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B a s e b a l l
M e x i c o
Monday,
November 2, 2020
YAQUIS
AT 15 WINS IN 17 GAMES, SWING A PAIR OF DEALS
Recent arrival Felix Perez socked a
pair of homers, including a two-run bomb, while Moises Gutierrez added
a solo
blast as the Obregon Yaquis outlasted the Navojoa Mayos, 4-3, Sunday in
Mexican
Pacific League action before empty seats at Estadio Yaquis in Obregon.
The
Yaquis are one of three LMP teams (along with Hermosillo and Navojoa)
ordered
by Sonora's Secretary of Health Enrique Clausen to disallow fans in the
stands
after pandemic-related health protocols were ignored in several
ballparks on
opening weekend.
The win extended Obregon's record to
15-2 for the first half as the Yaquis stayed three-and-a-half games
ahead of
second-place Hermosillo (11-5) and third-place Monterrey (11-6), who
both won
their games on Sunday. Obregon features a strong pitching staff paced
by
starter Octavio Acosta (3-0 with a LMP-best 2.12 ERA) and closer Miguel
Aguilar
(7-of-7 in saves and a 2.35 ERA). While the Yaquis batting order won't
remind
anyone of the 1927 Yankees, they're hitting well enough to win while
catcher
Sebastian Valle (.339, 4 homers) and outfielder Roberto Lopez
(.306/3/12) have
been the timeliest hitters.
Defending LMP home run and RBI
champion Dariel Alvarez is off to a hot start for Jalisco, as the Cuban
outfielder leads the circuit with a .400 average. Culiacan's Sebastian
Elizalde, who hit .308 with 10 homers and 21 steals last winter, leads
the Mex
Pac with seven homers and 22 ribbies after 17 games while Alonzo Harris
has
been Obregon's (and the loop's) best base stealer with 10 swipes in 12
tries.
Besides the Yaquis' Acosta and Aguilar, the early pitching leaders
include
Hermosillo starter Juan Pablo Oramas with four wins and 23 strikeouts
plus Oramas'
Naranjeros moundmate Heriberto Ruelas, who has five holds in nine
appearances
and has yet to allow a run in 7.2 innings pitched.
With the season only two weeks old,
teams are already making deals to strengthen their rosters. One of the
most
noteworthy saw Monterrey loaning holdout outfielder Felix Perez to
Obregon. A
Cuba native who played three winters for his hometown Isla de la
Juventud
Toronjeros before spending five years in the Cincinnati Reds system,
the
35-year-old also played in Japan and has put in five summers in the
Mexican
League with both the Sultanes and Aguascalientes.
Perez was a member of Monterrey's
first Mex Pac team last winter and one of the club's top hitters,
leading the
team with a .270 average, 48 RBIs and 36 runs scored while finishing
second
with 10 homers. However, Perez decided to sit out this LMP season after
failing
to come to terms with the Sultanes. He decided to report to Obregon and
is
already making an impact, belting a pair of homers and driving in three
runs
Sunday in their 4-3 win over Navojoa.
Not content to coast on their league
lead, Obregon also traded veteran utilityman Maxwell Leon to Mazatlan
for
journeyman infielder Issmael Salas. Son of former MLB reliever Maximino
Leon,
the younger Leon played five years (2006-10) in the Detroit system
before
embarking on a nine-year run in the Mexican League with Minatitlan in
2011.
This will be his 15th winter in the LMP, where the 36-year-old has
played every
position but catcher and pitcher while batting .280 over 532 games. He
had yet
to appear for the Yaquis.
Salas primarily plays third base but
is proficient at all four infield positions. A former Cubs farmhand who
has
played solely in Mexico since 2009, the Tijuana-born 38-year-old made
his LMP
debut with Guasave in 2005-06. Obregon will be his eighth team in the
loop.
Salas has a career .267 winterball average and was batting .400 after
six games
with the Venados prior to the trade.
And in Guadalajara, the likelihood
of Roberto Osuna finally pitching in a game for the Jalisco Charros
increased
dramatically after the 25-year-old closer was waived by the Houston
Astros last
week. Osuna appeared in just four games for the defending American
League
champions before an elbow injury shelved him for the rest of the
shortened 2020
season. There had been concerns that he'd require Tommy John surgery
but
instead has chosen to rehab in the MLB offseason. After clearing
waivers, the
righty is now a free agent who will likely need to pitch in the Mex Pac
to
demonstrate his recovery to potential big league employers. Osuna is
reportedly
due to begin pitching for the Charros on November 20.
TIGRES,
VALENZUELAS TO REMAIN IN CANCUN FOR 2021
After weeks of speculation that the
Quintana Roo Tigres were on their way out of Cancun (with the border
city of
San Luis Rio Colorado, Sonora thought to be the legacy franchise's
destination), the Mexican League announced over the weekend that the
12-time
champions will stay put in Cancun.
An announcement from the LMB office
in Mexico City says that Liga president Horacio de la Vega met last
week with
“the directors of the Tigres de Quintana Roo, the Government of the
State of
Quintana Roo and the Municipality of Benito Juárez to ensure the team
stays in
Cancun.” Jose Alfredo Otero of El Fildeo writes that both de la Vega
and team
owner Fernando Valenzuela verified at an Assembly of Presidents meeting
last
Friday that the Tigres will stay put in the resort city for the 2021
season.
Ever since buying the Tigres from
Carlos Peralta in February 2017, Valenzuela and his wife, Linda Burgos,
have
seemingly been beset by one issue after another while struggling to
keep the
franchise viable on the field and at the gate as well as with the
banks. Three
rocky years were followed by 2020's canceled season, which seemed to
tip the
scales toward the Valenzuelas seeking to relocate the team in greener
pastures.
There have long been calls to return
the Tigres to their original home of Mexico City, where their
longstanding
rivalry with the Diablos Rojos would be revived in closer quarters, and
there
were rumors that there was interest in Veracruz as a possible landing
spot.
Instead, San Luis Rio Colorado emerged seemingly out of the blue as the
team's
destination. The city of 200,000 sitting on the Arizona border would be
one of
the Mexican League's smallest markets while never having hosted a team
in
either the LMB or the winter Mexican Pacific League.
On the other hand, San Luis is a
baseball hotbed in which the city's ballpark has undergone a
refurbishing that
more than doubled its capacity to 7,000 spectators. Local and state
governments
pledged their support for the team moving there, San Luis' closer
proximity
than Cancun to the Valenzuelas' home in Los Angeles was seen as a
positive, as
was a natural travel partner for the Tijuana Toros, the Liga's most
geographically-remote franchise. As recently as Friday, Puro Beisbol
editor Fernando Ballesteros wrote that the Valenzuelas were working to
move the
Tigres to San Luis, although nothing was official.
Instead, it appears that Cancun will
have another chance to better support Class AAA baseball after being a
tepid
host over the previous 14 years. The Tigres moved to the resort city
from
Puebla in 2007. While there's nothing to indicate that local interest
will
increase enough for the club to break even financially at the gate,
state
subsidies expected to disappear in 2021 may have been revived during
talks
involving de la Vega and the Valenzuelas with government officials.
Money
talks, whatever the source.
It was a momentous week for the
former National League Cy Young Award-winner. Besides deciding the fate
of his
ballclub, Valenzuela (who celebrated his 60th birthday Sunday) was
given a
National Sports Award for his contributions to Mexican baseball, both
inside
and outside the country. President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador will
make a
formal presentation on November 20 as part of events commemorating the
Mexican
Revolution, in which hostilities officially ceased on November 20, 1920.
LMB:
RIELEROS TO STAY PUT, EXPANSION TEAM TO VERACRUZ
Another team that will be staying
put is the Aguascalientes Rieleros. After word came out that the Tigres
were
hoping to move to San Luis Rio Colorado, rumors heated up that the
Railroaders
would be making a one-way trip to Veracruz for the 2021 season. An LMB
team
first appeared in Aguascalientes in 1975, when (ironically) the
Veracruz Rojos
del Aguila moved west from the port city. While it took just three
years to win
a Liga pennant, that remains the only title the city has ever won and
the
current franchise is the third incarnation of the Rieleros after the
first two
versions moved to Puebla in 1999 and Nuevo Laredo in 2008.
The current iteration dates to 2012
(when the Tecolotes returned to the city of 800,000) but none of the
three
Rieleros teams have had much money to work with and crowds at
6,500-seat Parque
Alberto Romo Chavez were never large enough to create enough revenues
to build
a contending team there since the earliest days. The cancellation of
the 2020
Mexican League season meant no revenues coming in for a team already
swimming
in a sea of red ink, making them a target for potential buyers.
Veracruz has seen its own share of
Liga teams come and go since the circuit started in 1925, although the
city and
state could be considered Mexico's version of Florida in that baseball
players
are historically more plentiful than baseball fans. Still, business
owners
there have wanted to bring a team back to the Gulf Coast city ever
since owner
Jose Antonio Mansur moved the latest version of the Eagle Reds to Nuevo
Laredo
in 2018. The league office announcement that no team will move anywhere
prior
to the 2021 season put an end to a Veracruz pursuit of the Rieleros or
any
other vulnerable LMB franchise (and there are several).
However, a surprising announcement
from the LMB put Veracruz at the front of the line in the future. De la
Vega's
office said that a letter of intent has been “successfully submitted”
by a
group of Veracruz investors seeking an expansion team. While no
timetable has
been given for such a move, that would increase the number of Liga
teams from
the current 16, the announcement said the LMB is “enthusiastic about
the
possible new addition of the Veracruz Aguilas as an expansion team in
such an
important and historic city for Mexican baseball.” The original Rojo
del
Aguilas were formed in 1903 and teams using that name have won six LMB
pennants
over the years, with Hall of Famer Martin Dihigo hitting and pitching
Veracruz
to back-to-back titles in 1937 and 1938.
The statement concludes, “The Mexican Baseball League expects Veracruz fans can soon return to the iconic Parque Deportivo Universitario Beto Avila.”
