LMP playoffs open Monday; attendance records set

The Mexican Pacific League playoffs will begin Monday night as all three first-round series get underway.

Top-seed Navojoa will open at home against Mexicali, a team the Mayos defeated seven times in twelve contests during the regular season.  Likely LMP Pitcher of the Year Hector Velazquez (pictured) gets the start for Navojoa against last winter's top hurler, Javier Solano. Number 2 seed Los Mochis will welcome defending champion Mazatlan, who the Caneros dominated by a 9-to-3 margin, with Roy Merritt starting for Mochis against Jeremy Kehrt of the Venados.  Hermosillo visits third-seed Culiacan, two teams who split twelve regular season, with Hermosillo sending Mexican League Playoff MVP Travis Blackley to the mound against Culiacan's Hector Daniel Rodriguez, last winter's BBM Playoff MVP and winner of two Caribbean Series games while pitching for Mazatlan.  The Naranjeros and Tomateros have combined to win 26 MexPac pennants in their respective histories.

Velazquez led Navojoa to the regular season crown by leading the MexPac in wins (9) and strikeouts (87) while finishing second in ERA (2.32) to Los Mochis' Manny Barreda's 2.30 mark.  Velazquez won his last three starts to finish at 9-3.  Barreda tossed six hitless innings at Hermosillo in his last start on December 26.  He pitched the LMP's lone no-hitter against the Naranjeros exactly one month earlier. Hermosillo starter Juan Pablo Oramas led the circuit in ERA most the of year before allowing two earned runs over five frames in Mexicali on December 28. Mexicali closer Jake Sanchez earned saves in four consecutive outings over the final ten days of the schedule to finish with 21 for the campaign.  Sanchez allowed one (1) earned run in 30 appearances for the Aguilas for a microscopic 0.28 ERA.

Mexicali catcher Luis Juarez went 14-of-34 at the plate over his final ten games to win the LMP batting title with a .364 average, well in front of Los Mochis outfielder Leandro Castro's .347 mark.  Hermosillo infielder Jose Amador topped the loop in both homers (15) and runs batted in (60) while Obregon outfielder Corey Wimberly stole 17 bases in 38 games to win the steals title by one over Navojoa rookie utilityman Randy Arozarena.

It was another banner season at the gate for the Mexican Pacific League, with the LMP's eight teams combining to draw a record 2,625,495 fanaticos to 271 games for an average crowd of 9,688 per opening.  The overall total reflects a 4 percent increase over the 2015-16 campaign.  In comparison, no affiliated minor league team at any level averaged as much as 9,000 per game.

Culiacan topped the table for the second straight winter by pulling in 554,737 people to Estadio Bancomer BBVA for an average of 16,316.  Defending Caribbean Series champion Mazatlan was at the bottom of the column with 198,589 attending 34 Venados games at Estadio Teodoro Mariscal, or 5,851 a night.  After opening their 16,000-seat Nuevo Estadio Yaquis amid great fanfare (and hosting the MexPac's first All-Star Game in two decades), Obregon had a disappointing season in attendance as the team played to just 49 percent capacity crowds of 7,803 per night to watch the non-playoff Yaquis.

TOTAL       GP      AVG.        TEAM
554,737      34     16,316      Culiacan Tomateros
436,232      34     12,830      Mexicali Aguilas
425,514      34     12,515      Hermosillo Naranjeros
294,165      33       8,914      Jalisco Charros
265,301      34       7,803      Obregon Yaquis
228,449      34       6,719      Los Mochis Caneros
222,478      34       6,543      Navojoa Mayos
198,589      34       5,851      Mazatlan Venados

BBM Winterball 2015-16 Review, Part 1

When the Mazatlan Venados brought back Juan Jose Pacho to manage the team in midseason, the veteran skipper was inheriting a last-place team from Miguel Ojeda, who resigned on December 9 prior to accepting a job running the San Francisco Giants’ AA Richmond affiliate.  The Venados had turned in a decent 20-15 record in the first half to finish in third place and pick up six playoff points, but Mazatlan was scuffling early in the second half when Pacho took the reins from Ojeda.

The Deer didn’t set the Mexican Pacific League on fire over the rest of the regular campaign, going 18-15 for another third-place finish in the second stanza, and after losing their first-round playoff series in six games to Navojoa, it took the MexPac’s wildcard rule allowing the team with the most wins in an opening-round loss to join the three series winners as a semifinal to keep the Venados’ season barely alive.  

The rest, as they say,  is history as Mazatlan proceeded to knock out Obregon in a tough seven-game set before topping Mexicali in five contests to win the LMP pennant.  Then the Venados marched into Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic and ran the table to become the fourth MexPac team in six winters to win the Caribbean Series title.  None of it was new to Pacho, who brought the Venados back from a similar first-round loss all the way to their first Serie del Caribe title in 2005, conveniently held in Mazatlan that year and kickstarting Carnival a little early.

Obregon finished the LMP’s best regular-season record at 39-29.  Former Nats farmhand Jesus Valdez hit .347 for Jalisco to win the batting title while massive DH Japhet Amador led the circuit with 14 homers and 48 RBI’s for the Charros before leaving two weeks early after signing with Japan’s Rakuten Golden Eagles.  Mazatlan outfielder Jeremias Pineda stole 31 bases in 36 attempts to finish on top of that table.

Mexicali’s Javier Solano topped the loop with eight wins and 71 strikeouts over 81 innings to win two of the three pitching triple crown categories and Alejandro Soto of Mazatlan posted a low ERA of 2.63.  Los Mochis closer Andres Avila tied an LMP record with 23 saves, one more than Mazatlan’s Steven Hensley.

One of the biggest stories of the MexPac season was the continued significant growth in attendance.  Nearly three million fans clicked the turnstile during both the regular season and playoffs for a 12 percent increase, the seventh straight winter such numbers have gone up.  An average of more than 9,500 attendees places the circuit behind only Major League Baseball, Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball and the Korean Baseball Organization in average pro baseball attendance worldwide.  Conversely, no affiliated minor league in the United States drew more than 7,000 per opening.  In all, the LMP has seen attendance rise 39 percent since 2012 and with stadium development still ongoing in various MexPac cities, including Obregon and Mazatlan, those numbers should continue to go up.

Culiacan fans in particular have taken great pride in Estadio BBVA Bancomer, with over 16,000 people attending Tomateros games to watch a non-playoff team, and the venue will host next February’s Caribbean Series.

NEXT: Veracruz Winter League, Mexican Winter League and Academy Rookie League wrap

LMP ATTENDANCE OFF TO STRONG START

More people than ever are attending games south of the border, where average attendance at Mexican Pacific League ballparks is higher than any summer minor league.

Through Thursday night's games, the MexPac has drawn 1,785,913 spectators to 183 games for an average of 9,759 turnstile clicks per opening.  In comparison, the International League's Charlotte Knights led all affiliated minor league teams in attendance average last summer at 9,428 while the IL led all minor leagues in 2015 with an average of 7,199 per game.

One reason for the uptick in MexPac is Culiacan's new ballpark, the 19,200-seat Estadio BBVA Bancomer (above), where an average of 16,742 fans have attended 25 Tomateros games.  Two other teams are averaging over ten thousand attendees:  Mexicali is bringing in 12,972 while Hermosillo welcomes 10,809 per night. Navojoa, which has long had problems bringing people out to the ballpark, is averaging 5,199.

Last winter, the LMP drew a total of 2,194,499 during the regular season for an average of 8,068 per contest, a 22 percent increase over 2013-14.  The postseason was boffo at MexPac box offices, as another 465,683 poured through the gates for an average of 13,305 for 35 playoff games to bring the grand total to 2,660,182 for the entire season for an average of 8,665.