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M e x i c o
Monday, June 1, 2020
MEXICAN LEAGUE PLANS AUGUST 7 OPENER, 12-TEAM PLAYOFF
The Mexican League announced last
week that they will play a shortened season of 48 games per team
beginning
Friday, August 7, followed by a postseason in October and November that
will
include a record 12 teams. Unlike other leagues, LMB teams will not
play behind
closed doors.
The decision, which was unanimous
among the LMB's 16 teams, was released by the Liga's Mexico City office
last
Thursday. After the August 8 openers, teams will play six games per
week for
eight weeks before concluding the regular season on Thursday, October
1. Games
will be limited to teams within their respective eight-team divisions,
meaning
no LMB North teams will face their LMB South counterparts until the Serie
del Rey. Since a 48-game schedule does not balance out among seven
competitors, it may be assumed that each team will face one "rival"
two extra series for a total of 12 games over four series, as opposed
to six
games over home-and-away series with the remaining divisional
opponents. There
will be no All-Star Game, which had originally been schedule for June
14 in
Monclova.
The Mexican League playoffs will
commence Saturday, October 3, two days after the regular season
concludes with
six of eight teams in each division being given a berth. The LMB has
not
announced a format for their postseason. There may be a possibility
that the
Liga could adopt the Mexican Pacific League's old "Lucky Loser"
system, in which the first round loser with the most wins in their
series
advances to the second round along with the three winners. That system
was
discarded after several seasons by the LMP last winter after the loop
expanded
to ten teams with eight advancing to the playoffs. Another possibility
is that
the top two teams in each division earn a first-round bye with the
remaining
four teams playing for the two remaining slots in the division
semifinals, but
it's all speculation at this point.
However the format turns out, the Serie del Rey is scheduled to begin on Monday, November 2, with Game Seven (if needed) slated for Tuesday, November 10 in what will be the latest season in LMB history. The Mexican Pacific League announced Saturday that if the LMB ends up canceling their season, which is still possible, they would go ahead with their planned season opener on Monday, October 13. If the LMB does play into November, however, the Mex Pac will delay their season opener several weeks for THEIR latest start ever. In announcing his league's options, LMP president Omar Canizales did not outline how their regular season and playoff schedules would be altered.
The situation could create an even
tighter player crunch than had been anticipated due to the Wuhan virus.
Concerns are that players in the United States might take the winter
off
instead of venture south of the border, where the virus is still very
much a
concern. A real scheduling logjam may occur in Monterrey, where the MLB
Sultanes may still be playing in the postseason at the same time their
LMP
namesake begins their regular season, with only one ballpark between
them.
The two leagues appear to be taking
different courses as to whether they will play in empty ballparks.
Canizales
has said the Mex Pac is considering going that route in response to
safety
concerns, but the LMB announced they WILL open their stadia to fans.
The latter
decision is economically based, since many financially-struggling Liga
teams
are dependent on revenue from ticket sales, concessions, merchandise
and ballpark
display ads to survive because the LMB has no large media contracts to
share
among its member franchises. The league has developed a so-called
"Diamond
Plan," based on WBSC guidelines and administered by federal health
authorities, to maximize safety among players, coaches, umpires and
fans during
games.
HERMOSILLO
NATIVE RAMOS TEARING UP LOOP IN KBO DEBUT
After six years of slowly working
his way up the ladder in the Colorado Rockies system, including a big
season
for Albuquerque during his AAA debut in 2019, Roberto Ramos is making
the most
of his first year playing ball in South Korea, where his bat has
attracted more
attention than usual due to the paucity of baseball elsewhere in the
world.
A 25-year-old native of Hermosillo,
Sonora, Ramos has worn Korea Baseball Organization pitchers out to the
tune of
a .352 batting average with nine homers and 19 RBIs over his first 20
games
with the LG Twins of Seoul. He stroked two doubles and drawing a walk
over four
plate appearances in his May 5 KBO debut against their in-house rivals
Doosan
Bears (the two teams share the 25,553-seat Jamsil Stadium) to begin an
eight-game-hitting streak. Ramos had a two-homer game May 10 against
the NC
Dinos and a walkoff grand slam May 24 to defeat the KT Wiz, drawing
global
attention as the KBO and Taiwan's Chinese Professional Baseball League
are the
only two circuits in the world currently playing regular season games.
As of
last Friday, Ramos led the KBO in homers by three longballs, was tied
for third
in RBIs and stood tenth in batting average.
The 6'3" 220-pounder was
Colorado's 16th Round draft pick in 2014 out of College of the Canyons
in Santa
Clarita, California. He struggled that summer while splitting time with
the
Rockies' Class A Tri-Cities and Rookie Grand Junction farm teams,
hitting a
combined .213 with three homers in 39 games. However, he started
regaining his
stroke with Class A Asheville (.341 with 10 homers in 42 games) in 2015
and
began climbing the organization's ladder. Ramos socked 32 homers
playing for
both Class A Lancaster and Class AA Hartford affiliates in 2018, but he
really
found his groove last summer with Albuquerque in the Pacific Coast
League,
abusing pitchers to the tune of a .309 average with 30 homers and 105
RBIs in
122 games for the Dukes.
After six years in the minors, Ramos
accrued 98 roundtrippers and 349 ribbies to augment a .292 average in
496
outings, playing in All-Star Games in both the California League and
PCL. Even
so, he was released by the Rockies off the Albuquerque roster in
January and
sold his contract to the Twins, who gave him $300,000 (including a
$50,000
signing bonus) for 2020. Thus far, he's been worth every won LG
has paid
him.
Interestingly, while he's shown a
potent bat in the American minor leagues and the KBO, Ramos has not
enjoyed a
lot of success at the plate playing winterball with his hometown
Hermosillo
Naranjeros. The lefty slugger, who plays both first base and the
outfield, has
batted just .220 in five Mexican Pacific League campaigns with the
Orangemen,
including a .230 average last winter under then-manager Vinny Castilla
(himself
a longtime Rockies star who still works in Colorado's front office). In
fairness, Ramos has seen limited action in the Mex Pac (his 48 games in
2019-20
the most he's played in the circuit's 68-game regular season) and he
has
knocked out 14 homers over 145 contests in the pitching-dominated
league.
Now Ramos is drawing notice for his
bat work in South Korea, including among Rockies fans he left behind.
One of
them is Noah Yingling, who wrote on the Roxpile.com website, "While he
was
never a top prospect in the Colorado Rockies organization, they should
have
held on to Roberto Ramos." Yingling posted those now-prophetic words on
May 6, the morning after Ramos' KBO debut.
MONCLOVA
SIGNEE COLON WANTS BACK IN MLB, EVEN AS BATBOY
Although he is under contract to
pitch for the Mexican League Monclova Acereros should their season
start on
August 7 as planned, Bartolo Colon told an ESPN reporter that he wants
to
return to Major League Baseball, even as a batboy. "If any major league
team wants an old man," Colon told Marly Rivera in May, "I'm
available." Colon turned 47 on May 24.
A native of the Dominican Republic,
Colon posted a career 247-188 record over 21 MLB seasons, pitching in
four
All-Star Games and one World Series while winning the American League's
Cy
Young Award in 2005 after going 21-8 for the Los Angeles Angels, who
copped the
AL West title and reached the second round of the playoffs that year.
Colon
finished among the top six in CYA balloting three other seasons. His
last year
in MLB was in 2018, when he went 7-12 with a 5.78 ERA in 28 games (24
starts)
for the Texas Rangers, who finished last in the AL West and granted
Colon free
agency after the season. He did not pitch in 2019.
Amid great fanfare, Colon signed a
one-year deal in February with Monclova and was expected to be in the
starting
rotation for manager Pat Listach's defending LMB champions, who also
signed
former Cleveland outfielder Rajai Davis the same week. The man
nicknamed
"Big Sexy" by former New York Mets teammate Noah Syndergaard reported
for training camp in early March, telling gathered media, "I feel very
happy and thank the organization for calling me." At the same press
conference, Listach (a former American League Rookie of the Year)
remarked,
"Bartolo brings a lot of experience and a lot of victories. He knows
how
to win and he'll bring more wins to the Acereros."
Instead, training camps were halted
weeks later by the Mexican League, who postponed their regular season
after the
Wuhan virus landed in the country after it looked for a while that the
LMB
might be able to play as scheduled. Colon, like all ballplayers, has
been in a
state of limbo ever since. "This situation with the pandemic is very
difficult for everyone," he told Rivera. "I left all my stuff in
Monclova and I told them I wanted to come back to play this season. But
we'll
all see what happens with the virus because it doesn't seem like this
is going
to end anytime soon."
Colon did allow as how he would love
to return to MLB one more time, with one team in particular. "If it was
up
to me, I would retire with the Mets," he said. "I would like my
career to end in New York. I've played with eleven teams but with the
Mets, the
way all those players treated me, how that entire franchise treated me,
from
the front office to the kitchen staff, was amazing. I felt like all the
players
were a family and the support that the team and the fans gave me was
great."
Although it's fairly likely the
Acereros would prefer that Colon fulfill his contract with him, the
corpulent
right-hander says he's hoping to be back in the majors, even if it
means a role
outside pitching.
"I just want to go back to the big leagues," he maintains, "even if I'm just picking up bats."
