DIAZ STEPS DOWN AS OAXACA MANAGER

Baseball Mexico’s 2010 Mexican League Manager of the Year, Eddie Diaz, has resigned from his job as pilot of the Oaxaca Guerreros to take a full-time position scouting for the Tampa Bay Rays.

The 47-year-old native of San Pedro de Macoris, Dominican Republic broke into pro baseball with the Yankees organization in 1980 when he played both pitcher and catcher as a 16-year-old in the rookie Gulf Coast League (he was 2-2 with a 2.30 in 17 relief appearances and batted an even .200). After converting to catcher with Atlanta's GCL team in 1981 and hitting .256, Diaz was out of organized baseball for a season before spending two more years as a catcher in the Cleveland Indians system in 1983 and 1984.

As a manager in Oaxaca this season, Diaz led the Guerreros to an 18-game turnaround from a 42-63 record in 2009 to a 60-45 mark last summer, finishing second in the LMB South both halves and a division finals berth against Puebla despite a season in which the Guerreros had a home series cancelled and faced the possibility of a mid-season move out of Oaxaca due to a workers strike at the college-owned ballpark where the team plays its home games.

Diaz will continue to manage the Obregon Yaquis in the Mexican Pacific League this winter.