LMP OPENS SEASON, FANS IGNORING PROTOCOLS

Monterrey Sultanes veteran Jose Amador

    The Mexican Pacific League opened its 2020-21 season last Thursday with a full slate of five games, four with fans in the stands. Two more teams received approval to allow a limited amount of seats to be sold at home games to bring the number to eight of ten LMP franchises. The only two clubs being required to play behind closed doors are Monterrey and Jalisco, where governors of their respective states have ruled out audiences at sporting events.

    In Monterrey, the Sultanes trounced the visiting Jalisco Charros, 14-4, with no paid onlookers at Estadio Monterrey behind the big bat of veteran Jose Amador. The 41-year-old Mexicali native crashed a pair of doubles and a two-run homer in the bottom of the third inning off Jalisco starter Elian Leyva en route to a seven RBIs for the night. Another veteran, ex-Diamondback pitcher Edgar Gonzalez, was far from sharp on the mound (10 hits and 4 runs over 5 innings) but he didn't have to be as his Monterrey mates chased Leyva after three frames (9 hits, 3 walks and 8 runs) and cracked 19 safeties for the contest. Henry Urrutia had a good night in a losing cause for the Charros by collecting three hits, including a double and homer.

    The largest crowd among the four games with people in the seats was in Obregon, where 7,982 fans witnessed a 7-5 Yaquis win over Mexicali. Carlos Sepulveda had three hits, including a two-run double, and drove in three counters for the winners, but it was Tirso Ornelas' sixth-inning solo homer off Aguilas reliever Nicolas Heredia that broke a 5-5 tie in what proved the game-winning hit. Mike Choice belted a solo homer for the Eagles, who also two hits from Balbino Fuenmayor, including a double and two RBIs.

    While the home team won both above games, visitors were victorious in the other three contests. One of those were the Mazatlan Venados, who came away with a 5-2 triumph in Los Mochis. A crowd of 4,251 looked on as Ramon Rios stroked a two-run single for the Deer while Issmael Salas singled twice and drew a walk. Francisco Rios posted a strong start for the winners, allowing two hits over five shutout innings for the win. Eddy Martinez was 2-for-4 at the plate for the Caneros but Los Mochis starter Daniel Duarte was touched for five runs in five entradas, allowing five hits and walking another four to absorb the loss.

    Hermosillo took a 5-0 shutout win in Navojoa Thursday night, giving 3,107 (mostly) Mayos fans little to cheer about. Naranjeros starter Juan Pablo Oramas was sharp in the opener, sprinkling two hits and striking out eight batters over five innings for the win, sharing the whitewash with three relievers. Yadiel Hernandez socked a pair of solo homers for the Orangemen while Francisco Peguero and Luis Alfonso Cruz each went deep. Mayos opener Hector Velazquez took the defeat, but deserved a better fate. The former Red Sox hurler gave up Hernandez' first homer with two out in the bottom of the first, the only hit he would allow in five frames. Jorge Flores singled and doubled for Navojoa in the loss.

    Finally, Guasave pulled out a 6-4 road win over Culiacan in front of 7,349 spectators at Estadio Tomateros. Yadier Drake gave Algodoneros starter Thomas Dorminy offensive support with a grand slam while newcomer Erisbel Arruebarrena knocked out a roundtripper. Ramiro Pena led the Tomateros with three hits, including a two-run longball. Dorminy, a former Padres farmhand who went 7-1 for Chicago in the independent American Association this summer after stints in Australia and Taiwan, turned in five innings of two-hit scoreless ball for the Cottoneers to earn the win.

What's wrong with this picture?

    Fans in Culiacan were understandably happy to see their defending LMP champions back in action, albeit minus manager Benji Gil (who is out after testing positive for the Wuhan virus), but a few too many were willing to take being allowed to be in attendance for granted. Several were watching the games while not wearing masks and not maintaining safe distancing protocols, much of it caught on camera and later posted on social media.

    One particularly overheated Tomateros fan chose to bathe himself in beer as fans in the above tier of seating poured their cups on him as well, then doused nearby fans with beer from the bottom of one of the cups he was holding. The scene brought team owner Hector Ley down from the boxes for a chat and it's assumed that the fan is one of two who've been banned for the rest of the season after violating protocols so egregiously.

    Estadio Tomateros was not the only LMP ballpark where people in the seats were shown on social media and live television not wearing masks and sitting closer than procedures permit. Aurelio Vargas of El Fildeo reports “stadiums violating the limit of allowed capacity, no respect for healthy distances, fans without masks, small children, crowds in the entrance lines and a couple of scandalous drunks were the balance of this experiment.”

    The Mex Pac office in Guadalajara issued a press release on Friday denouncing the behavior in Culiacan and urging “all fans not to replicate this type of act and point out who is breaking protocols,” but opening night was not a good look for a circuit walking on eggshells in order to play games with live crowds during a pandemic.

MEXICAN LEAGUE TO SIGN NEW WORKING AGREEMENT WITH MLB

    As the clock ticks towards the expiration of a two-year working agreement between the Mexican League and Major League Baseball that likely cost former LMB president Javier Salinas his, job, the two sides are reportedly working on a similar document that will hopefully be on more equitable terms for the Mexican teams.

    Luis Miguel Vasavilbaso of ESPN reports that Liga president Horacio de la Vega is heading negotiations with MLB on the new pact. Although ten Mexican players were on playoff team rosters when the playoffs began earlier this month, the country is lagging behind fellow Latin American nations Venezuela, Puerto Rico, Cuba and the Dominican Republic in overall representation in MLB despite placing higher than all of them in the latest World Baseball Softball Confederation rankings released in February.

    Much of that has been due to a smaller talent pool due to baseball's secondary status to soccer in Mexico, where the latter has become the more popular sport in comparison to the other countries mentioned. MLB teams in the past have found it more expensive to sign prospects south of the border because they've had to negotiate with Mexican League teams who developed top young players (and whose rights they owned), paying the LMB team directly with a portion of the agreed-upon amount going to the player as a sort of bonus.

    According to Vasavilbaso, part of the new MLB/LMB working agreement is that all major league franchises will be able to sign Mexican players directly without restrictions. The LMB team who owns the player's rights in Mexico will be paid a percentage of the contract, essentially a reversal of the old policy. 

    What likely led to Salinas' ouster as LMB president was subsequently found in the fine print of the expiring agreement, especially one stipulation requiring a player to have been on the Mexican League team's roster for two years before the team could receive a portion of the contract the player signs with an MLB team. That policy will reportedly be dropped in the new arrangement.

MLB may play more games in Mexico

    Vasavilbaso adds that decreased tensions between the two bodies as a result of the new agreement could lead to more MLB exhibition and regular season games played in Mexico. While Monterrey has received the lion's share of such contests in the past, Mexico City's Estadio Alfredo Harp Helu was set to host a two-game regular series between Arizona and San Diego in April before the Wuhan Virus ended professional baseball across the Western Hemisphere. It's likely that MLB will make another effort to play in the capital city, while the Jalisco Charros owners have made no secret of their desire to land games in Guadalajara, Mexico's second-largest city.

    Big league clubs might even consider holding part of their training camps at sites in places like Sonora, a baseball hotbed state bordering Arizona to the north. Mexican League teams have often trained in the Phoenix and Tucson areas in the past (including this past spring), so the concept of crossing borders for spring training is hardly new.

    Vasavilbaso said the new contract between MLB and the LMB was expected to be signed this month, but no specific date was given. The Mexican Pacific League is not part of the negotiations.

AMLO ANNOUCES TWO BASEBALL ACADEMIES IN SINALOA    

Estadio Hector Espino, Hermosillo

    Mexican president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has formally announced that two of the country's proposed federally-funded baseball academies will be in the state of Sonora. El Fildeo's Alejandra Gonzalez writes that the academies are “part of ProBeis' initiative of positioning baseball as one of the recreational and professional options for young Mexicans.”

    One of the two academies in Sonora will be located at Estadio Hector Espino in Hermosillo while the other will be in Obregon at Estadio Tomas Oroz Gaytan. Both are former longtime Mexican Pacific League ballparks that were replaced in the 2010's. The other three ProBeis facilities are slated to be in Campeche, Veracruz and Texcoco (a municipality of 259,000 located 16 miles northeast of Mexico City.

    In a statement, Lopez Obrador said, “The selection of young players will be made and in addition to receiving accommodations and food, they will be granted scholarships.” While there are a number of baseball academies in Mexico operated by teams or the Mexican League itself in such places as Monterrey, Oaxaca, Mazatlan, Monclova and Tijuana, the ProBeis academies would mark the most concerted effort by the federal government to develop young players aged 10-18.

    The plan got off to a rocky start since the March 2019 formation of ProBeis (formally titled the Office of the Presidency for the Promotion and Development of Baseball in Mexico) because of funding issues. Executive director Edgar Gonzalez experienced the labyrinthian process of how money winds its way through the corridors of government. According to Proceso, he even paid one million pesos of his own money to fund his own office until 350 million pesos via the Ministry of Public Education finally arrived months after ProBeis was formed. This year, the allotment of 280 million pesos (a pandemic-induced 20 percent reduction) made its way through the Civil Ministry's Physical Education Excellence program.

Estadio Tomas Oroz Gaytan, Obregon

    A good chunk of that money has gone towards the purchase of the old Mex Pac ballparks. The Hermosillo facility, which housed the Naranjeros from 1972 through 2012, is costing the government 511.7 million pesos while the Obregon ballpark (used by the Yaquis between 1971 and 2016) comes with a 548.7 million peso pricetag. “What I hope is that before the government is finished, the first generation will come out and if we now have many good players in the major leagues, we are going to have many more so we made the decision to buy the two stadiums,” said Lopez Obrador about the project.

    While the physical academies are being developed, ProBeis has leased existing facilities for some of its activities. The most noteworthy may be the Mexican Prospect League, which completed its second season late last month in Guadalajara with the Juan Gabriel Castro team defeating the Joakin Soria team in the playoff finals. Three LPM youngsters signed contracts with major league organizations during the course of the short season: Outfielder Alex Osuna inked a deal with Texas, pitcher Roque Gutierrez came to terms with the Los Angeles Dodgers and fellow hurler Jose Reyes signed with San Diego. Four Prospect Leaguers signed with MLB franchises in 2019.

RIELEROS PLAYERS ASK LMB FOR FINANCIAL HELP

Aguascalientes players celebrating a homer

Mexican baseball players are waiting out their summer of Wuhan virus-induced inactivity due to the canceled Mexican league season until they're able to suit up for the anticipated Mexican Pacific League season openers in mid-October. A number of them, however, are reaching the financial breaking point while trying to feed, clothe and house themselves and their families. While many, if not most, players are still waiting for promised assistance from the LMB franchises, one group has tired of empty promises and are appealing to the Liga office in Mexico City directly for help.

According to PuroBeisbol.com editor Fernando Ballesteros, players and coaches for the Aguascalientes Rieleros have written a letter to LMB president Horacio de la Vega seeking aid from the league office because the Railroaders has failed to do so. When the Liga announced on July 2 that they were cancelling their season for the first time in the loop's 95-year history, players and umpires were promised by de la Vega and the 16 LMB franchises that they would receive financial support throughout the summer. Instead, the only teams that have reportedly followed through are the Mexico City Diablos Rojos and Oaxaca Guerreros (both owned by billionaire Alfredo Harp Helu), although there may be others helping their players.

At the time of the announcement, the player assistance seemed a tall order for many of the LMB teams that typically operate on a proverbial wing and a prayer. One of the reasons the 2020 schedule was called off was the likelihood that fans would not be allowed inside ballparks to watch games, taking away the primary source of revenue in a circuit lacking large-scale sponsorships that bring in enough money to at least partially fill the monetary void that would be created by empty ballparks. While a handful of Mexican League teams like the Diablos, Monterrey, Monclova and Yucatan might have enough cash reserves to help their players, the majority of franchises like Aguascalientes simply lack the funds to do so.

When calls have been made in the past for LMB contraction, the Rieleros are usually one of the teams mentioned. Ever since Aguascalientes was first awarded a Liga franchise in 1975 (the current team marks the Railroaders' third incarnation), the city of 832,712 residents has only hoisted one pennant (1978) and more often resides near the bottom of both the standings and attendance tables.

Day game at Parque Alberto Romo Chavez

Last year was no different, as the Rieleros finished 12 games out of the playoffs, coming in sixth in the eight-team LMB North with a 54-65 record, while drawing 2,001 fans per game in 56 dates at 74-year-old Parque Alberto Romo Chavez for a total attendance of 112,077 on the season, 15th in the league (only Campeche attracted fewer patrons). Aguascalientes has averaged 3,000 or better in attendance twice since making their latest return to the Liga in 2012.

Aguascalientes does have some well-respected veterans on their roster like third baseman Michael Wing, catcher Carlos Rodriguez, 2017 LMB Pitcher of the Year Nestor Molina and future Salon de la Fama slugger Saul Soto, but the club is traditionally one of the most undercapitalized in the Mexican League and low revenues prevent bringing in top talent needed for a contending team.

While expectations the Rieleros were low even before the pandemic crossed the Pacific Ocean and scuttled the season, things are reaching critical mass with the team. Ballesteros quotes the letter, which was leaked to Puro Beisbol, as telling de la Vega "We are aware of the serious situation the world is going through, but we appeal to your support so that in some way we can be creditors of a loan or salary advance in order to be able to financially solve the needs of our families before everything returns to normality.”

The letter was signed by all the Aguascalientes players and coaches, including new manager Luis Carlos Rivera, who pitched for both Atlanta and Baltimore in 2000. Rivera managed Leon in 2018, turning in a 53-57 combined record for the LMB's two abbreviated seasons that year and reaching the playoffs in the Spring campaign.

MAYOS HOPING TO BRING BACK TAIWANESE PITCHER

Hu Chih-Wei pitching for Navojoa last year

Like every other team in the Mexican Pacific League, the Navojoa Mayos are figuring out who will comprise the three foreign players they're allowed for the upcoming 2020-21 season. Although team owner Victor Cuevas has confirmed that the Mayos will open the schedule with returnees Juan Perez (a ex-reds minor league who hit 23 homers for Saltillo in 2019) and former White Sox first base prospect Keon Barnum joining a newcomer, left-handed pitcher Mitch Lambson, who has been a starter the past four summers with Winnipeg of the independent American Association after being a reliever in the Astros system).

A fourth import listed as a reserve for Lorenzo Bundy's team will be coming the farthest to play for Navojoa if he gets the call. Taiwanese pitcher Hu Chih-Wei impressed the Mayos last winter in a short spell despite losing his only decision, turning in a 1.50 ERA with 13 strikeouts while walking only two batters over 18 innings in three starts. The 26-year-old righty is staying home for the time being after testing positive for the Wuhan virus but the team has remained in close contact with him.

Although he is a native of Taichung, home of the Chinese Professional Baseball League's Chinatrust Brothers, Hu has never pitched professionally in his homeland (although he did help Taiwan to a Silver medal at the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea. By then, he was already pitching in the Twins system after signing with Minnesota in August 2012 as an international free agent at age 18.

Midway through the 2015 season, Hu was dealt to Tampa Bay and he went on to represent the Rays as the only Asian product on the World roster at the 2016 All-Star Futures Game in San Diego. That year, he went on to lead the AA Southern League with a 2.59 ERA pitching for Montgomery and was named a postseason All-Star.

Hu is all smiles after 2017 MLB debut with Rays

Hu made his MLB debut with Tampa Bay on April 24, 2017 by tossing a perfect eighth inning during a 6-3 loss at Baltimore. He went on to finish with six appearances for the Rays, all in relief, and won his first big league game on the road over the Yankees on September 28, hurling a frame in the Ray's 9-6 triumph as Tampa Bay scored seven times in the fifth inning. The 6'0" 243-pounder finished 2017 with a 1-1 record and a 2.70 ERA in ten MLB innings, spending most of the year with AAA Durham.

After a 2018 campaign in which he was primarily a starter at Durham (although he did pitch five more times for the Rays, going 0-0 and 4.15 while striking out 12 over 13 innings), Hu was traded to Cleveland for second baseman Gionti Turner. His experience with Tampa Bay personified the capricious nature of baseball, as Hu was recalled to the Rays no fewer than eleven times in 2017 and 2018 while being optioned back to AAA an equal number of times before he was shipped to the Tribe.

That began another odyssey of sorts for Hu, who spent time in both the Indians and Cubs organizations last summer (going 3-7 with a 7.74 ERA for four teams at the AAA and AA levels) prior to signing a free agent contract last December with San Diego, who assigned him to AAA El Paso with a slot at the Padres' training camp as a non-roster invitee. Hu returned to Taiwan when he wasn't named to the Padres' taxi squad after training camp was halted, the minor league season suspended and MLB schedule delayed due to the virus.

PROSPECT LEAGUE OPENS SECOND SEASON

As we saw last month in a translated Proceso article, it's been a trying couple of years for Mexico's Probeis and director Edgar Gonzales. The former MLB and NPB infielder was building a successful post-playing career as a Mexican Pacific League manager and team executive before getting tabbed by Mexican president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador to head the federally-funded Probeis program to build baseball from the grass-roots level up. However, as Gonzalez told Proceso's Beatriz Pereyra, much of the funding has not been made available due to Mexico's legendary bureaucracy and the San Diego native (who grew up in Tijuana) been forced to fly by the seat of his pants ever since.

Which has to make the opening of a second season for the Mexican Prospect League (or LPM) that much sweeter for Gonzalez, who's seen enough go wrong since last year to have a heightened appreciation for when things go RIGHT.

The four-team LPM kicked off its 30-day schedule last Thursday with a doubleheader at Estadio Charros in Guadalajara, where the loop will play all games in 2020. The teams are named after four contemporary Mexican baseball figures: Juan Gabriel Castro, Jorge Cantu, Oliver Perez and Joakim Soria.

The LPM is designed to attract the attention of talent-seekers from colleges, MLB and other baseball organizations, dozens of whom were on hand last week. Organizers held a Showcase last Wednesday, a day before the one-month season began. It put 120 players between the ages of 14 and 18 from across Mexico on the field displaying their physical skills through on-field testing and drills.

Play opened the next day as the Cantus topped the Castros, 8-6, in the first game behind the two hits, two RBIs and one run scored by Heber Villalobos. Tadeo Alejandro Osuna, younger brother of Houston Astros closer Roberto, had three hits for the Castros, scoring one run and driving in another. In the nightcap, the Sorias shut out the Perezes, 9-0, with starter Roque Gutierrez earning the win in the two-hitter.

LPM action last Thursday in Guadalajara

Teams will play 15-game regular season schedules through Saturday, September 12, with daily doubleheaders Thursdays through Sundays followed by instruction sessions Mondays through Wednesdays. After an All-Star Game on Sunday, September 13, the LPM will hold three days of playoff semifinal doubleheaders from Tuesday, September 15 through Thursday, September 17. A two-day Final will be held Friday, September 18 and Saturday, September 19, followed by closing ceremonies on Sunday, September 20.

All LPM games will be streamed live and archived free of charge through the World Baseball Softball Confederation's channel on the GameTime website.

According to a story on SeptimaEntrada.com, the LPM "intends to build a successful platform for young baseball players with professional prospects to represent Mexico with dignity. The aim is for this development system to be the most effective in Mexican baseball and to become a benchmark model at the national and international level.

"The mission is to produce a summer league with a professional environment, which brings together the best prospects in the country to transmit academic-sports knowledge that decisively contributes to their personal and professional development."

PROBEIS IS NOT BEING GIVEN PROMISED MONEY

Writer Beatriz Pereyra of Mexico City's Proceso magazine recently produced a special report detailing the travails undergone with a federal program designed to develop Mexican baseball at the grassroots level, particularly in prospect development. The largest problem appears to be funding. A translated version of Pereyra's report follows:

Everything indicates that for the second time, the program for the Promotion and Development of Baseball in Mexico (Probeis), whose funds are managed by the Secretary of Public Education (SEP), will not be fully implemented. Édgar González, director of that office, assures that the pandemic paralyzed everything and although he strives to forge alliances, prepare plans and enable sports centers to apply the 290 million pesos (US$12.8 million) assigned for this fiscal year, the authorities tell him that "when it is the right time, they will speak to me. There is nothing left but to wait."

The Covid-19 pandemic has paralyzed Probeis, which to date has not spent even one of the 290 million pesos assigned for 2020, so for the second consecutive year it will have a shortage of resources.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador also did not authorize the creation of a trust so that public money can be exercised by this means and not through the SEP Senior Office.

“This year we have not exercised anything,” González says. “The SEP has made it difficult to get the money out and now, with the coronavirus, it is more complicated. No bids have been made. I wanted to get ahead in the administrative area so that once we return to work we will use the money. They have not wanted to do them (the bidding rules) and that causes me a lot of problems because when the confinement ends, I will have three months to operate.

“There is no way I will spend 290 million pesos in that time. Then they will tell me that the only way is through direct adjudication. I do not want to make direct awards, but it is the only thing that will be possible,” regrets González.

The difficulties to operate the program began since the director of the National Commission for Physical Culture and Sport (CONADE), Ana Gabriela Guevara, refused to distribute Probeis resources in 2019.

For this year, when he was willing, the president did not want the money to reach this dependency that the SEP pointed out because he detected acts of corruption that in just the first half of 2019 left a loss of 50.8 million pesos (US$2.2 million).

For months, González tried to persuade López Obrador of the need to create a public trust to streamline the Probeis operation. Even the Legal Department of the Presidency designed the document –of which Proceso has a copy– which also considered the marching and boxing commissions, sports that operate with programs outside of CONADE.

However, López Obrador did not authorize it. During his campaign, he promoted the eradication of public trusts, considering them opaque and nests of corruption. With the presidential decree to extinguish those that do not have an organic structure and, later, with the reform initiative that Morena promoted in the Chamber of Deputies to eliminate 44 others, it became clear to González that Probeis will not operate with this scheme.

“He (López Obrador) does not know that with a trust, it is the easiest way to operate, but he put the trusts in the balance and if he was going to remove them all, he would not even create one for Probeis. I am waiting for him to tell me what I have to do. 'The pandemic has been the priority' is what they told me when I asked for a meeting.

“He told me that when the time is right, he will speak to me to tell me how I am going to operate. There is nothing left but to wait. I understand the president because there have been much mismanagement of trusts, but we are left with no concrete way to operate. We have to ask Hector Garza (SEP head) for favors,” says González resignedly.

Probeis' troubles

Probeis leader Edgar Gonzalez

To build four baseball schools during 2019, Probeis signed agreements with Campeche, Jalisco, Quintana Roo and Guanajuato. They also did it with Hermosillo, where the federal government bought Estadio Héctor Espino for 511.7 million pesos (US$22.5 million) with resources from the Banobras National Infrastructure Fund public trust. The renovations in this property began this year, but were interrupted by the quarantine.

González has not only found that the bidding processes take up to four months before the bidding rules are available on the CompraNet portal, but once the SEP sends the money to the states, Probeis does not have the personnel to review and follow up on the work.

“When the money reaches the state,” González explains, “it is theirs and they do with it what they want. You have to be aware and it is difficult to follow up. The only way to do it is with the SEP, with agreements and tenders. Thus everything is limited. What you want to do is one thing, what you can is another. I get it: They want people to not take advantage of the budget but at the same time, the goals cannot be achieved.”

Other states such as Yucatan and Tabasco received federal resources of 11 million pesos each (US$485,000), but they returned the money to the Treasury of the Federation because it arrived almost at the end of last year, when it was already impossible to carry out the work.

Around 100 people work at Probeis, of which only six are hired by the SEP. One of them is González, who as a public servant since January 2020 had earned a net salary of 88,550 pesos (US$3,900) over five-plus months. The rest of the employees charge by the job and fees. In March, when confinement began due to the pandemic, they had not even received the payment corresponding to the first quarter of the year.

Immediate plans

Eighteen months after Probeis started, González boasted the four aforementioned schools, whose first phase of construction has already concluded. They lack details such as paint, finishes and sports equipment.

The official hopes to get them started this year. The works that had been stopped by the pandemic resumed just last month. He hopes that soon the children and young people will be able to train in the afternoons after doing their homework on the premises, an essential requirement to practice baseball in the Probeis program.

Thus, it also expects that the projects of the T1-level schools (equipped with dormitories), whose works are scheduled for Mexico City and Monterrey, will start this year. In the second case, he is already in talks with the Governor of Nuevo León to contribute 60 million pesos (US$2.6 million). Probeis will put another 35 million pesos (US$1.5 million). This will be the largest academy in the country, with a capacity for 200 players.

“Let's see what can be rescued from that.” says González. “The plan is also to start the construction of another small school in Mexicali, finish the one in Hermosillo and start the other four that I told you about, with 11-15 million pesos (US$485,000-660,000) invested in each one.

“I met with the mayor of Azcapotzalco, Vidal Llerenas, and there is a place in a sports hall that has a giant space for a school. He is ready and willing to help us with the terrain. There is another option in Gustavo A. Madero. We are waiting for Claudia Sheinbaum to tell us in which of the two,” he says.

In addition, Probeis plans to build other schools in Playa del Carmen, Puerto Vallarta and in La Paz or Los Cabos; that is, in tourist complexes where tournaments and events such as showcases can be held so more scouts can come to see the prospects.

In order not to spend building schools in Oaxaca and Mazatlán, where the owners of the Mexico City Diablos Rojos and Oaxaca Guerreros (Alfredo Harp Helu) and the Yucatan Leones (the Arellano brothers) have their academies, González asked them to allow him put Probeis players to train there in exchange for a monthly payment.

“I already had talks with them and we are working on it,” González explains. “We pay for the boys we have, they carry out the project, we lower costs for them and we do not spend on buildings. That is also planned for this year. The best thing would be for them to say that they want it and that they support me.”

To carry out the Prospect League in Guadalajara in 2019, Probeis asked the 16 clubs of the Mexican League to lend to their best players. From there, he considers that he has already built a bridge with them to work together.

So far, in its talent screening program, Probeis has evaluated 6,600 children. With the information gathered, González is creating a database in which the strengths and weaknesses of Mexican children and youth can be consulted.

The results show that although, for example, arm strength is at a high level, in other skills, such as running speed, they are below average. Also, physical preparation is poor. That, he says, could explain why Mexico exports so many pitchers and not position players to the Major Leagues.

The idea is to store the data of the leads in an application in which the progress in their performance will be updated. That information will be available for scouts to follow up on. González adds that he will create a collegiate league in the country so that players can obtain scholarships at universities in Mexico and the United States.

Conversation

Intended beneficiaries of Probeis' mission

González is told that the detection of talents to be sold as prospects to the major league clubs is in direct competition with the LMB teams, which could generate conflicts.

The director of Probeis clarifies that in the Mexican League, they do not see it that way, that both parties are aware that it costs a lot to develop players and that the money obtained from the sale does not justify the investment.

“The theme is to develop together. I am in talks with MLB and the LMB so that every child who plays baseball in Mexico from now on also attends high school and that the teams pay them,” he adds.

Because he is the son of David González, owner of the González Academy in Tijuana, where they develop players to sell them to the MLB, and brother of major league player Adrián González, Édgar is said to have a conflict of interest. In the academy, his father does the same as the director of Probeis.

Q: You say that there are no more frictions with the LMB, but I suppose that you are no stranger to the comments that Probeis will take prospects from the LMB teams. That has generated annoyances.

A: “I don't want to fight with them. I want them to do their best because that way, there will be more children playing baseball. I already presented a project on how to help them generate money. It is not that Probeis will give them money, but that the government supports them to generate it.

“I told them (the team owners) that if there are 300 prospects, they keep the best 150 and the others are mine, so they train some and I train others. I want the players to have opportunities. What matters to me is that those who sign are trained well and given school.”

Q. What would you say about the comments indicating that you'll take advantage of Probeis to sign prospects that you will actually send to the González Academy so that your father can sell them to MLB?

A. “I've heard it. I'm not worried because that's not happening. I don't even get into the academy. As I have said, the academy is losing money. Let them show me how many and whom I scouted with Probeis and took them to the González Academy.”

Q. It is also pointed out that you intend to do business with the signing of baseball players for Major Leagues by charging a commission for providing the service of representation of players. Are you going to make money from that?

A. “Not at all. You try, yes, but I don't. This money is public to continue operating, even if the government changes. I don't think it's wrong for Probeis to get 30% of the signing bonus, as the LMB teams do. The player needs that because they don't even know how much they are worth and so they don't get fooled.”

Other projects that were pending prior to the Covid-19 pandemic are the physical preparation and food consultancies that Probeis will offer to players who are already signed with MLB teams to develop faster in the Minor Leagues.

They also could not send the 36 Mexican coaches who were selected in the 12 clinics that were held to train with MLB teams.

“The level of the coaching is very low,” Gonzáles says. “They have no technical knowledge of how the body works, how it should be trained. There are no schools where coaches are taught; they do what they can with what they know.

This report was published in issue 2277 of Proceso.

LMB LOOKS AT JULY START; LMP OPENER IN NOVEMBER?

Mexican League season may be held up until July

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

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

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

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

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

Mex Pac schedule to be delayed until November?

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

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

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

EL TITAN NOT RULING OUT PLAYING IN MEXICAN LEAGUE THIS YEAR

Adrian Gonzalez, Sergio Romo celebrate WBC win

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

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

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

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

Edgar, David and Adrian Gonzalez in Mazatlan

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

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

TESTS: MEXICAN OLYMPIC BASEBALL CANDIDATES OUT OF SHAPE

Bartolo Colon should fit in with Monclova

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

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

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

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

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

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

Miguel Valdes learned belt-tightening in Cuba

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

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

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

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

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

YAQUIS SWEEP BOTH HALVES, TOP LMP PLAYOFF SEED

When Obregon's Nathanael Santiago tossed eight pitches (seven for strikes) in a 1-2-3 ninth inning to close out a 4-0 Yaquis road shutout over Hermosillo on December 30 in front of 16,604 fans at a packed Estadio Sonora, it culminated a standout regular season for manager Sergio Gastelum's team in which they won both halves en route to a 44-22 record and a maximum 20 playoff points heading into

Obregon players celebrate new LMP wins record

January's postseason.  Centerfielder Aneury Tavarez went 4-for-5 with an RBI double and shortstop Isaac Paredes singled twice, doubled and scored two runs to give starter Alex Delgado and four relievers who combined on a three-hitter all the offensive support they'd need.  Obregon's 44 wins set a new record for single-season victories.

Despite being blanked by the Yaquis, Hermosillo (38-27) finished in a three-way tie with Jalisco and Culiacan for second in cumulative points with 15 apiece.  The Charros ended their schedule with an overall record of 39-28 after losing to the 37-29 Tomateros, 7-2, in Estadio Culiacan (attendance 19.357).  Joey Meneses clubbed a two-run homer off Jalisco starter Octavio Acosta in the bottom of the second to help stake the Tomateros to an early 5-0 lead that was never threatened.

Elsewhere on closing night in the Mex Pac, Mexicali (34-33) held off Navojoa (25-41) by a 3-2 score as Alex Valdez singled and homered for the Aguilas to finish all alone with 13 points and the fifth playoff seed while the Mayos came in tied with expansion Guasave for last in points with 8.5 each as both will miss the postseason.  The Algodoneros (27-39) ended their first season on a high note with a 3-2 win over fellow expansionists Monterrey (26-41) when Moises Gutierrez' walkoff single off Sultanes reliever Salvador Valdez with two out in the bottom of the ninth drove in Bryant Aragon.

Finally, Los Mochis' Josuan Hernandez came in from third base on a wild pitch by Mazatlan's Ryan Newell in the top of the 16th inning followed by a 1-2-3 bottom of the frame from reliever Irving Machuca as the Caneros (32-36) snuck past the 31-37 Venados, 3-2, in a game that lasted 5 hours, 18 minutes.  Los Mochis was their own worst enemy as the Caneros only batted 1-for-12 with runners in scoring position while leaving 19 men stranded on base.

The first round of playoffs will feature an eight-team field instead of six and no "lucky loser" format this year, a result of the LMP expansion to ten teams this season. As usual, each series will be a best-of-7 set with the higher seed hosting Games 1 and 2 with the lower seed hosting Games 3, 4 and 5 before returning to the higher seed's home park for games 6 and 7, if needed. Here are the matchups for the quarterfinals:

#1 Obregon Yaquis vs. #8 Monterrey Sultanes
#2 Hermosillo Naranjeros vs. #7 Mazatlan Venados
#3 Jalisco Charros vs. #6 Los Mochis Caneros
#4 Culiacan Tomateros vs. #5 Mexicali Aguilas


ALVAREZ, QUIALA HIGHLIGHT MEX PAC STATS LEADER LISTS

Caneros' Yoanys Quiala led LMP in wins, ERA

Los Mochis second baseman Isaac Rodriguez won the batting title with a .340 average, four points ahead of Hermosillo's Yadiel Hernandez at .336.  Hernandez drew 50 walks in 60 games to lead the loop with a .462 on-base percentage.  Jalisco outfielder Dariel Alvarez homered twice over his final ten games to finish with an LMP-best 16 homers, ahead of the 12 each by Los Mochis' Leandro Castro and Michael Choice of Monterrey.  Alvarez' 55 RBIs were also most in the circuit, outdistancing the 47 of Monterrey's Felix Perez.  Alvarez also had an LMP-leading .527 slugging percentage as the Cuban (who spent five seasons playing for Camaguey before defecting to Mexico in 2012 and subsequently signing with Baltimore, is a potential Most Valuable Player choice for 2019-20.  Rico Noel led in stolen bases for weeks and the Culiacan outfielder finished with 30 to easily beat the 21 from teammate Sebastian Elizalde while also edging Obregon's Taiki Sekine in runs scored, 47 to 46.  Sekine, a popular 24-year-old outfielder who has returned to Japan's Yokohama BayStars and will miss the Mex Pac postseason, hit .293 and led the league with five triples while stealing 20 bases in 55 games.  Jalisco veteran second baseman Manny Rodriguez was tops with 19 doubles.

If the MVP award goes to a pitcher, the odds-on favorite among that group has to be Los Mochis' Yoanys Quiala.  The 6'3" Cuban righthander led the LMP in wins with a 9-2 record, his 2.57 ERA was second only to Mexicali veteran Javier Solano's 2.23 mark (somehow Solano won only two of his 13 starts, one of them the LMP's only shutout of the season) and Quiala registered 71 strikeouts to tie with Andre Rienzo of Obregon for second behind the 76 of Hermosillo starter Juan Pablo Oramas.  Quiala was also the top workhorse in the Mex Pac with 87.2 innings pitched over 14 starts (tying Monterrey's Edgar Gonzalez and Luis Payan of Navojoa for first)   There was a three-way tie for the saves title between Brandon Cunniff (Navojoa), Jose Rosario (Guasave) and Mario Meza (Mexicali) with 12 apiece.  Among the trio, Meza's 1.99 ERA was the best.  Veteran lefty middleman Arturo Barradas, who struggled in the summer with Monclova (12.10) and Tijuana (16.20) before hitting stride in Puebla (2.95), led the Mex Pac with 16 holds in 42 appearances for Mazatlan.  Barradas was second in apprearances to Samuel Zazueta's 46 trips from the bullpen for Obregon.


HARRIS, VALDEZ TOP 2019 MEXICAN LEAGUE AWARDS LIST

To the surprise of few, if any, observers, Oaxaca outfielder Alonzo Harris and Yucatan pitcher Cesar Valdez headed the list of award winners for the 2019 Mexican League season announced last month.

Mexican League MVP Alonzo Harris

Harris, who was signed as a free agent by the Guerreros at the beginning of the season after spending 2018 with Quintana Roo prior to a two-week training camp stint with Mexico City, was named the Liga's Most Valuable Player after the 2007 Mets draft pick hit .343 and led the circuit in runs (131) and total bases (324), was second in steals (45), RBIs (117) and slugging percentage (.691), finished third in homers (39) and came in fourth with 161 hits, a 1.122 OPS and 34 doubles (tying with three other players).  A 30-year-old native of McComb, Mississippi, Harris just missed becoming the LMB's first 40-40 Club member but still joined James Steels and Luis Terrero as the only Mexican Leaguers to reach 30 homers and 30 swipes in the same season.  Harris spent all or part of seven seasons in the Mets system before going into independent ball in 2014.  He was the Atlantic League Player of the Year in 2017 after 315 with 23 homers and 73 RBIs for York that season.

LMB Pitcher of the Year Cesar Valdez

Valdez was the easy choice for Pitcher of the Year after the Dominican topped the loop in wins with a 15-2 record and ERA at 2.26.  The Leones righty allowed nearly a full run per nine innings less than teammate Yoanner Negrin, who turned in a 3.22 mark (the 2016 POY, Negrin's 13 wins were also second in the LMB).   Valdez also led the Liga with a 1.06 WHIP and finished fifth in strikeouts with 122 while allowing just 17 walks over 147.2 innings pitched.  The 34-year-old Santo Domingo product began his professional career with Yakima of the Northwest League in 2006 (where he was a teammate of current LMB outfielder Cyle Hankerd) after signing a free agent contract with Arizona and went on to play parts of three MLB seasons with the Diamondbacks, Oakland and Toronto before making his Maxican League debut with Tabasco in the Spring 2018 season.  The Olmecas actually released Valdez in May of that year and he spent three months out of work before Yucatan signed him in early August, after which he was 5-0 with a 2.48 ERA (proving there's a reason the Leones are the Leones and the Olmecas are...well...you know).

Other Mexican League award winners for 2019 included Manager of the Year Roberto Vizcarra, who led Saltillo to a 66-53 record and their first playoff appearance in four years. Reliever of the Year went to Carlos Bustamante, who was third in the LMB with 27 saves and a 2.57 ERA for champions Monclova.  Quintana Roo outfielder Erick Migueles was Rookie of the Year after the 23-year-old Tucson native hit .252 with eight homers for the Tigres.  Veteran Durango outfielder Santiago Gonzalez was named Comeback Player of the Year by batting .306 for the Generales, the seventh time he's topped .300 in his 14-year career, after missing both 2018 LMB seasons.  Executive of the Year went to Monclova owner Gerardo Benavides, who brought (some say "bought") the first Mexican League pennant to his hometown team, which was founded by his grandfather in 1974.


OMAR VIZQUEL NAMED TIJUANA MANAGER FOR 2020

New Tijuana Toros manager Omar Vizquel

Former MLB shortstop great Omar Vizquel has been picked to manage the Tijuana Toros during the 2020 Mexican League season, replacing Oscar Robles.  The Venezuelan was introduced at a press conference during the Baseball Winter Meetings last month across the border in San Diego.

Vizquel earned his playing reputation with his glove over a 24-year career in the majors, earning 11 Gold Gloves (including nine in a row between 1993 and 2001) while making three All-Star Game appearances.  His career .985 fielding percentage ranks highest among shortstops with more than 1,000 MLB games played (leading his league six times in that category) while Vizquel also ranks first all-time among shortstops with 1,734 double plays over 2,709 games (also first), is third in assists with 7,676 and 11th in putouts with 4,102.

What is often overlooked is that the 52-year-old from Caracas also developed from a bottom-of-the-order hitter into a batsman who was pesky enough to do some damage at the plate.  His 2,877 career hits ranks 47th on the all-time list and is first among Venezuelan players, including 2,264 singles (17th).  Vizquel accrued a total of 456 doubles, 404 stolen bases and scored 1,445 runs en route to a career batting average of .272 with an on-base percentage of .336.  The man nicknamed "Little O" during his playing days is on the Hall of Fame ballot for a third time this winter after appearing on 37% of ballots his first year and 42.8% last year.  While he's got ground to cover in reaching the 75% required for election, Vizquel has at least a puncher's chance of entry into Cooperstown.

Omar Vizquel during his glory days in Cleveland

After retiring following the 2012 season, Vizquel was an infield coach with the Los Angeles Angels in 2013, before serving as first-base coach with Detroit between 2014 and 2017 under manager Brad Ausmus.  He interviewed for the Tigers managerial post after Ausmus was fired but passed over for another ex-MLB infielder, Ron Gardenhire.  Vizquel has spent the past two summers managing in the White Sox system, in Class A Winston-Salem in 2018 and Class AA Birmingham in 2019, before the front office in Chicago decided to cut ties with him in November.

Tijuana marks Vizquel's first experience of any kind in Mexican baseball and it comes under the microscope of the Uribe family, one of the LMB's most unforgiving ownerships who cut Robles loose after the former Padres infielder merely led the Toros to the best regular season record in the LMB last season (75-45, tied with Monclova) before falling to the Acereros in seven games for the LMB North title.


MANAGERIAL CHANGES IN MEXICO CITY, OAXACA

Sergio Gastelum is now Diablos Rojos helmsman

After showing he could manage with success in Oaxaca, former Mexican League infield star Sergio Gastelum has been elevated to dugout boss with the Guerreros' "big brother," the Mexico City Diablos Rojos.  In turn, longtime catcher Erick Rodriguez will he handed the reins in Oaxaca with his first managerial post.  Both teams are owned by billionaire Alfredo Harp Helu.

Gastelum had a solid 22-year Mexican League playing career, during which he batted .314 between 1995 and 2016 before retiring and going into coaching.  He took over as Guerreros manager midway through the shortened Fall 2018 LMB schedule and took them to a playoff berth despite a 12-14 regular season record before two playoff series wins catapulted Oaxaca into the Serie del Rey, where they lost to Monterrey.

Gastelum followed that up in winterball by leading his hometown Obregon Yaquis to the best record in the Mexican Pacific League and a playoff berth while earning Manager of the Year honors.  Oaxaca fared much better in 2019 by going 68-51 over both halves (fifth-best in the 16-team circuit), but fell to Yucatan in the first round of the postseason.  This winter, he has led Obregon to first place in both halves of the MexPac season as the Yaquis will enter the playoffs as the LMP's top seed.  That apparently was enough to please Harp, Diablos team president Dr. Othon Diaz, deputy president Miguel Ojeda and general manager Francisco Minjarez, who is apparently immune from his league suspension following his role at both ends of the Rookiegate scandal.

Gastelum will replace Victor Bojorquez at the helm after the former Diablos star outfielder led Mexico City to an LMB South-best 67-49 record last summer but failed to bring a pennant to the capital city.  Bojorquez went 134-92 over two years with the Red Devils after being brought up from their Ensenada affiliate in the Liga Norte and it's impossible to imagine him without a new job in Mexican baseball for long.

Erick Rodriguez takes over in Oaxaca

In turn, Oaxaca team president Guillermo Spindola Morales introduced Rodriguez as manager to fill the dugout void created by Gastelum's departure.  Long regarded more highly for his work behind the plate than while swinging a bat astride it, the Monterrey native (who just turned 40 on November 27) nonetheless has hit a creditable .293 over his 19-year Liga playing career, all with the Guerreros.  In fact, Rodriguez led Oaxaca batters with a .356 average in 2019, adding a career-high 12 homers and 47 RBIs over 87 regular season contests.  For some reason, he attempted to steal a base but was caught, making him 15-for-33 in lifetime stolen base attempts.  Rodriguez faltered during the playoffs, batting just .176 (3-for-17) in the Guerreros' five-game loss to Yucatan in the first round.

Rodriguez will continue catching for the Guerreros in 2020 in an attempt to emulate the late Nelson Barrera, who led Oaxaca to their lone LMB title as a player-manager in The seven-time All-Star (and MVP of the 2015 Juego de Estrellas) is expected to convert his calm demeanor and vast experience as a player into success as a manager, and he'll have the good fortune of making that conversion in an environment where expectations are historically no higher than they used to be in Kansas City six decades ago when the Athletics served as a de facto intramural farm team of the New York Yankees.


AMLO CALLS FOR LMB, LMP TO COMBINE INTO ONE LEAGUE

Mexico president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador

Mexican president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has never hidden the fact that he is passionate about baseball, often interjecting himself into both Mexican League and Mexican Pacific League affairs since ascending to the nation's highest office in December 2018.  While it's generally going to be a plus when your country's highest-ranking politician gives your sport preferential treatment, AMLO's involvement has often carried with it a two-edged sword.

Although AMLO personally kept four Mexican League franchises from going dark last year while making sure the Mex Pac expanded two more teams this winter, only Puebla appears to be a popular retention among the four saved LMB teams, the jury is still out in Monterrey on hosting year-round pro baseball and there's no assurance that Guasave will be any more successful this time than the Algodoneros were prior to that team's 2014 sale and move to Guadalajara (where the Jalisco Charros have been an unqualified success).

AMLO doesn't limit his of baseball to the stands

Lopez Obrador has now apparently called for the LMB and LMP to merge into one league.  According to Mexico City's Reforma, AMLO requested that the two loops form a single 26-team entity to begin play in 2021.  A December 17 meeting was convened in Mexico City by AMLO and attended by representatives from all existing franchises, who were urged to take part in a letter from Probeis director Edgar Gonzalez, as well as billionaires Carlos Slim and Carlos Bremer along with National Commission for Physical Culture and Sport head Ana Gabriela Guevara. According to the Reforma story, a source said the 16 Mexican League teams approved a merger but only three of the LMP's ten clubs (Jalisco, Guasave and Monterrey) were in favor of the proposal.

Ultimately, the merger was at least put on hold at the meeting while Lopez Obrador has repainted the picture somewhat.  Proceso's Beatriz Pereyra quotes the president as saying, “Now they are in a good moment because there is unity in the leagues, but if there is only one League, that will depend on the owners. That is not resolved by presidential decree. It has to be an agreement and, if it is convenient, if it works, let it be done, but they have to do that." Mexico City Diablos Rojos and Oaxaca Guerreros owner Alfredo Harp Helu claimed that a merger was not discussed at all, but rather an agreement was worked out in which the Mexican League would unconditionally make players available to play for the National Team at the upcoming Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo.


GENERALES SOLD, WILL REMAIN IN DURANGO

Players modeling new Durango jerseys 

After months of speculation, the Mexican League's Durango Generales have been sold.  Ever since Durango re-entered the LMB when then-owner Virgilio Ruiz moved the Carmen Delfines to the central Mexico city in November 2016, the Generales have been plagued by problems both on and off the field, including renovations to Estadio Francisco Villa that ran so late that the team had to play a month of road games during their inaugural 2017 schedule before they could play their home opener.  From that point, the situation devolved into a proverbial dog's breakfast marked by missed payrolls, players walking off the team until they were traded (usually for cash), low attendance and other maladies that beset problem teams.

Former MLB catcher Miguel Ojeda and local businessman Fernando Espinosa de Campo bought controlling interest in the Generales in January 2018, a move approved by LMB owners, but the sale disintegrated after Ojeda (who was going to run the team) decided to drop out so he could take a front office position with the Mexico City Diablos Rojos, for whom he'd once played and managed.  Ultimately, entrepreneur Alfredo Aramburo bought controlling interest in the Generales but felt slighted by the rest of the Liga's executives and owners from the start (El Sol of Durango says the Assembly of Presidents refused to approve him as team president) and the writing was on the wall for Aramburo's exit from the LMB when he emerged to buy the Mexican Pacific League Guasave Algodoneros last July to end a weeks-long search for an owner after Guasave had been awarded an LMP expansion franchise. For what it's worth, Mex Pac owners readily approved Aramburo as the Algodoneros team president.

Estadio Francisco Villa on Opening Day

Puro Beisbol's Fernando Ballesteros reports that Aramburo agreed to sell the Generales to a group of local investors, who agreed to keep the team in Durango for at least the 2020 season.  Although Ballesteros said the picture in Durango had started to improve in 2017 during their first year in the city, that sense of stability more likely didn't begin to take place until last season after Aramburo bought the Generales.  Even so, the Cottoneers play in the league's smallest ballpark, although Estadio Francisco Villa's 4,983 seats were usually more than enough to accomodate the average 3,219 backsides that attended 56 home games last summer, placing Durango 12th in the 16-team attendance derby.  The Generales ranked seventh in their first season by drawing 4,094 per game in 2017.

Durango was one of the four LMB franchises earmarked for shutdown last year before Mexican president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador intervened and ordered league president Javier Salinas to reverse the contraction and while they survived 2019, the new owners have a daunting task ahead of them.  While new manager Juan Jose Pacho has had success leading Mex Pac teams in Mazatlan, he'll work with a roster that includes 2019 LMB batting champion Daniel Mayora, Comeback Player of the Year Santiago Gonzalez and third baseman Moises Gutierrez, who responded to his first starting job with 25 homers and 91 RBIs but little else to put on the field along with a pitching staff on which Amilcar Gaxiola (6-5) was the only hurler with more than four wins and no starter had an ERA of lower than 5.00.


FORMER CATCHER, MANAGER PAQUIN ESTRADA DIES AT 71

Francisco Estrada as a Mets player

Former catcher and manager Francisco "Paquin" Estrada, whose Mexican baseball career spanned five decades, passed away December 9 in Obregon after a long illness.  Estrada was 71.

Born on February 12, 1948 in Navojoa, Estrada's playing career began in 1964 when the then 16-year-old receiver debuted with San Luis Potosi of the Class A Mexican Center League.  After two seasons with the Rojos, the stocky (5'8" and 182 pounds) backstop was brought up to the Mexico City Diablos Rojos in 1966.  He spent five years with the Diablos before being sold to the New York Mets prior to the 1971 campaign.  Estrada split that year between AA Memphis and AAA Tidewater before playing his first (and last) major league contest for New York on September 14 against Montreal at Shea Stadium, when he went 1-for-2 after replacing Jerry Grote in the seventh inning.  Suitably impressed with Estrada's .500 batting average, the California Angels traded six-time All-Star shortstop Jim Fregosi for him in the offseason, with the Mets throwing in Leroy Stanton, Don Rose and Nolan Ryan to make Gene Autry feel better about the deal.

From that point, Estrada bounced between the Angels, Orioles and Cubs systems for two years before returning to Mexico for good in 1974 when he joined the Puebla Pericos.  He would continue catching in the LMB for 21 more years (he also played 30 seasons in the Mexican Pacific League) before retiring in 1994 at age 46.  In his 31-year playing career, Estrada set minor league records for most games caught (2,847) while gaining a reputation as a decent, if not great, batter with some pop who was a master at working with pitchers.  However, it was as a manager that he achieved his greatest successes in baseball.

Paquin's last time behind home plate in Culiacan

Starting in 1982 as a player-manager with the Campeche Piratas, Estrada would lead teams to Mexican League pennants in 1983 with Campeche, 1990 with Leon and 2004 with Campeche (again).  In 31 seasons as a manager in the Liga, Estrada was 1,604-1,435 to rank second to Jose "Zacatillo" Guerrero's 1,971 wins on the all-time list.  He also won seven winterball pennants in the Mexican Pacific League (six in Culiacan), copped Caribbean Series championships in 1996 and 2002 with the Tomateros and managed Mexico's first World Baseball Classic team in 2006.  He has been enshrined in the Salon de la Fama since 2000 in a career that can hardly be defined on one plaque.