NARANJEROS HOLD FIRST, YAQUS MOVE UP

Hermosillo RHP Wilmer Rios

    It seems like the Hermosillo Naranjeros have led the Mexican Pacific League standings most weeks in both halves of the current season and this week is no exception, but the Obregon Yaquis have started to move up in the second-half tables and now trail the Orangemen with just two weeks left in the regular season.

    Despite losing a 3-2 decision at Guasave Sunday after shutting out the Algodoneros twice in a Saturday doubleheader, Hermosillo has a one-game lead over Obregon with a 13-5 mark while the Yaquis are right behind at 12-6. Saturday was a pitcher's dream for the Naranjeros as Wilmer Rios went all seven innings in a 5-0 win, scattering six hits anstriking out six Cottoneers batters as Luis Alfonso Cruz went 4-for-5 with two runs and an RBI to pace the offense. Then it was Jose Samayoa and two relievers who allowed just two singles in a seven-inning 2-0 whitewash for the nightcap with Isaac Paredes socking a solo homer in the sixth for the winners.

    Guasave avoided the sweep Sunday thanks to a Ramon Ramirez walkoff single up the middle in the bottom of the ninth off reliever Cesar Vargas that scored pinch-runner Ciro Norazgary from with the game-winning run. Although he didn't the the win, it was Algodoneros starter Gino Encina's turn to shine on the hill with seven scoreless innings on two hits and seven strikeouts.

    Meanwhile over the weekend, Obregon swept three games in Navojoa and likewise shut out the Mayos in the first two games. Friday's result was an 8-0 blanking with starter Dallas Martinez and four relievers combining on an 8-hitter. Yordanys Linares doubled twice and tripled to score two runs and drive in two more for the Yaquis. Saturday was more of the same with Obregon taking a shutout with as Arturo Lopez tossed a two-hitter over five innings and Carlos Sepulveda was 3-for-4 with a double, three runs scored and an RBI.

    The Yaquis broke out the brooms in Sunday's 3-2 win but they had to wait until the top of the ninth to start sweeping after Victor Mendoza and Jose Carlos Urena led off the frame with back-to-back homers, erasing a 2-1 deficit. Samuel Zazueta then retired the Navojoa side to nail down the win. Fans had lots of room to take in the action as fewer than 10,000 watched the three contests at Estadio Francisco Carranza Limon, with two games attracting fewer than 3,000 spectators.

    In all, it was a pitcher's showcase in games on Friday and Saturday nights, with with eight of the ten games played ending in shutouts, unusual even for the Mex Pac. The bats woke up Sunday with nobody being kept off the scoreboard as 36 runs were scored over the five games. Not exactly Murderer's Row stuff, but not exactly Hitless Wonders material either.

    Los Mochis finished the weekend in third place with an 11-7 second-half record after dropping two of three to Culiacan, one game ahead of 10-8 Mexicali, who took two of three over defending champion Jalisco (who scored four runs in the series). It then becomes a logjam for the final six slots on the table, as 8-10 Mazatlan and Culiacan are just a game ahead of four teams with identical 7-11 records: Guasave, Jalisco, Monterrey and Navojoa.

    All four clubs tied for seventh finished at the bottom of the standings in the first half and need to start making a move to avoid missing the eight-team playoffs next month. Defending champ Jalisco and Culiacan, who've won four titles in six years under skipper Benji Gil, are tied for the worst overall record in the circuit at 22-31 each.

    Monterrey's Roberto Valenzuela still leads the batting race with a .350 average but things are tightening up as Los Mochis' Justin Dean is now only ten points back at .340 while his Caneros teammate Yosmany Tomas is third with a .325 mark. No real changes in the home run derby as Jesse Castillo (Guasave) and Anthony Giansanti (Mexicali) are tied at the top with 10 dingers each while Sebastian Valle (Obregon) ad Niko Vasquez (Mexicali) are tied for third at eight apiece. Victor Mendoza (Obregon) leads in RBIs with 43, ahead of Los Mochis' Tomas' 41 and Yadir Drake of Obregon with 39. Randy Romero of Mazatlan has reached 20 stolen bases for the season, Hermosillo's Jose Cardona is second with 17 swipes and three other players are tied for third with 14 each.

    With his shutout win Saturday over Guasave (assuming the LMP awards him a shutout by holding the Algodoneros scoreless over the league-allotted seven innings, unlike MLB refusing to recognize its own rules in denying Madison Bumgarner a no-hitter in 2020 because he didn't pitch an extra two innings that Rob Manfred ruled weren't required), Wilmer Rios of Hermosillo became the Mex Pac's first seven-game winner this winter. Mexicali's David Reyes and Juan Tellez of Mazatlan are tied for second with six win apiece. Los Mochis' Luis Miranda allowed six earned runs over his last two starts after letting in one over his first eight outings but still has a 1.15 ERA for the season, well below the 1.89 of Juan Pablo Oramas (Hermosillo) and 1.90 of Manny Barreda (Culiacan).

    Barreda's 60 strikeouts lead the lead, with Luis Payan's 55 for Navojoa and Matt Pobereyko's 53 for Guasave the next-highest totals. Mazatlan closer Elkin Alcala's string of consecutive saves ended at five after he didn't get the save Sunday against Monterrey, but the Colombian's 15 salvados still lead the loop. Brandon Koch of Guasave is second with 13 saves while Josh Lueke is tied for third at 12 saves with Mexicali closer Jake Sanchez, who got his 84th career LMP save Saturdfay against Jalisco to tie another former Aguila, David Cardenas, for second on the all-time list. Well ahead in first on the list is Salon de la Fama member Isidro Marquez with 134.

     Among the five upcoming midweek series beginning Tuesday, the most notable will involve third-place Los Mochis at second-place Obregon for three games. Next weekend, a couple of proud franchises will meet in a must-win series as Culiacan visits Guadalajara to take on the Jalisco Charros.

    Also, Justine Siegal is in the middle of her annual peripatetic tour of Mex Pac cities during which she spends a couple days coaching for the local LMP teams and holding clinics for young female players. Siegal has already done short stints in Hermosillo, Jalisco and Guasave and is currently spending a couple days in Mexicali.


PUEBLA SWEEPS MONCLOVA IN LIM'S SERIE DEL PRINCIPE

Puebla celebrates LIM pennant

    After winning the first two games of the Mexican Winter League's Prince Series, including one marathon match that lasted into a second day, the Puebla Pericos returned home to complete their sweep over defending champion Monclova with a 14-6 win Wednesday against the Acereros at Estadio Hermanos Serdan. Monclova had defeated the Parakeets in last year's Serie del Principe, the first since the Mexican League resuscitated its Liga Invernal Mexicana for prospects and some veterans after shutting it down following the 2017 campaign.
 
    The Pericos clinched the LIM pennant last Wednesday night by breaking open a 5-5 game with four-run outbursts in both the fifth and sixth innings. Raudel Meraz' two-run homer in the bottom of the fith gave Puebla a 9-5 lead while Luis Cossio's two-run single and a homer by Victor Landeta made it a 13-5 contest in favor of the hosts. Meraz and Rogelio Cobos both had two hits and a homer while Cossio finished with a pair of hits and two ribbies. Aldo Nunez scored on Dominic Bethancourt's two-run singleton in the top of the first to give Monclova a quick 2-0 and later belted a solo homer for the Acereros.

    The opening game of the series on Saturday, December 3 saw Puebla outlast the Acereros, 2-1, in a pitcher's duel at Estadio Monclova. Hector Sepulveda pitched five shutout innings for the Pericos, allowing just two hits for the win. Monclova starter Isaac Esqueda took the loss despite a great outing of his own over five frames, letting in one run on a Herman Alvarado RBI single in the second while scattering six hits. Puebla reliever Jose Hernandez sparkled by striking out all five Steelers batsmen he faced.

    Game Two was no less thrilling, although the 11-8 Puebla win took considerably longer to finish. While pitchers took center stage in the opener, this one featured batters and Mother Nature in a late Sunday night appearance delayed the contest until Monday night. Monclova raced off to a 7-0 lead that featured a nightmarish first inning for Parakeet pitchers, who gave up seven walks in the entrada, five with the bases loaded. 

    The Pericos fought back and even took an 8-7 lead in the top of the sixth on Giancarlo Servin's two-run homer off Acereros reliever Jonathan Lopez. Monclova tied it up in the bottom of the sixth on a solo blast by pinch-hitter Edgar Salazar off Hernandez. The score stood at 8-8 until fog stopped play in the top of the eleventh at 11:11PM. After the game resumed Monday, Armando Aguilar's three-run roundtripper in the top of the twelfth gave Puebla an 8-7 that held through the end of the game, after which the two teams disembarked for the third (and final) game in Angelopolis.


MEX PAC, LiDOM CALL FOR CHANGES TO CARBBEAN SERIES

   We've called the annual Caribbean Series the “Crown Jewel of Latin Baseball” for years here on BBM and while some of its luster has diminished in recent winters due to fewer major league players and smaller attendance, the Serie del Caribe remains the most important baseball tournament among most countries involved, with national pride remaining a common denominator among fans.There is still no other event like it in the sport.

    In recent seasons, Mexico and the Dominican Republic have staged the best-attended Caribbean Series and now leagues from both nations have come together to create a protocol called the Miami Agreements in which they seek improvements to the event, which is scheduled to resume in Venezuela in February.. What follows is a translated story from ESPN Deportes by writer Juan Arturo Recio, who concludes that while the LiDOM and Mex Pac state a shared desire for changes to the CS, those changes weren't spelled out while the scarcity of financial details makes it impossible to determine what their points of contention are:

    A recent agreement between the Dominican and Mexican winter leagues indicates that both circuits want improvements in terms of the economic aspect of the international event.

    On Tuesday, November 29, the Professional Baseball League of the Dominican Republic (LiDOM) and the Mexican Pacífic League (LMP) announced the signing of a "collaboration protocol" which they called "The Miami Agreements." The press release through which the announcement was made does not go into much detail about what is being sought, but it does give hints regarding aspects of cooperation between the Latin American winterball circuits.

    The joint statement published by the leagues talks about fostering ties to work together for the benefit of baseball in the region, but the most interesting point is that they will seek to promote joint initiatives within the Caribbean Baseball Confederation. Among several aspects mentioned in the press release, it talks about the economic aspects of the tournament.

    The agreement states that the two leagues want to "promote the definition of a business model that allows the Caribbean Confederation and its main product, the Caribbean Series, to be placed commercially at its fair value and at efficient levels of profitability."

    Said wording brings up the question of how profitable it is to hold a Caribbean Series and if the event creates a profit for all involved.

    Based on the words used by the leagues in their own statement, it can be inferred that the current business model is one that they consider deficient. Unfortunately, the little access there is to the monetary information of the event makes it extremely difficult to access the data in this regard. However, for the year 2020, according to MB Sport president Antonio Muñoz Grajales, whose company is in charge of assembling the event in Puerto Rico, its economic impact would be closely related to the creation of two thousand jobs and a hotel occupancy of five thousand rooms.

    Muñoz himself indicated during an interview in 2015, when the event was held on the Caribbean island, that the profits generated were about four or five million dollars but with indirect jobs, the sum could quadruple.

    Without more information in this regard, doubts remain as to whether the member countries of the Caribbean Baseball Confederation see a real benefit in staging and holding the event. For several years, Mexico has been the nation with the most venues since, at least in terms of ticket sales, it surpasses other countries while the Dominican Republic is coming off what is considered its best Caribbean Series in decades. However, it is clear that both leagues see room to grow, at least financially.

    We will only have to wait to see what will be the best joint ventures that will be proposed in the future by Mexico and the Dominican Republic in search of a "better" Caribbean Series.

MEXICAN LEAGUE, ESPN 3-YEAR DEAL FORMALIZED

ESPN to stream LMB games for 3 years

    With days to go before the 2021 season opens, the Mexican League has reached an historic agreement with ESPN which includes the 2021, 2022 and 2023 seasons. ESPN's carriage of LMB games will reach millions of fans in Mexico, Latin America and the Caribbean, according to a joint press release. Terms were not announced and there was no mention regarding availability of of Mexican League games to viewers in North America. ESPN gave exposure to Korea Baseball Organization games last year while Major League Baseball's season was placed on hold until late July due to the Wuhan virus.

    LMB president Horacio de la Vega said, “We are very proud to have reached this agreement so that the Mexican League can be seen on ESPN's multi-platform screens, which will bring us closer to the most fervent fans and will also allow us to conquer new followers and (why not?) inspire the next generation of baseball players in Mexico.”

    The head of the LMB highlighted the visibility that ESPN gives to the largest baseball league in Latin America, where hundreds of Mexican, American, Dominican, Venezuelan, Puerto Rican, Panamanian, Colombian and many other nationalities take the field.

    "At ESPN, we are very happy to be part of this new stage of baseball in Mexico," said Gerardo Casanova, Head of Sports for the Walt Disney Company in Mexico. "We are proud to expand our relationship with the LMB, home to many of the best players in Mexico and Latin America, and as a brand, ESPN is leading the way in bringing baseball content from the region to fans across the continent."

ESPN executive Gerardo Casanova

    ESPN's coverage will include both regular season and playoff matchups. In all, 150 regular season games will be broadcast on ESPN's signal, including 14 games per week: Two on “online channels” every Thursday and Saturday, and 12 carried digitally via the ESPN app during the regular season. In the final phase of the campaign, there will be full series of Playoffs, including the opening rounds, Division Championships and the Serie del Rey in September.

    “Our alliance with ESPN is a home run with the bases loaded because today, it is essential to reach beyond people television,” concluded de la Vega. “The way of consuming sports content has evolved and that's how we've understood it. We want to reach a large audience through the different platforms that ESPN offers us.”

    The Mexican League season opens Thursday night when the defending champion Monclova Acereros host rival Monterrey in a single game. The rest of the LMB will begin play on Friday.

ROBERTO OSUNA, OLIVER PEREZ TO PITCH IN LIGA

Roberto Osuna returns to Diablos

    A number of players with years of MLB experience will be playing in the Mexican League this summer, and two more veteran pitchers have come to terms with LMB teams while a former All-Star infielder may also appear south of the border in 2021.

    Right-handed closer Roberto Osuna will be back in Mexico City on the team he made his pro baseball debut with as a 16-year-old in 2011. Osuna appeared in 13 games for the Diablos Rojos that year, mostly as a reliever, and went 0-1 with a 5.49 ERA. He was signed by Toronto in September 2011 for $1.5 million, of which all but $375,000 went to the Diablos (the signing bonus rules have since been changed by MLB more in favor of the player).

    The nephew of former MLB reliever Antonio Osuna made the jump from Class A to the Jays' 2015 opening day roster as a 20-year-old and went on to be named to the American League All-Rookie team that season. The younger Osuna posted 30 or more saves three times between 2016 and 2019, appearing for the AL in the 2017 All-Star Game and leading the junior circuit in 2019 with 38 salvados.

    Osuna was not controversy-free during his six-year MLB career, however. He was unavailable for a game with Toronto in 2017 due to an anxiety disorder, for which he received counseling from a psychologist. One year later, he was arrested and charged in the assault of the mother of his 3-year-old child. MLB handed down a 75-game suspension retroactive to the day of the alleged incident, during which the Jays traded the closer to Houston. Osuna went on to pitch for the Astros in their 2019 World Series loss to Washington, but arm problems shortened his 2020 season and he could not find any takers on the free agent market during the last off-season despite holding a showcase event in the Dominican Republic.

    Another reliever born in Sinaloa, Oliver Perez, has signed with the Tijuana Toros after earlier turning down an assignment to Class AAA by the Cleveland Indians. Perez made five appearances from the bullpen for the Tribe this season and allowed no earned runs, although he lost his only decision on April 17 in Cincinnati when he entered a 2-2 game in the bottom of the tenth and gave up an RBI single to Tyler Stephenson that plated automatic runner Sean Doolittle from second base.

    The 39-year-old lefty's time with Cleveland marked his 19th season in MLB, a record for Mexican-born players. Like Osuna, Perez cut his teeth in the Mexican League, although his 11 games with Yucatan in 2000 (going 3-2 with a 4.36 ERA for the Leones) came a year after he'd signed a contract with San Diego as a 17-year-old and appeared in 15 games for the Padres' Arizona Rookie League club.

Oliver Perez in World Baseball Classic

    Perez eventually reached the majors with San Diego in 2002 and went on to a star-crossed career in which he's pitched for eight teams, reaching the double-digit mark in wins three times, going 2-0 over 11 games in four postseasons and earning over $67 million during his MLB career (including a three-year, $36 million contract with the Mets signed in 2009). However, he's also battled control problems and injuries and was unconditionally released by the Mets before the 2011 season despite having another year and $12 million left on his contract. At that point, Perez' career was at a crossroads and he signed a minor-league deal with Washington and essentially started over with Class AA Harrisburg that year.

    At the suggestion of Nats' pitching coordinator Spin Williams, Perez reinvented himself as a relief pitcher after having been a starter in 196 of his 205 MLB games. He worked his way back to MLB with Seattle in 2012 and has exclusively been a middleman ever since. Perez is expected to come out of the bullpen for Tijuana manager Omar Vizquel and is being mentioned as a potential candidate for Mexico's Olympic team at the Tokyo Summer Games this year.

    One more former big leaguer who may play in the Mexican League is three-time All-Star second baseman Brandon Phillips, who recently uploaded an image of the Oaxaca Guerreros presenting him as a new team member on his Instagram account. Phillips spent part of the 2019 LMB campaign with the Guerreros' “big brother, the Mexico City Diablos Rojos, for whom he hit .267 with three homers and 15 RBIs over 36 games.

    A Georgia native, Phillips debuted in MLB with Cleveland in late 2002 after spending several seasons in the Montreal system. He played sporadically with the Indians and spent much time in the minors before being traded to Cincinnati at the beginning of the 2006 campaign. He became a mainstay in the Reds lineup for the next eleven seasons, averaging 17 homers and 17 steals and batting .279 en route to All-Star Game selections in 2010, 2011 and 2013 as well as four Gold Gloves at second base.

    The Reds traded Phillips to Atlanta prior to the 2017 season, picking up $13 million of the $14.5 million he was owed on the last year of his contract. Phillips was dealt that September to the Angels and signed as a free agent with Boston in February 2018. However, he only played nine games with the Red Sox, spending most of the year in the minors, and was let go following the season. After playing with the Diablos in 2019, he played eight games last year with the Baseball Brilliance team in something called the Yinzer Baseball Confederacy (a four-team collection of players from independent leagues playing all games in Washington, Pennsylvania) as well as a trio of exhibition games with the Frontier League Lexington Legends.

PIONEER LEAGUE TEAM TO CARRY ACEREROS PROSPECTS

Monclova to send prospects to Colorado

    A Pioneer League team in Colorado Springs, the Rocky Mountain Vibes, has entered an agreement with the Mexican League's Monclova Acereros to host some Acereros' minor leaguers this season. The Pioneer League was initially formed in 1939 and operated continuously operated from 1946 until last year, when the pandemic caused the suspension of the schedule. During the offseason, Major League Baseball decided they'd be better off without 42 minor league teams as affiliates, after which the Pioneer League (which had been a Rookie circuit since 1963) being forced into Independent status, although they have the dubious honor of being an MLB “partner.”

    The Vibes were created by an earlier shakeup of minor league teams owned by the Elmore Sports Group in 2019, who shifted the AAA Colorado Springs Sky Sox to San Antonio after 30 years in the Pacific Coast League and then moving the Helena Brewers to Colorado Springs to fill the void in the city of 478,221. A Name the Team contest was held, but “Rocky Mountain Vibes” was chosen despite not being one of the five finalists (among which were Rocky Mountain Oysters, Colorado Springs Happy Campers and Colorado Springs Punchy Pikas). The Vibes went 32-43 their first season in 2019, drawing 137,296 to finish second to Ogden in the PioL attendance derby.

    Acereros owner Gerardo Benavides called the player-sharing arrangement with the Vibes a necessary step. “From the moment I made the decision to buy a Mexican League team, I knew what was needed to maintain it,” he said. “It was very clear to me that to win championships, it was necessary to develop talent. That is why we bet and trust in this challenge of exporting our prospects to a high-level league such as the Pioneer League.”

Colorado Springs baseball stadium

    Monclova sports manager Jose Melendez echoed Benavides' sentiments. “We as a club always have the vision of growth and of supporting prospects in their development,” said Melendez. “With the break of last season and the current one in our development leagues, we were fortunate to find the opportunity to play them in this renowned league partnered with Major League Baseball.”

    For his part, Vibes team president Chris Jones said in a press release, “We are beyond excited to begin a historic and what we all hope to be a very long affiliation and relationship with the Acereros of Monclova. Big thanks to Jose Melendez with the Acereros, the Elmore Sports Group and the great Colorado Springs community.”

    The Pioneer League will serve as a laboratory for MLB in 2021 with experimental rules in place for the coming season, including a home run derby to decide winners of games that are tied after nine innings.

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.