CRUZ CALLS EX-BREWERS MANAGER MACHA “A BIT RACIST”

During an interview with Puro Beisbol editor Francisco Ballasteros, Milwaukee infielder Luis Alfonso Cruz (who will be playing this winter for Culiacan) called former Brewers manager Ken Macha "a bit racist." Macha was fired at the end of the 2010 season.

“The truth is that he (Macha) is very dry, very lethargic, a bit racist…but that’s all passed,” Cruz said at Mazatlan’s Estadio Teodoro Mariscal, where the Navojoa native was working out with the Tomateros before joining their active roster.

Cruz spent most of the 2010 season with Milwaukee’s AAA affiliate in Nashville, hitting .281 with 10 homers in 129 games before batting .235 in seven games for the Brewers during a late-season recall. “It was one of my best seasons in the U.S.,” Cruz told Ballasteros, “but I wasn’t given the opportunity. I went in September and they flung me around for another month in the major leagues.”

Cruz added he was not aware that Bobby Valentine is a top candidate to replace Macha, stating, “It’s not known yet. Hopefully he’ll like Latinos and give me an opportunity.” Cruz came to the Brewers last winter after being waived by the Pittsburgh Pirates.