decision) to
bring his season whiff total to 43, still tops in the loop. Monclova's Josh Lueke and Wirfin Obispo of
Monterrey each earned a save last week and both now have 10 for the
season to
tie for most in the LMB.
There'll be a
big midweek series in Leon starting Tuesday
when the Bravos host Yucatan in a three-game battle between the top two
teams
in the LMB South. Next weekend's top
series will likely be in Tijuana, when fifth-place Aguascalientes
visits for a
trio of games with the third-place Toros as two LMB North playoff
contenders
collide.
DIABLOS TO
RETURN PROSPECT RIGHTS,
PAY TIGRES
In what may
finally be the closing chapter of the ongoing
Rookiegate situation, the Mexican League ha ordered the Mexico City
Diablos
Rojos to return the rights to five former prospects to Quintana Roo
while also
paying the Tigres money the Diablos had received from the sale of two
of the
young players who'd been property of the Cancun team before some
reported
sleight-of-hand during the February 2017 sale of the Tigres from former
owner
Carlos Peralta to ex-Dodgers Cy Young winner Fernando Valenzuela
resulted in
five prospects being moved from the Tigres' protected list to the
Diablos. The resulting scandal has been
called
"Rookiegate" and has reverberated throughout the LMB.
According to
reporter Beatriz Pereyra of Proceso, the Liga's Board
of Directors (consisting of Monclova and
Puebla owner Gerardo Benavides, Tijuana owner Alejandro Uribe, Eustacio
Alvarez
of Aguascalientes and Dos Laredos owner Jose Antonio Mansur unanimously
declared
the player transfers null and void, ordering the return to Quintana Roo
of
Fernando Villalobos, who was 14 at the time and protected from being
transferred to another team, while compensating the Tigres for the sale
of
their former prospects Luis Fernando Medina, Damian Mendoza, Oliver
Zepeda and
Hansen Lopez to Major League Baseball organizations.
Medina was already in the Braves organization
at the time of the sale while Zepeda was an infielder in the Blue Jays
system,
Mendoza was sold to the Texas Rangers for a reported US$1.2 million
while
Villalobos is said to have sold himself to the same organization for
US$1.5
million. The Mexican rights to all five
will revert to Quintana Roo and while the Diablos will have to pay the
US$1.2
they received from the Rangers for Mendoza, compensation for Villalobos
may be
tricky since the young catcher was not signed legally.
In fact, the
whole Rookiegate affair is murky, depicted by
current Diablos GM Francisco "Pollo" Minjarez (who came to Mexico
City from Cancun almost immediately after the Tigres were sold, as a
"gentleman's agreement" between former Quintana Roo team president
Chto Rodriguez and ex-Diablos president Roberto Mansur in which the
Diablos
supposedly had room on their master roster for the prospects while the
Tigres
didn't. Minjarez was suspended by the
Liga for his role while both Rodriguez and Mansur are both out of
baseball. An interesting note is that
Dos Laredos president Jose Antonio Mansur in essence voted against his
brother
as an LMB director.
The imbroglio
was denounced loudly and often by Valenzuela
and his wife, Linda Burgos, who both claimed to have seen the five
prospects'
names on a list of players whose rights were owned by the Tigres while
the sale
was being negotiated. Reports were that
if the Liga did not do something to rectify the matter to the
Valenzuelas'
satisfaction, the Tigres might have gone back on the market. Instead, it appears the sordid matter has
been resolved (if not to everyone's satisfaction) and that the Tigres
will be
five players and at least US$1.2 million richer.
AMADOR SUSPENDED
BY NPB AFTER DRUG
TESTS
Mexican slugger
Japhet Amador of Nippon Professional
Baseball's Rakuten Golden Eagles has been suspended for six months
after
testing positive for two banned substances, chlorthalidone and
furosemide, on
June 23 ten days after being tested following a game against the
Chunichi
Dragons in Sendai. Both are on a list of
prohibited drugs on the World Anti-Doping Agency (or WADA) website. According to writer Jason Coskrey of the Japan Times, Amador was given a chance
to defend himself during a Pacific League meeting on June 30 and while
he
denied intentionally taking any banned substance, an NPB press release
said he
did not dispute the actual findings. At
Amador's request, the sample was tested again on August 1 but results
came back
the same.
The suspension
means the hulking (6'4" and listed at 310
pounds) Amador will not be eligible to play again in Japan until next
February,
but concerns exist that Rakuten will not bring him back for 2019 and
that his
NPB career may be over due to the test results.
There was some speculation among Mexican baseball cognoscenti
that the
so-called "Giant of Mulege" may join the Mexico City Diablos Rojos
(who own his LMB rights) for the stretch run of the current Fall
regular season
and playoffs, he'll more likely cool his heels until his Mexican
Pacific League
team, the Jalisco Charros, begin winterball play in October. Where Amador goes after the MexPac season may
be the larger question.
In a statement
released by the Eagles front office, Amador is
quoted as saying, "I
have never committed
an act of doping in my baseball life up to this point.
I have never intentionally taken any banned
drugs. I haven’t used stimulants or
anything to increase muscle, or thought about using diuretics or
masking
agents. I’ve been given many doping tests in the past and they’ve all
been
negative.”
Amador had a .269 average in 62 games for
Rakuten this season with 20 homers (tied for sixth in the league) and
42
RBIs. Since joining the Eagles for the
2016 season, he's belted 52 homers in 222 NPB games, including 23
longballs in
2017. After his Mexican League debut
with Minatitlan as a 20-year-old in 2007, Amador hit .330 with with 167
homers
over nine Liga seasons. He had a monster
year for Mexico City in 2015, batting .346 with 41 homers and 117 RBIs
in 103
games before sending another 14 balls to the street in 58 games for
Jalisco in
the LMP's 2015-16 season. He hit .248
with six homers in 36 contests for the Charros last winter, but should
be much
more rested when the 2018-19 MexPac campaign opens.
