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B a s e b a l l
M e x i c o
Saturday,
February 17, 2020
BARTOLO
COLON, RAJAI DAVIS TO PLAY IN MONCLOVA
If there was any doubt whether
Monclova Acereros owner Gerardo Bustamante was going to take a breather
after
his team won their first Mexican League pennant last year, the signing
of
four-time MLB All-Star pitcher Bartolo Colon and longtime big league
outfielder
Rajai Davis should erase concerns (if they ever existed) that the
hard-charging
Bustamante wants his club to become the first team to repeat as LMB
champions
since the Saltillo Saraperos won titles in 2009 and 2010. The
signings
were announced last week by Monclova's President of Baseball
Operations, Jose
Melendez.
The 46-year-old Colon, who grew up
in the Dominican Republic harvesting fruit and coffee beans alongside
his
father, spent 21 seasons in the majors after debuting with the
Cleveland
Indians in 1997. The 5'11" righthander made his first All-Star
Game
appearance one year later en route to a 14-9 record and 3.71 ERA before
tossing
a four-hit complete game win over the New York Yankees in the American
League
Championship Series that October. Colon went on to pitch a
no-hitter
against the Yanks in 2000 and lead the AL in wins with 21 victories for
the Los
Angeles Angels in 2005 (winning the Cy Young Award that season) before
arm
miseries plagued him between 2006 and 2010, missing the latter season
entirely
after stem cell transplant surgery on his right shoulder that spring.
Colon reinvented himself from a
hard-thrower once capable of hitting triple-digits on the radar gun
into a
38-year-old finesse control pitcher with the Yankees in 2011. He
was able
to spend eight more MLB seasons as a starter, pitching in two more
All-Star
Games and his first World Series (in 2016 for the Mets after going 15-8
that
year) before his most recent campaign with Texas in 2018, during which
he went
7-12 with a 5.78 ERA in 24 starts. With a career MLB record of
247-188,
Colon is the winningest Latin American pitcher in big league
history. The
well-traveled hurler, who pitched four eleven teams between 1997 and
2018,
picked up 2,535 strikeouts while whiffing 100 or more batsmen 13
times.
His 4.12 ERA is nothing to write home about, although he did finish in
his
league's Top Ten in that category six times. Colon signed a
one-year
contract with the Acereros and is expected to contend for a starting
rotation
berth under manager Pat Listach.
Listach will also have the speedy
Davis patrolling the outfield in 2020 after the former American League
stolen
bases champion inked a one-year deal with Monclova. Davis played
with
eight teams for all or part of 14 MLB seasons, batting .262 with 62
homers and
415 steals. The Pirates' 38th round draft pick out of the
University of
Connecticut in 2001 (after borrowing gas money to drive from UConn to
Pittsburgh for a pre-draft workout), the 5'10" Davis made his MLB debut
with the Bucs in 2006. He was traded to San Francisco one year
later but
it wasn't until after he was picked up on waivers by Oakland in 2008
that he
had the chance to see significant action.
Davis hit .305 with 41 steals in
2009 for the A's but was dealt to Toronto after the 2010 season and
later
suited up for Detroit, Cleveland, Boston and the New York Mets (for
whom he hit
.200 in 29 games last year). While never a power hitter, Davis
was
generally a solid baserunner who averaged over 34 steals a year between
2008
and 2018, leading the American League with 43 for Cleveland as a
35-year-old in
2016. He appeared in the postseason three times for as many
teams, reaching
the World Series in 2016 and batting .227 with three steals and a
two-run homer
off Aroldis Chapman in the deciding contest as the Indians lost to the
Chicago
Cubs in seven games. Davis is being penciled in as Monclova's
starting
centerfielder this season.
JESSE
CASTILLO TO RETURN
TO LMB WITH LEON IN 2020
Two-time Mexican League Most
Valuable Player Jesse Castillo will be returning to action this year
after
signing a contract with the Leon Bravos for 2020. While playing
for
82Monclova, Castillo blew out his left knee while stepping on first
base to
make a run for second during a Fall 2018 LMB North final playoff game
against
Monterrey. Teammates had to carry him into the locker room, from
which he
was taken to the hospital by an ambulance. Up to that point,
Castillo had
become arguably the best batter in the Mexican League but he hasn't
played an
LMB game since.
Of course, this story begins long
before 2018. Born in Mexicali on March 3, 1983, Jesus Castillo
made his
Liga debut with Yucatan in 2004 and played sparingly for the Leones for
the
next three years, although the third baseman did bat .321 in 69 games
as a
part-timer for Yucatan's 2006 LMB champions under manager Lino Rivera,
cracking
a walkoff homer in the 14th inning of the fifth and deciding game of
the Serie del Rey against
Monterrey. Castillo ended up playing for the Lions through 2009,
playing
in the 2007 and 2008 All-Star Games, before signing as a free agent
with
Veracruz for 2010. He hit .293 with five homers and represented
the Rojos
del Aguila in his third All-Star Game before moving into free agency
again,
this time joining the Tabasco Olmecas. Castillo topped the .300
mark
twice and played in two more All-Star Games between 2011 and 2013, when
the
Villahermosa team dealt him late in the season to Aguascalientes for
outfielder
Ricardo Gastelum. While Gastelum only hit .194 in 37 games for
the
Olmecas and was out of the Liga within two years, the trade turned
Castillo
from a respected batter into a feared one even though he only hit .182
himself
over 17 games for the Rieleros over the rest of the 2013 campaign.
Castillo had never hit more than
nine homers or driven in more than 64 runs n a single season before
2014,
although he did bat .300 or better four times. However, his move
to
Aguascalientes did wonders for his power numbers after nearly a decade
playing
in more humid climates where the ball didn't carry as well.
Playing in
the dry desert air in a city over 6,000 feet above sea level, Castillo
hit .335
for the Rieleros in 2014 with 17 homers and 94 RBIs, all career
highs.
That began a string of four seasons in Aguascalientes in which he
batted
between .335 and .361 while belting a total of 66 homers, bringing home
306
runs and stealing 52 bases over 440 games, playing in two more All-Star
Games
along the way. Castillo, who was playing mostly first base by
then,
earned his first MVP trophy in 2017 when he battered Liga pitchers for
a .342
average with 20 homers and 82 RBIs, winning the All-Star Game MVP award
that summer.
Although he was clearly the best
player in Rieleros togs, the perpetually cash-strapped team traded him
to
Monclova after the 2017 for Tim Torres, a serviceable utilityman from
California on loan from Oaxaca who'd ironically hit over .300 with 11
homers
for Aguascalientes in 2016 before beginning a somewhat remarkable tour
of
Mexican baseball by first being returned to the Guerreros after the
season and
later being loaned to Tabasco, who then traded him to Monclova, all in
an
eight-month span. Torres had hit 307 for the Acereros in limited
action
during 2017 but never suited up for Aguascalientes after the trade.
Instead, he
was assigned to Tijuana, where he doubled and scored in one at-bat in
one
Spring 2018 game before being placed on reserve and has not played
since.
On the other hand, Castillo won his
second straight Liga MVP award in Spring 2018 with Monclova, raking for
a .378
average with 13 homers and 57 RBIs over 56 games in the short season to
tie
Yucatan's Luis Juarez for the longball title and leading the loop in
ribbies. He put in a solid Fall 2018 regular season as well by
hitting
.324, socking four homers and driving in 43 runs in 51
contests.
Over 15 seasons between 2005 and
2018, Castillo batted .322 with 115 homers and 732 RBIs in 1,258 LMB
regular
season games. He'd been a Mexican Pacific League fixture between
2006-07 and
2017-18, batting above .280 with 45 homer over 599 games and playing in
two
Caribbean Series. This winter, in his return after his 2018
injury, Castillo
hit .301 in 35 games for Zulia in the Venezuelan League with no homers
and 17
RBIs. He'll be joining a Leon team that finished sixth in the
Mexican
League with a .306 average and a lineup with such returnees as Matt
Clark,
Felix Pie and Carlos Rivero under new manager Tim Johnson, who was
hired in
November. The Bravos have reached the postseason three of the
past four
seasons, but have yet to get past the first round.
LMB
DROPS FRANKLIN
BASEBALLS, REVERTS TO RAWLINGS
After seeing the number of home runs
jump precipitously in 2019 (while pitchers' nerves also jumped
accordingly),
the Mexican League has reportedly ended the use of Franklin baseballs
after one
season and will go back to using the Rawlings ball previously
used.
However, according to an interview with Beatriz Pereyra of Proceso, new LMB president Horacio De La
Vega said it was the increase in costs and not in roundrippers that led
to the
change in a deal put together by former Liga leader Javier Salinas.
De La Vega explained that Salinas
worked out a deal with Franklin's representative for Mexico, Roberto
Contreras,
to supply the LMB with 11,000 boxes containing a dozen baseballs each
for the
2019 season to be delivered to the Mexican League office in Mexico
City.
Previously, the Rawlings balls were imported from China and delivered
to the
border crossing customs office in Nuevo Laredo, from where they were
distributed to each of the 16 LMB teams. In addition to the lower cost
per
ball, to be bought in bulk by the Liga and not by individual
franchises, the
article states that the LMB (as partners with Franklin) would be able
to make a
profit reselling them to its teams.
Instead, Contreras was detained at
the customs office in Mexico City because he lacked the funds on hand
to pay
for a 3 million peso (about US$150,000) shipment, even though the Liga
had
previously sent him the money. As a result, the LMB had to pay
that
amount a second time to get them out of customs and is currently in
litigation
to recover it. De La Vega says that while the financial imbroglio
actually increased the cost of baseballs in 2019, the silver lining is
that
Rawlings came back with a better offer this year of US$64.40 per dozen
balls
that includes the cost of importing them, which was not the case in the
past.
The sighs of relief at the league office will no doubt be echoed on pitcher's mounds throughout the LMB. In 2017, the last full season using the Rawlings ball before 2018's two-schedule format, three teams batted over .300, five teams topped 100 homers and only two mound staffs had ERAs above 5.50 (Saltillo at 5.70 and Durango at 6.01). In 2019, using the Franklin ball, ten teams topped the .300 mark (Yucatan just missed at .299), fifteen teams hit 108 or more homers and nine pitching staffs had ERAs above 5.50, with Laguna the worst at 8.05. Ten batters in 2019 belted 30 or more home runs, with Monclova's Chris Carter knocking out 49 four-baggers. Conversely, Rainel Rosario of Saltillo led the loop with 26 longballs in 2017 as only five hitters reached 20 for the season.