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B a s e b a l l
M e x i c o
Monday,
March 5, 2 0 1 8
March 5, 2018 - February 26, 2018
February 19,
2018, Rookiegate!
- February 5,
2018
- January 29,
2018 - Culiacan
wins LMP pennant
Guerreros
playing exhibition games in Cuba
The Oaxaca
Guerreros are spending a portion of their 2018
training on a trip to Cuba, where manager Jose Luis "Borrego"
Sandoval has had his Warriors go up against one Cuban National Series
team and
among a number of exhibition games.
Oaxaca opened the island portion of their preseason schedule
last Friday
with a 1-1 tie against Matanzas of the CNS.
Raymundo Torres went 3-for-3 for the Guerreros, driving in
Carlos
Paulino all the way from first with a single in the top of the third
inning
with his team's lone run of the game.
Paulino had a
2-for-2 game for Oaxaca, who started Patrick
Johnson on the mound after team owner Alfredo Harp Helu decided in the
offseason to drop his "Mexicans-only" player policy after both his
Guerreros and Mexico City Diablos Rojos failed to make the playoffs in
2017
while finishing near the bottom of the league attendance tables. Johnson tossed three scoreless innings,
walking one Cocodrilos batter and striking out three before he gave way
to
relievers Luis Payan, Rodolfo Aguilar and Axel Rios.
The Matanzas roster features longtime veteran
Yoandy Garlobo, who finished second to the USA's Ken Griffey, Junior
among
batters in the 2006 World Baseball Classic with a .480 average en route
to
being named to the All-WBC Team that year.
The Guerreros
then took on Occidentales, a team comprised of
25 players from CNS West Division clubs, Saturday in Havana. Occidentales took a 5-1 victory over the
guests as Oaxaca didn't score until the ninth, with Iker Franco
singling in
Manuelo Cruz from third. The Westerners
roster includes outfielders Yoelkis Cespedes and Frederich Cepeda. The Guerreros came back Sunday by walloping
Orientales (25 CNS East players, including several National Teamers) by
an 8-0
count as Oaxaca's batters collected 12 hits to support aptly-named
starter
Daniel Guerrero and five relievers in their shutout effort.
After an off-day
Monday, the Guerreros will meet Occidental
again Tuesday in Matanzas as starting pitcher Salvador Valdez makes his
debut
in a Oaxaca uniform. The Guerreros will
open the Mexican League's 2018 first season on March 23 at Leon.
Toros meet
KBO, CPBL clubs in Tucson
The Tijuana
Toros are conducting their training camp in
Tucson, Arizona for the fourth year in a row and the 2017 Mexican
League
champions have spiced up their stay in Optics Valley with preseason
games
against visiting teams from the Korea Baseball Organization and
Taiwan's
Chinese Professional Baseball League at Kino Veterans Memorial Stadium.
Manager Pedro
Mere's champions first met the CPBL's
Chinatrust Brothers, a Taichung-based squad managed by former major
leaguer
Cory Snyder, last Wednesday afternoon.
The game was a reunion of sorts between Mere and Snyder, who
last
managed on the same field during the 2016 LMB title series between
Tijuana and
Snyder's Puebla Pericos, who won the series and pennant.
Snyder has been joined in Taiwan by two other
ex-MLBers, pitching coach Rick Waits and batting coach Tommy Cruz,
brother of
Jose and Hector. The Brothers are in
their 29th season, winning seven CPBL titles.
The Toros came
from way back Thursday to top Chinatrust, 7-6,
thanks to Pedro Arenas' tiebreaking single in the eighth.
The win went to reliever Fabian Williamson
while the save was credited to Jesus Pirela.
The contest was notable for a remarkable Tijuana comeback after
the
Toros were behind, 6-1, in the fifth inning.
Things culminated in the eighth when Gabriel Gutierrez singled
Juan Kirk
in with the tying run and Gutierrez scored the game-winner on Arenas'
safety.
One day later,
Tijuana met the Nexen Heroes of the Korea
Baseball Organization, making it two wins in a row by beating the
Heroes, 6-1,
at Kino Stadium as the Toros plated four runs in the bottom of the
second and
scored two more in the fifth in what turned out to be an easy win. Ageless reliever Rafael Diaz, entering his
21st season at age 47 as the only hurler in LMB history with more than
100 wins
and 100 saves, earned the win by tossing a scoreless fifth.
The Toros and
Nexen, whose roster includes 2-time KBO MVP and
former Twins first baseman Byung-Ho Park plus 2017 KBO Rookie of the
Year
Jung-Hoo Lee (who hit .324 last year at age 19) met again last Thursday. This time, the Heroes were victorious, 10-5,
to earn the split. Joe Munoz swatted a
two-run homer for Tijuana, but not before Nexen had already built a
commanding
6-1 lead by the time Munoz clobbered his panoramic shot to left in the
seventh
frame. Alex Sanabia absorbed the loss
for the Toros, but he was hardly the only pitcher touched up by the
Koreans.
The Toros then
played the Quintana Roo Tigres, also training
in Tucson, in a three-game series at Kino Stadium over the weekend
starting
with a 7-1 win over manager Tim Johnson's Cancun nine on Saturday. The two teams then played to a scoreless draw
Sunday before the third and final game Monday before the Toros start
playing
MLB teams this week. Rumor has Angels
prodigy Shohei Ohtani pitching against Tijuana on Friday.
Fernandez
out in Mazatlan; Gil fined 100K pesos
It's already
been a busy offseason in the Mexican Pacific
League, whose season officially ended less than a month ago when
Guadalajara
hosted the Caribbean Series at Estadio Charros.
The Mazatlan Venados have said "adios" to manager Daniel
Fernandez, Culiacan manager Benji Gil was fined 100,000 pesos by the
LMP after
he celebrated his team's Game Seven win in the championship series at
Navojoa
with an obscene gesture and speculation is that three-time MexPac
pennant-winning manager Eddy Diaz is returning to Obregon, but not as
dugout
boss.
Let's begin with
Fernandez, one of the all-time great batters
of Mexican baseball (representing the Mexico City Diablos Rojos in 15
All-Star
Games) and the LMB's Manager of the Year with Veracruz in 2008. Fernandez also excelled for Mazatlan as a
player, and he was brought back to the Pearl of the Pacific in 2016 to
replace
Juan Jose Pacho at the Venados' helm.
Although the Deer appeared in the postseason both seasons under
Fernandez,
they were first-round casualties each time.
Mazatlan improved eight games last winter to a composite
regular-season
record of 37-31, but owner Jose Toledo and GM Jesus "Chino" Valdez
will be looking for a manager with a "smallball" philosophy of
crafting runs from scratch instead of one swing.
Now we move on
to Gil, already known as a combustible sort
during his first stint in Culiacan, where he won a title in 2014-15 but
also
nearly came to blows in the dugout with outfielder Rico Noel during a
game and
essentially wore out his welcome with the Tomateros and the Ley family,
who has
owned the franchise since its 1966 inception.
The former Angels shortstop was brought back this winter and
rewarded
the Leys and Culiacan with a second pennant, but made a gesture (think
PeeWee
Herman in an adult theater) during a celebration after the Tomateros
won the
LMP Championship Series deciding game in Navojoa in January. Gil's rewards were a verbal rebuke from
league president Omar Canizales and a fine of 100,000 pesos (about
$5,300 in US
dollars). A statement signed by
Canizales states that Gil violated Article 36 of Mexico's federal labor
laws
"based on maintaining respect and discipline." Gil
faces suspension or outright expulsion
from the LMP if he commits any further transgressions.
Finally, there's
Diaz, who managed Obregon to three
consecutive LMP titles in 2011, 2012 and 2013 (the only skipper in
MexPac
history with a three-peat), winning the Caribbean Series in 2011 and
2013. Things have gone south with
the Yaquis after
promised player bonuses tied to that 2013 CS title were never given,
resulting
in a lawsuit from former MLB pitcher Luis Ayala, a five-year suspension
handed
to then-GM Francisco Minjarez by the LMP and Diaz' eventual exit from
the
franchise. The Yaquis missed the
playoffs last winter while attendance at 15,000-seat Nuevo Estadio
Yaquis was
noticeably down. Diaz has visited
Obregon in recent weeks, leading to speculation that he may replace
manager
Juan Navarrete (who will not return next winter) or even move into the
front office
as GM. Then again, Minjarez' suspension
has been completed and the current Diablos Rojos general manager,
embroiled in
the "Rookiegate" scandal at present, may return to his old post in
the Sonora city.