LMB LOOKS AT JULY START; LMP OPENER IN NOVEMBER?

Mexican League season may be held up until July

One of Mexico's most well-connected baseball writers is saying that the Mexican League is eyeing a July start to a 2020 regular season that would run into September, followed by a postseason that might push the winterball Mexican Pacific League's season opener into November.

Puro Beisbol editor Fernando Ballesteros, who has well-placed sources in both of Mexico's top leagues, wrote last week that reports from three LMB clubs indicate the country's senior circuit is hoping to get their Wuhan virus-delayed campaign underway in July, assuming the pandemic is under control by then. The federal government's extension of their "safe distance" edict to May 30 effectively scuttled the Liga's hoped-for May 11 starting date after their initial April 6 debut in Monclova was postponed.

The tentatively-planned Mexican League schedule would end in September, with a full right-team playoff calendar potentially ending with an October 31 Game Seven of the Serie del Rey championship matchup. According to another Ballesteros source in the Mexican Pacific League, "The LMP would be starting on November 1; that's the most current scenario that comes to us today and it would be very feasible to approve it." Ballesteros notes that the only previous time winter baseball on the west coast started in November was in 1958-59, when the former Liga Sonora began their 36-game regular season on November 14.

In his Zona Contacto column, Ballesteros advises LMB owners to not "fall into despair" and make "irreparable mistakes," like the appointment of the "worst president in the history of the Liga," Javier Salinas. He said one potential format being discussed would involve three groups of five or six teams each playing regular season games behind closed doors in Mexico City, Monterrey and Merida, a scenario Ballesteros says would result in "absolutely pure losses" for the league, which does not have the television revenue that would allow leagues in Taiwan and South Korea to use a similar setup.

In an interview with Septima Entrada, LMB president Horacio de la Vega told writer Irving Furlong, "For the moment, we are not contemplating being able to do the season behind closed doors. We depend on the attendance of people and need the potential of making internal sales at our stadiums. In other words, it's a requirement for us." De la Vega did allow that everything depends on health contingencies in Mexico due to the Wuhan virus: "We'll have to explore it. It can be a temporary solution, too, that we start like this and then migrate to another situation. At the moment it's not one of the situations we're considering but, well, we're going to see how things develop."

Mex Pac schedule to be delayed until November?

Ballesteros added that the LMB is seeking to sanction anyone who leaks information to the media, which he said was nothing new: "They have tried this for years and the more they pressure their associates, the faster it flows and from new fronts."

According the the Puro Beisbol editor, several LMB club owners wanted their season to open on the planned April 6 date a month-and-a-half ago, although Northern Division teams were opposed, while Mex Pac owners and president Omar Canizales watched “comfortably” from the sidelines. Now, however, the LMP calendar is in danger for two reasons: There is no exact date for controlling the Wuhan virus and the Mexican League is now sending signals that their season may extend as far as November. The closest the two leagues came to colliding schedules was in 2018, when that Fall's Serie del Rey ended on October 9, three days before the Mex Pac regular season opened. This year, the LMP season could potentially begin one day after a Game Seven in the LMB's championship series.

As a result, the Mex Pac may have to expand the limit of foreigners to eight per club while opening up the often-contentious issue of defining players with dual nationality to ensure each of their ten teams have enough players to start the season with.

EL TITAN NOT RULING OUT PLAYING IN MEXICAN LEAGUE THIS YEAR

Adrian Gonzalez, Sergio Romo celebrate WBC win

El Fildeo reports that former major league All-Star first baseman Adrian Gonzalez is reportedly willing to consider playing in the Mexican League this year once the season gets underway.

In an interview with Marca Clara reporter Guillermo Garcia, Gonzalez said he was "looking at the possibility of going to play in the Mexican League this year to see how I felt in order to possibly play in the first Olympic Games for Mexico." The Mexican National team qualified for the country's first appearance in baseball competition at the Olympics last winter in the WBSC Premier12 tournament. However, the Summer Games in Tokyo were postponed until next year due to ongoing concerns over the Wuhan virus.

El Titan has not played professionally since June 10, 2018 as a member of the New York Mets, going hitless in a 2-0 win against the crosstown rival Yankees before being released the following day. By then, he had collected 2,050 hits, 317 homers and 1,202 RBIs to augment a .287 batting average over a 15-year ML career that began with the Texas Rangers in 2004. Gonzalez appeared in five All-Star Games, took part in four postseasons, won four Gold Gloves for fielding at the initial hassock and was given two Silver Slugger awards as the best-hitting first baseman in MLB. He finished in the Top 20 among MVP vote-getters eight times, coming in fourth in 2010 (when he hit .298 with 31 homers and 101 RBIs for San Diego that season).

Although he was born in San Diego and attended high school in nearby Chula Vista, the 37-year-old Gonzalez spent many years being raised across the border in Tijuana by parents David and Alba and is qualified by his heritage (David grew up playing baseball in Obregon, Sonora) to play for Mexican national teams. Brother Edgar, who grew up with him in Tijuana, played second base in MLB with the San Diego Padres and in NPB with the Tokyo Yomiuri Giants and managed in the Mexican Pacific League before being named by Mexican president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador to head Probeis, an AMLO-created federal agency charged with revitalizing baseball across the country from the grass-roots level up. Adrian now lives in La Jolla, another San Diego suburb, with wife Betsy and two daughters.

Edgar, David and Adrian Gonzalez in Mazatlan

Gonzalez has represented Mexico in World Baseball Classics in 2006, 2009, 2013 and 2017. Although it's been nearly two years since his last competitive game, he told Marca Clara that he's always hoped to return to the diamond someday and wanted to play Olympic baseball for Mexico. "It's something that I've had in mind," he said, "and it's one of the reasons why I haven't retired." Gonzalez acknowledges that he'll have to earn his place on the roster next summer in Tokyo. "It's not something where I say, 'They have to put me on the team.' Not at all. I have to go to the Mexican League to show that I deserve to be on that team. And if I don't deserve it, I don't want to be on that team."

If Gonzalez does indeed play in the Mexican League this summer, it would mark the first time he's appeared in the LMB but he is no stranger to playing baseball south of the border. He and brother Edgar played side-by-side for several winters with the Mazatlan Venados of the Mexican Pacific League.

TESTS: MEXICAN OLYMPIC BASEBALL CANDIDATES OUT OF SHAPE

Bartolo Colon should fit in with Monclova

The Monclova Acereros' offseason signing of Bartolo Colon points to something I'd read in a book years ago that drew my attention and sympathies to Mexican baseball: As long as you can get the job done there, it doesn't matter how old you are or what shape you're in. Colon stands as both Exhibits A and B for that axiom. While his age and body-type were what exemplified him to many fans during the latter part of his Major League Baseball pitching career, he will not stand out in either regard in the Mexican League.

However, while age is indeed becoming a relative thing ("40 is the new 30" and all that), a recent essay by Proceso writer Beatriz Pereyra shares the concerns of a highly-respected advisor to Probeis director Edgar Gonzalez about both the lack of muscle mass and the high percentage of fat among 35 baseball players listed on the Mexican National Team's pre-selection roster for the Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo, postponed until 2021 due to Wuhan virus concerns in Japan.

"I did not expect good results," says advisor Miguel Valdes, a longtime top figure in Cuban baseball, "but I did not expect them to be so bad."

Of the 80 players currently on the Olympic pre-selection roster, 17 Mexican nationals and 18 Mexican-Americans showed up for physical testing in 23 different categories held in late February at the National Center for Talent Development and High Performance. Areas covered included physical, anthropometric, body composition and psychological variables, with Pereyra depicting the overall results as "deplorable" and "devastating."

According to the report obtained by Proceso, 20 of the 35 players showed a high percentage of fat and poor muscle development, thus creating a negative imbalance between fat and muscle ("characteristic of sedentary people, or endomorphs"). Twenty-one players had body fat that far exceeds what's considered optimal in baseball while 22 exhibited poor muscle development. Player diets were considered "inadequate" in all 35 players tested.

The report suggests that pitchers should have 14 percent body fat, corner players (catchers, first and third basemen, left and rightfielders) should be between 11 and 12 percent and middle fielders (shortstops, second basemen and centerfielders) will optimally show up to 10 percent body fat.

Miguel Valdes learned belt-tightening in Cuba

"It doesn't surprise me so much that it shows there are overweight pre-selected players," Valdes told Pereyra. "I AM troubled by the fact that in baseball, the percentages of fat are high compared to other sports and that in Mexicans, the average is above 20 percent. There are some who exceed 30 percent, which is equivalent to having about 15 kilos (33 pounds) of pure fat.” He then asked rhetorically, “How can they play with all that weight? There is no efficiency for high performance. High-performance teams compete with between 11 and 14 percent of collective fat."

Valdes spent 35 years managing the Cuban National Team before defecting in 2002 along with his 14-year-old son and star pitcher Jose Contreras, who went on to appear in a World Series and All-Star Game as a member of the Chicago White Sox. He signed on last September with Probeis (aka Office of the Presidency for the Promotion and Development of Baseball), a creation of Mexican president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador headed by former MLB and NPB infielder Gonzalez.

“I won 151 games in a row with the Cuban team," Valdes notes. "Olympic Games, Pan American Games, Central American Games, World Cups...everything that is possible to win. I give credit in a large percentage to what we achieved with functional capacity. They are the sciences applied to sport, in addition to the team's talent."

According to Valdes, if Mexico wins an Olympic medal, it will not be by luck or chance: "We can compete at the highest level if we do things right. We have to get to the Olympics better prepared than the other teams, with superior parameters, and that is not easy.

"But a medal can be built. Yes, it can be built!"

LMB PRESIDENT SAYS LIGA MAY PLAY UP TO 84 GAMES

The president of the Mexican League has denied a media report that the loop is considering an option of playing a 30-game regular season schedule in August before heading into an eight-team playoff in September. ESPN Deportes writer Jose Maria Garrido cited unnamed sources reportedly close to LMB affairs that the Liga was considering playing 30 games in as many days beginning August 1, followed by the usual three-tiered playoffs that would run from early September into mid-October.

In an interview with the Septima Entrada website, LMB president Horacio de la Vega flatly denied Garrido's claim. “There are scenarios to be able to have an 84-game season, 64 games and possibly much shorter scenarios,” de la Vega stated. “Possibly we will have a single round. Instead of 102 games, we'd do half the season, which is 51 games.” De la Vega added the 51-game schedule would be a last option starting in August, a prospect that would potentially mean playing into November if the full playoff format is carried through.

Such a schedule would undoubtedly create hardships for the winter Mexican Pacific League, whose regular season typically gets underway in mid-October. The LMP faced a similar situation in 2018 when the Mexican League played two separate 57-game seasons with full playoffs, the brainchild of former president Javier Salinas. The result was disastrous for both leagues, with tepid fan interest in an LMB Fall campaign that stretched to within three days of the season openers for the Mex Pac, where teams were forced to bring in more imports in the absence of domestic players who needed time to rest before playing out west. Many Mexican players didn't join their LMP teams until the second half began in November.

Action at a Mexican League game in Tijuana

De la Vega, who says he has remained in contact with LMP leader Omar Canizales, may have seen an already difficult situation worsen. Mexican president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said last week that schools and businesses may reopen on May 17 in 979 communities with no confirmed cases of the Wuhan virus while another 463 municipalities may see restrictions lifted on June 1. However, Dr. Hugo Lopes-Gatell, Mexico's Wuhan virus czar, also stated last week that Mexico City may not see similar restrictions lifted until June 25. The country's current physical distancing policy will continue through at least May 30.

With a shorter season now a certainty, the Mexican League is exploring an abbreviated format during which teams only face opponents within their own division while adding more doubleheaders to the schedule to maximize the number of games played in a tighter timeframe. However, de la Vega cautions, “we are working hard because we all want baseball to return, but first we have to be healthy for that to happen.”

JALISCO OWNERS MAKE PITCH TO MLB FOR MEXICO SERIES GAMES

The 2019 Mexico Series was played in Monterrey

One of the many casualties to the 2020 baseball season due to the Wuhan virus outbreak was the Mexican Series in Mexico City, that would've pitted the Arizona Diamondbacks and San Diego Padres in a two-game Major League Baseball regular season series at Estadio Alfredo Harp Helu, scheduled for last week. The set is to be rescheduled to be played in Phoenix if and when the MLB season begins.

Mexico's capital city will miss out on its first opportunity to host big league games that count in the standings, although numerous exhibition contests have been held there in the past. The pandemic also put a halt to off-field efforts to bring the Mexico Series to Guadalajara in 2021. “The reality is that before the pandemic, we were very advanced in that negotiation,” Jalisco Charros co-owner Salvador Quirarte says. “Very advanced. But right now, I don't really know what's going to happen.”

Quirarte was spearheading talks with MLB to play one of two planned Mexico Series for 2021 at Estadio Charros, but the virus has knocked the entire baseball world off its axis and MLB's uncertainty moving forward while readjusting its calendar casts future Mexico Series plans into doubt for the time being.

“This year it was Mexico City's turn,” Quirarte notes, “and we were very strong in raising our hands for 2021, but this is going to totally change our plans.” Quirarte points to pending negotiations between MLB and its players union, whose current Collective Bargaining Agreement will expire next year.

Estadio Charros in Guadalajara

Despite the bump in the road, the Charros team president says efforts will eventually continue to bring big league baseball to Mexico's second-largest city (and home to the country's largest population of American expats). During a recent press conference introducing newly-acquired third baseman Christian Villanueva, Quirarte told the assembled media, “Be sure that we will continue working and fighting to bring important international events to Guadalajara, to the home of the Jalisco Charros.”

Given the past proactive efforts of both Quirarte and co-owner Armando Navarro, those are not idle words. Since a group of investors led by the twosome purchased the original Guasave Algodoneros in 2014 and moving the Mexican Pacific League team to Guadalajara (where the newly-christened Charros purchased and reconfigured a stadium built to host the 2011 Pan American Games), the city has hosted group play for the 2017 World Baseball Classic, the 2018 Caribbean Series and Premier12 tournament first round games last November. It would be no surprise if Quirarte and Navarro had also placed a bid for the WBSC Under-23 Baseball World Cup scheduled later this year, although that tournament was eventually awarded to two other LMP cities, Obregon and Los Mochis.

LIGA, MEX PAC BOTH ADD RULE CHANGES TO SPEED UP GAMES

Does anybody really know what time it is?

As baseball games have progressively gotten longer over the years, fans have exponentially increased the volume of their complaints regarding the time required to watch nine innings (although conce$$ionaire$ have remained $trangely $ilent). Both the Mexican and Mexican Pacific leagues are responding by instituting rule changes for their respective upcoming seasons to hopefully speed things up a bit.

The Mexican League announced in February that the 2020 season will see pitchers required to throw to at least three batters before they can be replaced on the mound, an attempt to end game stoppages by revolving-door relievers who face only one batsman before they're replaced by one of their bullpen mates. Exceptions will be granted if the umpire crew chief determines that a pitcher was injured prior to throwing to his third batter.

Mound visits will be limited this season as well, with managers and coaches limited to six such trips from the dugout per nine innings that do not result in a pitcher being replaced on the hill. In the event a game goes into extra innings, teams will be allowed one mound visit per inning without a pitcher being replaced. Visits that DO result in a hurler being pulled will not count against their team's allowed total.

Finally, batboys for LMB teams will be allowed on the field in foul territory during play, theoretically to expedite the collection of bats dropped near home plate by hitters who leave the batter's box down the first-base line after hitting the ball.

Likewise, the Mex Pac is instituting rule changes meant to shave minutes off their games during the 2020-21 season. One that's similar to LMB changes is a limit to the number of mound visits by managers and coaches, although the number of allowable trips has not been set.

Intentional walks will no longer require four wide pitches in the LMP, but rather a signal from a team's manager that awards a batter first base without facing a ball.

Turn and face the strange ch-ch-ch-changes

A pitch clock will be used for the first time in 2020-21, although the time allowed between pitches had not been determined when the rule changes were approved by the LMP Assembly of Presidents earlier this year. Pitch clocks with 20-second countdowns have been used affiliated minor leagues in North America for a few years now, although it's unknown whether a ball has ever been awarded to a batter because time had expired between pitches. During Pacific Coast League games in Tacoma, for instance, it has become routine for the pitch clock to be turned off from the press box whenever it counts down to the five-second mark, thus making enforcement all but impossible even if it's desired.

One change that may get the most resistance from people in the stands at LMP games is the “sudden-death” rule, in which a baserunner will be placed on second base at the beginning of each half-inning once a game goes into the 12^th inning. It's a rule that has been used in amateur baseball and softball, mostly at youth league levels, and in some international competitions, but this will be the first time a professional league in Mexico tries it during the regular season (although the Mex Pac office says it will be discarded during the postseason).

ANOTHER LMB DELAY, ESPN PREDICTS 30-GAME SEASON

The Mexican League is delaying the opening of its 2020 season for a second time. LMB president Horacio de la Vega made the announcement last Thursday in an official statement issued from the league's Mexico City offices.

After postponing the LMB's April 6 season opener in which the defending champion Monclova Acereros were to host Monterrey, de la Vega had set a May 11 target date to start the season with hopes of playing a 102-game schedule as originally intended. Instead, de la Vega said, "Clearly we will not be in a position to open on May 11, but we are prepared and coordinated to start the 2020 season during the subsequent months and with as many games as possible; contemplating different game roles, which are feasible according to logistics, operation, competition and entertainment."  No target date was given in the statement.

De la Vega touched on a number of other issues, including compensation for players, coaches and umpires during the inactivity. "The team owners have made significant efforts to provide short term support to the members of the respective rosters so they can face the waiting time in a dignified way to start the 2020 season," he said. "At the same time, the LMB has arranged to support the umpires so that together and as a team we all get ahead." In hs Out 27 column, writer David Braverman said that de la Vega was long on words but lacking in details.

Cancun's Estadio Beto Avila to sit empty a little longer

The LMB's new leader, entering his first season at the helm after replacing Javier Salinas last November, said he's been maintaining contact with his Mexican Pacific League counterpart, Omar Canizales, to minimize overlapping schedules between the two leagues. De la Vega has likewise maintained communication with the federal Probeis organization, Major League Baseball, Minor League Baseball and the World Baseball Softball Confederation. Baseball leagues around the globe attempt to deal with an uncertain timeframe regarding the Wuhan Virus, which as of Saturday had claimed 273 lives among 4,219 confirmed cases in Mexico.

A reporter for ESPN Deportes says the Mexican League may scale back their regular season to just one month this year. Jose Maria Garrido claims closes source to the LMB have told him the Liga is considering an option in which the season would begin August 1 and play a 30-game schedule with no off days, followed by a full eight-team, three-tier playoff calendar with best-of-7 series throughout that could see a seventh game of the Serie del Rey played on October 11 or 12. Speaking to the Septima Entrada website, de la Vega said that while the LMB is indeed looking at various scenarios for a shorter season, the 30-day schedule is not one of them.

DE LA VEGA INVESTIGATED FOR PRIOR ROLE WITH INDEPORTE

Harp, Mancera and de la Vega inspect new ballpark

Puro Beisbol reports that Argentina's Infobae website reports that Mexican League president Horacio de la Vega is under investigation for actions taken when he was director of the Mexico City Sports Institute (aka Indeporte). The Infobae story says both de la Vega and former Mexico City mayor Miguel Angel Mancera are accused of steering contracts to the Mexico City Diablos Rojos baseball team and Ocesa, an entertainment promotion company, that allowed for the privatization of 70 percent of Mexico City's government-owned Magdalena Mixhuca Sports City with no benefit to the government that owns it. Mancera left office in 2018 but is still active in politics as a member of the Senate. De la Vega was backed by Diablos owner Alfredo Harp Helo when the LMB was searching for Salinas' replacement last fall and some Mexican baseball columnists expressed their misgivings even before he was hired.

The investigation is being conducted by the mayor's office of Iztacalco, which is one of 16 boroughs in the Federal District where the Sports City complex is located. According to Infobae, current Sports City general administrator Maximiliano Leon is helping lead the investigation into the use of public funds towards, among other things, a cycling track at the complex that was never completed due to legal conflicts between the companies that were constructing it. In addition, Leon says, the creation of an artificial lake to be used for water skiing, open swimming and diving came at the cost of five soccer fields and four basketball courts that made way for the 15 million peso lake, paid for by the local government.

Mexico City's Estadio Alfredo Harp Helu

Representatives from the Sports City are said to be contemplating filing a lawsuit against de la Vega and Mancera. Leon claims that de la Vega used his position as head of Indeporte to enable Harp to construct the ballpark that bears his name without following legal requirements or providing compensation to the government, athough the facility was built using private funds. Likewise, Ocesa was allowed to expand its physical presence within the complex, which authorities claim is now about 60 percent of the total property (and even more when a Formula E electric car race in Mexico City required extra room for heavy machinery, tourism buses and related vehicles.

In replacing Salinas, who resigned last October 8, De la Vega became the Mexican League's 26th president but its third since 2017, when Salinas was appointed to take the reins from Plinio Escalante, a Yucatan native who'd led the LMB since 2006 after working in the Yucatan Leones front office off and on since 1973. Salinas did not have a baseball background, coming to the LMB from soccer's Liga MX marketing department, while de la Vega's experience in baseball had been mostly limited to arranging exhibition games in Mexico City when he headed Indeporte, from which he stepped down after Mancera left his post as Mexico City mayor to enter the Senate.

The investigation into de la Vega and Mancera officially began last month.

CITY OF MAZATLAN SEIZES BALLPARK, EVICTS VENADOS EMPLOYEES

A refurbished Estadio Teodoro Mariscal, Mazatlan

A District Court judge has granted an injunction from the Mazatlan City Council allowing municipal authorities to seize Estadio Teodoro Mariscal, home of the Mexican Pacific League's Venados. According to the Mazatlan Post, the Venados were evicted from the ballpark early last week for a series of alleged breaches of contract committed by the team, who leases the refurbished facility from the City.

The Post article says City Council secretary Jose de Jesus Flores Segura led a group from the Mazatlan Legal Department in taking control of Estadio Teodoro Mariscal last Monday morning, ordering Venados employees at the site to clear out their personal belongings within six days before placing padlocks on the ballpark and placing security forces on duty to guard the 16,000-seat stadium. Mayor Luis Guillermo Benitez confirmed the actions one day later at a press conference.

Estadio Teodoro Mariscal underwent an extensive 2018 renovation for 416 million pesos (US$18 million), but the 58-year-old stadium has been surrounded by controversy since its official reopening on Friday, October 13, 2018 when the Venados hosted the Jalisco Charros in the LMP season opener for both teams. One month later, the City-owned Jumapam shut off drinking water to the ballpark, asserting the Venados owed a million pesos for water consumption over the past several months while also claiming they'd discovered a clandestine drinking system at the facility. Although that situation was eventually resolved, tensions between the City and team have remained.

The City has reportedly taken away the stadium's concessions contract from Venados owner Jose Antonio Toledo and his family, who bought the team in 2015 from a brewery after managing concessions at home games since 1980. The City claims Toledo failed to fulfill signed agreements in which the Venados were supposed to sponsor local basketball players and boxers while delivering tickets to senior citizens. The team was also recently asked to let the City use the ballpark to deliver services to seniors in relation to the Wuhan Virus outbreak, but refused the request.

Mazatlan Venados owner Jose Antonio Toledo

Now that the City has taken possession of Estadio Teodoro Mariscal, the Toledo family is consulting with lawyers to seek the return of their concessions contract and regain entry to the ballpark. Venados sports manager Jesus "Chino" Valdez has said only that the team continues to operate near the club's Academy near the Sinaloa coastal city. The imbroglio's timing could not have been worse for the Venados or the Mex Pac, since the 2021 Caribbean Series had been awarded to Mazatlan.

A rumor has been floated that Toledo is considering moving the Venados north to Tijuana, but at this point nobody appears to be taking that threat seriously. The border city has hosted Mex Pac teams in the past, with the old Potros holding the unique distinction of twice dropping out of the LMP after winning pennants and appearing the the Caribbean Series in both 1987-88 and 1990-91. The 1988 champion Potros were expelled after owner Jaime Bonilla allegedly bribed a number of Mexicali players to tank during their first round playoff series with Tijuana while the 1991 edition folded along with Guaymas, both citing financial difficulties. Bonilla was elected governor of Baja California Norte last year and said to be interested in seeing the LMP return to Tijuana despite being under a lifetime ban from the circuit.

MEXICAN LEAGUE PLAYERS UNPAID DURING SHUTDOWN

Professional baseball has shut down almost everywhere around the world due to the Wuhan Virus, with only Taiwan's Chinese Professional Baseball League still planning to open their season on time when the CPBL commences their regular season on April 11 playing in empty stadiums. While major and minor league players in the USA are being paid during their indefinite stoppage of play, most of their counterparts south of the border have not been as fortunate.

According to the El Fildeo website, players on 14 of the Mexican League's 16 franchises have gone unpaid since training camps were ordered shut down and the LMB season delayed until at least May 11, with members of the Mexico City Diablos Rojos and Oaxaca Guerreros reportedly being given 20,000 pesos (US$800) apiece by billionaire Alfredo Harp Helu, who owns both teams.

The situation has not only created financial hardships for Mexican League players, but also team owners and the league office. The regular season was originally scheduled to open Monday, April 6 in Monclova, where the Acereros were to host rival Monterrey, with a full slate of eight games slated for the next day. Instead, the cash-strapped circuit will miss a minimum of five weeks' worth of badly-needed ballpark revenues.

Some owners of other Liga teams were said to be considering measures similar to Harp's in helping their players, but the nationwide economic freeze due to the Wuhan Virus has affected most of their non-baseball businesses as well and in many cases, the money just isn't there. Supposedly some players were offered loans from their teams to be returned via paycheck deductions after the season finally opens, but that option was said to have been met with resistance by the players, many of whom have been calling for a union.

The Puro Beisbol website reports that people with ties to the LMB have written letters to Mexican president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador seeking financial support for its teams, including former Quintana Roo state adviser Niza Puerto (who has served a similar role with the Tigres baseball team). There is no word whether AMLO, a noted baseball supporter, has responded, but Puerto was said to also be seeking a meeting with PROBEIS head Edgar Gonzalez to work on a solution.

Although the LMB has set May 11 for opening play, the date is not set in stone given an order from the nation's Secretary of Health for a quarantine lasting until April 30 and the possibility exists that the season may be delayed further.  LMB president Horacio de la Vega has stated that he'd be willing to extend a revised schedule into mid-October in order to play the planned 102-game regular season with full playoffs, but an even later start would seemingly make that all but impossible.

Mexican Pacific League president Omar Canizales has said that while his loop has set their own season opener for October 14, the LMP is waiting to see what the Mexican League does first before making it official.

THREE MULTIPLAYER DEALS SWUNG IN MEX PAC

Christian Villanueva's rights traded to Jalisco

While on-field action has ground to a halt in the Mexican League due to the Wuhan Virus, the front offices of the Mexican Pacific League have taken up the slack. Over a four-day period last week, three multiplayer trades were swung involving four teams and a total of 13 players, ten of them pitchers.

The first deal was on last Tuesday, when the Obregon Yaquis sent the rights to third baseman Christian Villanueva and left-handed pitcher Alex Delgado to the Jalisco Charros for a trio of right-handed pitchers: Octavio Acosta, Felipe Gonzalez and Jesus Camargo. Villanueva is no stranger to LMP fans, having spent six winters in Yaquis togs including a banner 2015-16 season in which he hit .322 with nine homers in 64 games. He spent last summer in Japan with the Yomiuri Giants, batting .223 with eight roundtrippers over 73 contests for the Central League team after belting 20 homers with San Diego as an LMB rookie in 2018. Delgado went 6-4 for the Yaquis last winter after posting an 8-4 record with Oaxaca in Mexican League in 2019, earning his first All-Star berth in the process. Though only 25, Delgado has pitched in the LMB for all or part of eight seasons (going 11-1 for Mexico City in 2016).

In return, Acosta gives the Yaquis a pitcher who was 6-1 with a 4.16 ERA for Jalisco last winter. He was the Mexican League Pitcher of the Year in 2017 after turning in a 14-1 mark (2.99 ERA) for Mexico City that year. A former Yankees prospect, Gonzalez was 2-1 with a 3.23 ERA in eight starts for the Charros in 2019-20. Gonzalez went 3-0 and had a 3.22 ERA in 52 relief appearances last summer for Monterrey and, like Delgado, was a first-time All-Star Gamer. While only pitching twice for Jalisco two years ago, Camargo has been a Cubs farmhand since 2015 and gone 13-7 for that organization over four seasons, mostly as a starter, with a career 3.01 ERA over 221.1 innings.

One day later, Mazatlan and Monterrey swapped four pitchers as the Venados shipped Arturo Barradas and Jesus Alcantar to the Sultanes for Felipe Arredondo and Oscar Arzaga. The most recognizable may be lefty Barradas, a 14-year veteran who was 1-1 in 42 relief outings for the Venados in 2019-20. Barradas appeared in the 2015 LMB All-Star Game while pitching for Quintana Roo and the 2016 Caribbean Series with Mazatlan. Alcantar has gone 2-7 with a 7.02 ERA since 2017 with Durango but the Los Mochis native has never pitched in the Mex Pac.

A longtime veteran hurler like Barradas, Arredondo was an Angels prospect for four years before embarking on his 13-year LMB career in 2008 with Quintana Roo and is likewise a middleman who was 0-0 with a 1.80 ERA in 14 outings on loan for Jalisco last witner. The 21-year-old Arzaga signed with the Dodgers in 2016 and went 3-2 for their Arizona Rookie League affiliate that summer, but has been plagued by injuries and never pitched again before being released last May.

Jose Oyervides will return to Guadalajara

The week's final LMP trade was made last Friday when Jalisco dealt shortstop Alberto Carreon and pitcher Luis De Luna to Monterrey for outfielder Sergio Perez and hurler Jose Oyervides, who has previously pitched for the Charros. A two-time All-Star Game performer for Puebla, the versatile Carreon has a career .300 batting average over eleven seasons with the Pericos and can also play second and third bases as well as both corner outfield positions. He hit .254 for the Charros last season. De Luna has made 19 relief appearances for the Charros over two seasons with no record but had a good 2.74 ERA for the Guadalajara team. He's also pitched sporadically for Saltillo, with 40 outings since 2017 for the Saraperos.

In return the Charros get a veteran in Perez, who was a Puebla teammate of Carreon's for five years as a reserve outfielder before being sent to Aguascalientes by way of Monclova last December. A career .307 batter in the LMB, Perez adds little power (25 homers in 11 years) but can get on base and keep a rally going. He hit .260 for Monterrey last season, his first LMP campaign in six years. The 38-year-old Oyervides is a Texan who signed with the Angels in 2002 and has gone on to be one of the Mexican League's most effective pitchers, making five All-Star appearances between 2010 and 2017 and earning Comeback of the Year honors with Dos Laredos in 2018, leading to the question of what he was coming back FROM the year after pitching in an All-Star Game? At any rate, he has a 90-63 career record over 11 LMB seasons and was 1-3 with a 4.12 ERA for the Sultanes last winter after going 9-9 with his hometown Tecolotes in 2019.

PADRES SEND ESTEBAN "EL PONY" QUIROZ TO TAMPA BAY

Esteban Quiroz at 2016 LMB Home Run Derby

After spending seven years working his way into stardom in the Mexican League before signing with Boston, diminutive second baseman Esteban Quiroz will be playing for his third major league organization in as many years after the man called El Pony was sent by San Diego to Tampa Bay to complete a five-player swap between the two clubs. The Padres traded rightfielder Hunter Renfroe and middle infielder Xavier Edwards to Tampa Bay on December 6 in exchange for outfielder Tommy Pham and infielder Jake Cronenworth, who also opened six games as a pitcher for AAA Durham last summer and gave up no earned runs. Quiroz was added to the swap as the proverbial "player to be named later" on March 26.

The 5'7" Quiroz, an Obregon product who turned 28 in February, made his Mexican League debut with Quintana Roo as a teen in 2011. He was overmatched at first, hitting .120 with one RBI in 24 games for the Tigres, but showed his versatility by playing all three outfield slots as well as second base. Quiroz improved to .255 with four homers in 2012, playing every position but pitcher and catcher over 85 contests, but he would struggle at the plate the next two seasons while being shuttled around defensively (when he got to play at all). Although Quiroz had been a member of two LMB championship teams under manager Roberto Vizcarra, he faced an uncertain future at age 22.

Quiroz finally hit stride in 2015 for the Cancun team. Although he only spent eight games at second as Vizcarra played him at six positions that year, he hit .315 and knocked out seven homers over 96 games as the Tigres won their third title in five years as El Pony filled a role similar to Gil McDougald's with the Yankees dynasty of the 1950's. Quiroz also took part in the Home Run Derby in that summer's LMB All-Star Game an reached the finals before losing to Tigres teammate Alex Liddi (who runs 6'4" and 225 pounds). He then had a banner 2015-16 winter for his hometown Obregon Yaquis, batting .317 and winning the Mexican Pacific League's Rookie of the Year award, then hitting an even .400 while scoring seven runs in six errorless games at second as a reinforcement for Mazatlan's Caribbean Series champs.

Following a solid 2016 campaign for Quintana Roo (with career highs of a .335 average, 15 homers and 63 RBIs), Quiroz was traded to rival Yucatan. After being named Mexico's MVP in the 2017 World Baseball Classic (hitting .400 for the Verdes Grande), he rewarded the Leones with a .293 average, 11 homers and his first LMB All-Star game as a player. MLB scouts had noticed Quiroz during the WBC and Boston signed him at the conclusion of the 2017 season. The Red Sox invited him to their Florida training camp the following spring, assigning him to their AA Portland affiliate in the Eastern League to begin another odyssey.

After getting off to a great start with the Sea Dogs, beginning the season with a nine-game hitting streak and batting .302 with four homers and 11 RBIs over his first 15 games, Quiroz was shelved with a sports hernia. He rehabbed with an eight-game stint for the Bosox' Gulf Cost League affiliate before returning to Portland on August 24 and finished what ended up being a "lost" season with a .299 average, seven homers and 24 RBIs in 24 games. After the campaign, he was traded to San Diego for pitcher Colten Brewer.

El Pony looks to go deep for El Paso in 2019 

The Padres brought Quiroz to their major league camp as a non-roster invitee last spring and subsequently assigned him to El Paso of the AAA Pacific Coast League. Despite two stints on the 7-day disabled list, El Pony had a solid season for the Chihuahuas, batting .271 with 19 homers while turning double plays with fellow Sonoran Luis Urias, who spent time in San Diego before the Padres dealt him to Milwaukee last November. Popular among fans in the border city, Quiroz hit .351 with 11 four-baggers over 47 home games, including a May 6 contest against Salt Lake during which he went 4-for-5 with two homers and four RBIs at Southwest University Park.

After he hit .188 as a Padres non-roster invitee at this season's aborted spring training, though, Quiroz was sent packing to the Rays and assigned to Montgomery of the AA Southern League, where (once the sesaon starts) he'll be starting over. Again.

Entering his tenth season of pro ball, Esteban Quiroz has seemingly faced a litany of challenges all along the way. However, only someone who hasn't read the above seven paragraphs will doubt that he's up to facing this one.

BBM EXTRA: Marking 15 year of covering Mexican baseball

Hard to believe, but it's been over 15 years since I started writing about professional baseball in Mexico. Back in 2005, I was "between jobs" as a radio announcer and wanting to do a little creative writing about sports while looking for a new gig. I wanted to write about something different, even exotic, and something that didn't get a lot of exposure in America's sports media.

After contacting Paul Reeths, who runs the outstanding OurSportsCentral.com website dedicated to minor league sports, we kicked around the idea. I'd covered the Pacific Coast League for OSC in 2001, so Paul and I already knew each other. After discussing whether I should write about cricket (no pro league in the USA) or Japanese baseball (not an American league), we settled on the Mexican League, which snuck in on the basis of being a AAA member of Minor League Baseball, albeit outside the USA. The Mexican League was about to start so I banged out a season preview, titled it Pelotero (which simply means "Ballplayer") and sent it to Paul, who posted it on March 18, 2005. Here's a link to an archived version of that first edition of Pelotero. Later that year, Craig Tomarkin of BaseballGuru.com picked up the column (by then called Viva Beisbol) and, like Paul, is still posting my ramblings in 2020. I greataly appreciate both of them for giving me a platform before I even thought of starting a blog.

Fifteen years later, here we are. What began as something to do for one Mexican League season has now outlasted my radio career by eight years, which says something. There've been a couple of name changes (first to Viva Beisbol less than a month after Pelotero debuted and then to Baseball Mexico in 2009) and interruptions along the way, while the frequency of posts has changed until I settled on this three-stories-per-Monday format a couple years ago. Monday has always been a travel day in Mexican baseball and it's been a traditional posting day for Pelotero/VB/BBM since the beginning. It seems to work. By the way, about that BBM acronym: I wanted a short name for Baseball Mexico but BM seemed a little too scatalogical so I decided on BBM (for BaseBall Mexico, a quasi 19th century touch) as a compromise.

Mucho kudos to Suzann Lankford, a graphic artist I met when she played baseball in Seattle, for designing the Baseball Mexico logo. I wanted to base it on the Mexican flag with the eagle holding a baseball bat instead of a snake and Suzann did a great job making sure there's no doubt that BBM is about baseball in Mexico. Special thanks are also due to a couple more people: Carlos Fragoso of Mexico City was the original "Latin Insider" on BaseballGuru.com and was hugely helpful in the earliest days of Viva Beisbol at a time when information on Mexican baseball was hard to find on the internet; Tanya Sullivan of California was extremely supportive of my efforts and sent me step-by-step instructions on how to build a blog, specifically the one you're now reading.

Rontrez Johnson, first player mentioned in Pelotero

I got into this because of my love of writing, my love of baseball and my love of Mexico and that all remains and while it would be nice to get some money for the 4-6 hours it takes to put one of these columns together every week, it's not the point. At one time, Viva Beisbol could be read via seven websites on both sides of the border and was even included on the Mexican Pacific League's website for a while (many thanks to former LMP public relations director Jose Carlos Campos for that). 

I always try to get my stories right and it drives me crazy when I don't because this is the only English-language coverage these players get and they deserve accuracy, not always easily determined when I'm not able to read Spanish beyond a few words and have to use Google translations, which often need translating themselves. I HAVE always tried to be honest and while my opinions sometimes leak through, the most important thing to me is getting the whole story out there and sometimes that means digging a little deeper than my Mexican sources go. It occasionally makes for a longer read (and definitely more time to write), but I think the extra work has been worth it.

Anyway, all this is a long way of getting around to saying "Thank you" personally for reading this blog, especially the few who've been reading these stories since the earliest days...the only person I know for sure who fits that category is a man (and now a friend) named Jim McCurdy, who I also call El Profe, a former semipro ballplayer who spent a lot of time playing in Mexico before becoming a college instructor near the Texas border. There may be others but no matter how long you've been reading this, I've always been glad you were there, especially the many people in Mexico who've "Liked" the BBM Facebook page, which is little more than a tease to this one. The vast majority of FB Likers have been from south of the border and it's an honor to have people with several other very good Mexican websites written en espanol to choose from (they're in the right margin), yet you come here too. BBM passed 700,000 all-time pageviews earlier this month, but so many of those have been bots from places like Russia, France and more recently that baseball hotbed of Turkmenistan, you can take that number with the entire box of salt, let alone a grain of it. 

I plan to continue writing about Mexican baseball because even though the teams and leagues I cover studiously ignore BBM, this isn't for them. It's always been about the men who have played in Mexico and always will be. Like it or not, you're stuck with me.

But, damn, I'd really like to go back to that Pelotero name. It just SOUNDS cool.

Bruce