BBM Summer Awards: Most Valuable Player

Mexico City shortstop Ramon Urias

I've mentioned a couple times that I was facing some mighty tough choices in picking the Summer Bammys this year, but none was harder than Most Valuable Player.  There were several standout performances this season in the Mexican League, only some of which BBM has already highlighted this week, but the MVP award (to me) boiled down to three players:  Tijuana centerfielder Corey Brown, Aguascalientes first baseman Jesus "Jesse" Castillo and Mexico City shortstop Ramon Urias.  Of all the Bammys I've considered since 2010, I agonized over this one more than any of the others and even broke down offensive and defensive stats for each player AND their respective teams to try determine who contributed the most to their club's success, and it's taken me until literally minutes before I started typing this piece to decide.

There are such good arguments for all three men.  Tijuana, of course, is this year's LMB champion and Brown was perhaps the main cog in the Toros machine.  He batted .291, his 24 homers were second in Liga to Saltillo's Rainel Rosario's 26 and finished fifth with 85 RBIs.  In addition, Brown was very effective on the basepaths, stealing 19 bases in 21 attempts to just miss being the sole member of the loop's 20/20 Club in 2017.  Defensively, he was an adequate centerfielder, hauling in 214 fly balls and throwing out four baserunners for a .982 fielding percentage with a 2.10 range factor.  Brown also played in this year's LMB All-Star Game at Campeche.  While it was his first such contest in the LMB, Brown previously played four midseason classics in the International, Texas and Midwest Leagues.  Despite his relatively-low batting average, he was my pick until Wednesday night, when I began considering Jesse Castillo.

Aguascalientes was the surprise team in the Liga's regular season this summer, winning 64 of 110 games to pull away from Union Laguna and Mexico City for fourth place in the LMB North, then provided perhaps the strongest opposition Tijuana faced in the playoffs before falling in six games in the division semis.  Rieleros manager Homar Rojas had to contend with a budget-limited roster along with the vagaries any skipper will encounter over a season, but the one constant was Castillo.  The veteran first sacker hit a rock-solid .342 with 20 homers and 82 RBIs while matching Brown with 79 runs to finish in the top ten in all four categories along with on-base percentage (.435), slugging percentage (.548) and OPS (.548).  Castillo also acquitted himself well at first with a .994 fielding percentage over 773 chances, including 712 putouts, 56 assists and a 9.72 range factor.  He played in his seventh All-Star Game this summer and was named its Most Valuable Player.  While Jose Vargas combined with Castillo to form a lethal 1-2 punch, the latter was clearly the most important player in Aguascalientes' unexpected success.  A legit MVP candidate, for sure.  But then on Thursday afternoon, I turned my attention to Ramon Urias.

The Diablos' wunderkind shortstop (he turned 23 in June) was able to carry his team to a 57-54 record and coming within four games of forcing a postseason play-in game against Aguascalientes despite a pitching staff with a 5.06 ERA while injuries and Father Time took their toll on Red Devils' position players.  Despite just missing the batting derby's top ten list (he was 12th at .340), Urias met that standard in several other offensive categories, leading the LMB with 91 runs scored along with 132 hits (tied for 10th), 29 doubles (tied for 7th), 19 homers (tied for 6th), 79 RBIs (8th), 224 total bases (tied for 4th), a .433 on-base percentage (5th), a .577 slugging percentage (4th) and 1.011 OPS (2nd).  He played most of his defensive time (65 games) at short but also spent 45 contests at second base, with a combined .967 fielding average in 530 total chances, contributing 203 putouts, 309 assists and taking part in 79 double plays (two fewer than Castillo) for a combined range factor of 4.65 over the two positions.  Although the Escarlatas missed the playoffs a second year in a row (after reaching the postseason every year between 1984 and 2015), those are numbers impossible to ignore.

As you can see, there's not a lot to create much separation among those three players, so I started comparing their individual stats with their team's overall stats and while I'll spare you that breakdown, it appeared rather clearly to me that Urias meant more to the Diablos Rojos than Brown did to the Toros and even Castillo did to the Rieleros.  While Brown and Castillo had stats similar or even below their respective team's, Urias' were better (some significantly) than his teammates accrued while working behind a pitching staff demonstrably inferior to Tijuana's and Aguascalientes'.  Adding in the fact that he was only 22 when his breakout season opened (Brown is 31 while Castillo is 34) and that being on a non-contending team didn't hurt another shortstop named Ernie Banks win TWO consecutive National League MVPs in the late 1950's, I've finally determined Urias is my top LMB player for 2017.

For being such a tender age, Urias (whose 20-year-old brother Luis is the premier shortstop prospect in the Padres system) has completed his seventh year as a pro.  Ramon spent two years in the Dominican Summer League after signing with Texas as a 16-year-old free agent in November 2010 (batting .213 in 2011 and .268 in 2012) before landing with Mexico City in 2013.  After batting an even .300 in 12 sporadic appearances that year, Urias took over the Diablos' shortstop job in 2014 and hit .262 in the regular season before raking pitchers for a .393 average with a homer over nine games as the Diablos had the Liga's best regular-season record and swept their way through the playoffs for their 16th LMB pennant.  He hit .351 with 10 homers in 2015 and was at .301 in 2016 before a June 22 injury in a game against Carmen ended his season early.

As major league scouts have also likely noticed, Urias appears to have recovered nicely.

BBM MOST VALUABLE PLAYER WINNERS
Summer 2010    Willis Otanez, Puebla
Winter 2010-11   Justin Christian, Los Mochis
Summer 2011     Luis Terrero, Mexico City
Winter 2015-16   Christian Villanueva, Obregon
Summer 2016     Cesar Tapia, Puebla
Winter 2016-17   Hector Velazquez, Navojoa
Summer 2017     Ramon Urias, Mexico City

BBM 2017 Summer Awards: Playoff MVP

Tijuana OF Cyle Hankerd

Although he had a largely forgettable series in the Mexican League North Division championships against Monterrey, there were also enough big games over three postseason sets for Cyle Hankerd of newly-crowned LMB pennant winners Tijuana to earn BBM's Playoff Most Valuable Player Award.

The former USC All-Pac 12 pick and Arizona Diamondbacks minor leaguer batted .309 in 16 playoff games for the Toros, leading all LMB players in the postseason with 19 RBIs and tying teammate Corey Brown for most playoff homers with five.  Hankerd also scored 13 runs to tie another TJ teammate, Roberto Lopez, for second in that category behind Brown's 17 counters.  All this despite a five-game dry spell in the Toros' LMB North finals against Monterrey during which he suffered through an 0-for-14 stretch.  But, oh, those games when the hits were flowing!

First, there was Tijuana's opening round series against a pesky Aguascalientes team.  Hankerd went 7-for-19 (.368) in six games against Rieleros pitchers, collecting three RBIs in both Game One and Game Four while socking a solo homer in Game Three.  His performance in the August 24 opening game of the Monterrey series was rock-solid as the 32-year-old Californian belted a two-run homer off Sultanes starter Javier Solano in the fourth inning and lined a run-scoring single off reliever Isaac Jimenez during a wild seven-run seventh.  Although Hankerd's offensive well ran dry the rest of that series, it was the Serie del Rey against defending champion Puebla when he really turned up the heat.

Hankerd went 3-for-5 in Game One on September 5 with a pair of singles and a double, scoring one run and driving in another.  One night later, he lofted a two-run homer off Pericos starter Jaime Lugo in the third to break a scoreless tie in the Bulls' 5-3 win.  After the series shifted to Puebla, he was 2-for-3 with a double, a run and one ribbie on September 8 in TJ's 4-0 Game Three win to put manager Pedro Mere's team one win away from a sweep.  Hankerd went hitless on September 9 as the Pericos kept their flickering hopes alive with a 6-3 win before homering twice and driving in four runs in the Toros' pennant-clinching 15-3 rout to finish the Serie del Rey with a .444 average and three homers in five games.

Tijuana's title capped off a strong season for Hankerd, who hit .321 with 17 homers and 69 RBIs over 94 games in the regular season, which ended a little early for him when he was drilled by a pitch from Monterrey closer Wirfin Obispo in the August 4 opener of a home series with the Sultanes, the 15th time Hankerd was plunked over 94 games (he was on the receiving end of eight more HBPs in the postseason).

Hankerd is no stranger to postseason heroics, having stroked a game-winning walkoff single in the bottom of the tenth for Mazatlan in the Venados' Mexican Pacific League pennant-clinching 4-3 win over Mexicali on January 25 of last year.  Playing third base for the Mexican champions, Hankerd then hit .294 with a homer and played error-free ball over six games as the Venados ran the table for the Caribbean Series title.

After signing with Arizona out of Southern Cal in 2006, Hankerd started his pro career off with a bang, winning the Class A Northwest League's Most Valuable Player award that summer by hitting .384 with four homers and 38 RBIs in 54 games for Yakima.  That began an ascent up the D-Backs chain that included a 2007 season in Visalia of the Class A California League, where he hit .285 with 8 homers and three years at AA Mobile of the Southern League, hitting in the .250-.260 range with about a half-dozen homers a year while representing the BayBears in the 2009 SL All-Star Game.  He also had a seven-game cup of coffee in AAA Reno of the Pacific Coast League during an injury-plagued 2010, hitting an even .400 with 5 ribbies over 7 games, but was released in early 2011.

Hankerd spent much of the 2011 season with Amarillo of the independent American Association, knocking AA pitchers around for a .355 average with 10 homers and 55 RBIs over 70 games before he signed with Philadelphia in August and spent the rest of the campaign with Clearwater of the Class A Florida State League and hitting .248 in 31 games.  After two relatively undistinguished years bouncing between indy ball and both the White Sox and Dodgers organizations, Hankerd made his Mexican League debut in 2014 with Yucatan, hitting .284 with four homers for the Leones.  He then moved over to Mexico City in 2015 and hit .384 with 22 homers in just 58 games for the Diablos Rojos while also spending time with Southern Maryland of the independent Atlantic League (.354/9/20 in 33 games).  Hankerd spent all of the 2016 schedule back in Mexico City and hit .322 with 16 homers for the Diablos in 104 contests before moving to Tijuana this year.  He's also played the last two winters for Mazatlan in the MexPac, turning in a .301 average for the Venados in their 2015-16 CS title season before going .280/10/32 last winter.

BBM PLAYOFF MVP AWARD WINNERS
Winter 2010-11  Iker Franco, Obregon
Summer 2011    Pablo Ortega, Quintana Roo
Winter 2015-16  Danny Rodriguez, Mexicali
Summer 2016    Mauricio Lara, Puebla
Winter 2016-17  Danny Rodriguez, Mexicali
Summer 2017   Cyle Hankerd, Tijuana

BBM 2017 Summer Awards: Batter of the Year

Saltillo outfielder Rainel Rosario

There hasn't been a lot to cheer about with the Saltillo Saraperos lately.  It wasn't that long ago that they were one of the Mexican League's flagship franchises, winning four LMB North titles between 2004 and 2010, copping the pennant in 2009 and 2010.  The Sarape Makers were boffo at the box office as well in that timeframe, averaging over 10,000 fans per game in 2005 and 2006 and annually ranking among the Liga's attendance leaders.

Times changed in 2013, however, when owners Grupo Ley sold the Saraperos to Alejandro Garza Diaz (who, in turn, sold the franchise to Antonio Nerio Rodriguez two years later).  Although Saltillo has remained among the LMB's attendance leaders throughout, the team has gradually declined from their 2013 North Division regular season title, finishing seventh in 2016 and 2017.  In addition, the franchise has had financial problems and is reportedly one of many in the Liga on the verge of financial insolvency.  In short, the picture in Saltillo is anything but pretty.

Thank goodness for Rainel Rosario.

A journeyman outfielder whose stints in the Cardinals and Red Sox organizations bookended a two-year stay in Japan with the Hiroshima Carp, Rosario's first year in Mexico was a resounding success.  The 28-year-old Dominican led the Saraperos with a .336 batting average in 2017 while topping the LMB with 26 home runs and finishing second to Yucatan's Ricky Alvarez with 104 RBIs.  Rosario was especially devastating at home, battering opposing pitchers for a .398 average and 20 homers in 54 games at Estadio Francisco I. Madero.  He enjoyed a torrid July by recording a .455 average with 5 roundtrippers and 27 ribbies in 99 at-bats over 26 games.  Rosario was a sure bet when batting with runners in scoring position, going 59-for-119 (.420) with 7 homers and an amazing 76 RBIs in such situations.  Right-handed pitchers suffered the brunt of inflicted damage by being knocked around by the right-handed hitter for 19 homers and 80 RBI in 306 at-bats.

Like last summer's BBM Batter of the Year, Diory Hernandez of Aguascalientes, nobody could've anticipated those kinds of numbers from Rosario in Saltillo.  After signing with St. Louis as a 17-year-old free agent in April 2006, the 6'1" 190-pounder spent seven summers in the Cardinals system and never hitting more than nine homers or driving in one season.  His first four years were spent playing Rookie league ball and he eventually rose as high as AA Springfield in the Texas League (where he hit .214 over 22 games in 2012), but Rosario never reached whatever potential the Cards saw when he was signed.

After sitting out the 2013 season entirely, Rosario made his way to the Far East with Hiroshima of the Central League, Japanese baseball's senior circuit, for 2014.  He had a standout rookie season with the Carp that year, hitting .336 with 14 homers and 49 RBIs in 69 games, but his sophomore year wasn't as successful as his numbers plummeted to .258/2/12 in 42 contests for 2015.  Still, he did well enough to return to MiLB in 2016 after signing with Boston in June.  After going 0-for-7 in two games with AAA Pawtucket, Rosario was sent to AA Portland and hit .254 with a pair of homers in 101 games over the remainder of the season.  After the Sox allowed his contract to expire in November, Rosario signed on with Saltillo one day before the Saraperos' 2017 season opener at Monterrey.

Will Rainel Rosario be able to repeat this year's breakthrough numbers in 2018?  History would indicate otherwise.  After all, Diory Hernandez went from being the offensive linchpin in Aguascalientes in 2016 to being released by the Rieleros on May 14 and again by Union Laguna six weeks later even though he hit .300 for both teams, so who knows?  In the end, in a 2017 season that saw a bit of resurgence for Mexican League batters after pitchers had enjoyed recent unaccustomed success in a loop known for decades as a hitter's league, Rosario's campaign in Saltillo gets BBM's nod as being the best among a number of qualified candidates for our Batter of the Year award.  Let's just hope his follow-up year goes better than Diory Hernandez' did.

BBM BATTER OF THE YEAR AWARDS
Winter 2015-16  Jose Amador, Hermosillo
Summer 2016    Diory Hernandez, Aguascalinetes
Winter 2016-17  Manny Rodriguez, Culiacan
Summer 2017    Rainel Rosario, Saltillo

BBM 2017 Summer Awards: Pitcher of the Year

Veracruz Rojos del Aguila pitcher Nestor Molina

There were a number of strong pitching performances in the Mexican League during the 2017 season.  Yucatan's Jose Samayoa was a surprising 11-2 while finishing second with a 2.29 ERA, Tijuana's Carlos Hernandez (10-2, 2.67) and Miguel Pena (11-2, 2.77) led the circuit's top mound staff while 2016 Pitcher of the Year, Yoanner Negrin of Yucatan (11-4, 2.93), had a second straight standout season.  However, the choice for our 2017 Summer Bammy Pitcher of the Year Award came down to two hurlers.

Mexico City's Octavio Acosta, who won only a combined three of eight decisions over the previous two campaigns for Oaxaca in 2015 and the Diablos Rojos, turned in a career year this summer.  The onetime Mets minor leaguer led the league in wins while posting a superb 14-1 record for a team that missed the playoffs for the second year in a row, finished tenth with a 2.99 ERA and registered 102 strikeouts to come in sixth in that category.  The Guasave native's lone loss in 2017 came back on May 21, when defending champion Puebla topped Acosta and the Red Devils, 7-4, at Estadio Fray Nano in the capital city.  It was a career year for the 27-year-old righty, but not quite enough to edge out an even more spectacular season-long performance by Veracruz ace Nestor Molina.

Like Acosta, not much was expected from Molina when the 2017 campaign dawned.  The Valencia, Venezuela product had turned in a combined 7-4 record for Oaxaca and Tabasco with a 4.94 ERA last year before going 2-0 and 2.95 in a late-season, four-game stint with the Braves' AA Eastern League affiliate Richmond under manager Miguel Ojeda, who ironically served as Acosta's skipper this year in Mexico City.  Although he had his moments in 2016 (winning seven games for either the Guerreros or Olmecas in one season is no mean feat), nothing prepared the Mexican League for what was to come this season.

Pitching for one of the Liga's most underpowered lineups, Molina had to bring his "A" game every five nights and while he faded a bit in the late going, he was otherwise up to the task.  After showing an 0-1 record following his second start on April 8, Molina would not lose a second game until dropping a 1-0 heartbreaker to Tabasco on July 27 in Villahermosa.  Over the 15 weeks between defeats, the 6'1" right-hander won eleven straight decisions and lowered his ERA to a microscopic 1.41 after tossing six scoreless innings in Tabasco during a 3-2 win.

Although only two of his final five starts in the regular season could be considered "quality," Molina finished with a league-leading 1.89 ERA and was tied for second in wins with Aguascalientes starter Yohan Flande with a 12-3 record.  Molina also led the LMB with a 1.08 WHIP, his 124 strikeouts were second to Monclova's Josh Lowey's 148 while his three complete games topped the loop.

One cursory glance at Veracruz' everyday lineup might bring a sense of wonder that they were able to qualify for the postseason, even if it was a single play-in game home loss on August 11 to Walter Silva and fifth-place Leon in the weaker LMB South.  Molina was not one of the seven Rojos del Aguila pitchers sent to the mound in that contest by manager Eddy Castro, who surprised some by surviving the entire season at the helm in Veracruz (where in-season firings had become as common as shrimpboats in the port city's harbor).  The Eagle Reds finished fourth in the LMB South with a 48-57 record.  While that may be the definition of backing into the playoffs, they wouldn't have had a sniff of playing beyond the regular season without Molina.

With all due respect to Octavio Acosta, whose great year while backed by one of the the Liga's top offenses (the Diablos posted a team .301 batting average), Molina was performing miracles with a lineup that came in 15th with a .271 average and finished near the bottom in nearly all offensive categories.  Whether the Rojos del Aguila remain in Veracruz for 2018 or move to the Texas border, Nestor Molina should give his team a chance to win no matter where they're playing or who's in the field behind him.

BBM PITCHER OF THE YEAR AWARD WINNERS
Summer 2010    Bobby Cramer, Quintana Roo
Winter 2010-11  Jose Silva, Culiacan
Summer 2011    Francisco Campos, Campeche
Winter 2015-16  Javier Solano, Mexicali
Summer 2016    Yoanner Negrin, Yucatan
Winter 2016-17  Jake Sanchez, Mexicali
Summer 2017    Nestor Molina, Veracruz

BBM 2017 Summer Awards: Manager of the Year

Aguascalientes Rieleros manager Homar Rojas

While Pedro Mere in Tijuana has his second career pennant to burnish his credentials and Tim Johnson led a Puebla team with more than 20 of its players relocated to Monclova to an unexpected appearance in the Serie del Rey, choosing Baseball Mexico's 2017 Summer Manager of the Year was the easiest of the five selections to be announced this week: Veteran skipper Homar Rojas took over a moribund Aguascalientes team in February and piloted the Rieleros' bargain-basement roster to a 64-46 record (fifth-best in the Mexican League), the team's first playoff berth since 2012 and was able to extend the Railroaders' first-round series to six games before falling to Mere's Toros.

Cobbling teams together from shoestring budgets is nothing new to Rojas, who learned to make do in eleven previous seasons at the helm of LMB franchises in Oaxaca, Reynosa, Campeche and Monclova, where he went 188-145 with three playoff berths (including a 2015 Serie del Rey appearance) for the Acereros between 2014 and 2016.  New owner Gerardo Bustamante, who bought the team last winter, decided he could find a manager who'd improve Monclova's 2016 record of 69-43 and brought in Wally Backman, who lasted 42 games before being fired.

Rojas, for his part, landed on his feel in Aguascalientes in February after also getting axed from his winter job as skipper with the Mexican Pacific League's Jalisco Charros when the 15-19 first-half record the Guadalajara team posted was deemed insufficient.  The Rieleros roster had little to recommend going into the 2017 season, although they did have BBM's 2016 Summer Batter of the Year, infielder Diory Hernandez, who was coming off a .319/23/97 season during which he led the Liga in RBIs.  Aguascalientes was sixth in the LMB North with a 53-58 record, ending the season under interim player-manager Saul Soto (who returned to his player-only role this year).  The Rieleros had some good hitters but a suspect pitching staff going into their 2017 schedule under Rojas.

The Nuevo Leon native oversaw a few changes in his lineup, including the surprising early-season release of Hernandez, and struck gold by inserting indy ball infielder Jose Vargas, LMB veteran outfielder Dave Sappelt into the Rieleros' everyday lineup while adding onetime Rockies hurler Yohan Flande and ex-Dodgers farmhand Roy Merritt to his starting rotation and installing onetime MLB reliever Jose Valverde as his closer.  The result was a plucky team that punched above its weight, especially in the second half of the season, and improved their record 11.5 games over 2016 while establishing themselves as a very scary fourth-place team that none of the three teams finishing ahead of them (Tijuana, Monterrey and Monclova) wanted to draw as a playoff opponent.  Attendance in Aguascalientes also improved, as the Rieleros averaged 3,572 at 70-year-old Parque Alberto Romo Chavez, an increase of 19 percent over 2016's turnstile count.

After the Rieleros were eliminated by Tijuana, the 53-year-old Rojas (who managed LMP pennant-winners with Obregon in 2007-08 and Hermosillo in 2009-10) looked back upon the unexpected success of Aguascalientes and lauded his players' attitude and desire during games: "The only thing I've heard are good things about this team, and it was the players who did that, "he told El Clarinete of Aguascalientes.  "I'm congratulating them in the media but I already did that in person in Tijuana, where I took away some important things from them.  I was very satisfied with all their work."

So were we, and that was due to Rojas' steady, calm hand at the Rieleros' helm.  The former catcher now has a twelve-year career LMB managerial mark of 703-646.  This was not a hard choice to make.

BBM MANAGER OF THE YEAR AWARDS
Summer 2010   Eddie Diaz, Oaxaca
Winter 2010-11  Matias Carrillo, Guasave
Summer 2011   Daniel Fernandez, Veracruz
Winter 2015-16  Edgar Gonzalez, Mexicali
Summer 2016   Willie Romero, Yucatan
Winter 2016-17  Luis Sojo, Los Mochis
Summer 2017   Homar Rojas, Aguascalientes

2016-17 BBM Winter Awards: Manny Rodriguez, Batter of the Year

For more than a decade, Jalisco Charros second baseman Jose Manuel "Manny" Rodriguez has quietly gone about his job as one of the best (and most consistent) players in Mexican baseball.  Although he's never been one to land with any frequency in sports section headlines and likely is not one of the first players named when fans conjure up who they think is the best ballplayer in Mexico, the 34-year-old Guasave native has proven that he's usually good for a batting average of over .300 with extra-base power and an occasional stolen base along with steady defense at second base.  And he does it year in and year out.  In short, Manny Rodriguez is a workingman's baseball star.

Perhaps surprisingly, Rodriguez didn't begin his professional career south of the border, but rather in the U.S. independent Frontier League with the Chillicothe, Ohio Paints in 2004.  After a so-so .258 batting average that year, he led the league with a .380 mark, beating fellow Mexican baseball mainstay Olmo Rosario of Rockford by seven points.  Following the 2005 season, Rodriguez made his Mexican League debut with Saltillo and hit .344 in 55 games for the 2006 season.  That led to a ten-year stretch with the Saraperos that included two Liga pennants, four All-Star Game appearances, a Comeback Player of the Year award in 2014 and seven years batting .300 or above.  His best campaign came in that 2014 comeback season (after an injury ended his previous year after just 27 games), in which he hit .344 with 28 homers and 96 RBIs in 107 games.  Rodriguez moved to Puebla last summer, and hit .303 with 12 roundtrippers as the Pericos won the LMB pennant.  Over 11 Mexican League seasons, Rodriguez has a .317 career average with 113 homers.

But that's in the traditionally hitter-friendly confines of the Liga.  How has the 5'10" Rodriguez fared in the traditionally pitcher-friendly MexPac?  How about a .296 average with 83 homers over eleven winters in the LMP, eight with his hometown Guasave Algodoneros (with whom he moved to Guadalajara in 2014 when they became the Jalisco Charros)?  For this circuit, where eleven batters hit over .300 this winter, those are pretty impressive numbers, but Rodriguez outdid himself in 2016-17.

Playing for a non-playoff team, Rodriguez finished third in the MexPac batting tables with a .335 average, trailing only Mexicali's Luis Juarez (.364) and Los Mochis' Leandro Castro (.347).  His 8 homers tied him for fifth in the league, he finished in the top ten in both runs scored and RBIs, his 25 doubles were good for third in the loop and his .382 on-base percentage, .521 slugging average and .903 OPS were all near the top of their respective lists.  While he did not lead the LMP in any one category, Rodriguez put together an all-around season at the plate that nobody could really match either.  Plus he contributed his usual rock-steady work at second base as well.

That's Manny Rodriguez for you:  No one thing about him might stand out but when you look at all the numbers, there's a reason he's BBM's 2016-17 Batter of the Year.  The only surprise is that next month will mark his first appearance in the World Baseball Classic, proving that even the experts can miss one now and then.

BBM BATTER OF THE YEAR WINNERS
2015-16   Jose Amador, Hermosillo
2016        Diory Hernandez, Aguascalientes
2016-17   Jose "Manny" Rodriguez, Culiacan

2016-17 BBM Winter Awards: Jake Sanchez, Pitcher of the Year

These awards are never easy to assign winners to and 2016-17 Pitcher of the Year was no exception.  Who to choose?  Should it go to a starting pitcher who led the Mexican Pacific League in wins and strikeouts while finishing third in ERA?  Or a relief pitcher who was as close to a sure thing out of the bullpen as you can find, with a MexPac-leading 21 saves and an ERA of 0.28 while only allowing one earned run all season until the final game of the recently-concluded Caribbean Series?  For this particular award, we went with the closer from California.  We'll get to the first guy later.

A 27-year-old righty, Sanchez graduated in 2008 from Brawley's Union High School, which produced future MLB pitchers Sergio Romo, Rudy Seanez and Sid Monge.  After pitching juco ball at nearby Imperial Valley College and finishing his collegiate career at DIII Iowa Wesleyan (alumni of former All-Star 2B Davey Lopes), the undrafted Sanchez spent parts of two summers with Joliet of the independent Frontier League before signing with the White Sox as a free agent in 2013.  He was assigned to Great Falls of the rookie Pioneer League that summer, where he led the loop with a 2.87 ERA and 76 strikeouts en route to a 6-3 record as a starter and was named Pitcher of the Year.

The next two seasons saw Sanchez compile a 24-13 overall record for both organization at three levels of minor league ball (including a 1-1 mark in two starts at AAA Nashville in 2015), the year the Chisox traded him to the A's organization.  The winter of 2015-16 marked a turning point in Sanchez' career, as he was converted into a reliever in Mexicali by manager Edgar Gonzalez.  Although he struggled for the Aguilas that year (4 saves and a 5.14 ERA), Sanchez showed enough out of the bullpen to continue as a reliever in AA Midland last summer.  It wasn't an auspicious season, as Jake was 7-5 with eight saves in a team-leading 44 appearances but his 3.10 ERA was a marked improvement over the 4.50 figure he put up for the RockHounds in 2015 as a starter.

At the beginning of his second year with Mexicali last October, some improvement was hoped for but nobody expected what Sanchez accomplished.  After claiming the closer's role for the Aguilas under then-manager Gil Velazquez, the 6'1" 205-pounder proceeded to stand the LMP on its ear as he put together a 1-0 record with a league-leading 21 saves in 30 appearances, walking just five batters in 31.2 innings and striking out 27 batters.  Sanchez' regular season success carried over into the playoffs as he reigstered five more saves and striking out 21 in 17.1 frames over ten appearances, then recording two more saves in the Caribbean Series for the Aguilas before giving up his second earned run over the entire season to Puerto Rico's Caguas in the tenth inning of the championship game to take the loss.  Even so, he was named as the top reliever in the CS by writers and broadcasters.

After ending the 2016 with an uncertain future in the A's system, Jake Sanchez has converted a dominant winter into a berth with the Mexican National Team under Edgar Gonzalez in next month's World Baseball Classic.  It's impossible that his work over the past four months didn't catch the eye of GM Billy Beane and others in the Oakland front office.  He sure caught ours and becomes the first reliever to win this award since former Pirates hurler Jose Silva with Culiacan in 2010-11.

BBM PITCHER OF THE YEAR WINNERS
2010       Bobby Cramer, Quintana Roo
2010-11  Jose Silva, Culiacan
2011       Francisco Campos, Campeche
2015-16  Javier Solano, Mexicali
2016       Yoanner Negrin, Yucatan
2016-17  Jake Sanchez, Mexicali

2016-17 BBM Winter Awards: Luis Sojo, Manager of the Year

Managing a minor league baseball team in Mexico comes with about as much job security as a pet rock salesman enjoys.  While it's a decades-old axiom that managers are hired to be fired (unless you're Connie Mack), there may be no place on Earth where that's as true as it is south of the border, where no less than eight skippers were pink-slipped in the Mexican League during the 2016 season.  Luis Sojo was one of them, yet he rebounded from being fired by Tijuana last summer to leading the perennial also-ran Los Mochis Caneros to the Mexican Pacific League championship series this winter.

The former infielder, who spent over a decade as a utilityman for five teams (including seven with the New York Yankees), spent a number of years after his 2003 retirement as a player coaching and managing in the Yankees system while also managing his native Venezuela at the World Baseball Classic in 2006, 2009 and 2013. After more than ten seasons managing and coaching in pinstripes, Sojo took the managerial reigns with the Mexican League's Tijuana Toros last season and was able to keep his job until July 5, when GM Jorge Campillo fired him with Tijuana in third place at 40-37.  Pedro Mere, a longtime skipper in the Veracruz Winter League, went on to take the Toros to the Northern Division title and an LMB championship series against eventual pennant-winner Puebla.  Mere is scheduled to return to the helm in Tijuana this season.

Licking his wounds after being canned in Tijuana, Sojo was able to get a head start preparing for the recently-concluded Mexican Pacific League season, his second managing Los Mochis after going 35-33 in 2015-16 before a first-round playoff loss to Obregon.  Sojo's Caneros finished third in both halves of the MexPac schedule with a 38-30 overall record thanks to a lineup infused by newcomers like outfielder Leandro Castro, second baseman Isaac Rodriguez, third baseman Brian Hernandez and shortstop Yosmany Guerra (who all hit .300 or better) plus hurlers Manny Barreda, who won the LMP's ERA title, and swingman Jon Sintes.

In the January playoffs, Mochis knocked out defending Caribbean Series champion Mazatlan in five games and went seven games to eliminate Culiacan in the semifinals before falling to Mexcali in the title series, 4 games to 2, dropping the last three in a row as the Caneros sought their first pennant since 2002-03.  Although Mochis fell short of capturing the flag, the Caneros overachieved enough for skipper Luis Sojo to win the BBM Winter Award for Manager of the Year.

BBM MANAGER OF THE YEAR WINNERS
2010       Eddie Diaz, Oaxaca
2010-11  Matias Carrillo, Guasave
2011       Daniel Fernandez, Veracruz
2015-16  Edgar Gonzalez, Mexicali
2016       Willie Romero, Yucatan
2016-17  Luis Sojo, Los Mochis

List of past and present BBM Award winners

MOST VALUABLE PLAYER
Summer 2010 - Willis Otanez, 1B, Puebla Pericos
Winter 2011 - Justin Christian, OF, Los Mochis Caneros
Summer 2011 - Luis Terrero, OF, Mexico City Diablos
Winter 2016 - Christian Villanueva, 3B, Obregon Yaquis
Summer 2016 - Cesar Tapia, C, Puebla Pericos

PLAYOFF MVP
Winter 2011 - Iker Franco, C, Obregon Yaquis
Summer 2011 - Pablo Ortega, P, Quintana Roo Tigres
Winter 2016 - Hector Daniel Hernandez, P, Mexicali Aguilas
Summer 2016 - Mauricio Lara, P, Puebla Pericos

BATTER OF THE YEAR
Winter 2016 - Jose Amador, 1B, Hermosillo Naranjeros
Summer 2016 - Diory Hernandez, Aguascalientes Rieleros

PITCHER OF THE YEAR
Summer 2010 - Bobby Cramer, Quintana Roo Tigres
Winter 2011 - Jose Silva, Culiacan Tomateros
Summer 2011 - Francisco Campos, Campeche Pirates
Winter 2016 - Javier Solano, Mexicali Aguilas
Summer 2016 - Yoanner Negrin, Yucatan Leones

MANAGER OF THE YEAR
Summer 2010 - Eddie Diaz, Oaxaca Warriors
Winter 2011 - Matias Carrillo, Guasave Algodoneros
Summer 2011 - Daniel Fernandez, Mexico City Diablos Rojos
Winter 2016 - Edgar Gonzalez, Mexicali Aguilas
Summer 2016 - Willie Romero, Yucatan Leones

NEWCOMER OF THE YEAR
Summer 2010 - Sandy Madera, 1B, Yucatan Leones
Winter 2011 - Barbaro Canizares, 1B, Obregon Yaquis
Summer 2011 - Doug Clark, OF, Quintana Roo Tigres

2016 BBM Summer Awards Most Valuable Player Cesar Tapia, Puebla

There were a number of Mexican League players who had exceptional seasons, per usual, but the BBM Summer Most Valuable Player choice really came down to two men.  One, Yucatan's Yoanner Negrin, certainly had a year for the ages in going 18-1 during the regular season for the Leones, becoming the first Liga hurler in 16 years to record that many victories in one campaign (and duly named BBM's Summer Pitcher of the Year on Wednesday).  However, there's one more player who we're giving our MVP award for having a career year in the batter's box as one of the linchpins of Puebla's league championship season under managers Matias Carrillo and Cory Snyder.

Veteran Pericos catcher Cesar Tapia led the LMB with a .383 batting average, beating out Laguna outfielder Ruben Sosa's .371 mark and the topping the .350 mark put in by Saltillo first baseman Eliezer Alfonzo by 33 points among players with 85 or more games in 2016.  Alfonzo was mysteriously released by Mexico City on July 8 despite hitting .342 for the Diablos Rojos over 69 games...the Saraperos signed him as a free agent six days later.

Tapia also launched 21 homers in 89 contests to finish tied for seventh in the loop during the regular season, poked 30 doubles (tied for fourth), drove in 94 runs (third) and even stole 13 bases in 17 attempts (remember, this is a 33-year-old who had never swiped more than five bags before this summer.  In all, Tapia had new single-season personal highs in eleven offensive categories.  Besides his first batting title, the Sonoran ranked in the Liga's Top Five for on-base percentage (.431 for fifth) and first in both slugging percentage at .662 and OPS with a 1.093 figure.

The 5'11" 200-pound right-handed batter did cool down in the postseason, going 17-of-62 for a .274 average over 16 playoff games.  Tapia did hit .412 in Yucatan's opening sweep of defending champion Quintana Roo and batted .333 with two homers and five RBI's in six games against Tijuana in the Serie del Rey, including a 3-for-4 night with a homer and two ribbies in Game Two.

Cesar Tapia Figueroa was born November 10, 1982 in Empalme, Sonora.  He made his pro debut with Puebla at age 21 in 2004, but after hitting just .225 for the Pericos in 2005, Tapia was dealt to the rival Angelopolis Tigres (who shared Estadio Hermanos Serdan with the Parrots for four years before moving to Cancun in 2007).  After Tapia hit .301 for the Tigres in 2006, the Pericos brought him back to the flock for 2007.  He batted .343 that season and has remained in green and gold since.

In twelve Liga seasons overall, Tapia has hit over .300 ten times (topping .340 in five seasons) for a career .331 batting average.  Although he has historically been more of a gap hitter than a longball threat until this year, Tapia now has 92 career home runs to go with his 233 doubles and 1,232 hits.  Tapia has also spent eight winters playing sparingly in the pitching-friendly Mexican Pacific League (the last five in Culiacan).  He's a career .230 batsman in 109 Mex-Pac games overall.

2016 BBM Summer Awards
MANAGER OF THE YEAR - Willy Romero, Yucatan
BATTER OF THE YEAR - Diory Hernandez, Aguascalientes
PITCHER OF THE YEAR - Yoanner Negrin, Yucatan
PLAYOFF MVP - Mauricio Lara, Puebla
MOSY VALUABLE PLAYER - Cesar Tapia, Puebla

2016 BBM Summer Awards Pitcher of the Year: Yoanner Negrin, Yucatan

The Yucatan Leones posted the best record in the Mexican League this summer with a 77-33 mark (winning 35 of 52 road games) before advancing to the LMB South Division Championship Series against eventual champions Puebla.  While BBM Manager of the Year Willie Romero had some timely hitters like in his everyday lineup like Jesus Valdez, Luis Alfonso Garcia and Corey Wimberly, the Leones were clearly a pitching-dependent team in 2016.  And no pitcher in the Liga was more dependable than starter Yoanner Negrin.

The 32-year-old Cuban righty registered one of the best campaigns for pitchers in recent memory, winning 18 of 19 regular season contests.  His lone loss came May 1 against Puebla at home in Merida, a 5-4 defeat in which Negrin allowed five runs on 10 hits and three walks over 5.1 innings.  Otherwise, he was as automatic as the sunrise, winning all but three no-decisions for his 21 other starts.  Negrin's 18 wins were the most since Danny Rios went 18-5 for Union Laguna in 2001 (throwing an incredible 19 complete games among his 26 starts that year).

Negrin ended the schedule with 141.1 innings pitched, striking out 92 batsmen (tied for ninth in the LMB) and walking 37.  He tossed four complete games, three of them shutouts (both league highs), and his 1.07 WHIP was third behind Monclova's departed Josh Lowey and hard-luck Acereros starter Hector Velazquez. Negrin kept it up in the postseason, winning three of four starts (including two wins over Campeche in the first round).  In 24.2 playoff innings, he flashed a 1.86 ERA with 15 strikeouts.

Yoanner Negrin Perez was born April 29, 1984 in Havana.  According to an August interview with the Merida-based Sipse website, Negrin said he loved baseball as far back as he could remember, crediting his father for helping him learn the game.  After first playing first base and shortstop, he tried pitching at age 13.  "I was rather bad," he laughed.  "I kept giving up walks.  I was on the team because my dad was the manager."  He improved to the point of beginning his Cuban National Series career at 17 with a Havana team and moving on to Matanzas at 20.  After a few seasons in the winter league, however, Negrin grew frustrated by his lack of opportunity to even try out for the powerful National Team and decided to leave the island and seek a better chance in baseball and life elsewhere, ending up in Miami.

The Chicago Cubs signed him as a 27-year-old free agent in 2011.  Negrin spent most of the next five summers in the Cubs' minor league system, with loans to Mexican League teams in Tabasco during the 2012 and 2014 seasons, showing well both times.  He suffered an elbow injury in 2015, however, and after rehabbing in Class A Eugene and AAA Iowa, Negrin was loaned to Yucatan in June and has remained since.

Similar to BBM Batter of the Year Diory Hernandez of Aguascalientes, nobody could have foreseen Negrin's incredible 2016 season.  His five-year MiLB career record after the 2015 season was a pedestrian 19-21 in 129 appearances (44 of them starts), although he had a respectable 3.67 ERA and was 8-for-12 in saves opportunities out of the bullpen.

If Lowey had remained in Monclova instead of signing in July with the Korean Baseball Organization's KT Wiz (where he's 3-5 with a 5.98 ERA after his 12th start Tuesday), he would have been in the running for this award.  Lowey was 13-3 with a LMB-leading 1.65 ERA when he departed and his 131 K's still led the loop. Puebla closer Chad Gaudin had a great year for the Pericos, saving 33 games and winning two more with a 1.64 ERA in 44 trips from the pen.  However, there's just no way you can choose anyone but a guy who goes 18-1 over a 110-game season (projecting to 26 triumphs over 162 contests) and wins two more in the playoffs to make it an even 20.  This one was easy.  Finally.

2016 BBM Summer Awards Batter of the Year: Diory Hernandez, Aguascalientes

Although the Mexican League has held a well-deserved reputation as a hitter's league for decades, 2016 was a little quieter than usual.  Sure, you had your usual LMB clubs with team batting averages topping the .300 mark, but there were only two of them this year as both Mexico City and Monterrey finished at .303. Puebla catcher Cesar Tapia led the Liga with a .386 average, but the most remarkable offensive performance of the year came from a rarely-noticed shortstop on an even less-noticed team.

Baseball was first played in Aguascalientes in 1902, but pro ball didn't arrive until 1953, when the city hosted a team in the Class A Mexican Center League for the first of 22 seasons under several nicknames (but most often known as the Tigres, after their LMB parent).  Aguascalientes entered the Mexican League in 1974 and has had a spotty record since, winning the pennant in 1978 but leaving for Nuevo Laredo in 2008, only to return in 2012.  Aguascalientes is an industrial city and state capital of 1.27 million inhabitants, and the Rieleros' ballpark (the 9,000-seat Parque Alberto Romo Chavez) will turn 80 in 2018, making it the oldest ballpark in the Liga.  Attendance is usually middle of the pack or lower, with 153,058 clicking the turnstiles over 53 games this year to rank ninth of 16 teams in a down year at the gate in most cities.  Given what he was surrounded with, Diory Hernandez' year at the plate becomes even more of a miracle.

Hernandez is the 2016 BBM Summer Batter of the Year after a remarkable season in which he hit over .400 in April before settling with a final .319 while leading the LMB with 97 RBIs.  His 23 homers tied Saltillo's Eliezer Alfonzo and Quintana Roo's Alex Liddi for third in the Liga while his 77 runs scored tied teammate Brian Burgamy for third.  Hernandez also finished in the Top Ten for hits (tied with Monterrey's Chris Roberson for 9th with 133), total bases (3rd with 224) and slugging percentage (10th at .537).  What makes those number so remarkable are the ones that preceded them.

The 32-year-old Hernandez is a native of San Pedro de Macoris, Dominican Republic, a city of 191,000 known as the "Cradle of Shortstops" and home to 76 future major leaguers, including Hernandez.  A shortstop (of course), the six-footer signed with Atlanta in 2003 and kicked around the Braves' system six years before making his big league debut in 2009.  Hernandez yo-yo'd between Atlanta and AAA affiliate Gwinnett for three summers (hitting .157 in 75 games in the bigs) before splitting the 2012 campaign between Oklahoma City and Iowa of the AAA Pacific Coast League.  By this time he'd evolved into a utility infielder with a little speed and pesky hitter who'd bat anywhere between .250 and .300 or a little higher, but never hitting more than seven homers or topping 68 RBIs in a single year.

Hernandez arrived in Mexico to play at Campeche in 2013, missed 2014 altogether and opened 2015 in Veracruz before coming to Aguascalientes with no discernible difference at bat. Going into the 2016 season, he was a career .270 hitter in the minors with just 46 homers and 382 ribbies over 914 games covering 13 seasons. His 2016 output with the Railroaders increased his career homer total by 50 percent and his RBI count by another 25 percent.

Aguascalientes missed the postseason as usual, coming in sixth in the LMB North at 53-58, 19 games out of first place and 9 out of the final berth with veteran catcher Saul Soto taking over down the stretch as the Liga's first player-manager since Willie Romero with Yucatan in 2012.  In other words, chaos as usual.  But none of that takes away from Diory Hernandez' miracle year.

2016 BBM Summer Awards Manager of the Year: Willie Romero, Yucatan Leones

This may end up being the most difficult of all five 2016 Baseball Mexico Summer Awards to determine.  Not because there aren't a lot of worthy candidates, but because only 8 of the 16 Mexican League skippers in April's openers lasted throughout the season.

One could look at Puebla manager Cory Snyder, who led the Pericos to the Liga pennant earlier this month after taking over for Matias Carrillo during the All-Star Break with the team holding the best record in the circuit.  Pedro Mere deserves consideration for succeeding Luis Sojo in Tijuana at about the same time with the Toros in third place in the LMB North, then guiding the Border Bombers through the postseason to the Finals.  Likewise, Felix Fermin did a great job all year taking Monterrey to the best record in the North at 73-29 before being tripped up by Tijuana in the Division Championship Series.  But we're going to go with Yucatan helmsman Willie Romero.

Like Fermin with the Sultanes, Romero was able to avoid the axe (Carrillo's firing in Puebla was evidence that no LMB managerial job is safe) and led the Leones to a LMB-best record of 77-33, winning nine of their final ten regular season games to finish four games better than the Pericos' 73-38 mark. Yucatan then dispatched Campeche in six games to win their opening playoff series before losing to Puebla, 4 games to 2, in the South DCS.  Game Six was a 4-3 heartbreaker that went 13 innings on September 4 to end the Leones' season.

Romero was able to cobble such a strong season out of one of the LMB's lesser offenses, as Yucatan finished tenth in hits (1,042) and batting average (.278), twelfth in homers (66), eleventh in both on-base percentage (.346) and stolen bases (66).  As one may suspect, the Leones got it done with a longtime feature of teams in Merida: Pitching.  Yoanner Negrin went 18-1 to lead a staff that came in second to Quintana Roo in ERA at 3.16 (the next-best finisher, Laguna, clocked a 3.61 ERA in the hitter-firendly loop) with a 1.25 WHIP, also second to the Tigres.  Yucatan hurlers allowed just 47 homers, by far the lowest in the Liga.

The 42-year-old Wilfredo Andres Romero is a native of Maracay, Venezuela.  He signed as an undrafted outfielder with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1993 and spent six years in their minor league system, topping out in AAA Albuquerque, where he hit .285 with 10 homers and 23 steals for the Dukes in 1998.  His Mexican League debut was two years later with Saltillo, and Romero adapted quickly by batting .334 with 21 homers for the Saraperos in 2000.  The 6'0" right-hander went on to play 13 seasons in the Liga before retiring at 38 after finishing the 2012 campaign as player-manager of the Leones.  Over 19 minor league seasons, Romero was a .318 career hitter, socking 172 homers, stealing 363 bases and either scoring or driving in 2,040 runs in 1,794 games.  He played on pennant-winning teams in both Merida (2006) and Cancun (2011) and represented Yucatan in five All-Star Games, winning the All-Star MVP in 2008.

After going 35-40 as the Leones' player-manager in 2012, Romero moved on to Monclova in 2013 and took the Acereros to a 32-27 record before being let go.  He spent the 2014 season as a coach with Quintana Roo before returning to Yucatan last year, when he managed the Leones to a 66-46 record and the LMB South regular season title.

Romero is a fiery sort who was suspended for two games as a Yucatan player in 2010 after shoving a plate umpire during an argument.  Some of that fire flared up in May when Romero and pitcher Danny Guterrez took a dugout argument into the clubhouse during a game.  Romero later said the two had hugged and made up but Gutierrez was dealt to Laguna in July.

List of past and present BBM Award winners

MOST VALUABLE PLAYER
Summer 2010 - Willis Otanez, 1B, Puebla Pericos
Winter 2011 - Justin Christian, OF, Los Mochis Caneros
Summer 2011 - Luis Terrero, OF, Mexico City Diablos
Winter 2016 - Christian Villanueva, 3B, Obregon Yaquis

PLAYOFF MVP
Winter 2011 - Iker Franco, C, Obregon Yaquis
Summer 2011 - Pablo Ortega, P, Quintana Roo Tigres
Winter 2016 - Hector Daniel Hernandez, P, Mexicali Aguilas

BATTER OF THE YEAR
Winter 2016 - Jose Amador, Hermosillo Naranjeros

PITCHER OF THE YEAR
Summer 2010 - Bobby Cramer, Quintana Roo Tigres
Winter 2011 - Jose Silva, Culiacan Tomateros
Summer 2011 - Francisco Campos, Campeche Piratas
Winter 2016 - Javier Solano, Mexicali Aguilas

MANAGER OF THE YEAR
Summer 2010 - Eddie Diaz, Oaxaca Guerreros
Winter 2011 - Matias Carrillo, Guasave Algodoneros
Summer 2011 - Daniel Fernandez, Mexico City Diablos Rojos
Winter 2016 - Edgar Gonzalez, Mexicali Aguilas

NEWCOMER OF THE YEAR
Summer 2010 - Sandy Madera, 1B, Yucatan Leones
Winter 2011 - Barbaro Canizares, 1B, Obregon Yaquis
Summer 2011 - Doug Clark, OF, Quintana Roo Tigres

2015-16 BBM Winter Awards: Playoff MVP

Before I say anything else, I wanted to mention how tough it's been to pick these awards for this season. There were a lot of worthy recipients and I've had to agonize over every selection even more than American League managers and coaches did when they gave Rafael Palmeiro a Gold Glove in 1999 after he played all of 28 games at first base that year. Now that took courage.

Bearing all that in mind, the Baseball Mexico Winter Award winner for Playoff Most Valuable Player is going to left-handed pitcher Hector Daniel Rodriguez, who went 2-1 with a 1.38 ERA for Mexicali through three rounds of the LMP postseason, striking out 28 batters in 26.1 innings.  Rodriguez turned in an 0.84 WHIP after allowing just 16 hits and six walks as a reinforcement for the Aguilas followed a good regular season for his hometown Culiacan Tomateros, for whom he was 7-3 with a 3.00 ERA in 14 starts to give stability to a pitching staff that saw 31 hurlers combine for an LMP-worst 4.97 ERA during the Tomateros' 28-40 season.

After beating Jalisco 5-2 on January 2, topping Navojoa 10-1 on January 11 and throwing 6.1 shutout innings in a ten-inning 1-0 Aguilas loss to the Mayos on January 17, Rodriguez went all the way in a 1-0 Mexicali loss to Mazatlan in Game Three of the MexPac championship series on January 23.  That outing was enough for Venados manager Juan Jose Pacho to pick him up for the Caribbean Series in what turned out to be a prescient move for Pacho.

The 31-year-old opened the Caribbean Series for Mazatlan February 1 against Dominican host Escogido, tossing five innings and striking out five to earn the win in the Venados' 3-2 win over the Leones.  He then pitched six innings of shutout ball five days later in a 7-2 semifinal win against Cuba's Ciego de Avila to win his second CS start, setting the table for the Venados' series-clinching win over Venezuela's Aragua Tigres the following day.

It's been a rocky road for Rodriguez since he won the 2010 BBM Summer Award for Playoff MVP after going 5-0 in the postseason, including two victories over Puebla in the title series, to lead Saltillo to the Mexican League pennant.  At least four MLB teams were interested in the 5'11" portsider at the time, but the restrictive (some would say punitive) nature of Mexican baseball meant he would toil for two more seasons with the Saraperos before finally signing with Atlanta in 2012 after going 11-4 for Saltillo and leading the Liga in strikeouts with 135 that summer.  He had two uneventful years with the Braves' AAA Gwinnett affiliate in 2013 and 2014, turning in an aggregate 9-16 record with an equally-unimpressive 5.26 ERA over two years.

After one scoreless relief appearance last season for Norfolk (the Orioles' AAA farm team), "Dany" returned to Saltillo and pitched in 33 games, all in relief, going 3-1 plus three saves with a respectable 3.16 ERA over 44.1 innings.  While it's unknown whether Saraperos manager Noe Munoz plans to return Rodriguez to the bullpen for the upcoming season, the starting rotation thins out when one gets past 2015 LMB ERA champ Edgmer Escalona, import Michael Nix and Santiago Gutierrez (who all combined for a 29-15 record last year), so it would seem logical that Rodriguez should get a shot at regaining a starting berth this spring.

While his summer address has changed from time to time the past few years, Rodriguez has been a constant during the winter, spending the past eight MexPac seasons with Culiacan, mostly as a starter.  While he's had his moments with the Tomateros in that span, this past season was easily the best of his LMP career.

2015-16 BBM Winter Awards: Most Valuable Player

Although the Obregon Yaquis were unable to make it past the second round of the Mexican Pacific League playoffs this winter, losing in seven games to Mazatlan in their hard-fought semifinal series after losing the first two games at Estadio Tomas Gaytan (neither team would win a home game in that set), they did turn in the best overall regular season record in the circuit at 39-29, just missing the top postseason seed by a half-point to Mexicali.  That they were able to finish as well as they did despite mediocre batting and pitching means some players had to rise to the occasion when the occasion called for it, and few did it as well as Yaquis third baseman Christian Villanueva, our BBM Winter Award winner for Most Valuable Player.

The Guadalajara native finished in the LMP's Top Ten in ten different offensive categories in 2015-16, coming in sixth in the MexPac with a .322 average, tied for seventh in homers with 9, fifth in RBI's with 38, second to Mazatlan's Jeremias Pineda with 43 runs scored, second to Jose Amador with a .434 on-base percentage and third behind both Amadors in OPS at .914.  He hit better on the the road, knocking pitchers around for a .339 average with seven homers away from home while batting .302 at Tomas Gaytan.

More to the point, he was the linchpin of a lineup that had plenty of holes in it, thus seeing fewer hittable pitches as opposing pitchers were willing to nibble the corners with him and take their chances with the rest of the Yaquis order, yet still collecting timely hits throughout the campaign.  He spent 29 games at third base, fielding 82 of 87 chances cleanly for a .943 average and taking part in eight double plays from the hot corner, not Brooks Robinson territory but not the second coming of Hector Lopez either. In a season that saw no clear standout performances, Villanueva gets the slight nod for our LMP MVP.

The 24-year-old Villanueva was signed as a free agent by Texas in August 2008 and spent four years in the Rangers system before moving to the Cubs organization in mid-2012 in a trade that sent pitcher Ryan Dempster to Arlington.  Ranked eighth among prospects in the Cubbies minors heading into the 2013 season, Villanueva hit .261 with 19 homers and 72 RBI's at AA Tennessee that year but suffered a downturn in 2014 by batting a combined .230 with 10 roundtrippers between the Smokies and AAA Iowa.  He reversed his fortunes somewhat last summer by cracking 18 homers with 88 ribbies in Des Moines to go with a .259 average.  In all, Villanueva has averaged 16 homers and 75 RBI's over the past five minor league seasons and while he has zero chance of unseating Kris Bryant in Wrigley Field, he's on Chicago's 40-man roster and will challenge former Atlanta third sacker Tommy La Stella for the backup role.

This winter was his fourth in the MexPac, all with Obregon, and clearly his best.

2015-16 BBM Winter Awards: Pitcher of the Year

Although the Mexican Pacific League's longstanding tradition of top-notch pitching didn't really show itself until the playoffs last season, there were still plenty of strong candidates for BBM's Pitcher of the Year for 2015-16.  Mazatlan's Alejandro Soto led the loop with a 2.63 ERA but somehow only finished 4-4; Navojoa's Eddie Gamboa was 5-2 with a 3.13 ERA and only 15 walks in 80.2 innings, remarkable for a knuckleballer; and Los Mochis closer Andres Avila tied a 25-year-old LMP record with 23 saves. However, Mexicali's Javier Solano was just a little better than everyone else.

The 25-year-old Solano, a right-hander from Rio San Luis Colorado, led the MexPac with eight wins and 72 strikeouts over 81 innings, ending the regular season at 8-3 and coming in ninth in ERA at 3.33.  While the quality of outings was spotty over the final month of the schedule, Solano went 6-2 with a 2.84 ERA in his final ten starts.  He turned in a gem of a seven-inning effort against Hermosillo on December 18, shutting out the Naranjeros on two hits while striking out ten batsmen and walking one to win a 6-0 whitewash.  Solano then started five more times in the playoffs for Mexicali, registering a 2-0 record, striking out 25 batsmen and walking just five in 26 innings, although his 4.15 ERA was nothing to write home about.

Few would've predicted the winterball season Solano turned in for manager Edgar Gonzalez' Aguilas.  After spending five seasons toiling in the Dodgers' chain as a middle reliever between 2008 and 2012, going 13-7 with five saves a 4.19 ERA in 152 trips from the bullpen, he returned home to Mexico in 2013 and turned in a 4-1 mark in relief for Monterrey.

It was when he moved west to Mexicali for the 2013-14 season that Solano got his first chance to be part of a rotation.  After starting the winter in his accustomed setup role, he got nine starts and came in at 5-2 with a 2.28 ERA that season.  After that performance, he was given 12 starts in 43 appearances for Monterrey in 2014 but had a bad year, going 5-7 and 5.51.  The pattern continued last year, when Solano started 14 times and was 8-2 with a 3.39 ERA before another forgettable campaign with the Sultanes last summer in which he was 6-7 and 5.44, although he did start 21 times in 22 appearances.  Then came his third season in Mexicali, and the rest is history.

It remains to be seen whether the portly Solano, who is listed at 180 pounds but is reminiscent of Mickey Lolich in appearance, can finally translate a solid winter performance into summertime success, but he may never have a better springboard than the one he has now.

2015-16 BBM Winter Awards: Batter of the Year

For all the talk the past year (including here) about the batting feats of slugging first baseman-DH Japhet Amador, who is about to discover the joys of training camp on a Japanese baseball team, it was the "other" Amador who gets the nod for a BBM Winter Award as Batter of the Year in the Mexican Pacific League.  While Japhet got the homers and headlines before departing for the Rakuten Golden Eagles in December with two weeks left in Jalisco's regular season schedule, it was Hermosillo infielder Jose Amador (no relation to the Mulege Giant) who turned in a brilliant campaign across the board throughout the playoffs to earn the Bammy for top batsman.

 A 36-year-old Mexicali product, Amador finished fifth in the MexPac with a .323 batting average, came in third behind Japhet Amador and Yuniesky Betancourt with 11 homers, tied for third with 39 RBI's and led the circuit in both on-base percentage (.436) and on-base plus slugging percentage (.970) while his .535 slugging percentage was second only to Japhet Amador's .558.  Although Jose hit only .229 with two homers and seven RBI's in 13 playoff games as a reinforcement for Navojoa, his quietly dominant (pardon the oxymoron) regular season was enough to win the first-ever Bammy for Batter of the Year.

"Quietly" was how Amador fashioned a reputation as a second baseman who could hit a little during the first decade of his career between 2001 and 2010, a guy who could give you a .275-.300 average with some pop playing for Laguna and Veracruz in the summer Mexican League while wintering with Navojoa of the Mexican Pacific League for a number of years prior to moving to Mexicali in 2009.  Not a bad player, not a star, just a steady everyday infielder.

That changed in 2011 when he spent his first full year in Saltillo after the Saraperos picked him up in a trade with Veracruz late in the previous season.  Amador moved between first, second and third bases that year and hit .355 while bashing 18 homers and scoring 79 runs for Saltillo.  He followed that up in 2012 with a .323 average and 22 homers with the Saraperos before moving on to Aguascalientes for two seasons and spending 2015 in Monclova, hitting .305 with 18 homers for the Acereros.  In all, Amador has hit 97 homers and topped the .300 mark four times in the past five Mexican League summers.

Things haven't gone quite the same in the LMP, where Amador had spent ten years compiling a .275 average prior to this season's offensive explosion.  After playing four seasons in Navojoa, he moved home to Mexicali for a couple seasons prior to the past five winters in Hermosillo.  The 5'10" right-handed batter hit .295 with 11 homers for the Naranjeros in 2014-15, typically decent numbers but no portent of what was to come this season.

2015-16 BBM Winter Awards: Manager of the Year

It took Edgar Gonzalez nearly a decade's worth of persistence to finally get a shot to play Major League Baseball, but his return to a big league dugout as a coach may not be so protracted a journey.  In his first managerial job since retiring as a player after the 2014 season, the former San Diego Padres and Yomiuri Giants infielder led Mexicali to a first-half title and advanced to the Mexican Pacific League championship series, earning the Baseball Mexico Winter Award for Manager of the Year.

Gonzalez was handed the reins for the Aguilas in the offseason and guided them to a 38-29 mark and two playoff series wins before running into a peaking Mazatlan team in this season's title bout, losing in five games to the Venados.  He steered the team with a steady hand as the Eagles played consistently well throughout the winter with no debilitating slumps.

Mexicali led the LMP with a .295 team batting average, with five players topping the .300 mark and another two hitting in the upper .290's, a figure not uncommon in the summer Mexican League, long a notorious hitter's circuit, but something rarely seen in the MexPac (historically a pitcher's league).  The Aguilas acquitted themselves well on the mound, too, finishing third in the loop with a 3.51 ERA and leading all eight teams with seven shutouts, a 1.30 WHIP and 502 strikeouts.  Although the batting fell off in the pitching-dominated playoffs with a .246 average (no team hit higher than .252), the hurlers stepped it up with a sparkling 2.30 ERA and a stingy 1.06 WHIP over 16 contests.

The 37-year-old San Diego native will get a chance to display his acumen on a larger stage in March when he manages Mexico's national team in the World Baseball Classic qualifiers in Mexicali.  He may need all the acumen he can conjure if the Mexican League withholds players from the event and major league organizations drag their heels on making talent available for games against Germany, Nicaragua and the Czech Republic.  The WBC qualifier takes place March 17 through 20 at Estadio B-Air.

MexPac to use 22 days announcing awards; Bammys coming next week

The Mexican Pacific League has begun announcing postseason honors for their 2015-16 season, with three outfielders given Golden Gloves awards Tuesday.

The naming of Navojoa left fielder Quincy Latimore, Mexicali center fielder Chris Roberson and Hermosillo right fielder Sebastian Elizalde as the MexPac's best-fielding outfielders kicked off what will be a 22-day stretch in which the league releases the names of its top performers in dribs and drabs, culminating with the Tuesday, March 15 announcement of the LMP's Matias Carrillo Trophy for best batter, Ronnie Camacho Trophy for top slugger and the Playoff MVP, three weeks after the first winners were announced.  The Hector Espino MVP Trophy will be mentioned on March 11.

Conversely, our own BBM Winter Awards, lovingly known as the "Bammys" (hey, if ESPN can lay on the cheese...) will require only next week to announce.  Admittedly, there won't be as many awards as the LMP does, for which we proudly hide behind the old saw that "brevity is the soul of wit."  When in doubt, quote Shakespeare.

Anyway, here's a look at next week's BBM Winter Awards schedule:

MONDAY - Manager of the Year
TUESDAY - Batter of the Year
WEDNESDAY - Pitcher of the Year
THURSDAY - Most Valuable Player
FRIDAY - Playoff MVP