LMB Spring season ends, Pericos in Leon for play-in game

Estadio Domingo Santana in Leon

The first 57-game regular season of the Mexican League's unique two-season calendar in 2018 has concluded and the results are little different from last year's full 114-game schedule.  Of the eight teams that qualify for the playoffs (which will be a full, three-tiered affair as before), only one newcomer will be appearing in the postseason.  One other thing that hasn't changed is that a play-in game will be required to determine the fourth and final playoff berth in the South Division.

The Monterrey Sultanes had lost six of their previous seven games before pulling it together to win all three games of a weekend series at Monclova, outlasting charging Tijuana and finish first in the LMB North with a 37-20 record, three-and-a-half games ahead of the defending champion Toros.  TJ won their final four games (including a sweep at Dos Laredos) and seven of their last ten to come in second at 33-23, a half-game ahead of 33-24 Aguascalientes.  Monclova ended up in fourth with a 29-27 mark, avoiding a play-in game by coming in five games ahead of 24-32 Saltillo.  Durango, Union Laguna and Dos Laredos will join the Saraperos on the sidelines for the next month as the postseason plays out.  Monterrey will take on Monclova in one LMB North semifinal while Tijuana battles Aguascalientes in the other.

Similarly in the LMB South, Yucatan's season-long grip on first place came to its logical conclusion, with the Leones winning the final two games of a home series with Quintana Roo to wrap up the campaign with a Liga-best 40-17 record.  The Mexico City Diablos Rojos won eight of their last ten contests to finish second in the division at 36-19, three games behind Yucatan, to return to the postseason after a two-year absence as members of the North Division playing with a roster consisting entirely of Mexican players.  Despite dropping two of three in Merida, the Tigres were a solid third in the South at 33-21 and will play their ancient rivals from the capital city in the LMB South semifinals, starting later this week.

The only remaining point of contention is the matter of who will claim the LMB South's fourth and final postseason seed.  Leon stumbled a bit down the stretch, losing six of their last ten games, but still came in at 27-29 to hold fourth place.  However, Mexican League rules require a fourth-place team to finish at least three games ahead of their nearest competitor and 25-30 Puebla came within a game-and-a-half of the Bravos to force a single-game play-in contest Monday night at 8:15 ET in Leon to determine who'll play Yucatan in the opening round.  The Bravos defeated Veracruz in a similar game last August to qualify for the playoffs. 

All four divisional semis will begin Wednesday.

MEXICAN LEAGUE Spring 2018 final standings
North Division: Monterrey 37-20, Tijuana 33-23, Aguascalientes 33-24, Monclova 29-27, Saltillo 24-32, Durango 24-33, Union Laguna 23-34, Dos Laredos 18-39.
South Division: Yucatan 40-17, Mexico City 36-19, Quintana Roo 33-21, Leon 27-29, Puebla 25-30, Tabasco 24-33, Campeche 22-34, Oaxaca 22-35.


Toros' Rodriguez wins batting title, Hernandez wins pitching crowns

Tijuana Toros left-handed pitcher Carlos Hernandez

Although the defending champion Tijuana Toros ended up second in the LMB North after a sometimes-spotty regular season, they did have two individual players who shone brightly enough to finish atop multiple Liga batting and pitching categories in second baseman Isaac Rodriguez and starting pitcher Carlos Hernandez.

Let's start with the 27-year-old Rodriguez, an Hermosillo native who led all MXL batters with a .394 average after going 17-for-38 (.447) over his final ten games.  The Liga's 2016 Rookie of the Year, Rodriguez also led the loop in hits (89) while coming in second with 52 runs (trailing only Mexico City's Carlos Figueroa's 54 tallies) and a career-high 20 stolen bases (also second to the speedy Figueroa's 23 swipes).  The 5'8" 220-pound Figueroa may be more reminiscent of a bulldog than a greyhound, but the fellow Hermosillo product hit .475 with ten runs and six steals over his final ten contests to finish at .351 for the truncated campaign.

Other season champions in batting categories include Aguascalientes first baseman Felix Perez, who homered five times over his final six games to surge past the troika of Jesse Castillo (Monclova), Luis Juarez (Yucatan) and Ricky Alvarez (Monterrey) for the home run title after the troika all remained stuck at 13 homers over the final week of the regular season.  Castillo, who the Cuban-born Perez replaced at first base with the Rieleros this year, did drive in 57 runs in 56 games to top Juarez on the RBI table by three.  Durango's Daniel Nunez sliced 23 doubles to lead in that category while Puebla's Michael Crouse and Ruben Sosa of Yucatan were tied for the lead in triples with five apiece.  Pericos first sacker Daric Barton won three batting-related crowns as the former Oakland starter turned in a .552 on-base percentage, .669 slugging percentage and 1.221 OPS after riding the Puebla-to-Monclova-to Puebla shuttle since February of last year.

Now let's look at Carlos Hernandez.  The 31-year-old Californian, a two-time Texas League all-star while toiling in the Athletics system, followed up a strong 2017 Mexican League debut with Tijuana (10-2 record, 2.67 ERA over a full season) with an equally-solid second year.  Hernandez went 8-2 in eleven starts to tie Monclova's Josh Lowey for most wins in the MXL, one more than Durango's Tiago Da Silva and Raul Valdez of Saltillo.  Hernandez also came in atop the WHIP table with a 1.02 figure, just .02 ahead of Valdez.  Lowey, who has arguably been the best pitcher in the Liga over the past four years, posted 79 strikeouts in 73.1 innings to easily win that crown while tossing one of three complete-game shutouts across the LMB this season, along with Valdez and Quintana Roo's ageless Pablo Ortega. 

Monterrey's Jorge Reyes is listed with the top ERA in the Liga at 1.97 in 45.2 innings pitched over nine starts, but veteran Jonathan Castellanos of Yucatan leads all pitchers with 57 or more frames with a 2.43 ERA for his 63 entradas of work.  The saves title was one by the 17 of Josh Lueke of Monclova, a former Rangers prospect who also spent time with the Mariners and Rays and spent the past two summers with Japan's Yakult Swallows before signing with Durango in the offseason.  Lueke was shipped from the Generales to the Acereros three weeks into the schedule.


Union Laguna considers sitting out 2018 Fall season, will play instead

Although the Mexican League has trotted out a "new look" this year with the two-schedule format, a new team in Nuevo Laredo (and Laredo) and new ownership in Durango, some old problems remain and one of those appears to be reaching critical mass in Laguna. 

The cities of Torreon and Gomez Palacios have had a long history of hosting LMB teams dating to 1940 with pennants in 1942 and 1950.  However, Laguna's Liga franchises have historically been underfinanced and often run with a seat-of-the-pants approach depending on who the owner du jour is.  As a result, the teams have rarely (if ever) been considered contenders and attendance has typically been middling at best while playing in an 85-year-old ballpark considered antiquated even by LMB standards in a Laguna region that is not considered a garden spot among free agents seeking to play ball south of the border.  In short, while baseball has a long tradition in Laguna, it's always been a tough go.  With all that as a background, the current Algodoneros owners were exploring whether to sit out the LMB's upcoming Fall season before issuing a press release last week stating that Mexican League games would be played at Estadio Revolucion between July and September after all. 

The owners of the Algodoneros are brothers Jose Juan Arellano, who also own the Yucatan Leones to rank among three so-called "time share" owners in the MXL, along with Alfredo Harp Helu (Mexico City and Oaxaca) and Gerardo Benavides ((Monclova and Puebla).  While Harp has been relatively benign as owner of the Diablos and Guerreros, Benavides' constant tinkering with his two teams by constantly transferring player after player between the two teams has drawn much derision in the baseball world and making him the poster child for the perils of syndicate ownership.  The Arellanos have fallen somewhat in between Harp and Benavides as meddling owners go, but their problems in Laguna (most of them self-inflicted) have resulted in what is becoming an untenable situation.

It all seemingly started last June when star first baseman Ricky Alvarez, who was leading the LMB in RBIs as the centerpiece of the then-Vaqueros batting order, was traded from Laguna to Yucatan as part of an eight-player swap that left the Vaqueros gutted and their fans enraged.  Laguna had been drawing over 5,000 aficionados per game prior to the deal to rank among the league leaders in attendance, but the crowds plummeted afterward as fans organized a boycott of games in protest.  The franchise has never recovered since, and things were exacerbated when the Arellanos admitted that their top concern is indeed their Merida team.

The current campaign has seen a team name change from Vaqueros to Algodoneros, but that's the only apparent change.  The Cottoneers finished out of the playoffs after never showing signs of contention while the team drew a middle-of-the-pack 3,067 per opening to Estadio Revolucion as disaffected fans continued to find other things to do.  Speculation became rampant among Mexican baseball cronistas that the financially-plagued team, which has been for sale for months, sought to take the second season off for 2018 as the Arellanos tried to either right the sinking ship and make another go of it in 2019 or concentrate on finding a willing buyer.  Such a move would've created a scheduling nightmare with 15 teams necessitating someone ALWAYS having a three-day bye during a ten-week season.  Whether true or not, the Algodoneros front office saw fit to issue a press release late last week bravely announcing that the team would indeed be back on the field in July for another 57-game schedule, but doubts about the franchise's long-term viability continue unabated.

Although the fans of Laguna do not deserve to lose their team due to owners who've determined their team to be a proverbial "red-headed stepchild," the turmoil in Torreon does create an opportunity for a more-moneyed investor to purchase the franchise from the Arellanos.  MXL teams are typically worth US$3-5 million each, a bargain for a AAA franchise in which a similar team north of the border might sell for at least $20 million (Forbes magazine valued the Sacramento RiverCats at $38 million five years ago while six more International and Pacific Coast League clubs were determined to be worth over $30 million).  Remaining in Torreon and its 9,500-seat ballpark built before FDR was elected to his first term in Washington may be unworkable, however, and if potential buyers seeking to buy and move a Liga team to the USA (hello, Tucson) are thinking it might be time to make an offer, it is.

South playoffs uncertain as final LMB Spring week arrives

Tijuana Toros second baseman Isaac Rodriguez

The final week of the Mexican League's abbreviated Spring 2018 season is upon us and while most participants for next month's eight-team playoffs have been determined, the fourth and final positions in the South Division remain up in the air with six games left on the schedule.

In the LMB North, the Monterrey Sultanes have a 33-18 record to continue their season-long leadership in that division, although Aguascalientes (30-21) has won three straight to pass Tijuana (29-21) for second place.  Monclova (26-24) is in fourth, three games behind Tijuana and four-and-a-half games in front of Durango (22-29), setting up a first-round series with Monterrey while the Rieleros and defending champ Toros are jockeying for home field advantage in their likely division semi set.

Things are much more unsettled in the South, where three teams have a chance for first place while another three are vying for the final playoff berth.  Yucatan holds the best record in the league at 35-16 and have a three-game lead over Mexico City (31-18) while Quintana Roo (30-18) is on the Diablos' heels.  The Tigres visit Cancun next week in what may be the most important series of the 57-game season for both teams.  

Likewise, things are tight in a three-way duel for fourth place.  Leon (24-26) had a solid grip on fourth before dropping eight of their last ten games, allowing Puebla (23-26) to sneak to within a half-game.  Lurking behind the Bravos and Pericos is Tabasco (23-28), a team given no chance to make the postseason when the season opened but winners of seven of their last ten contests to creep to within a game-and-a-half of Leon.  It seems almost certain that the standings will be close enough at season's end to force a single play-in game between the fourth- and fifth-place teams.

Isaac Rodriguez of Tijuana is bouncing back from a mediocre 2017 season in a big way, topping the Liga with a .405 batting average, 83 hits and 46 runs scored while tying Mexico City's Carlos Figueroa for the stolen bases lead at 19 apiece.  The LMB's Rookie of the Year in 2016, the 27-year-old second baseman has to be in the mix for Most Valuable Player honors. There's now a three-way tie for the lead in homers as Monterrey's Ricky Alvarez is knotted up with Monclova's Jesse Castillo and Luis Juarez of Yucatan with 13 longballs each.  Castillo, who joined the Acereros after a big 2017 season with Aguascalientes, is tops with 54 RBIs.

Tijuana starter Carlos Hernandez is making it harder to consider anyone else for Pitcher of the Season.  The Californian leads circuit hurlers with eight wins and a 2.21 earned-run average, with his lone loss coming to Tabasco on April 11.  The two-time Texas League All-Star has allowed just four walks in 53 innings over ten starts for the Toros. Josh Lowey of Monclova has the strikeout trophy ready for engraving with 74 whiffs over 65.1 frames, 21 K's ahead of Raul Valdes of Saltillo.  Aguascalientes closer Anthony Carter's first year in Mexico has gone well, with 13 saves in 14 opportunities to lead the Liga while registering a 2.12 ERA in 27 trips from the Rieleros bullpen.

Yaquis pick ex-MLB infielder Oscar Robles as new manager

New Obregon Yaquis manager Oscar Robles

One year after his retirement as a player, former Los Angeles Dodgers shortstop Oscar Robles has been picked to manage the Obregon Yaquis next winter in the Mexican Pacific League.  Robles went out a winner after playing for the 2017 Mexican League champion Tijuana Toros, for whom he is serving this year as a coach under manager Pedro Mere. The Obregon job will be Robles' first full-time managerial gig, although he won all three games he served as a fill-in for the Navojoa Mayos in 2007-08.

The 42-year-old Robles is a Tijuana native who played high school ball in San Diego before beginning his playing career at 18 as a third round draft pick of the Houston organization in 1994, spending five seasons in the Astros system before returning south of the border to play for Oaxaca and Mexico City between 1999 and 2004.  Robles used some of his signing bonus money from the Astros to buy a new scoreboard for his high school's baseball field. The Diablos sold Robles to Los Angeles for the 2005 season and he rewarded the Dodgers by hitting .272 with 44 runs in 110 games primarily at shortstop and third base.  

However, he only hit .152 in 29 games for the Dodgers in 2006 and ended up spending time in the Padres and Phillies systems before returning a final time to the Mexican League in 2009 for stints in Mexico City and Tijuana over the last nine seasons of his career.  While his major league batting average was a less-than-awe-inspiring .260 for 163 games in three seasons with the Dodgers and Padres, Robles was a very effective .339 hitter in 15 seasons in the LMB (topping the .350 mark five times. He also spent 21 winters playing for four teams in the MexPac.

Robles will replace Miguel Ojeda in Obregon after the Yaquis failed to qualify for the LMP playoffs for the second winter in a row.  His coaching staff will include bench coach Rafael Castaneda, first base coach Leo Valenzuela, third base coach Gerardo Sanchez, batting coach Sergio Gastelum and pitching coach Tavo Alvarez.

The Trouble with Toros

The image of the Tijuana Toros as the Mexican League's model franchise has taken a bit of a hit in 2018.  The first crack in the facade came during training camp, when former Los Angeles Dodgers coach Juan Castro left the franchise after first being hired in the winter as the Toros' director of baseball operations, let go without warning by team owner Alberto Uribe and then brought back as a coach, a job Castro left behind in MLB for when ended up as a disastrous two-month stint in Tijuana before he left in frustration and returned to his home in Phoenix.

Now there's an American fan expressing his own frustration with the Toros organization.  The fan, who wishes to remain anonymous for now, grew up in New York and saw Mickey Mantle play for the Yankees as a youth but now works as a photographer in San Diego, where he's become a Toros fan over the past two years...until now.  The following is the text from an email sent to Baseball Mexico after attempts to address a financial discrepancy that left the fan with no funds in his bank account left him as frustrated as Castro was:

I have been a big fan of this team for 2 years. I have Toros stickers on my car.  I have a Toros jersey and a Toros hat. And whenever I get a chance, no matter where I am (US or MX), I gloat about how great it is to be at a Toros game.  I have been to both Serie del Reys.

So I want to go to last Saturday's game (April 21).  The website would not allow me to buy a ticket so I went to MacroPlaza, which is where I bought tickets last year.  After dealing with Friday afternoon traffic, I walk into the Toros shop and they tell me they no longer sell tickets and I must go to the stadium.  So I drive to Gasmart Stadium. I go to the ticket booth and request 2 tickets, $469 pesos. I like to sit right about 3rd base and close. By the way, I am a big baseball fan...my Dad took me to games at Yankee Stadium when I was a kid. I am old enough to have seen Mickey Mantle play his last 2 seasons.  I have no cash on me (my first mistake), so I use my debit card. The kid doing the transaction seemed new but I did not interfere with his job. His manager was nearby but was not very interested in what this kid was doing. Again it is not my business, so I leave and I go to Soriana's to go food shopping because my fridge is empty.  

I go to the cashier to check out  and my card is denied. But I know that I have money in that account so after contacting Soriana's management to see if it was a problem with their system, I decided to contact my bank.  And guess what? The kid had charged me $469 DOLLARS instead of pesos, so now I am overdrawn, and the overdraft fees roll in. I start a claim with my bank to work on getting my money back.  Mind you, I do not have a dime to my name now and the bank said the investigation can take up to 10 days.

So I take a deep breath and brave the Friday evening traffic in Tijuana.  I get home and start trying to contact the Toros organization. First I send a message through the Toros website.  I have not seen a reply to that yet after 7 days. Then I try the Facebook page and the response is dismal at best.  It was basically (paraphrase from memory), “We are sorry that you had this experience, and I hope it works out with your bank.”   I send a message that I will be at the game that night if they wanted to contact me.

At the game I walked into an "office" of sorts. I meet a kid that works for the organization. He seems very confused and said to meet him after the game.  The game begins and I start to feel sick, like the flu. I leave after the 4th inning and go home. I send the kid a message telling him that I am sorry but I felt sick.  That was Saturday and I have not had a response yet. In the meantime I have rice and beans in my cabinet so until today, when my bank released some of the funds, it had been that for breakfast, lunch and dinner.  

By Sunday my illness is not getting better so I drive to my hospital and they prescribe antibiotics.  Only problem is that I have no money to buy them. I finally bought them today. In the meantime my automatic payment for my cell phone bill is denied with a $35 charge, my YMCA payment denied with a $10 charge, etc. etc.  

Now I must say this.  The fact that they have "stonewalled" me up to now is not a surprise (relating to their complete and utter lack of empathy).  I have had 2 other very specific incidents with them in the past relating to their lack of empathy so this surprised me, and yet it did not surprise me.

By the way, I have had several other "encounters" with the Toros organization.  One was re: a promo they made 2 yrs ago. It was a video with actors portraying Nazis, including Hitler ( it appeared that the Nazis were the Toros).  The were standing over a large map and making a strategy to "wipe out" their opponents. Being a Jew that has lost family to the Holocaust, I was offended and I let them know this.  They responded with sort of a "what's the big deal?" attitude. I tried to explain why it’s a big deal but they did not see my point. I then sent an image, on Holocaust Remembrance Day, of a male forearm with "6,000,000" written on it. They answered, "What is the point of this?” and I told them what the point was, and is.

Another issue was the use of the word "puto" in the stadium, especially against the opposing team.  I asked if they knew anything about good sportsmanship. They did not answer that. And I mentioned the fine by FIFA against the Mexican National Team for the use of this word.  No response on this. And children, in the stadium, are chanting it with the adults. This is a family gathering at the games..so why???

The last issue was with their #1 mascot named Chango.  Chango does a lot of interacting with the crowd but the one thing that he constantly does (that I think is inappropriate) is his very sexual "pelvic thrust.”  He does it a lot and the young kids try to copy him. They never answered me on this issue.

It sounds like there are a few answers for the Toros to come up with.  Regarding the ticket charge issue, to quote Judge Marilyn Milian from TV's People's Court program, "PAY the man!"  Concerning the Nazi references, where to begin? The fan says he's considering contacting the Anti-Defamation League about it.

Sultanes sweep TJ, Tecos to take commanding North lead

Monterrey Sultanes pitcher Marco Tovar

Leo German and Chris Roberson led off the sixth inning with back-to-back doubles to break a scoreless tie as the Monterrey Sultanes went on to beat Dos Laredos, 4-2, in Mexican League action Sunday to complete a three-game sweep of the Tecolotes.  The Sultanes had a 6-0 week after going into Tijuana last Tuesday and winning all three games against the defending champion Toros and are now a Liga-best 32-13 while holding a five-game advantage over second-place Aguascalientes with just two weeks left in the LMB's Spring 2018 regular season.  Tijuana is third at 24-20 while Monclova holds fourth at 22-22, a game and a half ahead of 21-25 Durango.

Tecos starter Alexis Candelario carried a no-hitter through five innings in search of his first win of the campaign before German broke up the no-no bid and Roberson ruined his shutout.  Roberson eventually came in to score on an Agustin Murillo single while Sultanes newcomer Sebastian Elizalde plated Monterrey's fourth and final run of the frame on a single by Yadir Drake, who ended the inning when he was thrown out trying to stretch his hit to a double.  Dos Laredos did score a pair of runs off reliever Manny Acosta on consecutive hits by Gilberto Galaviz and Gustavo Nunez in the top of the seventh to shave their deficit to 4-2, but the Tecos went hitless the rest of the way as the border team went on to drop their eighth straight game while Monterrey conversely won their eighth straight.  Sultanes starter Marco Tovar tossed six shutout innings to go to 6-2 on the season while Candelario fell to 0-4 for Dos Laredos.

The bigger series for the Sultanes came earlier in the week, when they won all three games in Tijuana.  Tovar was splendid in winning Tuesday's 2-1 opener by scattering five hits and allowing one run for the victory, with Ramon Rios' solo homer in the top of the seventh the difference-maker in that one.  Monterrey won Wednesday's contest, 6-0, in a three-hit shutout as Murillo socked a three-run homer and starter Zach Dodson allowed just two singles over six frames before completing the sweep with a 3-2 win Thursday night as Roberson scored the go-ahead run on a Ricky Alvarez groundout in the top of the tenth.  Despite the high profile of the visitors and importance of the series, fewer than 16,000 fans attended the midweek three-game set at Estadio Gasmart.  The Toros are averaging 10,595 fans over 24 home games to make the relatively low turnout an eye-raiser but, as we'll detail next week, all may not be well in fan relations in Tijuana (at least with one fan in particular).

While Monterrey is five games ahead in the LMB North standings with 12 games left on the schedule, things are considerably tighter in the South.  Yucatan is 31-14 to hold a one-game advantage over 29-14 Quintana Roo while the 28-17 Mexico City Diablos Rojos are three games out of the lead.  Leon remains in fourth place at 23-22, although Puebla swept a three-game home set with Campeche to narrow the Bravos' lead for the final playoff berth to two games after the Pericos were four games out on Friday.

Puebla first baseman Daric Barton has taken over the lead in the LMB batting race with a .418 average, sixteen points ahead of Puebla's Sergio Perez.  Monterrey's Alvarez still leads the Liga with 13 homers despite not hitting a longball in over ten games, allowing Jesse Castillo of Monclova to catch up.  Castillo has homered in three of his last four games and now tops the circuit with 48 RBI's, two more than Alvarez.  Tijuana second baseman Isaac Rodriguez, the league's 2016 Rookie of the Year, has stolen 19 bases in 22 attempts to take the lead in that category over teammate Justin Greene, who's been out of the lineup since May 3.  Rodriguez had stolen a combined 22 bases over 171 games prior to this year.

Carlos Hernandez of Tijuana continued his great season Friday by going six shutout innings in Monclova to post his league-leading seventh win against one loss in a 3-1 Toros triumph.  Hernandez' 2.28 ERA is second on the table only to Yucatan's Jose Samayoa at 2.22.  Josh Lowey on Monclova is running away with the strikeouts title, whiffing 67 batters in 59 innings to take an 18-K lead over Saltillo's Raul Valdes.  Aguascalientes' Anthony Carter and Josh Lueke of Monclova are tied at the top with 11 saves each, one more than closers Maikel Cleto of Laguna and Monterrey's Wirfin Obispo.

A pair of midweek series with playoff implications will start Tuesday when Puebla visits Leon and Tijuana hosts Aguascalientes.  A couple of important sets are slated for next weekend when Aguascalientes visits Monterrey and Yucatan heads to Cancun to take on the Tigres as the top two teams in each division go head-to-head.

Firing season opens: Tecos toss Castro, Olmecas oust Jimenez

Former Dos Laredos Tecolotes manager Eddie Castro

Despite the pressure of winning within an abbreviated 57-game schedule this year, Mexican League owners showed remarkable restraint by not firing any managers during the first month the the Spring 2018 season.  However, no deed (good or bad) goes unpunished for long in the LMB as both the Dos Laredos Tecolotes and Tabasco Olmecas have made changes at the top in May.

Last Monday, the Tecos let veteran skipper Eddie Castro go after the Venezuelan had taken the team to a 15-24 record in the LMB Spring 2018 season.  Former Monterrey manager and big league shortstop Felix Fermin was tabbed to take over.  Castro had managed the club in Veracruz (when they were the Rojos del Aguila) since 2014, leading them to a playoff berth last year but otherwise putting together a less-than-imposing 206-273 record for the perpetually-undermanned team.  Castro has also managed in Tabasco, Puebla and Minatitlan.  Under Fermin, who managed in both Carmen and Monterrey before not being rehired by the Sultanes following last season, the Tecos have gone 0-6 after being swept in Aguascalientes and Monterrey last week and are currently in last place in the LMB North.  

Also on Monday of last week, the Tabasco Olmecas said goodbye to manager Alfonso "Houston" Jimenez.  A former MLB shortstop like Fermin, Jimenez was sent packing after taking the Olmecas to a 14-25 record.  This was the Mexico City native's second go-round with the Villahermosa squad.  He was 48-56 with Tabasco in 2015 and his recently-ended stint with the team was his eleventh managerial job in the Mexican League since he began managing the Saltillo Saraperos in 2009 and his fifth gig since 2014.  As of May 14, one week after he was released, Jimenez is still listed on the Olmecas website as their manager, leading one to wonder if their webmaster wasn't also fired.  Whoever is now managing Tabasco led them to five wins in six games last week, including both ends of a Sunday doubleheader in Oaxaca.  Much more of that and the team might actually release his name.

Female umpire to make Mexican League debut Tuesday

Mexican League debutante umpire Luz Alicia Gordoa

Mexican baseball history will be made Tuesday night when the Mexico City Diablos Rojos open a three-game series against Oaxaca at Estadio Fray Nano.  Luz Alicia Gordoa will be making her debut as a Mexican League umpire, becoming the first distaff arbiter in the LMB's 93-year history.  

The Sinaloa native made her professional umpiring debut last winter when she worked a few games in the Mexican Winter League, the LMB-affiliated winterball circuit, starting with a November 23 contest between Salamanca and Celayo.  The 41-year-old Gordoa's experience lies more in officiating soccer matches, which she did for two decades before giving baseball a shot.  She also played softball for 20 years before turning to umpiring the past five.  She was joined in the LIM by 34-year-old Paulina Barajas Castro of Mexico City, where she worked games in the Liga Olmeca youth baseball organization now headed by Carlos Fragoso as well as the Liga Lindavista and Liga Maya before joining Gordoa at the MLB Academy near Monterrey last fall.  

While Gordoa will be the first woman to umpire a Mexican League game, female umps have worked games in Minor League Baseball since 1972, when Bernice Gera worked one game in the Class A New York-Penn League before quitting after other umpires reportedly said they would not work with her.  A heated discussion with Auburn Phillies manager Nolan Campbell during the game didn't make Gera feel any more welcome.  However, that opened the door for future women umpires in MiLB.  Christine Wren worked in the Class A Northwest League in the mid-Seventies but the most notable was Pam Postema, who began umpiring in the late-Seventies and eventually spent 13 seasons working in the minors, including six seasons at the AAA level.  She umpired an MLB exhibition game in 1989, but was not rehired by the AAA Alliance following that season.  Postema then filed a sexual discrimination lawsuit against Major League Baseball that was settled out of court, but otherwise left the game to work as a trucker, factory worker and welder.  She wrote a 1992 book, You Gotta Have Balls to Make It in This League, in which she said, "I'll never understand why it's easier for a female to become an astronaut or cop or firefighter or soldier or Supreme Court justice than it is to become a major league umpire."

Leon win streak snapped at 11; Bravos fourth in LMB South

Leon Bravos pitcher Dustin Crenshaw

Danny Vasquez' two-run single in the top of the second inning gave Campeche a 4-3 lead in Leon and the Piratas pulled away to an 8-3 Mexican League win over the Bravos Sunday afternoon at Parque Domingo Santana.  The defeat ended an eleven-game win streak for the surprising Bravos, who have moved into the fourth and final playoff slot in the LMB South with a 22-17 record, three games behind third-place Mexico City but four games up on defending division champion Puebla with three weeks remaining in the Liga's Spring 2018 season.

Leon had posted their eleventh straight victory Saturday night with a 5-3 triumph over the visiting Piratas when consecutive RBI singles by Junior Lake and Quincy Latimore in the bottom of the seventh broke a 3-all tie and gave Eder Llamas the win out of the bullpen.  Llamas was one of seven relievers to follow starter Dustin Crenshaw, who tossed 5.1 innings for the Bravos and gave up two runs (one earned) on six hits and no walks, striking out two Campeche batsmen.  Leon was 11-16 when they began their skein on Tuesday, April 24 with a 5-1 win at Tabasco despite batting only 2-for-12 with runners in scoring position.

Manager Luis Carlos Rivera's team is second in the league with a .322 batting average (trailing only Durango's .329) while the Bravos' 48 homers tops the loop.  Leon has three batters in the top ten: outfielder Felix Pie (sixth at .392), shortstop Amadeo Zazueta (eighth at .381) and second baseman Niko Vasquez (ninth at .376) while Pie is tied for third in homers with nine.  The Bravos' pitching has been middle-of-the-road with a 5.08 ERA, ninth in the 16-team league, although Crenshaw has done well so far with a 3-1 record and a 3.30 ERA over eight starts, winning the first game of the streak in Villahermosa and picking up another W five nights later in Campeche.  Leon barely snuck into the playoffs last year in their debut season, but with Puebla fading badly (losing nine of their last ten) and only 21 games left in the abbreviated regular season, the Bravos are sitting pretty.

While Leon has zoomed past Puebla for fourth in the LMB South, there remains a spirited three-team battle for the division lead, with Yucatan (27-12) holding a one-game lead over another surprising team, Quintana Roo (25-12) while Mexico City (25-14) is two games out of first.  The Tigres, who were not expected to contend this year under new manager Tim Johnson, have won eight of their last ten to vault past the Diablos Rojos into second heading into a crucial three-game set against Leon opening Tuesday in Cancun.  In the LMB North, Monterrey (26-13) won two of three games in Dos Laredos over the weekend to maintain a 3-5-game lead over defending Liga champs Tijuana (22-16).  The Sultanes topped the Tecolotes, 8-4, Sunday at Uni-Trade Stadium in Laredo as DH Yadir Drake came one homer shy of hitting for the cycle, scoring twice and driving in two more runs.  Aguascalientes (22-17) and Monclova (20-18) hold the final two Zona Norte playoff berths with none of the division's other four teams within five games of the .500 mark.

First-year Durango first baseman Dustin Geiger, a former Cubs and Marlins farmhand, leads the Mexican League with a .408 batting average, six points ahead of Puebla first sacker Daric Barton.  Monterrey's Ricky Alvarez is tops with 13 homers and tied with Tijuana's Cyle Hankerd for the RBI lead at 41 while Hankerd's Toros teammate Justin Greene's 18 stolen bases leads the league despite Greene only playing twice since April 24.  Pitcher Carlos Hernandez (also of Tijuana) pitched six innings in the Toros' 7-1 home win over Saltillo Saturday to post his sixth victory of the Spring, best in the LMB.  Yucatan's Jose Samayoa's 2.17 ERA leads all starters, Josh Lowey of Monclova looks like a lock for another strikeout title with 58 (17 more than his nearest rival) and former MLBer Josh Lueke of the Acereros has ten saves to top Liga closers in that category.

Coming up this week is a huge series in Tijuana, where the Toros host LMB North-leading Monterrey in a three-game set starting Tuesday.  Next weekend's top series will be in Cancun when the Tigres host Mexico City in a renewal of Mexican baseball's oldest rivalry, which has been spiced up by the Rookiegate scandal and Tigres owner Fernando Valenzuela's open frustration over the Liga office's "What Me Worry?" response.


First MLB no-hitter in Mexico tossed during series in Monterrey

Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Walker Buehler

As if there wasn't enough history being made last weekend in Monterrey, where Major League Baseball played its first regular season games since 1999, Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Walker Buehler combined with three relievers to toss the first MLB no-hitter outside the USA and Canada on Friday night in the Dodgers' 4-0 win over San Diego at Estadio Monterrey.  Five no-hitters had been spun in Montreal or Toronto previously.

Buehler, a 23-year-old righty who was the Dodgers' 2015 first-round draft pick, pitched the first six hitless innings for Los Angeles, striking out eight and walking three to go to 2-0 on the season.  He was followed in order by relievers Adam Cimber, Kazuhisa Makita and Phil Maton, each of whom contributing a hitless frame to seal the no-no for the Dodgers, who then lost the last two games of the series.  San Diego evened the set Saturday with a 7-4 triumph behind two-run homers by first baseman Eric Hosmer and catcher Rafael Lopez, then took Sunday's rubber match by shutting out the defending National League champs, 4-0, as starter Eric Lauer combined with three relievers to scatter eight hits while Hosmer homered once more with a two-run shot in the bottom of the fifth.

While Buehler and his bullpen mates stole the lion's share of attention for the series on Friday night, it ended up being three games that Padres third baseman Christian Villanueva would probably just as soon put in the taillights.  Villanueva, a Guadalajara native who has received much early notice as a potential Rookie of the Year candidate, went 0-for-11 over the series and committed two errors in the field Sunday.  Villanueva has gone 1-for-20 in May to bring his season batting average, which stood at .355 on April 22, down to .265 after Sunday's contest.

The series, which sold out in less than two hours, was well-received by fans and media alike as a total of 65,116 attendees in 22,000-seat Estadio Monterrey.  The success of the Mexico Series brought out calls for a future MLB team south of the border, either in Monterrey or Mexico City.  MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said during Friday's ESPN2 broadcast that both Mexico and Montreal are potential candidates for expansion teams, but some Mexican baseball columnists quickly pointed out that the country's political and financial instability would be tough obstacles to overcome and that it's a lot harder to get people to attend 81 home games as opposed to a single three-game series.


Mazatlan Venados tab Joe Alvarez as new skipper

New Mazatlan Venados manager Joe Alvarez

The Mazatlan Venados front office decided after last winter that one season with Daniel Fernandez as manager of the Mexican Pacific League team was enough and that a change was needed at the helm.  After a months-long search, the Venados last week introduced Cuban-born Joe Alvarez as their pilot for the 2018-19 LMP campaign.

The 61-year-old Alvarez will make his LMP managerial debut with Mazatlan this October, but he is no stranger to the MexPac after previously serving as a coach with the Obregon Yaquis under Eddie Diaz.  However, Alvarez' Mexican baseball bonafides have been mostly been built in the Mexican League.  After winning Gulf Coast League pennants in 1986 and 1987 managing the Dodgers' Rookie league entry and a Florida State League title with Vero Beach in 1990, the former minor league infielder spent time in the Rays and Phillies organizations before taking over in Puebla on an interim basis in 2014 after Houston Jimenez was fired during the season.  Alvarez then guided the Pericos to second place in the LMB South and won playoff series against Campeche and Quintana Roo before falling to Mexico City in the Serie del Rey for the Liga pennant.

He went on to serve as a coach with the Korea Baseball Organization's SK Wyverns before returning to Mexico last summer as manager in Durango, leading the Generales to a .500 record playing the first month on the road while their ballpark was undergoing renovations.  The team eventually fell victim to injuries and front office mismanagement and finished seventh in the LMB South with a 43-66 record.  Alvarez could hardly be blamed for the Generales' misfortunes, but he was not rehired after the 2017 season.

Alvarez, who was born in Manzanillo, Cuba but attended high school in New Jersey before making his pro baseball debut in 1974 in the Yankees organization (later playing in the Astros and Orioles systems), takes over a Mazatlan team that finished the regular season with a 37-31 record and qualified for the postseason under Fernandez before falling to defending MexPac champion Mexicali in the first round, four games to two.