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M e x i c o
Monday,
December 12, 2022
NARANJEROS HOLD FIRST, YAQUS MOVE UP
It seems like the Hermosillo
Naranjeros have led the Mexican Pacific League standings most weeks in both
halves of the current season and this week is no exception, but the Obregon
Yaquis have started to move up in the second-half tables and now trail the
Orangemen with just two weeks left in the regular season.
Despite losing a 3-2 decision at
Guasave Sunday after shutting out the Algodoneros twice in a Saturday
doubleheader, Hermosillo has a one-game lead over Obregon with a 13-5 mark
while the Yaquis are right behind at 12-6. Saturday was a pitcher's dream for
the Naranjeros as Wilmer Rios went all seven innings in a 5-0 win, scattering
six hits anstriking out six Cottoneers batters as Luis Alfonso Cruz went
4-for-5 with two runs and an RBI to pace the offense. Then it was Jose Samayoa
and two relievers who allowed just two singles in a seven-inning 2-0 whitewash
for the nightcap with Isaac Paredes socking a solo homer in the sixth for the
winners.
Guasave avoided the sweep Sunday
thanks to a Ramon Ramirez walkoff single up the middle in the bottom of the
ninth off reliever Cesar Vargas that scored pinch-runner Ciro Norazgary from
with the game-winning run. Although he didn't the the win, it was Algodoneros
starter Gino Encina's turn to shine on the hill with seven scoreless innings on
two hits and seven strikeouts.
Meanwhile over the weekend, Obregon
swept three games in Navojoa and likewise shut out the Mayos in the first two
games. Friday's result was an 8-0 blanking with starter Dallas Martinez and
four relievers combining on an 8-hitter. Yordanys Linares doubled twice and
tripled to score two runs and drive in two more for the Yaquis. Saturday was
more of the same with Obregon taking a shutout with as Arturo Lopez tossed a
two-hitter over five innings and Carlos Sepulveda was 3-for-4 with a double,
three runs scored and an RBI.
Obregon broke out the brooms in
Sunday's 3-2 win but they had to wait until the top of the ninth to start
sweeping after Victor Mendoza and Jose Carlos Urena led off the frame with
back-to-back homers, erasing a 2-1 deficit. Samuel Zazueta then retired the
Navojoa side to nail down the win. Fans had lots of room to take in the action
as fewer than 10,000 watched the three contests at Estadio Francisco Carranza
Limon, with two games attracting fewer than 3,000 spectators.
In all, it was a pitcher's showcase
in games on Friday and Saturday nights, with with nine of the ten games played
ending in shutouts, unusual even for the Mex Pac. The bats woke up Sunday with
nobody being kept off the scoreboard as 36 runs were scored over the five
games. Not exactly Murderer's Row stuff, but not exactly Hitless Wonders
material either.
Los Mochis finished the weekend in
third place with an 11-7 second-half record after dropping two of three to
Culiacan, one game ahead of 10-8 Mexicali, who took two of three over defending
champion Jalisco (who scored four runs in the series). It then becomes a logjam
for the final six slots on the table, as 8-10 Mazatlan and Culiacan are just a
game ahead of four teams with identical 7-11 records: Guasave, Jalisco,
Monterrey and Navojoa.
All four clubs tied for seventh
finished at the bottom of the standings in the first half and need to start
making a move to avoid missing the eight-team playoffs next month. Defending
champ Jalisco and Culiacan, who've won four titles in six years under skipper
Benji Gil, are tied for the worst overall record in the circuit at 22-31 each.
Monterrey's Roberto Valenzuela still
leads the batting race with a .350 average but things are tightening up as Los
Mochis' Justin Dean is now only ten points back at .340 while his Caneros
teammate Yosmany Tomas is third with a .325 mark. No real changes in the home
run derby as Jesse Castillo (Guasave) and Anthony Giansanti (Mexicali) are tied
at the top with 10 dingers each while Sebastian Valle (Obregon) ad Niko Vasquez
(Mexicali) are tied for third at eight apiece. Victor Mendoza (Obregon) leads in
RBIs with 43, ahead of Los Mochis' Tomas' 41 and Yadir Drake of Obregon with
39. Randy Romero of Mazatlan has reached 20 stolen bases for the season,
Hermosillo's Jose Cardona is second with 17 swipes and three other players are
tied for third with 14 each.
With his shutout win Saturday over
Guasave (assuming the LMP awards him a shutout by holding the Algodoneros
scoreless over the league-allotted seven innings, unlike MLB refusing to
recognize its own rules in denying Madison Bumgarner a no-hitter in 2020
because he didn't pitch an extra two innings that Rob Manfred ruled weren't
required), Wilmer Rios of Hermosillo became the Mex Pac's first seven-game
winner this winter. Mexicali's David Reyes and Juan Tellez of Mazatlan are tied
for second with six win apiece. Los Mochis' Luis Miranda allowed six earned
runs over his last two starts after letting in one over his first eight outings
but still has a 1.15 ERA for the season, well below the 1.89 of Juan Pablo
Oramas (Hermosillo) and 1.90 of Manny Barreda (Culiacan).
Barreda's 60 strikeouts lead the
lead, with Luis Payan's 55 for Navojoa and Matt Pobereyko's 53 for Guasave the
next-highest totals. Mazatlan closer Elkin Alcala's string of consecutive saves
ended at five after he didn't get the save Sunday against Monterrey, but the
Colombian's 15 salvados still lead the loop. Brandon Koch of Guasave is second
with 13 saves while Josh Lueke is tied for third at 12 saves with Mexicali
closer Jake Sanchez, who got his 84th career LMP save Saturdfay against Jalisco
to tie another former Aguila, David Cardenas, for second on the all-time list.
Well ahead in first on the list is Salon de la Fama member Isidro Marquez with
134.
Among the five upcoming midweek
series beginning Tuesday, the most notable will involve third-place Los Mochis
at second-place Obregon for three games. Next weekend, a couple of proud
franchises will meet in a must-win series as Culiacan visits Guadalajara to
take on the Jalisco Charros.
Also, Justine Siegal is in the
middle of her annual peripatetic tour of Mex Pac cities during which she spends
a couple days coaching for the local LMP teams and holding clinics for young
female players. Siegal has already done short stints in Hermosillo, Jalisco and
Guasave and is currently spending a couple days in Mexicali.
PUEBLA SWEEPS MONCLOVA IN LIM'S SERIE DEL PRINCIPE
After winning the first two games of
the Mexican Winter League's Prince Series, including one marathon match that
lasted into a second day, the Puebla Pericos returned home to complete their
sweep over defending champion Monclova with a 14-6 win Wednesday against the
Acereros at Estadio Hermanos Serdan. Monclova had defeated the Parakeets in
last year's Serie del Principe, the first since the Mexican League resuscitated
its Liga Invernal Mexicana for prospects and some veterans after shutting it
down following the 2017 campaign.
The Pericos clinched the LIM pennant
last Wednesday night by breaking open a 5-5 game with four-run outbursts in
both the fifth and sixth innings. Raudel Meraz' two-run homer in the bottom of
the fith gave Puebla a 9-5 lead while Luis Cossio's two-run single and a homer
by Victor Landeta made it a 13-5 contest in favor of the hosts. Meraz and
Rogelio Cobos both had two hits and a homer while Cossio finished with a pair
of hits and two ribbies. Aldo Nunez scored on Dominic Bethancourt's two-run
singleton in the top of the first to give Monclova a quick 2-0 and later belted
a solo homer for the Acereros.
The opening game of the series on
Saturday, December 3 saw Puebla outlast the Acereros, 2-1, in a pitcher's duel
at Estadio Monclova. Hector Sepulveda pitched five shutout innings for the
Pericos, allowing just two hits for the win. Monclova starter Isaac Esqueda
took the loss despite a great outing of his own over five frames, letting in
one run on a Herman Alvarado RBI single in the second while scattering six
hits. Puebla reliever Jose Hernandez sparkled by striking out all five Steelers
batsmen he faced.
Game Two was no less thrilling,
although the 11-8 Puebla win took considerably longer to finish. While pitchers
took center stage in the opener, this one featured batters and Mother Nature in
a late Sunday night appearance delayed the contest until Monday night. Monclova
raced off to a 7-0 lead that featured a nightmarish first inning for Parakeet
pitchers, who gave up seven walks in the entrada, five with the bases loaded.
The Pericos fought back and even took an 8-7 lead in the top of the sixth on
Giancarlo Servin's two-run homer off Acereros reliever Jonathan Lopez. Monclova
tied it up in the bottom of the sixth on a solo blast by pinch-hitter Edgar
Salazar off Hernandez. The score stood at 8-8 until fog stopped play in the top
of the eleventh at 11:11PM. After the game resumed Monday, Armando Aguilar's
three-run roundtripper in the top of the twelfth gave Puebla an 8-7 that held
through the end of the game, after which the two teams disembarked for the
third (and final) game in Angelopolis.
MEX PAC, LiDOM CALL FOR CHANGES TO CARBBEAN SERIES
We've called the annual Caribbean
Series the “Crown Jewel of Latin Baseball” for years here on BBM and while some
of its luster has diminished in recent winters due to fewer major league
players and smaller attendance, the Serie del Caribe remains the most important
baseball tournament among most countries involved, with national pride
remaining a common denominator among fans.There is still no other event like it
in the sport.
In recent seasons, Mexico and the
Dominican Republic have staged the best-attended Caribbean Series and now
leagues from both nations have come together to create a protocol called the
Miami Agreements in which they seek improvements to the event, which is
scheduled to resume in Venezuela in February.. What follows is a translated
story from ESPN Deportes by writer Juan Arturo Recio, who concludes that while
the LiDOM and Mex Pac state a shared desire for changes to the CS, those
changes weren't spelled out while the scarcity of financial details makes it
impossible to determine what their points of contention are:
A recent agreement between the
Dominican and Mexican winter leagues indicates that both circuits want
improvements in terms of the economic aspect of the international event.
On Tuesday, November 29, the
Professional Baseball League of the Dominican Republic (LIDOM) and the Mexican
Pacífic League (LMP) announced the signing of a "collaboration
protocol" which they called "The Miami Agreements." The press
release through which the announcement was made does not go into much detail
about what is being sought, but it does give hints regarding aspects of
cooperation between the Latin American winterball circuits.
The joint statement published by the
leagues talks about fostering ties to work together for the benefit of baseball
in the region, but the most interesting point is that they will seek to promote
joint initiatives within the Caribbean Baseball Confederation. Among several
aspects mentioned in the press release, it talks about the economic aspects of
the tournament.
The agreement states that the two
leagues want to "promote the definition of a business model that allows
the Caribbean Confederation and its main product, the Caribbean Series, to be
placed commercially at its fair value and at efficient levels of profitability."
Said wording brings up the question
of how profitable it is to hold a Caribbean Series and if the event creates a
profit for all involved.
Based on the words used by the
leagues in their own statement, it can be inferred that the current business
model is one that they consider deficient. Unfortunately, the little access
there is to the monetary information of the event makes it extremely difficult
to access the data in this regard. However, for the year 2020, according to MB
Sport president Antonio Muñoz Grajales, whose company is in charge of
assembling the event in Puerto Rico, its economic impact would be closely
related to the creation of two thousand jobs and a hotel occupancy of five
thousand rooms.
Muñoz himself indicated during an
interview in 2015, when the event was held on the Caribbean island, that the
profits generated were about four or five million dollars but with indirect
jobs, the sum could quadruple.
Without more information in this
regard, doubts remain as to whether the member countries of the Caribbean
Baseball Confederation see a real benefit in staging and holding the event. For
several years, Mexico has been the nation with the most venues since, at least
in terms of ticket sales, it surpasses other countries while the Dominican
Republic is coming off what is considered its best Caribbean Series in decades.
However, it is clear that both leagues see room to grow, at least financially.
We will only have to wait to see what will be the best joint ventures that will be proposed in the future by Mexico and the Dominican Republic in search of a "better" Caribbean Series.
