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B a s e b a l l
M e x i c o
Monday,
July 26, 2021
UNSWORTH
SIGNS WITH TAIWANESE TEAM; LIVELY RELEASED
As Mexican League teams continue to
tweak their rosters with just none games remaining in the 2021 regular
season,
a pair of transactions made across the Pacific Ocean may have an effect
on how
two LMB teams fare during the postseason.
Veracruz pitcher Dylan Unsworth has
been place on the Aguilas' reserve list, allowing him to sign a
contract with
the Fubon Guardians of the Chinese Professional Baseball League in
Taiwan. The
28-year-old South African had announced his presence with authority
during his
first Liga season with the expansion Aguilas, tossing the loop's only
no-hitter
of current campaign (dominating the powerful Mexico City Diablos Rojos
on May
28 with a 75-pitch performance in an 8-0 win) en route to a 4-0 record
over
eight starts during which he walked just four batsmen over 42 innings
while
striking out 27. His 2.57 ERA was leading the LMB after his last start
earlier
this month.
The former Mariners farmhand had
signed to pitch for Puebla in 2020 but never saw a regular season
inning after
the campaign was canceled due to the pandemic. Unsworth joins the
Taipei-based
Guardians following the releases of former MLB pitchers Manny Banuelos
and J.C.
Ramirez earlier this month. Banuelos is on the Mexican roster at the
Summer
Olympics in Tokyo while Ramirez (who was let go for “personal reasons”)
has
joined Mexico City. The loss of Unsworth will no doubt harm a Veracruz
pitching
staff whose ERA was 5.27 even with the righty on the team. The top
starter for
the Aguilas, who are in a five-way battle for second place in the LMB
South and
will likely secure a playoff berth this week, is now likely Jorge
Martinez,
a 36-year-old Cuban with a 3-2 record
and 5.06 ERA over ten starts.
Meanwhile, former LMB hurler Mitch
Lively has been let go by his CPBL team, the ChinaTrust Brothers of
Taichung.
The well-traveled 6'5” right-hander arrived in Taiwan during the 2018
season
and had some good moments for the Brothers his first three seasons,
going 23-20
between 2018 and 2020 with a 3.66 ERA in 68 games (55 of them starts).
This
year, however, the 35-year-old Californian had an 8.35 ERA with a 1.88
WHIP
over 36.2 innings at the time of his release.
After making his pro debut in 2007
with the Rockies' Casper Rookie affiliate, Lively spent seven years in
the
Giants system (including 2012-14 at AAA Fresno) and one-plus year in
the
Nationals organization before becoming a baseball globetrotter. He
pitched for
Japan's Nippon Ham Fighters in 2015 and played for three Mexican League
teams
between 2016-17 (going 9-4 with a 2.26 ERA for Laguna, Reynosa and
Leon) before
heading to Taiwan. Lively also pitched five seasons of winterball in
Venezuela
from 2012-17 and for Mazatlan of the Mexican Pacific League between
2017 and
2020, going 18-4 for the Venados with a sub-3.00 ERA all three years
and
winning Pitcher of the Year honors in 2018-19. Lively's LMB rights
appear to
still belong to Leon, which means he could land with the Bravos
intramural
parent club in Monterrey if he chooses to seek work in Mexico, since
the
Sultanes are only a half-game out of a playoff berth.
Guadalajara (39-15) holds a solid
six-game lead over 34-22 Tijuana in the LMB North, with Monclova
(33-24) and Saltillo
(32-25) both within striking distance of the Toros. With six teams per
division
qualifying for the postseason this year, a spirited battle for the
final two
berths has developed among Union Laguna (25-30), Aguascalientes (23-28)
and the
aforementioned Monterrey (24-30). Durango (18-38) is basically out of
contention.
The LMB South regular season title
is Mexico City's (36-19) to lose. Hard-charging Tabasco (20-27) has won
five in
a row to move into second, seven games behind the Diablos and one game
ahead of
Puebla (27-26), Yucatan (28-27) and Veracruz (29-28). Sixth-place
Quintana Roo
(28-28) is only a half-game out of third and 1.5 games behind Tabasco,
which
shows how tight things are in the jockeying for playoff seeding. Leon
(24-33),
Campeche (22-32) and Oaxaca (20-36) will all need a late win streak to
get back
into it.
Leo Heras of Guadalajara is listed
as the LMB batting leader with a .412 average despite missing 15 of the
Mariachis' 54 games while Tito Polo of Durango (37 of 56 games) ranks
second at
.407. Satillo teammates Rainel Rosario and Kennys Vargas are tied with
Leon's
Xavier Batista for the LMB lead with 17 homers each while Leandro
Castro of
Tijuana has 58 RBIs to top the circuit. Quintana Roo's Reynaldo
Rodriguez has
20 steals, good enough to lead Tabasco's Herlis Rodriguez and Tijuana's
Isaac
Rodriguez (no relation among any of them) in that category.
Guadalajara's Masaru Nakamura got a
win last week to run his record to a perfect 8-0, topping the Liga in
wins
while Miguel Pena (Saltillo), Edgar Torres (Mexico City) and Anthony
Vizcaya
(Aguascalientes) are tied for second with seven wins apiece. Logan
Ondrusek of
Yucatan is listed as the ERA leader at 2.38 over 45.1 innings with
Tabasco's
Luis Escobar (2.60 in 62.1 IP) in second. Puebla's Jose Valdez (6-0,
3.94)
heads the strikeouts list with 63 in 64 innings, ahead of Dos Laredo's
Jackson
Stephens at 60. Fernando Rodney of Tijuana picked up another save last
week to
raise his Liga-leading total to 14, augmenting his 1.73 ERA. Carlos
Bustamante
(Monclova) and Fernando Cruz (Guadalajara) are tied for second with 13
each,
although Bustamante will lose ground while pitching for Mexico in the
Olympics.
All remaining series take on added
significance with two playoff races underway and only nine games left
to play.
The biggest upcoming midweek series may be when Tijuana visits
Monterrey with
the Sultanes trying to move up from seventh while next weekend's most
important
series will likely be in Aguascalientes, where the Rieleros host Dos
Laredos in
a matchup of two teams battling for their postseason lives.
MEXICAN
OLYMPIANS IN FLAP OVER UNIFORM PHOTO VIOLATION
After being a constant companion for
years with Mexican Olympic baseball team manager Benji Gil, it wouldn't
be a
major surprise if one of the 24 roster spots had been assigned to
Controversy.
As it is, Controversy made the trip to Tokyo along with the players and
coaches
anyway and appeared in a team photo last week. Sort of.
Eleven of the players on the Mexican
roster play under Gil for the Culiacan Tomateros of the Mexican Pacific
League
during the winter, so the skipper of the two-time defending LMP
champions
thought it would be fun to post an online photo of those players (along
with
staff members) wearing Culiacan jerseys inside the Olympic Village
beneath the
five-ring Olympic logo. It's a nice picture but there's a problem: It's
also
against Olympic protocols.
Rule 50 in the International Olympic
Committee charter states that wearing of unsanctioned clothing or
uniforms,
including manufacturer logos, is prohibited.
The photo, which showed those posing without masks (another
protocol
violation) was initially posted on Tomateros social network accounts
before
threats of sanctions and an outraged response by the president of the
Mexican
Olympic Committee was enough to have it pulled off the internet, but
not before
the scene was memorialized by screen grabs.
“This is an insult to the delegation
and to Olympism,” Mexican Olympic Committee president Carlos Padilla
was quoted
as saying in Reforma. “In this case, it's more than ignorance
because
they signed the letter of commitment in which they are obliged to wear
only the
authorized uniform.
“I think this goes further and
implies other types of agreements with a team with which they will act,
with
the corresponding legal actions. It is not a coincidence that they
think they
are in Disneyland,” added Padilla.
Gil originally defended on Twitter
the decision to pose his eleven Tomateros players in Culiacan jerseys
as well
as Mexico caps, but later deleted the posts. Hours later, the entire
team posed
in the same place with the official uniform. Mexico is participating in
Olympic
Games baseball for the first time in its history after qualifying with
a
third-place finish in the World Baseball Softball Confederation's
Premier12
tournament in November 2019. The Summer Olympics are now underway in
Tokyo
following a year-long delay due to the Wuhan virus.
Mexico is one of three nations in
Group A along with host Japan and the Dominican Republic while three
others
comprise Group B: South Korea, Israel and the United States. The Verdes
Grande play their first game against the Dominicans on Friday at
12:00
local time, after which they'll take on Japan Saturday at noon local
time (with
both games at Yokohama Baseball Stadium). Group play consists of one
game
against each member for seeding purposes in next week's Knockout Round,
a
convoluted eight-game format to determine the four combatants in the
Bronze and
Gold medal games on Saturday, August 7.
WBSC
U-23 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS SET FOR HERMOSILLO, OBREGON
After a yearlong delay due to the
ongoing worldwide pandemic, the World Baseball Softball Confederation
has
rescheduled its Under-23 World Baseball Championship Tournament for
September
and October in Hermosillo and Obregon. Twelve nations will be competing
with
mostly minor league players for the U-23 crown, which was last played
for in
2018, with Mexico copping the title in Colombia. Mexican outfielder
Norberto
Obeso was named to the tournament's Dream Team after finishing second
among
batters with a .500 average.
A six-team Group A field will
congregate in Obregon at Estadio Yaquis while six Group B contestants
will
converge on Estadio Sonora in Hermosillo for the round-robin first
stage of the
competition, with the opening games scheduled for September 23.
After the first round dust settles,
the top three teams from each Group will gather in Hermosillo for the
Super
Round, featuring crossover games against nations advancing from the
opposite
group added to previous results to determine seedings for the Bronze
and Gold
medal games on Saturday, October 2. The bottom three from each group
will
convene in Obregon for the Consolation Round using a similar format to
determine
placings from seventh through twelfth place.
For the 2021 edition, the WBSC
approved that 24-year-old players can participate due to the pandemic
causing
the postponement of a year of the event. Thus, players born from 1997
to 2003
may be chosen to the rosters of their respective national teams.
Group A (Obregon)
Czech
Republic
Mexico
New
Zealand
Nicaragua
South
Korea
Taiwan
Group
B
(Hermosillo)
China
Cuba
Germany
Japan
South
Africa
Venezuela
A schedule of games for the WBSC U-23 World Championships has not been released yet.
