B a s e b a l l
M e x i c o
DECEMBER
19, 2 0 1 5
BAN
OVER, SIX MiLB VETS PICKED IN LMB DRAFT
Trying to
be as good
as their word, Mexican League teams last week held a draft of returning
minor
league veterans who'd signed directly with Major League Baseball
organizations
as prospects without first agreeing to terms with domestic teams.
Ordinarily, Mexican League teams own the rights to talented
youngsters
who would then routinely give 70 percent of signing bonuses to the LMB
team
that held their rights. Prior to this winter, an informal
gentleman's
agreement effectively blacklisted players who didn't submit to the
system from
playing in the Liga in the future.
Here are
the six
returning minor league veterans picked by Mexican League teams, with
their
former big league organizations in parentheses:
TABASCO -
P Edgar Osuna (Atlanta,
Kansas City)
MONCLOVA -
IF Amadeo Zazueta (Houston,
Atlanta, San Diego, Toronto)
CAMPECHE -
1B/OF Francisco Rivera (St.
Louis)
SALTILLO -
P Marco Camarena (NY Mets,
St. Louis)
QUINTANA
ROO - C Santiago Chavez
(Oakland)
MONTERREY
- P Melchor Urquidez
(Seattle)
Three
other players
were allowed to sign with Liga teams they'd already been negotiating
with in
anticipation of the ban being lifted:
LAGUNA -
OF Rogelio Noris (Pittsburgh)
TABASCO -
C Sebastian Valle
(Philadelphia) pictured above
MONTERREY
- Oscar Alejandro Astorga
(no info available)
Nine teams
chose to
sit out the chance to sign returnees, most notably the Mexico City
Diablos
Rojos. Team president Robert Mansur has said the Red Devils would
continue to build their roster with prospects from within their own
system
rather than employ returning minor leaguers.
MAYOS
SWEEP ROAD
TWINBILL, LEAD MEXPAC BY 3 GAMES
After
sweeping a
Sunday doubleheader over the Jalisco Charros in Guadalajara, the
Navojoa Mayos
ended the weekend with a 15-6 record and a three-game lead in the
Mexican
Pacific League's second-half standings. Obregon is second at 12-9
and Los
Mochis is third with an 11-10 mark.
Let's take
a look at
how all eight LMP teams are faring with two weeks left in the regular
season
schedule:
NAVOJOA
(15-6)
has livened up considerably under new manager Enrique "Che" Reyes.
Orioles farmhand OF Quincy Latimore, an Eastern League All-Star last
summer,
leads Mayos starters in all Triple Crown categories (.307/8/38) and 3B
Jesus
Castillo is hitting .292 with 7 homers, but 18-year minor league
veteran 1B
John Lindsey is only batting .143 with one homer and 4 RBI's after
swatting a
dozen roundtrippers for the Mayos last winter. Pitcher Eddie
Gamboa is
4-1 and third in the league with a 2.76 ERA and both Hector Velazquez
and Jose
Oyervides each have 5 wins. Velazquez has a 3.11 ERA.
OBREGON
(12-9) is
getting a standout winter from 3B Christian Villanueva, who is third on
the LMP
table with a .337 average, tied for fourth with 9 homers, trails only
Mazatlan's
Jeremias Pineads with 35 runs scored and is tied for ninth with 31
RBI's.
His on-base percentage of .444 tops the loop. OF Reynaldo
Rodriguez
is second in the LMP with 10 homers (tied with Mexicali's Yuniesky
Betancourt).
Rolando Valdez is having a good winter for the Yaquis, with
a 5-4
record and a 3.03 ERA that stands third in the LMP. David Reyes
(5-2/4.40) has
had his moments and middleman Victor Arano (4-0/0.75) has been
superlative in
23 appearances.
LOS MOCHIS
(11-10) has
been steady if unspectacular. Caneros 3B Emmanuel Avila is fifth
in the
MexPac batting race with a .321 average while OF D'Arby Myers' .338
average
would rank higher with more plate appearances. Mexican League All-Star
Saul
Soto is only batting .232, but the 37-year-old 1B leads the Caneros
with 9 HRs
and is tied for fourth in the LMP with 35 RBI's. Ageless 1B Ramon
Orantes is
batting .321 as a part-timer. P Derrick Miramontes is 5-4 and
leads the
MexPac with a 2.31 ERA but the real story has been closer Andres Avila,
whose
21 saves are two away from the LMP record set by Obregon's Mark
Zappelli in
1990-91.
HERMOSILLO
(10-10)
needs just one more win to match their first-half total with 14 games
to play
as Lorenzo Bundy has steadied the ship since replacing Jose Luis
Sandoval three
weeks ago. Former White Sox OF Jerry Owens lead Naranjeros
batters with a
.318 average over 38 games and 3B Jose Amador is having a solid
all-around
season with .296/9/36 numbers. Hermosillo isn't breaking even by
virtue
of batting, as their .238 team average is a distant last. An
LMP-best
3.41 ERA is more responsible, led by Nate Reed (3-3/2.52), 2009 LMB
Rookie of
the Year Juan Pablo Oramos (3-3/3.39) and ex-MLBer Edgar Gonzalez
(2-4/3.88).
MEXICALI
(9-11)
has been so-so after winning the first half title but the Aguilas
probably have
a lot of people nervous as the playoffs loom. OF Welington Dotel
is
batting .333, fourth in the LMP but nothing like the .379 average he
had going
into December. 2B Ramon Urias has raised his own average to .351, which
would
lead the league if he had more at-bats. SS Walter Ibarra (.321),
3B C.J.
Retherford (.309/8/33) and vet OF Chris Roberson (.304) have all helped
Mexicali to a team .297 BA. P Javier Solano (7-2/3.57) still leads the
circuit
in wins, but pitching coach Jose Silva's bullpen has fared much better
overall
than his starting rotation.
JALISCO
(9-12)
has the only offense to rival Mexicali's, as the Charros hot .288 as a
team and
plates 4.79 runs per game. 2B Amadeo Zazueta went 14-for-35 for
his past
ten games to take over the LMP batting leadership at .348 while OF
Jesus Valdez
is now second at .339. 3B Alex Liddi continues to rake with
.314/6/32
numbers and 1B Japhet Amador has raised his BA to .289 and still leads
the
MexPac with 14 homers and 46 RBI's. Jalisco's pitching has been
mostly
adequate, although (like Mexicali) the starters are not as good as the
bullpen,
where ex-Cards P Brian Broderick (1-2/2.33) has saved 14 games,
third-best in
the LMP.
CULIACAN
(9-12)
has been packing the stands at their new ballpark, with an average
crowd of
16,815 over 28 home games, but the picture is less rosy on the playing
field.
The Tomateros ARE third in the league with a .267 batting average
(3B
Oscar Robles leads regulars with a .316 average), but with little
power, and
manager Benji Gil still hasn't settled on a starting lineup. And
Culiacan's
mound staff has been a "pitch-and-duck" proposition all winter, with
an LMP-worst 4.97 ERA. Hector Daniel Rodriquez (4-3/3.45) is eighth in
ERA
among MexPac hurlers and 2015 PCL All-Star Ryan Buchter (3-0/0.72) has
10
saves, but that's pretty much it.
MAZATLAN
(8-13)
has even less power than Culiacan but at least they've got pitching.
Alejandro Soto (3-4/2.79) is fourth in ERA in the LMP and Amilcar
Gaxiola
(4-3/2.70) has been as good, closer Steven Hensley (1-1/2.05) is second
with 16
saves and Walter Silva (5-4/4.31), who turns 39 next months, just keeps
rolling
along like Old Man River. SS Esteban Quiroz lead Mazatlan hitters
with a
.316 average (seventh in the league), OF Jeremias Pinedas has a .300
average
and 22 steals and 1B Cyle Hankard, a former D-Backs minor leaguer, is
hitting
.298 with 6 homers. The Venados should reach the postseason, but
will not
be favorites going in.
RAKUTEN
EAGLES
LOOKING AT AMADOR
Rumors
have swirled
for weeks that mountainous slugger Japhet Amador may be heading to
Japan for
the 2016 season. While Mexico City Red Devils president Roberto
Mansur
claims he has not heard from any Japanese teams inquiring about the
6'4"
Amador, who plays for the Diablos during the summer, Puro Beisbol columnist Fernando
Ballasteros has named at least one team that may
be interested in the 310-pounder.
The
Rakuten Golden
Eagles are Japan's newest team, debuting in 2005 after the Pacific
League's
Orix BlueWave and Kintestu Buffaloes merged and left the circuit with
five
teams. The Eagles, whose first GM, Marty Kuehnert, became the
first
American to run a Japanese team, got off to a predictably horrible
start by
winning just 38 of 136 games their first year. The Sendai-based
team
improved until finally winning the Japan Series by beating the Yomiuri
Giants
in 2013. Among players who've worn Rakuten's red-and-gold togs
are
Dodgers pitcher Hisashi Iwakuma, Yankees hurler Masahiro Tanaka and
Mexican
products Luis Alfonso Garcia (in 2011-12) and Agustin Murillo (in
2015).
Ballasteros
said that
while Amador's tendency to be overweight and fielding difficulties at
first
base would be issues in Japan, he has hit a combined 55 homers this
year
between Mexico City and his winter team, the Jalisco Charros, and
hitting for
both average and power is the hardest thing to do in baseball at any
level
anywhere.
The
28-year-old
Mulege native has already won the Mexican League MVP and is a
legitimate
contender for the same honors in the Mexican Pacific League.
Ballasteros added
that while he has searched online and not found any player who won the
MVP in
both leagues within the same 12-month period, a reader told him the
legendary
Hector Espino did the double for Tampico of the LMB in 1975 and
Hermosillo of
the LMP for 1975-76.
OJEDA
NAMED MANAGER
OF GIANTS' AA AFFILIATE
Former
major league
catcher and Mexico City Diablos Rojos manager Miguel Ojeda has been
hired to
manage the San Francisco Giants' Class AA Southern League affiliate in
2016.
Ojeda will replace Venezuelan Jose Alguacil as head man for the
Richmond
Flying Squirrels.
A Guaymas,
Sonora
native who turns 41 next month, Ojeda made his pro debut in 1993 as an
18-year-old catcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates' Gulf Coast League
rookie club.
After spending the following season with Welland in the Class A
New
York-Penn League, Ojeda returned south of the border in 1995 for the
first of
nine seasons with the Diablos Rojos (plus a short stint at AA Carolina
in 1998).
The 6'1",
230-pounder was sold during the 2003 season to the San Diego Padres,
for whom
he hit .234 with 4 homers over 61 games. Ojeda played all or part of
four MLB
seasons with the Padres, Mariners, Rockies and Rangers, batting .224
with 15
longballs in 212 career games. He returned to the Diablos in 2007
and played
another four years for them and spent 2011 in Reynosa before retiring
from
Quintana Roo in 2012 at age 37 after 20 years playing pro ball.
Ojeda was
named
manager of the Diablos for 2013 and proceeded to win 201 of 333 regular
season
games over the next three seasons for a .604 record, finishing first in
the
North Division all three years and copping the team's record 16th
Mexican
League pennant in 2014. The Red Devils posted a 73-39 record last
summer before
losing to Tijuana in the first round of the playoffs.
Earlier
this month,
Ojeda resigned as manager of the Mexican Pacific League's Mazatlan
Venados with
the team mired in last place in the MexPac's second half standings.
He's
been replaced at the helm by longtime Mexican baseball figure Juan Jose
Pacho,
who led the Venados to the 2006 Caribbean Series crown in front of
hometown
fans at Estadio Teodoro Mariscal.
MEXICAN
PRO BASEBALL
LEAGUES: A Primer
While
starting to do
some research for an upcoming post about what's happening in the
Veracruz
Winter League, I started looking into just how many professional
baseball
leagues Mexico has. I'd known of the existence of most of them
but when I
wrote out a list and came up with three summer leagues, three winter
leagues
and one that plays both seasons, I was a little surprised. Given
that I
started writing about Mexican baseball ten years ago, I should've
already known
that a nation of 123 million people where baseball has been played
since the
late 19th century is likely going to have a decent infrastructure in
place in
2015.
Since I've
never done
an overview of all the pro leagues in Mexico, this seems to be a good
time for
a few capsule observations from an extranero
fanatico. I'll be giving
designations from AAA on down, but those will mostly be how I think
they're
perceived within the Mexican system, which is largely overseen by the
Mexican
League. I'll split this into two sections: Summer and Winter Leagues.
SUMMER
LEAGUES
MEXICAN
LEAGUE (AAA)
Definitely
the straw
that stirs the drink in Mexican baseball. The LMB has been around
since
1925 and is the unquestioned "national" league. Also the only
league outside the USA that is a member of Minor League Baseball, where
it's
classified as AAA and is the only independent league officially
recognized by
MiLB. The LMB consists of 16 teams from Tijuana to Cancun, run
its
110-game regular season from April through mid-July, with three-tier
playoffs
lasting into September. Except for the Mexican Pacific League, All pro
baseball
in Mexico flows from this league.
NORTHERN
MEXICAN
LEAGUE (A)
The LNM's
eight
franchises are located in Mexico's northwest corner, with franchises in
Baja
California and Sonora mostly on a line with the American border,
including
winter league cities Mexicali and Hermosillo. Teams in the Liga
Norte
play 84-game schedules between April and mid-July with a six-team
playoff
similar to the Mexican Pacific League's stretching into September.
Teams
are are LMB affiliates shared by two teams as their collective "Class
A" feeder squad.
There was
a similar A
loop, the Nothern Sonora League, that operated for 60 years before
closing
after the 2014 season due to financial problems. A Champion of
Champions Series
between the two pennant winners was held that final year, with LNS
kingpin
Hermosillo defeating LNM titlist San Luis Rio Colorado in six games.
ACADEMY
LEAGUE (A)
Opening in
1995, the
Mexican Baseball Academy near Monterrey is something that has no
counterpart in
the USA, a complex for players as young as 14 or 15 to live in
dormitories
while honing their ballplaying skills full-time. Prospects are housed,
fed,
schooled and coached under the auspices the Mexican League. Umpires
also attend
the academy before being assigned to an outside league. Eight
teams
shared by two LMB franchises each play daily schedules from the end of
March to
late July. The Academia website calls this a "AA" league but
other sources classify it as an "A" league and that may be closer to
reality.
NORTHERN
COAHUILA
LEAGUE (I)
This is
perhaps the
most "entry-level" circuit in Mexican pro ball. The LNC is an
instructional loop consisting of eight teams in the state of Coahuila
near the
Texas border. Teams in the LNC play a Sunday-only, double
round-robin
schedule of 14 doubleheaders between March and June with no postseason.
Although not officially tied with the Mexican League, the
Monclova
Acereros and Puebla Pericos each own two teams and the Saltillo
Saraperos own one.
The LNC can trace its roots to the 1940's.
WINTER
LEAGUES
MEXICAN
PACIFIC
LEAGUE (AAA)
Kings of
winterball
in Mexico since forming in the late 1940's, the MexPac (or LMP) has
been the
preferred winter home for both top domestic players and prospects sent
by MLB
organizations to Latin America for extra seasoning between October and
January.
The league's eight unaffiliated teams stretch in the Mexican west
from
Mexicali on the California border south to Mazatlan. The
stream of
minor leaguers from the north has slowed in recent years, but fans have
responded with the largest attendance of any non-MLB in the northern
hemisphere. The LMP champion represents Mexico in the Caribbean
Series
against teams from Cuba, Venezuela, Puerto Rico and the Dominican
Republic.
Not officially AAA, but generally regarded as playing at that
level.
VERACRUZ
WINTER
LEAGUE (AA)
Unlike the
MexPac,
the Veracruz Winter League consists of six teams (four in the state of
Veracruz
and two more in Chiapas) that are affiliated with Mexican League clubs.
Since many LIV players perform in the LMB during the summer, the
quality
of play is comparable to the LMP, although the crowds don't come close
to their
western counterparts. The LIV regular season runs just 30 games
compared
with the LMP's 70-game schedule. Their playoff champion takes
part in the
Latin American Series against flag-winners from Colombia, Panama and
Nicaragua.
The "AA" designation is purely personal on my part but all
things considered, it seems accurate.
MEXICAN
WINTER LEAGUE
(A)
The LIM
was created
three months ago in the wake of the collapse of the Nayarit-based
Northwest
Baseball League (LBN) following its season last winter. Six teams
in the
Central Mexican states of Aguascalientes and Guanajuato as well as
Mexico City
embarked on 62-game schedules October 17 with January playoffs
scheduled.
The league is considered "developmental," with most players on
the LMB-affiliated teams ranging from their mid-teen to early-20's,
worthy of a
Class A designation in Mexican ball. The Mexico City Diablos Rojos'
farm team,
managed by ex-Diablos star Victor Bojorquez, currently top the
standings by
three games with two weeks left in the regular season.
ACADEMY
LEAGUE (R)
"Wait a
minute," you're saying, "Isn't there already a Class A Academy
League?" Well, yes, there is...in the spring and summer.
During
the fall, a separate Academy League playing with the "Rookie"
designation plays a shorter season running from mid-October to
mid-December.
This year, five teams with shared LMB affiliations (Saltillo
fielded a
single team) played 27 games each over eight weeks, all on the Academy
grounds
with daily doubleheaders. A team co-owned by Mexico City and
Oaxaca won
the pennant with a 21-4-2 record earlier this month.
Much
credit is due to
Mexico City Diablos Rojos owner Alfredo Harp Helu for creating and
funding a
baseball academy in his native Oaxaca in 2009. As someone who was
intrigued as
a kid by the Kansas City Royals Academy that Ewing Kaufmann (a great
and
visionary owner, IMHO, as is Harp) ran in the early 70's, I'm convinced
there
is value to them. Two thumbs up to both Harp and late Quintana
Roo Tigres
owner Alejo Peralta (founder of the LMB Academy in El Carmen) for
taking lead
roles in developing academies south of the border.
EX-MLBer
NYJER MORGAN
SIGNS WITH PERICOS
From its
1531
founding by Spaniards through centuries as the scene of some of
Mexico's most
important historic moments (including the Battle of Puebla on May 5,
1862, in
which Mexican forced defeated French invaders in an event celebrated
today as
Cinco de Mayo), Puebla is known as a dignified, cultured and relatively
quiet
colonial city of 2.5 million residents.
Enter
Nyjer Morgan.
The
volatile ex-Major
Leaguer has signed a deal to play for the Puebla Pericos in 2016.
Morgan
had an abbreviated stay last summer with the Korea Baseball
Organization's
Hanwha Eagles, for whom he batted .273 in ten games. The 2014
season was
also a relatively inactive one for the San Francisco-born outfielder,
who
batted .341 over 15 games for the Cleveland Indians but posted just
.200 in as
many games for the Tribe's AAA Columbus affiliate. He spent the
entire
2013 campaign in Japan, where he hit .294 with 11 homers for the
Pacific
League's Yokohama BayStars.
It's been
a tough few
seasons for the 34-year-old, who attended high school in Canada before
being
picked by Pittsburgh out of Walla Walla (WA) Community College in the
33rd
round of the 2002 draft. Morgan toiled five seasons in the
Pirates system
before hitting .299 for Pittsburgh in a late-season call-up in 2007. He
split
the following year between AAA and MLB, but 2009 was his breakout year.
Despite a June trade that sent him to Washington, Morgan hit .307
for the
year (.351 for the Nats) to finish tenth in the National League while
his 42
stolen bases ranked second in the senior circuit. His performance
dipped in
2010, however, and he was dealt again prior to the 2011 campaign, this
time to
Milwaukee. As with Washington, Morgan got off to a strong start
with the
Brewers, batting .304 his first season, but his average fell to .239 in
2012
and he was granted free agency following the season after he refused to
be
assigned to the Brewers' AAA Nashville affiliate, leading to his
journey to
Japan.
Along the
way, Morgan
built a reputation both as a centerfielder whose speed allowed him to
cover a
lot of ground while being a threat on the basepaths and as a
temperamental
player capable of sometimes-entertaining outbursts in the middle of a
game.
He once threw his glove and walked away after he thought he'd
deflected a
fly ball from Baltimore's Adam Jones over the fence for a home run
when, in
fact, he'd knocked the ball back onto the playing field and Jones ended
up
cruising around the bags for an inside-the-park home run. Morgan
also
once threw a ball at a fan in Philadelphia, received a suspension after
precipitating a brawl by charging the mound after two beanballs innings
after
slamming into a Marlins catcher and separating his shoulder, and he was
criticized after shouting two obscenities picked up by TV microphones
after the
Brewers won the 2011 NL Division Series.
A career
.282 hitter
who appeared in seven MLB seasons, Morgan was also a very talented
hockey
player as a teen, reaching the Major Junior Regina Pats before settling
on
baseball as a career choice. He had a Twitter following of over
80,000
during his big league days, where he gave himself the nickname of "Tony
Plush" as a sort of alter-ego.
Regardless
of how
Nyjer Morgan performs on the field in Mexico this summer, Pueblans in
the
stands at Estadio Hermanos Serdan will not be bored.
ROJAS
REPLACES
NAVARRETE IN JALISCO
The
Jalisco Charros
have fired manager Juan Navarrete and replaced him with Homar Rojas,
who won
Mexican Pacific League pennants with Obregon and Hermosillo, beating
Mazatlan
in both title series.
Navarrete,
a Salon de
la Fama second baseman who batted .327 in 16 Mexican League seasons
between
1970 and 1990 (mostly with Saltillo), led the Guadalajara squad to an
18-17
record and five points in the first half of the current season (his
second with
the Charros), tying with Obregon for fourth in the standings.
However,
Jalisco fell to 9-15 and dropped behind Mazatlan into last place
following a
4-1 loss in Hermosillo Thursday night while the Venados were holding
off
Mexicali, 2-1. Navarrete led the Charros to an LMP-best 42-26
record and
a top playoff seed in his first winter with the club in 2014-15, losing
to
Culiacan in five games in the MexPac championship series.
The
51-year-old Rojas
broke in as a catcher with Monterrey at age 18 in 1982 and went on to
play 23
seasons in the minors, including four years in the Dodgers system
between 1987
and 1990. He played for six different teams in the LMB, gaining a
reputation as a solid defensive catcher who could hit for power.
Since
retiring in 2004, Rojas has managed in both the Liga and MexPac.
Rojas
skippered Obregon to their first LMP pennant in 27 years in 2007-08 and
took
Hermosillo to the title and a Caribbean Series berth two winters later.
The
Nuevo Leon product has not enjoyed similar success during the summer,
where
stints at the helm in Oaxaca, Reynosa, Campeche and Monclova have been
pennant-free, although he did take the Acereros to the MLB championship
series
this year before losing to the Quintana Roo Tigres in five games.
Rojas'
first game as
Jalisco manager was Friday night at home against Los Mochis.
