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B a s e b a l l
M e x i c o
Monday,
November 8, 2021
SOLANO
TRADED TO CHARROS, SILVA TO RETIRE
Career changes involving two of the
Mexican Pacific League's most notable pitchers over the past decade
were in the
news last week. Longtime Mexicali starter Javier Solano was sent to
Guadalajara
after the Aguilas announced a four-player trade with the Jalisco
Charros while
Mazatlan hurler Walter Silva announced his pending retirement as a
player to
focus on serving at the Venados pitching coach at a press conference.
Solano, a 31-year-old righty who's
in his 14th winter of LMP action, has pitched 177 games over the
seasons (107
as a starter) and has a Mex Pac career record of 48-36 with a 3.44 ERA.
The San
Luis Colorado native nicknamed “El Terrorista” was the loop's Pitcher
of the
Year in 2015-16, the ERA champion in 2019-20 and won a Gold Glove last
winter.
Solano, who made his LMP debut in 2008-09 with Hermosillo, was off to a
rough
start for Mexicali this season with an 0-4 record and 8.37 ERA in five
starts
after going 2-6 and 7.12 for Quintana Roo in the Mexican League over
the
summer.
The former Dodgers farmhand was sent
to the Charros along with fellow right-hander Felipe Arredondo in
exchange for
pitchers Fredy Quintero and Jesus Cruz. Arredondo is a middleman who
has yet to
pitch this winter but was 2-0 and 2.75 for the Charros last season
before
coming to the border city in the offseason. In return, the Aguilas get
a
veteran reliever in Quintero who was 1-0 and 4.76 for Jalisco this
season while
Cruz (5-2 and 4.76 in four years for the Charros) is another reliever
who
pitched one MLB game for St. Louis in 2020.
Meanwhile, Silva is calling it a
career after 20 years on the mound. After signing with Monterrey in
2002 at the
relatively advanced age of 25, the Mazatlan product pitched for the LMB
Sultanes and his hometown Venados (along with a one-year stint in
Taiwan)
before inking a free agent deal with San Diego in 2009. The 6'1 righty
pitched
six times that year for the Padres (0-2, 8.76) as a teammate of
brothers Edgar
and Adrian Gonzalez, with whom he'd previously played winterball in
Mazatlan.
After returning to Mexico for good,
Silva spent ten more years in the Liga (five with Monterrey) and
compiled a
lifetime record of 97-86 over 16 seasons with a 4.56 ERA. He pitched
another
ten winters for Mazatlan and two more in Guasave. He was picked up as
an
emergency pitcher for Panama in the Caribbean Series last February and
appeared
in two games out of the bullpen. Now 44, Silva will make his first
start this season
(and last of his career) for the Venados against Jalisco at home on
Wednesday
night before becoming a full-time pitching coach under Mazatlan manager
Eddie
Diaz. His number 39 will be retired.
Surprising Navojoa has created some
breathing room at the top of the Mex Pac standings with a 19-10 record,
three
games ahead of 16-12 Guasave. With three games remaining in the first
half, the
Mayos are within grasp of clinching first place and the 10 points that
come
with it. For their part, Nipping the Algodoneros' heels are Jalisco,
Obregon
and defending champion Culiacan , all with 16-13 ledgers. At the bottom
of the
standings, hapless Los Mochis (8-20) has clinched last place and 3.5
points.
Christian Villanueva of Jalisco
holds the batting lead over Navojoa's Tirso Ornelas by a slim .386 to
.383
margin. Yoelkis Guibert of Culiacan is third at .354. Navojoa's Kyle
Martin has
taken the home run lead with seven longballs after just 16 games, one
more than
Mayos teammate Maikel Serrano and Nick Torres of Hermosillo. Guasave's
Jesse
Castillo are tied for the lead in runs batted in with 25 each and Luis
Alfonso
Cruz of Hermosillo) is third with 23 ribbies. Culiacan's Dairon Blanco
is tops
with 12 stolen bases while teammate Sebastian Elizalde and Los Mochis'
Isaac
Rodriguez tied for second with 10 swipes.
Elian Leyva of Hermosillo finally allowed an earned run during his sixth start Friday when Jalisco's Felix Perez singled in Julian Ornelas during the fourth inning of a 5-1 Naranjeros win, but Leyva's 0.24 ERA over 37 innings still leads all LMP starters. Jalisco's Orlando Lara is right behind at 1.13 and Hector Velazquez of Obregon is third with a 1.64 mark. Navojoa's Carlos De Leon has won all five starts for a 5-0 record to lead in wins, one more than Leyva and Lara. Luis Escobar of Obregon has an LMP-best 34 strikeouts in 35.1 innings, ahead of Obregon's Arturo Lopez (32) and new Jalisco starter Javier Solano (28) on the K table. Mexicali's Jake Sanchez continues to top the saves category with nine in 12 outings as Fernando Salas of Hermosillo trails with eight and Navojoa's Carlos Bustamante is third with seven salvados.
MEXICAN
PACIFIC LEAGUE Standings:
Navojoa 19-10, Guasave 16-12, Jalisco 16-13, Culiacan 16-13, Obregon
16-13,
Hermosillo 15-14, Mazatlan 13-16, Monterrey 13-16, Mexicali 12-17, Los
Mochis
8-20.
TWELVE
CUBAN PLAYERS DEFECT AFTER U-23 WORLD CUP
The final day of last month's WBSC
Under-23 Baseball World Cup in Sonora saw the Cuba drop the Bronze
medal game
to Colombia, 5-3, in Hermosillo's Estadio Sonora. However, the Cubans
suffered
a greater loss with longer-lasting implications off the field after 12
young
players had defected to Mexico by the time the tournament ended.
Officials with the National Sports
Agency in Havana referred to the largest group defection of Cuban
athletes in
years as “vile abandonments” involving players of “weak morals and
ethics.” The
remaining players and coaches returned to Cuba on Monday, October 4,
two days
after the loss to Colombia, during which 11 of 24 rostered players
appeared.
According to the Periodico Cubano
website, the 12 players (all members of Cuban National Series teams)
who
remained behind in Sonora were LHP Dariel Fernandez (Pinar del Rio),
LHP Leinel
Zayas (Isla de Juventus), RHP Bryan Chi (Industriales), RHP Luis Dany
Morales
(Sancti Spiritus), RHP Uber Luis Medina (Santiago de Cuba), C Loidel
Rodriguez
(Sancti Spiritus), IF Miguel Antonio Gonzalez (Granma), IF Dismany
Palacios
(Sancti Spiritus), IF Yandy Yanes (Camaguey), OF Geisel Cepeda (Sancti
Spiritus), OF Loidel Chapelli, Jr. (Camaguey), and OF Reinaldo Lazaga
(Pinar
del Rio).
Gonzalez (.385), Yanez (.333) and
Chapelli (.320) were Cuba's top three hitters in World Cup competition
Chi went
1-2 with a 4.45 ERA and 11 strikeouts in 11 innings and Zayas struck
out both
batters faced in his lone appearance. While 11 of the 12 are
technically free
agents (Cepeda is under contract with Los Mochis of the Mexican Pacific
League), all will first have to establish residency in Mexico or
another
country before being allowed to negotiate with any non-Cuban baseball
organization.
Cuban ballplayers have been
defecting from the island nation for years since failed pitcher Fidel
Castro
took over in 1959 and subsequently ruled that baseball would henceforth
be an
“amateur” sport. Current Tampa Bay infielder Randy Arozarena defected
to Mexico
in 2016 after two seasons with Pinar del Rio and spent a year playing
in the
Mexican League for Tijuana and with Navojoa of the Mexican Pacific
League
(leading the loop in homers) after signing with St. Louis for $1.25
million.
Arozarena still resides in Merida, Yucatan and has stated his desires
for
Mexican citizenship and a spot on the Mexican National Team. Several
Cubans
have made Mexico their permanent baseball home, including Ronnier
Mustelier,
Henry Urrutia, Daniel Carbonell and Elian Leyva.
A 2018 deal between Cuban
authorities and Major League Baseball allowing some players to sign
directly
with MLB organizations was canceled by then-president Donald Trump,
signaling a
return to the flotilla method of players leaving the island under the
coak of
secrecy hoping for higher pay and a better life elsewhere.
A December 13, 2013 story in
England's Guardian newspaper said Cuban star Yuliesky Gurriel
(28 at the
time and now playing for Houston) had just been given a “huge” standard
salary
raise to 13,000 Cuban pesos per month, or about US$414 at the time, to
play for
Sancti Spiritus of the National Series. In 2016, Gurriel signed a
five-year,
$47.5 million contract with the Astros five months after first
defecting from
Cuba during the Caribbean Series in the Dominican Republic and then
establishing residency in Haiti.
MEX
PAC ROAD TRIP: Los Mochis, Sinaloa
Driving from Navojoa, Sonora 98
miles southbound on Highway 15 for about two hours, our virtual Mexican
Pacific
League Road Trip takes us into the state of Sinaloa and Los Mochis, our
sixth
stop and a city with 300,000 metropolitan residents founded in 1893 by
Pennsylvanian Benjamin Johnson.
While it's a wealthy city in a
fertile agricultural area, Los Mochis (like most LMP sites) is not
geared
towards tourism. It's a hub of sorts, connected by ferry to La Paz,
Baja
California Sur; a busy airport with flights to and from Los Angeles,
Las Vegas,
Phoenix and Tucson; and the western terminus of the legendary Copper
Canyon
railroad, Mexico’s last major passenger railway featuring one of the
most
spectacular views in North American train travel.
Los Mochis sits on the Rio Fuerte,
which irrigates an extensive valley region whose main crops are
vegetables
(e.g., beans and corn) and sugar cane and for which the city is the
commercial
and financial center, and is 15 miles east of the Gulf of California
port of
Topolobampo, famous for its shrimp and fishing activity. Among the
native
animals is the yellow crocodile, which can grow as large as 38.8 feet
and weigh
over a ton.
Visitors to town should check out
Parque Sinaloa, which contains the most complete collection of palm
trees in
Mexico, including rare species imported from around the world, and is a
great
setting for a stroll in the cool of the evening. Parque Sinaloa is set
in the
old “Colonia Americana” section of Los Mochis, a former residential
district
for North Americans easily identified by its USA-style architecture
featuring
brick houses with front porches and yards on all four sides, giving a
unique
character to Los Mochis rarely seen in Mexico.
Los Mochis can trace its baseball
history to 1947 and the Pericos of the old Pacific coast League, a
predecessor
to the present-day Mexican Pacific League. The team was renamed
Caneros, or
“Cane Growers,” in subsequent seasons and after a couple of stops and
starts,
re-entered winterball for good in 1962. While the Caneros are rarely
prime
contenders for a title, Mochis has won three LMP pennants: in 1968-69
with
manager Ben Valenzuela, 1983-84 under Vinicio Garcia and in 2002-03 for
Chico
Rodriguez. In two Caribbean Series, the
Caneros have gone 4-8.
The Caneros play home games at Estadio Emilio Ibarra Almada, which opened in 1947 as Estadio Mochis with a capacity of 4,700 fans. The ballpark has undergone three renovations over the years: One in 1962 included expansion of seating to 6,000 and the addition of lights for night games; another in 1982 after Hurricane Paul devastated the facility nearly doubled the capacity to 11,000 and included a new lighting system; and finally a major 285 million peso upgrade completed in 2018 that raised capacity to 12,000 seats. The ballpark (which was renamed in 1972) has hosted six LMP All-Star Games, ten Mex Pac championship series and the 2015 WBSC U-15 Baseball World Cup.
