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B a s e b a l l
M e x i c o
Monday,
June 21, 2021
TECOS,
TIGRES FIRE MANAGERS: THREE OUT AFTER FOUR WEEKS
Three Mexican League teams have
fired managers just four weeks into the truncated 2021 season after
both the
Dos Laredos Tecolotes and Quintana Roo Tigres changed horses in
midstream last
week. The Monterrey Sultanes let Homar Rojas go as their LMB skipper
earlier
this month.
The Tecos sent first-year manager
Pablo Ortega packing last Thursday on the heels of a 4-3 loss to
Durango the
night before. The defeat dropped Dos Laredos' record to 8-14 after 22
games,
enough of a sample size for the front office to fire the former
All-Star
pitcher. Third base coach Rafael Rijo replaced Ortega on an interim
basis,
although it might be argued that all managing jobs south of the border
are on
an interim basis. The Tecos are now on their fifth helmsman since 2019,
including a 2020 season that was canceled.
Ortega is already becoming
well-versed in the vagaries of managing a Mexican baseball team. Last
November,
he was elevated from pitching coach in Mazatlan to replace Juan Jose
Pacho as
skipper of the Mexican Pacific League's Mazatlan Venados. The Deer
ironically
had an 8-14 record when Pacho was cut loose, but Ortega was able to
steer the
team to a 20-16 mark over the remainder of the regular season before
losing a
first-round playoff series to Hermosillo in six games.
The Dos Laredos front office issued the usual laudatory statement that accompany a managerial firing: “Mr. Pablo Ortega is thanked for the work and professionalism carried out during his time as manager of the Tecolotes, wishing him success in his future personal and sports-related projects.”
Two days later at the other end of the country, the Quintana Roo Tigres parted ways with Adan Munoz as their skipper and named former Tijuana manager Oscar Robles as their new dugout boss. Munoz was fired for committing the cardinal sin of posting an 11-13 record over the Tigres' first 24 games, although seven losses in their previous ten games was likely a larger factor. Batting coach Javier Robles (no relation) filled in after Munoz' departure until Oscar Robles' arrival on Saturday for the second game of a series against rival Mexico City.
Even though he led the Tigres to a
62-57 record and a playoff berth in 2019 in his only season at the
helm, Munoz
may have been on borrowed time even before the season opened. An
erroneous
report out of Cancun in February said that the ex-catcher had been
fired by
owner Fernando Valenzuela and replaced by another former receiver,
Tigres bench
coach Hector Paez. That never happened but the axe did swing four
months later.
Robles was named the LMP's Manager of the Year last season after leading the Guasave Algodoneros to a 31-26 record and a postseason slot after the Algodoneros went 26-37 and missed the playoffs in 2019-20, their expansion season. Earlier, Robles had managed Mex Pac teams in Obregon and Culiacan. The former MLB infielder had previously managed in the Liga with the Tijuana Toros, posting an 18-9 record in Fall 2018 and followed up with a 75-45 ledger in 2019 and reached the LMB North Championship Series, falling to eventual champion Monclova in seven games.
Both Rijo and Robles have a short time to turn things around for their respective teams during the Liga's 66-game schedule. The Tecos won three of their first four games under Rijo and currently hold the sixth and final playoff position in the LMB North at 11-15, two games behind surprising Union Laguna (12-12). Guadalajara (19-7) and Tijuana (18-8) are in the top two slots, with Monclova (17-10) and Saltillo (16-11) within striking distance. The Mariachis have won eight of their last ten contests and have the best record in the league, but they'll be losing manager Benji Gil and Adrian Gonzalez to the Mexican Olympic Team in Tokyo next month. Shortly after being confirmed as Mexico's new Olympic manager, Gil confirmed that El Titan WILL make the trip to Japan.
In the LMB South, the Tigres were in seventh place with a 12-15 after dropping two of their first three games after Munoz was fired. Mexico City is atop the standings at 16-9, one game up on 15-10 Puebla and two games ahead of 14-11 Yucatan. The hottest team in the division has been expansion Veracruz, whose seven wins over their last ten games has vaulted them into fourth place at 14-12. While ex-MLBer Yasiel Puig (.314/5/16) has done well thus far in his first season in Mexico, socking a pair of homers in last Thursday's 14-9 win over Quintana Roo, three other Aguilas (Alexei Amarista, Alejandro Ortiz and Jesus Valdez) are in the LMB's top ten batters as Veracruz has a .309 team batting average.
Guadalajara's Niko Vasquez tops the batting race with a .475 average as one of five Mexican League players hitting .400 or above. Leandro Castro of Tijuana's nine homers are one ahead of three other batsmen with eight apiece while his 34 RBIs in 26 games is six more than Saltillo's Kennys Vargas in that category. Reigning MVP Alonzo Harris of Oaxaca leads with 13 stolen bases while Tijuana's Isaac Rodriguez is right behind at 12 swipes.
Five pitchers have reached four
wins, including Monclova's Bartolo Colon, Veracruz no-hit hurler Dylan
Unsworth
and former NPB starter Masaru Nakamura of Guadalajara. Matt Tenuta of
Monterrey
is only 1-0 after five starts but the former Royals prospect's 0.55 ERA
is tops
in the circuit. Mexico City's Hector Hernandez is winless in six starts
and his
5.51 ERA doesn't impress many, but he's also struck out a league-high
36
batters in 32.2 innings. Jenrry Mejia of Laguna has converted eight
saves in
ten opportunities to top that table while Monclova's Carlos Bustamante
is
7-for-7 in save situations and has a 1.08 ERA.
SPAIN
TOURNEY INVOLVING GUASAVE POSTPONED UNTIL 2022
An international tournament that the
Mexican Pacific League's Guasave Algodoneros were going to play in as
part of
their preseason schedule in September has been postponed until 2022
because of
the Wuhan virus pandemic.
The Barcelona Baseball Cup
tournament in Spain was announced four months ago and was to include
the
Algodoneros along with teams from Italy, The Netherlands, Asia and the
Spanish
Baseball League. Games would be played at two venues: Estadio Carlos
Perez de
Rosa (home of the host Barcelona Baseball Club) and at another
Barcelona
ballpark used for the 1992 Summer Olympics and currently home of the
Spanish
League's CB Viladecans.
However, after a meeting among
tournament organizers that representatives from Guasave took part in,
it was
determined that the event will be held off for a year in the hopes that
the
global pandemic will have diminished by September 2022.
Algodoneros CEO Luis Fernando Garcia
and sports manager Alejandro Ahumada conferred with Jordi Valles, head
of the
BBC's organizing committee, to see the pros and cons of the measures
taken by
the Spanish government that would essentially make the Barcelona
Baseball Cup a
tournament with nobody in the stands and chose to postpone it instead
“We regret the postponement of this
event, since we had the objective of showing the Spanish fans our style
of
baseball, and also to be able to position the Algodoneros brand in
Europe, said
Garcia. “The pandemic has forced stricter measures to be taken and
Spain is no
exception...the event is still on for September 2022, if conditions
allow it.”
Ahumada said in a statement,
"The security measures in Spain prevented, for the moment, the
realization
of the BBC, which was an excellent opportunity for our players to have
international competition and to show that the Algodoneros brand is
synonymous
with stability, seriousness and improvement. We did not want this to
happen,
but health measures require it.”
Valles said the Barcelona Baseball
Cup remains firm for 2022: “It is difficult to do this since the times
we are
living in do not allow us to carry out the project with tranquility in
this
month of September.
“Obviously, we seek the desired
success for the public who would see the games out, but we will be
prepared and
wishing with all our might that the Algodoneros will arrive in Spain
next year
and can show us their great power in this beautiful sport, which is
baseball.”
BEISBOL
PURO
INVESTIGATES RIELEROS CLUBHOUSE INCIDENT
The recent incident in which
Aguascalientes manager Luis Carlos Rivera punched Rieleros shortstop
Richy
Pedroza in the clubhouse caused both to be fined and suspended by the
Mexican
League as tongues across the country wagged about what caused the
imbroglio.
The Beisbol Puro website has
investigated the confrontation, in which Railroaders third baseman
Michael Wing
also reportedly played a part. Wing later posted a tweet criticizing
the
incident and calling it “a joke” without mentioning details or his
alleged
role. The following is a lightly-edited Google translation of Beisbol
Puro's
investigation, detailed in an uncredited Bola Ensalivada column:
Since the start of the season, or
perhaps before, extra baseball problems have arisen within the Rieleros
de
Aguascalientes.
The most notorious until recently
had been 1) the poor condition of some food supplied by the Rieleros
supplier,
and 2) the fact that the team was traveling in a single bus, a
situation that
the Mexican Baseball League in some way approved because the team is
fully
vaccinated.
But on Saturday, June 12, a bomb
exploded in the Aguascalientes dressing room when the manager, Luis
Carlos
Rivera, hit dual nationality shortstop Richy Pedroza with a right hand.
It is
correct that the blood “reached the river” in a reprehensible way but
after
gathering information with several of the witnesses, we can tell you:
-Richy Pedroza has been a player who
has not followed the internal rules. His bad attitude and strong
personality
have caused division within the team.
-The Rieleros coaching staff caught
Pedroza (who was not line up that day) smoking marijuana in the
clubhouse when
this game against the Monclova Acereros took place, which evidently
caused
great annoyance.
-At the end of the match, in which
the Rieleros fell 6-2 to Monclova for their fourth defeat in a row,
Rivera
tried to reprimand Michael Wing (another dual-national player) for his
attitude
when he was sent off in the sixth inning after throwing a ball to the
stands as
a claim to the counting of the home umpire after the marking of a pitch
that he
considered a ball in his turn at bat minutes ago.
-The Rieleros' manager asked Wing to
show more discipline and that if he did not like the way things were
carried
out in the team, he asked for his dismissal. Otherwise he demanded
dedication
and total discipline. Wing has four ejections in 17 games played.
-While Rivera reprimanded Wing,
Pedroza made fun of the helmsman and added a “fuck you,” which made the
Rieleros manager explode and the unfortunate blow came.
-Pedroza demanded punishment for
Rivera, while the LMB responded immediately with a penalty of $14,170
pesos and
a one-game suspension for both manager and player.
-In its press release, the LMB
points out that Pedroza's sanction was for “violating the team
regulations,”
which (although they did not disclose it) refers to the player's
consumption of
marijuana in the Estadio Monclova clubhouse.
-After the facts, Pedroza denied
such an assertion but the LMB asked him to submit to an anti-doping
test to be
exonerated, a proposal that the player rejected while assuring that he
preferred to leave the Rieleros and Mexican baseball. Said refusal,
according
to the regulations of the summer circuit, is taken as if he had tested
positive
in the prohibited substances test. Therefore, to return to play in the
LMB,
he'll have to pass an anti-doping test.
For now, both Pedroza and Wing have
been separated from the team and while Pedroza already promised to take
his
things to never return, Wing could be traded to another team in case of
not
aligning with the Rieleros and LMB rules.
The season is just in its first third of life and both for Rieleros and all their members, it will be time to tighten the screws to improve the atmosphere in the clubhouse, which is an essential part of a good sporting result.
