Thousands of articles!
B a s e b a l l
M e x i c o
Monday,
September 21, 2020
TIGRES
FOR SALE? PEREYRA SAYS YES, TEAM SAYS NO
A Twitter entry by Proceso
writer Beatriz Pereyra regarding rumors that former Cy Young Award
winner
Fernando Valenzuela and his wife Linda Burgos are trying to sell the
Quintana
Roo Tigres has raised several eyebrows across the country, with the
team office
denying Pereyra's claim a day after it was first posted.
Pereyra's translated comment on
Twitter last Wednesday was that "the Tigres for sale. There are several
interested, mainly in northern states of the country. The team will
inevitably
change owners. The Valenzuela family will say goodbye to the project.”
A translated tweet from the Tigres
team office in Cancun on Thursday read in part, “The Tigres de Quintana
Roo
organization categorically denies the rumors that occurred in the last
hours
about its sale. The team remains under the leadership of the Valenzuela
Burgos
family based in Cancun, Quintana Roo. We appreciate the support and
endorsement
of the fans to our team during all these years.”
Still, Pereya doubled down on her
claim following the Tigres' tweet. "I maintain that
the team is for
sale," she said. "Time will tell who is right. Fact: Do you remember
when Mr. Murra denied that he was not the owner of the Union Laguna
Algodoneros? It is something similar.” Pereya's reference is to Union
Laguna's
current president Guillermo Murra Marroquin, who denied his family was
buying
the Cottoneers from the Arellano brothers (also co-owners of the
Yucatan
Leones) in January 2019, a month before the Murras were announced as
the
franchise's new owners.
Longtime Mexican baseball coach,
scout and administrator Carlos Fragoso of Mexico City says simply, “Fernando Valenzuela declared that the Tigres
are not for
sale, so as of now they will continue being part of LMB.”
Valenzuela fronted a group of
unnamed investors that bought the Mexican League heritage franchise
from Carlos
Peralta (son of team founder Alejo Peralta) for an undisclosed amount
in
February 2017. Almost immediately, the former Dodgers All-Star and his
wife
were confronted by challenges when their partners reportedly bailed out
on the
investment, leaving them sole owners of the 12-time LMB champions. Then
it was
discovered that a number of prospects who'd been on a list of protected
players
given to the Valenzuelas prior to the sale had been surreptitiously
transferred
to the Mexico City Diablos Rojos, touching off the Rookiegate scandal
that
rocked the LMB for months.
The common denominator in Rookiegate
appears to be Francisco "Pollo" Minjarez, who worked in the Tigres'
front office prior to the sale before taking the Diablos' general
manager's job
shortly afterward and was thus the recipient of the six prospects, two
of whom
were subsequently sold to the Texas Rangers for more than two million
dollars
combined. Former LMB president Javier Salinas eventually ruled that the
rights
to the prospects be returned to the Tigres along with the money
received from
the player sales but at last report, the Diablos have honored neither
order.
Minjarez was also placed on suspension by the Liga office, but reportedly never gave up his duties in the Red Devils' front office. He'd previously been suspended indefinitely by the Mexican League in 2013 after allegedly violating internal agreements and using inappropriate behavior as general manager of the Obregon Yaquis and has not worked in the Mex Pac since.
Although Cancun has grown to over 700,000 residents and has a 9,500-seat ballpark (Estadio Beto Avila), the city has never greatly supported baseball. An earlier LMB team, the Langosteros, played in Cancun from 1996 through 2005, when Hurricane Wilma devastated the ballpark and forced the team to move to Poza Rica after ten seasons of tepid response from the local audience. The Tigres moved to the tourist mecca in 2007 and despite four division titles and three pennants since, the club is usually in the middle of Liga attendance tables. In 2019, they finished eighth with 226,525 fans over 59 home dates for an average of 3,839 per opening. The Tigres have never drawn 4,000 a night.
If the Valenzuelas do sell the
Tigres, it would mark the end of a 43-month era in Cancun that began
with great
fanfare accompanying the purchase of one of Mexico's most-storied
baseball
teams by perhaps its most popular Major League star. Instead, the
Tigres have
since seen middling success on the field accompanied by a rising tide
of red
ink in the franchise's coffers.
There have been calls over the years for the team to move back to its original home of Mexico City but given their enmity towards the Diablos, Mexican president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is more likely to renounce baseball for cricket than the Valenzuelas sharing the capital city with the Red Devils.
Nobody from the "northern
cities" Pereyra mentioned in her initial tweet has been identified, but
Septima
Entrada's Jose Alfredo Ortiz reported earlier this month that the
Aguascalientes Rieleros are rumored to be moving to Veracruz for 2021.
Otero
mentioned nobody in his story either, but it's been said that sisters
Regina
and Fabiola Vasquez Saut (who operated the now-defunct Veracruz Winter
League
in 2018-19 and owned the rights to the Acayucan Tobis franchise) are
interested
in bringing an LMB team back to Veracruz.
FOUR
SINALOAN LMP TEAMS ALLOWED 40% CAPACITY AT GAMES
With the opening of the 2020-21
season less than a month away, there was concern among the ten Mexican
Pacific
League teams that they may all have to play games with no fans in the
stands due
to health concerns over the Wuhan virus. Some welcome news arrived last
week
when the governor of Sinaloa said in an interview that the four LMP
teams
within the state will be allowed to play before live audiences
comprising up to
40 percent of each ballpark's capacity, depending on each facility's
regular
season and layout.
According to Puro Beisbol,
Sinaloa governor Quirino Ordaz Coppel told the Linea Directa website
that
protocols required by the Ministry of Health will be carried out so
fans in
Culiacan, Guasave, Los Mochis and Mazatlan can attend games this
season. A Mex
Pac press release says the the league will work "hand in hand with
government and health authorities" to ensure that people can see games
in
person.
Culiacan will be able to sell 8,000
tickets at 20,000-seat Estadio Tomateros while the Mazatlan Venados can
play
with 6,400 aficionados at Estadio Teodoro Mariscal (capacity 16,000).
In Los
Mochis, 4,800 seats at Estadio Emilio Ibarra Almada (12,000) can be
filled for
Caneros home games while in Guasave, the Algodoneros may play for up to
4,200
fans at 10,000-seat Estadio Francisco Carranza Limon. The regular
season is due
to open Thursday, October 15 with games in Culiacan, Los Mochis and
Mazatlan
among the five scheduled for that night.
According to the press release from
the Mex Pac's Guadalajara office, "Each of the 35 games that these
organizations have on their calendar for the regular season, plus the
eventual
playoffs, will have the proper controls and limitations, for all areas
such as
locker rooms, entrances, corridors, toilets and restaurants with the
sale of
drinks and food, respecting the protocols of their sectors at all
times."
Masks will be required (and make for
great fashion statements) at all times while spaces designated for
handwashing
with antibacterial gel will be installed at each ballpark. Fans failing
to
comply with the rules will be forced to leave the ballpark.
RAMOS,
PAREDES SEEK MEX PAC RETURN THIS WINTER
A pair of Hermosillo products, one
who's become one of the top sluggers in Korean baseball and a
highly-touted
infield prospect who made his MLB debut last month, want to play in
Mexico this
winter once their current seasons end. Puro Beisbol editor Francisco
Ballesteros reports that LG Twins first baseman Roberto Ramos is hoping
to suit
up for his hometown Naranjeros while Detroit Tigers third sacker Isaac
Paredes
seeks to perform in Mazatlan after being traded by Obregon to the
Venados for
veteran catcher Sebastian Valle in the offseason.
The 25-year-old Ramos was an obscure
power-hitting minor leaguer in the Colorado Rockies minor league system
for six
years before his contract was sold to the Korea Baseball Organization's
Busan-based Twins in January, with whom he reportedly signed a
one-year, U$500,000
contract. His batting average has cooled down after a sizzling start to
his
first year in the KBO (although he's brought it back up to .285 in
recent
games), but Ramos recently belted his 33rd homer of 2020 to extend his
single-season record of most homers for a Mexican-born player in South
Korea
after breaking Karim Garcia's old standard of 30 earlier this month.
Ramos has spent parts of the past
five winters as an unheralded member of the Orangemen, hitting .220
with 14
homers in 145 games, but his newfound celebrity status in Korea will
likely
carry home with him. Naranjeros GM Juan Aguirre says that with the
Twins
expected to reach the KBO playoffs, they don't expect Ramos in Estadio
Sonora
until the second half of the Mex Pac season. "We have spoken with
Roberto
and we are aware that the first round would be lost," said Aguirre.
"In fact, we will give him enough space to see if we can count on him
as
of December." With the Twins likely interested in signing Ramos for
2021,
they'd need to sign off on him playing winterball back home.
The 21-year-old Paredes, who signed
as a free agent with the Chicago Cubs in 2016 and came to the Detroit
organization a year later as part of a five-player trade, was a
midseason
All-Star with Class A Lakeland in 2018 and Class AA Erie last year. He
spent
this season practicing and playing intrasquad games at the Tigers'
alternate
training site in Toledo before being called up August 17. Paredes went
1-for-4
that night with a two-run single during a 7-2 loss to the White Sox in
Chicago
and was batting .318 after one week (belting a grand slam in 10-5 win
at
Cleveland on August 21). He was still hitting .258 at the end of August
before
going into a September slump that saw him go 4-for-36 to start the
month as his
averaged plummeted to .176.
His plate woes haven't affected his
work at the hot corner, as Paredes committed just one error over his
first 23
games and took part in seven double plays for a .981 fielding
percentage. While
the Tigers are concerned over his tendency to take first-pitch strikes,
they
love his ability to play three infield positions (Paredes appears
best-suited
for second base despite his 5'11” 210-pound frame) and think his
patience at
the plate will be a virtue.
Paredes has spent the past three winters with Obregon, batting a cumulative .283 with seven homers over 104 games with the Yaquis. Mazatlan GM Jesus “Chino” Valdez says Paredes should be with the Yaquis along with Houston pitcher Jose Urquidy this season. “In the talks I've had with Issac, he plans to report,” says Valdez. “The same thing will happen with Urquidy because he thinks he'll need innings this winter because of the lack of activity he's had this year in the majors.”
