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B a s e b a l l
M e x i c o
Monday,
May 24, 2021
“JUGAR
A LA PELOTA!” LIGA OPENS 2021 SEASON
The Mexican League played its first
regular games since September 2019 over the weekend, starting last
Thursday
night when defending champion Monclova bopped visiting Monterrey, 9-3,
behind
the arm of Bartolo Colon and the bats of Erick Aybar and Chris Carter.
Colon,
the American League's 2005 Cy Young Award winner, tossed five innings
for the
Acereros, throwing 91 pitches (57 for strikes) while giving up one
earned run
on five hits before being replaced by Zach Phillips in the sixth frame.
Despite allowing a solo homer by
Sultanes centerfielder Jose Cardona to lead off the top of the third,
Colon
(who turns 48 on Monday) pitched well enough to earn the win in the
first game
of the 2021 LMB season. After the contest the 21-year MLB veteran said,
“The
hills are old but they still turn green.” Aybar aided the Monclova
cause with
three hits and an RBI while Carter (who led the Liga with 49 homers in
2019)
socked a solo blast.
The rest of the LMB swung into
action Friday with a full slate of games. One of them, the Dos Laredos
Tecolotes opening series against Tijuana had to be shifted from Nuevo
Laredo's
La Junta Park across the border to Texas' Laredo Ballpark after a
rainstorm
with winds topping 90 MPH swept through the Mexican border city last
Monday,
causing flooding and electrical problems. The Toros ended up winning
Friday
night's opener, 8-3, behind homers by Peter O'Brien and Leandro Castro
while
Balbino Fuenmayor launched a roundtripper for the Tecos.
Among Friday's other LMB
lid-lifters, Adrian Gonzalez drove in five runs as the expansion
Guadalajara
Mariachis topped the Durango Generales, 12-3; Roberto Osuna tossed a
1-2-3
ninth inning to seal the Mexico City Diablos' 8-4 triumph over visiting
Veracruz at Estadio Alfredo Harp Helu; Henry Urrutia went 4-for-5,
driving in
two runs and scoring twice as Saltillo overwhelmed Aguascalientes,
10-2;
Michael Choice collected four hits and two runs as every Laguna batsman
had at
least one hit in the Algodoneros' 15-7 triumph over Leon in Torreon;
Puebla
clobbered Oaxaca, 16-9, as David Olmedo-Barrera and Danny Ortiz
combined for
six RBIs as the Pericos posted 19 hits on the night; and Tabasco
slipped past
Quintana Roo, 2-1, in 12 innings at Villahermosa on Jovan Rosa's
walkoff RBI
single. The entire Campeche-Yucatan series in Campeche was rained out.
Following Sunday's games, four LMB
North teams ended the weekend without a loss. Monclova, Guadalajara and
Laguna
are all 3-0 as of Monday morning while Tijuana is 2-0. Conversely,
Monterrey,
Durango and Leon show 0-3 records and Dos Laredos is 0-2.
LMB
LAUNCHES JONRON TV, EXPECTS UP TO 10K SUBSCRIBERS
The Mexican League unveiled another
facet of their expanded digital presence for the 2021 season last week
when
they unveiled their new Jonron TV, from which subscriptions to view LMB
games
this year are now available. Proceso's
Beatriz Pereyra filed this translated report:
The Mexican League announced the
implementation of its channel for subscribers from the season which
will allow
it to generate revenues of between 50 million and 100 million pesos
during the
next three years.
At a press conference, the president
of the LMB, Horacio de la Vega, presented Jonrón TV, a platform to
which fans
will be able to subscribe for 449 pesos (with a discount) and 549
pesos,
regular price, per season.
According to their estimates for the
2021 campaign, they expect between 5,000 and 10,000 people to
subscribe, a
figure that by 2024 should increase substantially.
“Other platforms have between 50
thousand and 100 thousand subscribers. Our goal is that in three years
we'll
have between 50 and 100 million pesos of profits. There is a free
pre-registration on Jonrón TV for people to experience,” de la Vega
explained.
Likewise, de la Vega said that the
names of two other television channels where LMB games will be
broadcast will
be announced shortly, and that they will join ESPN, Channel 11,
Multimedios and
Azteca Digital: “On all these platforms we will reach more than 32
million
homes on open television and another 20 million on pay television
models where
the 594 games of the regular season plus the playoffs can be seen.
“We are going to have four or five
times more income from the sale of television rights than in 2019 and
since the
agreements we signed are for more than three years for the most part,
almost
all of them have an increasing scale so that they are more productive
until
reaching 40% more than what we generate right now,” he explained.
According to LMB figures, in 2019,
five million people attended LMB games at a baseball stadium and the
league has
4.9 million followers on social media.
“We will reach more than 30 million
people on the different platforms. If you don't see baseball, we are
not going
to grow in fans. We have to position our stars and carry out a very
powerful
marketing project,” emphasized de la Vega.
For his part, the director of
Marketing and Communications of the LMB, Alberto Guadarrama, asserted
that the
league's project is aimed at “offering baseball both to traditional
audiences
and to new generations who have different forms of consumption such as
more
short videos (highlights) and thus hook these new baseball fans.”
LIDDI
DEALT TO MEXICALI IN SIX-PLAYER LMP SWAP
Former MLB infielder Alex Liddi has
been sent by the Mazatlan Venados to Mexicali as part of a six-player
Mexican
Pacific League trade last week. Relief pitcher Felipe Arredondo and
first
baseman Fernando Diaz were packaged with Liddi to the Aguilas while
infielders
Hector Hernandez and Alex Valdez went to Mazatlan along with pitcher
Juan Pablo
Tellez. The 6'4” Liddi (who turns 33 in August) played parts of three
seasons
for Seattle between 2011 and 2013, batting .208 with six homers and 16
RBIs
over 61 MLB games after debuting in the Mariners organization as a
17-year-old
in 2006.
Liddi was traded to Baltimore during
the 2013 season, starting an eight-year odyssey that saw the native of
San
Remo, Italy play in four big league minor league systems, Taiwan,
Mexico and
winterball stints in both the LMP and Puerto Rico. Liddi spent two
seasons with
Mazatlan, struggling to a .187 average over 39 games with the Venados
in
2019-20 after batting .278 with four homers in 63 games the previous
season.
Last winter, he hit .242 with one homer over 17 games with Manati in
Puerto
Rico. The only native Italian to play in both MLB and the CPBL, Liddi
will play
this summer with the Mexican League's Yucatan Leones in Merida, where
he now
lives year-round.
Arredondo, a 34-year-old righty, is
a former Angels minor leaguer who has pitched in the Mexican League
since 2011
(currently with Quintana Roo). He pitched briefly for his hometown
Culiacan
Tomateros in 2010-11 and has pitched for three LMP teams the past two
winters.
After going 2-0 with a 2.75 ERA for Jalisco last winter, he was traded
to
Mazatlan during the season and was 0-1 with a 13.50 ERA in two
appearances.
Diaz is a 19-year-old
Ensenada
product who hit .270 with six homers in 54 games for the Cardinals
Dominican
Summer League rookie team in 2019 before becoming one of the hundreds
of
victims of MLB's minor league purge last year.
Hernandez is a longtime veteran
infielder in both Mexican leagues. The 38-year-old Cosamaloapan product
is
capable of playing both left side positions as well as second base. He
debuted
in the LMB with Veracruz and played for Los Mochis that winter. He's
gone on to
play for nine LMB teams in 15 years, his last two for Yucatan in 2018
and 2019,
and has a career .278 batting average over 1,234 games. In the Mex Pac,
Hernandez appeared for three clubs in ten winters (the past five for
Mexicali).
As a utilityman for the Aguilas in 2020-21, he batted .268 in 83 plate
appearances during 24 games.
Valdez spent nine years in the
Athletics organization and has also played with minor league teams in
the
Nationals and Red Sox systems. The Dominican corner infielder (who can
also
play second base) came to the Mexican League in 2011 and has hit .302
with 14
homers in eight seasons, splitting the 2019 campaign between Yucatan,
Oaxaca
and Mexico City. Valdez is a 13-year veteran of winterball, mostly in
the Liga
Dominicana. He hit .455 in seven games for the Aguilas 2019-20.
Tellez is a 21-year-old right-hander
who was a reliever in the 2019 Latin American Series for the old Xalapa
Chileros and is now on the roster of the Mexican League's expansion
Veracruz
Aguilas.