YAQUIS' LOPEZ TOSSES NO-HITTER AGAINST NAVOJOA

Arturo Lopez after final out of no-hitter

    Obregon Yaquis left-hander Arturo Lopez tossed the first no-hitter of the Mexican Pacific League season (and 44th in the loop's history) last Saturday night, blanking the visiting Navojoa Mayos, 6-0, in front of 5,421 spectators at Estadio Yaquis. The 39-year-old Lopez struck out eleven Mayos batters, walking one and hitting another in allowing two baserunners en route to the third no-hitter in Obregon history and first ever at Estadio Yaquis.

    Lopez got all the offensive support he'd need in the bottom of the first inning when Victor Mendoza's double to left off Navojoa starter Rogelio Martinez brought Josuan Hernandez all the way around from first base. Just in case, the Yaquis plated three more runs off Martinez in the third, two on a Yadir Drake double. A Mendoza seventh-inning single scored the final two runs of the night for the winners.

    The 5'9” Lopez, who posted a 19.49 ERA in 2009 for the San Diego Padres over four relief appearances, was hitting the corners all night and threw 70 strikes in 97 pitches as neither Mayo to reach base got into scoring position. A Culiacan native who has represented the Mexico City Diablos Rojos in five Mexican League All-Star Games, Lopez is in his 16^th Mex Pac season and has a 60-38 career LMP record and surpassed 600 strikeouts during his no-no.

    Despite winning two of three games in the weekend set against the Mayos, the Yaquis remain in a tie for last place with defending champion Jalisco and Monterrey at 9-14, one game behind 10-13 Culiacan. Hermosillo remains in the first half lead at 15-8 but the race has tightened at the top, with 14-9 Mazatlan one game back in second and 13-10 Los Mochis two games out in third. Guasave, Mexicali and Navojoa are knotted up in a tie for fourth at 12-11 each.

    There HAS been a change at the top in the Mex Pac batting race, as last week's leader (Ramiro Pena of Culiacan) has dropped to third with a .359 average. Los Mochis' Yosmany Tomas went 2-for-3 against Culiacan Sunday to raise his league-leading mark to .378, 14 points ahead of Monterrey's Alberto Carreon (.364). Anthony Giansanti of Mexicali leads the winter circuit with seven homers, two more than Obregon's Sebastian Valle and Giansanti's Aguilas teammate Niko Vasquez. Christian Villanueva of Jalisco had a good week, going 9-for-24 (.378) and moving into first on the RBI table with 20, two more than the 18 ribbies each from Vasquez and Monterrey's Fernando Perez. Jose Cardona held the stolen base lead with 10 swipes for Hermosillo, ahead of the eight steals of Mazatlan's Randy Romero.

    The number of pitchers with three wins has grown to six, with Raul Carrillo (Navojoa), Matt Pobereyko and Jeff Kinley (both Guasave) joining Juan Pablo Oramas (Hermosillo), David Reyes (Mexicali) and Tyler Alexander (Jalisco) for the LMP leadership in that category. Luis Miranda of Los Mochis still leads the ERA race with an 0.00 mark after four starts and 22 innings pitched, ahead of Oramas (1.25) and Gusave's Nico Tellache (1.44). Jalisco veteran Javier Solano, now in his 15th MexPac season, tops the strikeouts list with 30 in 33.2 innings, one more than Lopez of Obregon's 29 and three up on Pobereyko's 27. Brandon Koch of Guasave has edged one save ahead of Mazatlan's Elkin Alcala, 10 to 9 while Mexicali's Jake Sanchez (who set the LMP record with 26 salvados last winter) is third with eight.

    With two weeks left in the first half schedule, teams are starting to jockey more for playoff points placement. The biggest upcoming midweek series is probably going to be in Mazatlan, where the Venados host Hermosillo in a battle of the current top two clubs. Next weekend, the most intriguing three-game set may be between perennial power Culiacan and 2021-22 pennant winner Jalisco at Estadio Tomateros with both teams struggling to find their way out of the second division.


THREE LIGA TEAM SEEK, PICK SKIPPERS FOR 2023

New Saltillo manager Mark Weidemaier

    With the Mexican League's 2023 season five months away from opening, three LMB teams have been working on filling managerial openings. One of them has been the Monterrey Sultanes, who are seeking to replace former Major League outfielder Roberto Kelly. The former Yankees outfielder led the Grey Ghosts to an LMB North playoff title and a berth in the 2022 Serie del Rey before falling to the Yucatan Leones after finishing fourth with in the regular season with a 51-39 record.

    Kelly, who'd returned to the Sultanes this year after taking the 2021 season off, has been named to the Texas Rangers coaching staff under new manager Bruce Bochy. Kelly was a manager in the Giants system before joining Bochy's staff as first base coach when the latter managed San Francisco to three World Series titles between 2010 and 2014. The Panamanian first came to Monterrey in 2018 and led the Sultanes to their tenth pennant in the shortened Fall 2018 season, beating Yucatan in the Serie del Rey and being named Manager of the Year.

    Another ex-MLBer, Geronimo Gil, will manage the Oaxaca Guerreros next year. Gil made his Mexican League debut in 1993 as a 17-year-old catcher and went on to spend all or part of six seasons with Baltimore and Colorado between 2001 and 2007, hitting 12 homers and driving in 45 runs as the Orioles' starting receiver in 2002. After wrapping up his 23-year professional career in 2016, he coached for Oaxaca for one year, managed Ensenada to the Liga Norte pennant in 2018 and then spent 2019 managing Yucatan in 2019. The 47-year-old Oaxacan took the Leones to a 66-52 season record and a playoff run that ended with a seven-game loss to Monclova in that year's Serie del Rey.

    Gil has also spent time as an instructor at the Alfredo Harp Helu Academy in Oaxaca and managed in the LMB Prospect League. He's currently at the helm of the combined Mexico City-Oaxaca team in the Mexican Winter League. Both the Diablos Rojos and Guerreros francises are owned by Harp, one of Mexico's richest men. Gil will replace another former catcher, Erick Rodriguez, at the helm of the Guerreros, who finished 34-53 in seventh place in the LMB South, six games out of the division's last playoff berth.

    Finally, the Saltillo Saraperos have let Adan Munoz go as pilot and hired Mark Weidemeier as their new manager following a 38-52 campaign this year. Munoz stepped in at the helm in Saltillo after Roberto Vizcarra resigned as manager to take over in Yucatan, leading the Leones to the LMB pennant. Weidemeier also managed in the Mexican League in 2022, albeit in abbreviated fashion. A first-time skipper for Dos Laredos, he led the Tecolotes to seven wins in their first ten games before leaving the border team for what the club termed “personal reasons.”

    Although he never played professionally, Weidemeier is a baseball lifer who got his first paying job out of college in 1982 when the Kansas City Royals hired him as a minor league coach. Since then, he's worked for numerous MLB organizations including the Angels, Yankees, Indians, White Sox, Dodgers and Diamondbacks. He coached under Matt Williams with both the MLB Nationals and Korea's KIA Tigers. Weidemeier has spent much time in Mexico as well, including managerial stints in Laguna and Veracruz, where he first worked for Tecos owner Jose Antonio Mansur, who has owned (and moved) several LMB teams over the years. One of Weidemeier's Tecos players, first baseman Kennys Vargas, told the Laredo Morning Times during training camp that “Players love him a lot because he is a fun manager. He tries to transfer all the experience he has onto us.”


MEX PAC SERIES IN TUCSON CANCELED

Kino Veterans Memorial Stadium, Tucson

    Just weeks after it was first announced to the public, a three-game series between the Mexicali Aguilas and Obregon Yaquis slated to be played next week in Tucson has been called off. It would have marked the first time that Mexican Pacific League regular season games would be played north of the border. Instead, the Tucson series was canceled due to what the LMP office called “contractual reasons” and moved back to Obregon, the original venue of the three-game series on the league schedule.

    The contests were scheduled for Friday, November 11 through Sunday, November 13 at Kino Veterans Memorial Stadium, former spring training home of the Arizona Diamondbacks and Chicago White Sox as well as a pair of since-moved Pacific Coast League franchises. The 11,500-seat facility is now the flagship ballpark for the annual Mexican Baseball Fiesta involving MexPac teams in October and also the home facility for the Tucson Saguaros, winners of three pennants over seven seasons in the independent Pecos League, which boasts 16 teams in six states stretching from California to Kansas.

    The following is a translated press release from the Mexican Pacific League and first posted on their website Sunday, four days before the first game in Tucson was to have been played:

    Guadalajara, Jalisco; November 7, 2022 (LMP Media) - We regret to have to inform that, for contractual reasons, the decision has been made to definitively suspend the series between Águilas de Mexicali and Yaquis de Obregón, which would have taken place in the city of Tucson, Arizona on November 11, 12 and 13 of this year.

    This commitment will be made on the same dates, but at the Yaquis Stadium as originally scheduled, leaving for next season the possibility of playing in North American territory.

    We apologize on behalf of the teams for any inconvenience this may represent for our fans.

    We are convinced that the internationalization of the LMP is of paramount importance for our future growth. However, this first attempt could not be realized in a favorable way for the parties involved.

    We will continue working so that from next season this and other activities can be carried out.

    We appreciate your understanding.

    The Tucson Saguaros have released their 2023 Pecos League schedule, starting with a May 31 game in Austin and a June 8 home opener against Roswell at Kino Stadium.

LMP PLAYOFFS OPEN; FIRST REINFORCEMENT DRAFT HELD

  The 2021-22 Mexican Pacific League playoffs began on Christmas Day. All eight teams battled it out in four first-round series openers, with the visiting team coming away victorious in three of them.

In a series that may capture the most attention among observers, defending champion Culiacan (who were the eighth and lowest postseason seed this winter) won at top-seed Navojoa, 8-5, on Saturday. The Tomateros knocked out Mayos starter Octavio Acosta with four runs in the top of the second inning and never looked back.  Culiacan was holding a 5-3 lead when they scored three more times in the eighth, including a two-run single by Jose Guadalupe Chavez with the bases loaded. 

Asael Sanchez rapped a two-run homer for Navojoa in the bottom of the frame to make it a two-run game, but that would end the scoring for both teams. Manny Barreda got the win for Culiacan despite a less-than-sterling five innings of work (three runs on four hits and five walks) while Acosta was tagged for the loss as over 10,000 were in the stands at Navojoa’s Estadio Manuel “Ciclon” Echeverria, the largest gathering among the four openers.

Elsewhere, Monterrey pulled out a road win at Hermosillo, 5-4, in eleven innings to open their set on Saturday night. With the score knotted at 4-4 after ten frames, Anthony Giansanti opened the top of the eleventh for the Sultanes by getting on base after an error by Naranjeros shortstop and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt from Andres Martin, setting the stage for a Miguel Torrero single to put the visitors ahead by a run. Nathanael Santiago, who tossed a scoreless tenth for Monterrey, came out and pitched an unblemished eleventh to seal the win.

The Obregon Yaquis traveled to Estadio Francisco Carranza Limon for their series opener at Guasave and came away with a 3-1 win on Christmas. The Yaquis drew first blood in the top of the third when Ian Miller scored on Alonzo Harris’ sacrifice fly and Victor Mendoza later singled in reinforcement Isaac Rodriguez with the second run of the entrada. The Algodoneros closed the gap to 2-1 in the bottom of the fourth when Yadir Drake singled in Jhoan Urena but Obregon scored the final run of the night for both teams two frames later when Michael Wing and Juan Carlos Gamboa hit back-to-back doubles off Gusave starter Jordan Kipper, who lasted one more batter before being pulled. Kipper took the loss while Obregon starter Jake Thompson earned the win with five innings of four-hit, one-run pitching.

Jalisco became the only home team to win their series opener after outlasting visiting Mexicali, 10-9, in 12 innings at Guadalajara. The Charros had built a 7-2 lead (aided by a trio of solo homers from Christian Villanueva, Japhet Amador and Agustin Murrillo in the bottom of the fourth) before the Aguilas plated one run in the top of the eighth and four more in the top of the ninth as Luis Jimenez stroked a two-run double and later scored on a Aneuty Tavarez double to even the score at 7-7. Both teams scored twice in the tenth but the night’s heroics belonged to Charros shortstop Missael Rivera, who led off the 12th with a double and advanced to third before coming in with the game-winner on Villanueva’s sacrifice fly to right to end a game that featured a combined 28 hits and 11 walks.  

Fifteen minutes after the final regular season game concluded, the eight playoff teams held a so-called reinforcement draft of players from Mazatlan and Los Mochis, the two clubs that didn’t advance. With the first pick, Obregon chose Los Mochis second baseman Isaac Rodriguez. Guasave followed by plucking another second sacker, Mazatlan’s Ramon Rios, while Hermosillo took Venados infielder Isaac Paredes with the third pick. In all, 16 Los Mochis and Mazatlan players were selected over two rounds, nine of them pitchers.

A similar draft will be held prior to the semifinals and finals. The eventual champions will be able to load up on more reinforcements before heading the the Caribbean Series in Santo Domingo with a roster that bears little resemblance to their regular season lineup. A similar process is carried out in other winter leagues, making the Serie del Caribe more a tournament of all-star teams than league champions.

PADRES SIGN MEXICAN WINTER LEAGUE MVP CARRILLO

After being named Most Valuable Player of the Mexican Winter League this season, Yucatan Lions outfield prospect Oliver Carrillo, has been signed by the San Diego Padres.   

A 5’11” 210-pounder, Carrillo caught the attention of the San Diego organization after leading the LIM in several offensive departments playing for a team of players from the Yucatan, Veracruz and Durango LMB organizations. He came very close to obtaining the Triple Crown by being champion with 8 home runs and 46 RBIs, plus a .586 on-base percentage and an .806 slugging percentage,  finishing second in batting percentage at .441.

Nicknamed “Chanito,” Carrillo was one of the young players to make their debut this year in the Mexican League with the Leones, playing one inning in right field and going 0-for-1 in his lone plate appearance as a pinch-hitter for Luis Juarez during a June 6 game against Quintana Roo. 

The veteran Juarez took the youngster under his wing and has said “It’s a pleasure and a pride that young people like him get to have these kinds of opportunities and it is a case of perseverance of someone who did not give up. Many times they told him no and he did not get tired. He gave himself to baseball as he should and received a very large reward.”.

Carrillo’s training began after he was signed by Yucatán at the Academia de Beisbol del Pacífico. "The process has always been strong. I lasted three years at the Pacific Baseball Academy, then they sent me to the Monterrey Academy to continue with my training and thank God the results were good," said the right-handed batter who’ll turn 20 on January 19.

During his stay as a Leones recruit, Carrillo has also shone in different national and international tournaments, being the champion and best hitter in the International Series of Prospects organized by PROBEIS and managed by Yucatan’s incoming sports manager, Santos Hernandez.

The native of Rosario, Sinaloa, signed in the presence of Padres scout Emmanuel Rangel and was accompanied by Leones co-owner Erick Arellano, who commented that he feels proud and excited by the signing of the Sinaloan player, since he had to look at the process within the academy. "Several organizations had been following him,” said Arrellano, “but what really motivated this team (the Padres) was the season he had in the Winter League. He is a healthy boy and while I am happy with all the signatures, this one has a special feeling." 

Through their Pacific Baseball Academy in Mazatlan, the Leones have managed to place a total of 38 players with Major League Baseball organizations in six years.

MAESTROS OF MEXICO: Miguel “Pilo” Gaspar, C

A defensive genius, Pilo Gaspar was recognized internationally as one of the best receivers in Mexican baseball and a consistent batter who could get a hit off any pitcher at the most opportune moment.

  

In 1949, he began playing professionally in the old Pacific Coast League with Guaymas and was the Rookie of the Year that winter.  The 6’1” 178-pound Gaspar went on to play minor league ball for eight seasons in the United States, including three years in the Orioles farm system and one with the Dodgers. The earliest part of his summer career was spent with Laredo, where he hit 44 homers between 1950 and 1951 (including four in one April 1951 game against Texas City.  Ironically, he only whacked 29 more roundtrippers over the final 26 years of his pro career.

 

Gaspar played 11 games in 1951 for Nuevo Laredo in the Mexican League but did not come home to play for good until 1958, when he played 81 games for both the Tecolotes and Yucatan and hit .282 with five homers.  He eventually settled in behind the plate for Veracruz in 1959, and played 11 seasons for the Aguilas, topping the .300 mark four times (including a career-best .330 in 1961).  Pilo was in his 40’s when he moved on to Union Laguna for two years beginning in 1970, hitting .292 and .269. 

After a .250 campaign with Tampico in 1972, Gaspar went on to play two more years with Chihuahua before hanging up his catcher’s mitt following the 1974 season at the (reported) age of 45.  He singled and doubled in two pinch-hit opportunities for Chihuahua in 1976, and went 2-for-9 in five more games in 1977, even attempting to steal a base (he got caught) before stepping down for good. 

Over his long professional career, Pilo played in 2,604 games, totaling 2,419 hits, 346 doubles and 1,062 RBIs and hitting .288. In the Mexican Pacific League, Gaspar spent several winters with Guaymas, Navojoa and Hermosillo, connecting for 503 hits and an average of .262. Gaspar, who managed Mexican League teams in Veracruz, Chihuahua and Quatzocoalcos, was elected to the Salon de la Fama in 1994.

Gaspar was mentioned in Bill Heward’s 1974 gem of a book, “Some Are Called Clowns,” a diary of Heward’s 1973 season with the barnstorming Indianapolis Clowns.  The book touched on Mexican baseball in one chapter, including this passage quoting one of Heward’s teammates who spent time south of the border: “Our catcher was a guy named Pelo (sic) Gaspar, out of Sonora, Mexico. Some say he’s 42. Other guys who’re in the know say he’s 50. What a baseball head!  I never saw him blow a popup.  Pelo had a fabulous arm.  I never saw a guy steal on him. Pelo’s right index finger was broken and bent sideways about 45 degrees. The players who didn’t know him would thumb their noses and say, ‘Aw, crooked finger.’ But when he threw out two or three of them they forgot about his finger.”