ALVAREZ OUT IN OAXACA, REPLACED BY GASTELUM

New Oaxaca manager Sergio Gastelum 

The Joe Alvarez Era in Oaxaca is over after 30 games.  After some early success in the Mexican League's Fall season, winning eight of their first 12 games and brief ownership of first place in the LMB South standings, the Guerreros lost 12 of their next 18 games before Alvarez was shown the door last Tuesday with a 14-16 record and the usual platitudes from the people firing him.  "The Cuban-born Alvarez achieved the necessary harmony in the dressing room and field of play," a Guerreros press release said, "but unfortunately, the results were not positive for the team.  We wish him a lot of success in his next project."

Alvarez was hired June 11 after former Mexico City Diablos Rojos star Jose Luis "Borrego" Sandoval piloted Oaxaca to a 22-35 record and last place in the South for the Spring season.  The 62-year-old Alvarez has had some past success in the Liga, leading Puebla to the South championship in 2014 after replacing Alfonso "Houston" Jimenez during the season and piloting Durango to a .500 record over the first month of the 2017 season after the Generales were forced to play the first four weeks of the schedule on the road while belated renovations to their ballpark were being completed.  However, Alvarez was sacked in Durango after the Generales faded down the stretch amid player discontent stemming from late paychecks while top talent was traded away for cash so payroll could be met.

Prior to his June hiring in Oaxaca, the three-time pennant-winning manager during his stint in the Dodgers system was preparing for his first winter managing the Mazatlan Venados, where Alvarez will return to another situation in which ballpark renovations are falling behind as the clock ticks toward a season opener.  Alvarez will be replaced in the Guerreros dugout by former second baseman Sergio Gastelum, a 39-year-old Sonoran who retired as a player last winter after compiling a .310 batting average with 82 homers and 1,054 runs scored in 22 seasons, the first 12 with the Tigres while they were located in Mexico City and then Puebla.

The Guerreros lost their first six games under Gastelum to see their losing streak drop to nine while sinking deeper in the standings with a 14-22 record, one game ahead of last-place Quintana Roo (13-23).  Defending champion Yucatan has won four straight, including a three-game weekend home sweep of Oaxaca, to pull into a virtual tie with Leon at the top of the LMB South standings.  The 19-15 Bravos are .003 percentage points ahead of the 20-16 Leones, half a game ahead of 19-16 Puebla and one-and-a-half games up on 18-17 Mexico City.  In the LMB North, Monclova (27-9) has won eight of their last ten games to maintain a six-game lead over Dos Laredos (21-15), who have played well since Felix Fermin assumed the reins from former manager Eddie Castro in May near the end of the Spring season.  Tijuana (20-15), Monterrey (20-16) and Aguascalientes (18-17) round out the top five teams in the North with Saltillo, Durango and Union Laguna fading out of playoff contention with three weeks left in the abbreviated regular season.

Former Padres shortstop Everth Cabrera has taken over the batting lead, with the Yucatan infielder posting a .423 average to lead teammate Leo Heras (.422) and Oaxaca's Yuniesky Betancourt (.401) at the top of the table.  Saltillo outfielder Leandro Castro belted three solo homers last week to bring his season roundtripper total to 12, one ahead of Monterrey's Felix Perez and two up of Francisco Peguero of Monclova.  Perez was sent to the Sultanes along with pitcher Gabe Aguilar by Aguascalientes in a five-player trade last Tuesday that netted the Rieleros first sacker Ricky Alvarez, outfielder Francisco Lugo and pitcher Nestor Molina.   Puebla outfielder Delmon Young continues to lead the Liga in RBIs with 43 over 35 games.  The ex-MLBer had no ribbies in a weekend series in Quintana Roo after driving in five runs in three midweek games at Yucatan.  Aguascalientes outfielder Tony Campana stole two bases last week to bring his season total to a Liga-leading 19, five more than Dos Laredos' Johnny Davis.

Leon pitcher Rogelio Martinez won at Tabasco last Saturday in his only start of the week and while the three earned Olmecas runs he allowed brought his ERA up from 1.21 to 1.63, he still leads the LMB in that category.  After going 5-13 with an ERA above 5 over six previous seasons for four teams, the 26-year from Jalisco is having a breakout season for the Bravos and a big reason they occupy first place.  Another breakout year is coming from Mexico City righty Patrick Johnson, who beat Campeche for the second time in seven days last Friday to run his season record to 6-0 in seven starts and 9-0 since coming to the Diablos from Oaxaca during the Spring season.  The former University of North Carolina hurler was 2-3 for the Guerreros before being dealt to Mexico City on May 4 but hasn't lost since.  Puebla's Enrique Oquendo struck out three Yucatan batsmen over 1.1 innings last Wednesday before being pulled (he allowed five walks and a hit in that start, a no-decision) to bring his season whiff total to 43, still tops in the loop.  Monclova's Josh Lueke and Wirfin Obispo of Monterrey each earned a save last week and both now have 10 for the season to tie for most in the LMB.

There'll be a big midweek series in Leon starting Tuesday when the Bravos host Yucatan in a three-game battle between the top two teams in the LMB South.  Next weekend's top series will likely be in Tijuana, when fifth-place Aguascalientes visits for a trio of games with the third-place Toros as two LMB North playoff contenders collide.


DIABLOS TO RETURN PROSPECT RIGHTS, PAY TIGRES

Texas Rangers minor league pitcher Damian Mendoza

In what may finally be the closing chapter of the ongoing Rookiegate situation, the Mexican League ha ordered the Mexico City Diablos Rojos to return the rights to five former prospects to Quintana Roo while also paying the Tigres money the Diablos had received from the sale of two of the young players who'd been property of the Cancun team before some reported sleight-of-hand during the February 2017 sale of the Tigres from former owner Carlos Peralta to ex-Dodgers Cy Young winner Fernando Valenzuela resulted in five prospects being moved from the Tigres' protected list to the Diablos.  The resulting scandal has been called "Rookiegate" and has reverberated throughout the LMB.

According to reporter Beatriz Pereyra of Proceso, the Liga's Board of Directors (consisting of Monclova and Puebla owner Gerardo Benavides, Tijuana owner Alejandro Uribe, Eustacio Alvarez of Aguascalientes and Dos Laredos owner Jose Antonio Mansur unanimously declared the player transfers null and void, ordering the return to Quintana Roo of Fernando Villalobos, who was 14 at the time and protected from being transferred to another team, while compensating the Tigres for the sale of their former prospects Luis Fernando Medina, Damian Mendoza, Oliver Zepeda and Hansen Lopez to Major League Baseball organizations.  Medina was already in the Braves organization at the time of the sale while Zepeda was an infielder in the Blue Jays system, Mendoza was sold to the Texas Rangers for a reported US$1.2 million while Villalobos is said to have sold himself to the same organization for US$1.5 million.  The Mexican rights to all five will revert to Quintana Roo and while the Diablos will have to pay the US$1.2 they received from the Rangers for Mendoza, compensation for Villalobos may be tricky since the young catcher was not signed legally.

In fact, the whole Rookiegate affair is murky, depicted by current Diablos GM Francisco "Pollo" Minjarez (who came to Mexico City from Cancun almost immediately after the Tigres were sold, as a "gentleman's agreement" between former Quintana Roo team president Chto Rodriguez and ex-Diablos president Roberto Mansur in which the Diablos supposedly had room on their master roster for the prospects while the Tigres didn't.  Minjarez was suspended by the Liga for his role while both Rodriguez and Mansur are both out of baseball.  An interesting note is that Dos Laredos president Jose Antonio Mansur in essence voted against his brother as an LMB director.

The imbroglio was denounced loudly and often by Valenzuela and his wife, Linda Burgos, who both claimed to have seen the five prospects' names on a list of players whose rights were owned by the Tigres while the sale was being negotiated.  Reports were that if the Liga did not do something to rectify the matter to the Valenzuelas' satisfaction, the Tigres might have gone back on the market.  Instead, it appears the sordid matter has been resolved (if not to everyone's satisfaction) and that the Tigres will be five players and at least US$1.2 million richer.


AMADOR SUSPENDED BY NPB AFTER DRUG TESTS

Rakuten Golden Eagles slugger Japhet Amador

Mexican slugger Japhet Amador of Nippon Professional Baseball's Rakuten Golden Eagles has been suspended for six months after testing positive for two banned substances, chlorthalidone and furosemide, on June 23 ten days after being tested following a game against the Chunichi Dragons in Sendai.  Both are on a list of prohibited drugs on the World Anti-Doping Agency (or WADA) website.  According to writer Jason Coskrey of the Japan Times, Amador was given a chance to defend himself during a Pacific League meeting on June 30 and while he denied intentionally taking any banned substance, an NPB press release said he did not dispute the actual findings.  At Amador's request, the sample was tested again on August 1 but results came back the same.

The suspension means the hulking (6'4" and listed at 310 pounds) Amador will not be eligible to play again in Japan until next February, but concerns exist that Rakuten will not bring him back for 2019 and that his NPB career may be over due to the test results.  There was some speculation among Mexican baseball cognoscenti that the so-called "Giant of Mulege" may join the Mexico City Diablos Rojos (who own his LMB rights) for the stretch run of the current Fall regular season and playoffs, he'll more likely cool his heels until his Mexican Pacific League team, the Jalisco Charros, begin winterball play in October.  Where Amador goes after the MexPac season may be the larger question.

In a statement released by the Eagles front office, Amador is quoted as saying, "I have never committed an act of doping in my baseball life up to this point.  I have never intentionally taken any banned drugs.  I haven’t used stimulants or anything to increase muscle, or thought about using diuretics or masking agents. I’ve been given many doping tests in the past and they’ve all been negative.”

Amador had a .269 average in 62 games for Rakuten this season with 20 homers (tied for sixth in the league) and 42 RBIs.  Since joining the Eagles for the 2016 season, he's belted 52 homers in 222 NPB games, including 23 longballs in 2017.  After his Mexican League debut with Minatitlan as a 20-year-old in 2007, Amador hit .330 with with 167 homers over nine Liga seasons.  He had a monster year for Mexico City in 2015, batting .346 with 41 homers and 117 RBIs in 103 games before sending another 14 balls to the street in 58 games for Jalisco in the LMP's 2015-16 season.  He hit .248 with six homers in 36 contests for the Charros last winter, but should be much more rested when the 2018-19 MexPac campaign opens.

MANNY RODRIGUEZ BELTS 3 HRs IN TIGRES WIN

Quintana Roo second baseman Manny Rodriguez

The Mexican League's Fall 2018 season has been anything but triumphant for the Quintana Roo Tigres thus far.  With a 6-18 record, the Cancun squad currently occupies the LMB South basement with the worst record in the circuit after a surprise Spring showing that included a playoff appearance and stretching eventual champion Yucatan to seven games in their first-round series.  Their slow start cost former manager Tim Johnson his job, with Hector Hurtado taking over the helm on July 22.

The gloom and doom was broken, however briefly, by a three-homer night for Quintana Roo second baseman Manny Rodriguez last Tuesday in an 11-3 Tigres win over Leon at Cancun's Estadio Beto Avila.  Rodriguez socked longballs in three consecutive innings, going deep against Bravos starter Dustin Crenshaw with a solo shot in the fourth frame, followed by a two-run bomb off Crenshaw in the fifth and another solo blast in the sixth against Leon reliever Edwin Quirarte.  It marks at least the second time the four-time All-Star has hit three homers in a single game, having turned the trick in 2014 en route to a career-best 28 homers when he was with the Saltillo Saraperos.

This has been a turbulent season for the 36-year-old Guasave native, who left the Monclova Acereros during the Spring season, citing internal problems on the team.  After cooling his heels for more than two weeks in California, Rodriguez was assigned from the Acereros' reserve list to Quintana Roo on April 26.  After having hit .308 with a homer and 16 RBIs in 15 games for Monclova, he only hit .219 over the remaining 26 games of the regular season for the Tigres, although he did rap four homers.  The second season is going better for Rodriguez, as he's showing a .333 average with seven homers and 21 ribbies in 26 games in what has to be shaping up to be a frustrating season for the proud veteran.

Despite that loss to Quintana Roo, things have gone much better for Leon, who now lead the LMB South with a 13-9 record despite losing two of three games in Yucatan over the weekend.  The Bravos sit a game-and-a-half ahead of streaking Puebla, winners of their past six games after series sweeps over Campeche at home and at Tabasco last week to lift their season mark to 12-11. Third place in the South is jointly held by Oaxaca and Yucatan at 12-12.  Monclova continues to lead the North with an MXL-best 18-6 register despite the unexpected departure of new manager Carlos Garcia and arrival of new skipper Pedro Mere, who was jettisoned by Tijuana between seasons (more on that below).  The Toros are tied with surprising Dos Laredos for second with identical 15-9 records, followed by Aguascalientes and defending North champ Monterrey, who share the fourth slot at 13-11.

Change continues at the top of the batting race list, with Campeche outfielder Asael Sanchez becoming the latest LMB leader with a .442 average, one point ahead of Yucatan infielder Everth Cabrera.  A 31-year-old Nicaraguan who played 300 games for San Diego between 2012 and 2014, Cabrera is having a good 2018 for the Leones after hitting .330 in 29 games for the Spring pennant-winners after landing in Merida following an April 24 swap with Union Laguna.  Monclova's Cesar Tapia rapped a homer against Tijuana Sunday to take the Liga lead with eight homers, breaking a tie with Quintana Roo's Rodriguez, Felix Perez of Aguascalientes and Laguna's Viosergy Rosa, who joined the Algodoneros a month into the Spring season after being selected a 2017 postseason All-Star in the AA Texas League for the Athletics' Midland affiliate.  The RBI leader is Delmon Young, a one-time American League Championship Series MVP for Detroit in 2012, who's driven in 32 runs for Puebla in 23 games.  Ex-Cubs outfielder Tony Campana still leads in stolen bases with 15 swipes in 17 attempts.

Brazilian Andre Rienzo pitched five scoreless innings for Monclova against Tijuana Saturday to lower his LMB-leading ERA to 0.39.  A 12th-year pro who was selected for the 2015 AAA All-Star Game as a member of the Marlins' New Orleans affiliate, Rienzo has gone 2-0 in five starts since joining the Acereros as a free agent on July 3.  Three pitchers have four wins apiece to top the MXL: Mexico City's Patrick Johnson, Carlos Chavez of Aguascalientes and Dos Laredos hurler Alex Sanabia, who was loaned to the Tecolotes by Tijuana last Friday, perhaps as part of the transaction that sent recalcitrant shortstop Amadeo Zazueta to the Toros after Zazueta refused to report to Nuevo Laredo.  Enrique Oquendo's 34 strikeouts are six ahead of the Rieleros' Chavez in the strikeout race while Josh Lueke of Monclova and Monterrey's Wirfin Obispo are tied for the lead in saves with eight apiece.

Monclova will open a series at Monterrey Tuesday in a midweek series pitting two of the top teams in the LMB North.  The Sultanes will remain at home in Estadio Monterrey for an important weekend series against surprising Dos Laredo, who've risen to contention in the North with a 15-9 record under new manager Felix Fermin.


GARCIA OUT, MERE IN AS MONCLOVA MANAGER

New Monclova Acereros manager Pedro Mere

When former Pittsburgh Pirates infielder Carlos Garcia was appointed to replace Dan Firova as manager in Monclova for the Acereros' Fall season, owner Gerardo Benavides' thinking may have been that the 1994 National League All-Star would somehow translate his own playing success into Monclova's first-ever Mexican League pennant.  The early returns under Garcia were certainly promising enough, as the Steelers won 14 of 19 games out the gate to take the lead in the LMB North standings with the best record in the Liga at that time.  Then he was gone.

The Acereros front office issued a press release last Thursday stating that the 50-year-old Garcia had left the club for personal reasons, but offered no specifics, only the usual platitudes including "appreciation of your support and professionalism and best wishes in you next project" that seem to pop up whenever a Mexican baseball manager is let go.  Following his 2001 retirement as a player from a career during which he hit .266 with 33 homers over ten MLB seasons (including a .277 average during his 1994 All-Star campaign), Garcia held a number of coaching and managing jobs over the years, serving as a coach with the Seattle Mariners between 2003 and 2005 under helmsman Bob Melvin and managing in the Pirates system between 2011 and 2014.  He had been hired as a batting coach for the Acereros under Firova prior to the Spring 2018 season.

Garcia's replacement in Monclova is Pedro Mere, who was fired in Tijuana following the Spring season after the Toros finished second in the LMB North with a 33-23 record before falling to Monterrey in the division playoff finals.  Mere led the Bulls to their first pennant last summer for his first full year in the border city's managerial chair after taking Tijuana to the Serie del Rey in 2016, having taken over the reins of the team in June of that year.  His overall record with the Toros was 132-68, a winning percentage of .660.  Mere also managed the Veracruz Rojos del Aguila for parts of the 2012 and 2013 seasons, going 28-24.  He succeeded Orlando Merced during the 2012 season and piloted the Eagle Reds, a team first formed in 1903, to the city's sixth and final MXL pennant before the franchise was moved to Nuevo Laredo last winter.

Prior to his ascension to the bench boss job in Tijuana last year, Mere had a remarkable winterball run managing the Las Tuxtlas Brujos of the now-disbanded Veracruz Winter League, winning six pennants in seven seasons between 2008-09 and 2014-15, winning the 2013 Latin American Series in Veracruz as well.  A native Veracruzano himself who turned 48 on July 15, Mere spent 22 summers as an infielder for seven Mexican League teams between 1989 and  2009, batting .280 with 179 homers over 2,119 games. 


MEXICO ENDS DISAPPOINTING COLOMBIA TRIP WITH 3-4 RECORD

Mexico's National Baseball Team split their final four games at the Central American & Caribbean Games in Barranquilla, Colombia to conclude an underwhelming performance in a tournament for which they'd been expected to contend for a gold medal.  Some of the resulting fallout has included questions of whether most Mexican League teams had withheld their top players while sending relative roster flotsam-and-jetsam instead.

After starting out by dropping two of their first three games to quickly drop down the standings for the eight-nation field, the Verdes Grande fell to 2-4 by losing a 7-1 decision to Puerto Rico last Wednesday at Estadio Edgar Renteria.  Luis Juarez went 2-for-4 and scored Mexico's only run in the second inning to give them an early lead while Jose Alvarez added a pair of hits, but the Puerto Ricans took the lead with three runs off Mexican starting pitcher Jesus Soto in the bottom of the third and added three more in the fifth to essentially salt the game away.  Soto took the loss, giving up six runs in four innings of work.

Mexico then suffered a surprising 5-2 loss Wednesday to Panama, a country whose baseball has not been considered strong enough to send a team to the Caribbean Series for decades.  Sebastian Valle singled and doubled to join Alvarez and Paul Leon as Mexican batsmen with two hits, but the Panamanians broke a 2-2 tie with three runs in the top of the seventh against starter Javier Solano and two relievers and went on to post the win.  Solano gave up four runs on seven hits over 6.1 frames for the loss as the only fully-professional baseball team in Colombia saw their record bottom out at 1-4.

Manager Enrique "Che" Reyes' men finally gained a measure of success by winning their final two games, starting Friday with a 3-0 shutout of Venezuela.  Jose Samayoa went seven strong innings, striking out nine batters and walking two, to post the combined three-hitter with Aaron Kurcz, who pitched hitless ball over the final two entradas.  Juarez paced the winner with a double and a pair of singles, scoring one run and driving in another.

The Mexicans wrapped up their schedule Sunday with a 3-2 win over the Dominican Republic.  Leo Heras keyed the winners' seven-hit attack with a double and two singles, scoring twice.  Jesus Soto started his second game and had a better outing, allowing two runs on six hits over 4.1 innings, but the win went to Octavio Acosta, who let up just one single in 3.1 frames of work out of the bullpen. 

Puerto Rico and Cuba both finished the round-robin tournament with identical 5-2 records, with the Boricuans awarded the gold medal by virtue of their 8-1 win over the Cubanos on July 22.  Both teams qualified for net year's Pan American Games in Lima, Peru.  Host Colombia came in at 4-3 to leapfrog over Caribbean Series nations Mexico, Venezuela and the Dominican Republic to take the bronze medal.  Mexico finished tied for fourth with Venezuela, Panama and Nicaragua at 3-4 while the Dominicans brought up the rear with two wins in seven outings.

Recrimination of the Mexican contingent was swift back home, with fans and columnists criticizing both the Mexican League and president Javier Salinas for not ensuring that a top-notch team represented the country in Colombia.  One notable exception was the Yucatan Leones, who sent catcher Valle, outfielder Heras, designated hitter Juarez and pitchers Samayoa and Alejandro Soto, all starters for the defending MXL champions.  The Leones went 4-6 in their absence.

Cabrera hero as Leones tie LMB South title series

Yucatan Leones shortstop Everth Cabrera came up big

Former San Diego Padres shortstop Everth Cabrera capped a two-run comeback for Yucatan in the bottom half of the ninth inning with a walkoff single that scored Ruben Sosa from second base, handing the Leones a 6-5 win over Quintana Roo Sunday in Game Two of the Mexican League's South Division championship series in Merida.  The victory knotted the Leones-Tigres catfight at one game apiece as 13,147 spectators looked on at Parque Kukulkan.  Cabrera, Sosa and Jesus "Cacao" Valdez each had three hits for the winners while C.J. Retherford belted a pair of homers (one of them a three-run bom) for the Tigres, who won Saturday's opener, 4-1, behind the complete game pitching of Henderson Alvarez.

As Cabrera was performing his heroics in Yucatan, the defending champion Tijuana Toros were delivering a 15-2 beatdown to the Monterrey Sultanes to tie the LMB North title series at one gabe apiece.  Dustin Martin cracked a grand slam in the top of the second off Sultanes starter Felipe Gonzalez to highlight a five-run inning that gave the Toros a lead they would widen as the game went on.  Martin finished the night with six RBIs, Cyle Hankerd contributed a three-run homer to the cause and batting champion Isaac Rodriguez went 4-for-6 with three runs scored and two more driven in for manager Pedro Mere's men.  TJ starter Kyle Lobstein pitched six pressure-free innings, allowing one run on three hits while striking out five batsmen to send 21,909 fans at Estadio Monterrey home disappointed.  Sultanes reliever Gonzalo Ochoa had a nightmarish appearance in the seventh frame, allowing six runs on five hits (including Hankerd's roundtripper) and a walk before being pulled by skipper Roberto Kelly with one out remaining, which Marcos Rivas mercifully recorded.

Yucatan and Quintana Roo both reached the LMB South finals by dispatching Leon and Mexico City, respectively, in five games.  Sebastian Valle's two-run homer gave Leones starter Jose Samayoa (6 innings, 1 run) all the support needed in Yucatan's 5-1 win over the Bravos last Monday in Leon while Jason Bourgeois' single drove in Angel Erro with the game winner in the bottom of the tenth in the Tigres' 6-5 win over the Diablos Rojos the same night in Cancun.  The victory had to be doubly sweet for Tigres owners Fernando and Linda Valenzuela, who've had their own well-chronicled issues with the Red Devils organization over the past year.

Monterrey had to go the extra mile to win their LMB North semifinal series over Monclova in six games.  The Acereros outlasted the Sultanes, 7-6, last Monday at home with the aid of four homers, including a two-run shot coming off the bat of former Yankees outfielder Ruben Rivera, now 44, who hit .385 for the series.  Monterrey wrapped things up two nights later by a 6-3 count over the Steelers as veteran third baseman Agustin Murillo had a big night for the Sultanes, socking a pair of homers (one of them a three-run dinger off Acereros starter Mauricio Lara in the bottom of the fifth.  The 39-year-old Lara had sailed through the first four frames without being scratched for a run before running into trouble in the fifth.  Tijuana had earlier eliminated Aguascalientes in a four-game sweep, giving the Toros a week to rest before opening their series with Monterrey Saturday.

Both division championship series will resume Tuesday night after Monday's travel day, as the LMB South title set shifts to Cancun for Game Three while Tijuana will host Game Three in the LMB North series.


Bravos late with payment, lose SS Amadeo Zazueta to Dos Laredos

Former Leon Bravos shortstop Amadeo Zazueta

Your friendly bank officer issuing a foreclosure notice has nothing on the Monclova Acereros, who waited just one week for a late installment check from the Leon Bravos before reclaiming shortstop Amadeo Zazueta from the Guanajuato team and immediately trading him to the Dos Laredos Tecolotes.

According to Puro Beisbol editor Fernando Ballesteros, the Bravos agreed to a series of payments to Monclova as part of an offseason deal that sent the 32-year-old Culiacan product to Leon after batting .341 for the Steelers last summer, socking 9 homers and driving in 64 runs over 101 regular season contests in 2017.  The trade surprised many Mexican League observers at the time, but the Acereros were committed to Puebla Shuttle passenger Alberto Carreon and LMB veteran Kevin Flores, who spent three years with Yucatan after nine summers with the Quintana Roo Tigres before arriving in Estadio Monclova as a free agent last winter.

Instead, Carreon never got untracked with the Acereros and was shuttled back to sister team Puebla during the Spring 2018 season while Flores ended up playing just 27 of 57 games, batting .320 with 7 RBIs.  And Zazueta?  He became one of the faces of the Leon franchise by batting .356 with 5 homers, 9 steals and a team-high 46 runs scored while adding some adventurous defense in the 6 spot with 10 errors in 55 games.  Despite being one of the Liga's more troubled franchises, the Bravos have managed to reach the playoffs in each of their first two seasons and Zazueta was a key member of this Spring's squad.

However, Zazueta apparently wasn't so important to either the Leon front office or Arturo Blanco, the Potosinos transportation company majordomo and one of the MXL's wealthier owners.  Ballesteros reports that Monclova allowed a week for the Bravos' June installation check to arrive before taking Zazueta back for a nanosecond prior to shipping him off to the Tecos in exchange for pitcher Jose Pina, a useful righty who's gone 45-37 with a 3.52 ERA in six seasons pitching for mostly dreadful teams in Tabasco, Veracruz and Dos Laredos (he was 4-5 with a 4.07 ERA this Spring for the Tecos, who had the worst record in the Liga at 18-39.  The two-time All-Star is a much better pitcher than even his decent stats would indicate and the 6'2" Dominican will finally give Acereros star Josh Lowey a decent complement in the starting rotation.  While their moves were definitely draconian, it's hard to blame Monclova for making them after a second straight first-round playoff exit.  Owner Gerardo Benavides has proven that, if nothing else, he is a hands-on guy who'll make a move at the drop of a hat to improve his hometown team (often at the expense of his Puebla franchise).

But what of the Bravos?  This would be embarrassing to any self-aware ballclub seeking to build credibility among an already-skeptical fan base.  Manager (as of this week) Luis Rivera will likely move Niko Vasquez (.341/10/36) back to his natural position of shortstop with little drop-off in production, but he's left with former Diamondbacks prospect Joe Munoz, a 2014 Midwest League all-star, at third base for Fall 2018 after Munoz played just seven games for Tijuana and Leon in Spring.  The bigger question mark may be regarding what credibility the Bravos have with Leon baseball fans after letting one of their best players leave with nothing in return but even more egg on its face after yet another front office snafu.

One more note worth passing along.  Ballesteros reports that Zazueta may choose to not report to Dos Laredos, one of the few franchises more rudderless than the one he was reclaimed from.  This may all end up in the lap of Liga president Javier Salinas, who certainly doesn't need any more problems in what has been a tough first year for the former Liga MX soccer marketer after replacing Plinio Escalante at the top of the circuit last September.


Managerial firings: Firova out in Monclova, Sandoval canned in Oaxaca

Former Monclova Acereros manager Dan Firova

After showing remarkable restraint throughout the Spring 2018 season, Mexican League owners are using June to make some corrections of their dugout bosses.  Two more managers lost their jobs over the past week after only one midseason firing in Dos Laredos, when the Tecolotes cut Eddie Castro loose last month.  After Tabasco fired skipper Alfonso "Houston" Jimenez in a rather puzzling move, given that Jimenez spun some silk from a sow's ear of a roster (Castro will be Jimenez' replacement n Villahermosa), Oaxaca severed ties with first-year manager Jose Luis "Borrego" Sandoval, a 2008 MVP shortstop for Mexico City during his playing days and a favorite of Diablos/Guerreros owner Alfredo Harp Helu, but the most surprising firing would have to be Dan Firova's reported ouster in Monclova.

 Owner Gerardo Benavides has proven with both the Acereros and Puebla that he has an affinity for hiring managers with Major League Baseball backgrounds such as Wally Backman, who was brought in to Monclova for a disastrous term last despite the former Mets second baseman only having enough prior experience speaking Spanish to order off the menu at Taco Bell.  Hired last December, Firova was seen as a compromise choice of sorts, possessing a less-extensive MLB background but also a Mexican-American who'd both played and managed successfully in the Liga in past years (winning Manager of the Year laurels in 2000 with the Quintana Roo Tigres).  Language and experience in baseball south of the border were not concerns with the former catcher from Texas.

The Acereros finished a disappointing 29-27 in the Spring 2018 regular season, coming in fourth in the LMB North before a first-round playoff exit at the hands of Monterrey.  While fault for failing to meet expectations may lie more with a dissension-ridden clubhouse of transient ballplayers yo-yoing between Monclova and Puebla (star second baseman Manny Rodriguez left the team and was subsequently traded to Quintana Roo) or a pitching staff that allowed more men to reach first base than Stormy Daniels (Josh Lowey notwithstanding), but it's easier to scapegoat a manager and that appears to be what may happening with Firova.  His firing, which has been reported in the Mexican baseball media, had not been officially confirmed by either the Acereros or MXL offices as this story was written and no replacement has been announced.

The firing of Sandoval in Oaxaca was not so surprising.  The 49-year-old Los Mochis native spent 14 seasons between 2000 and 2013 with Mexico City and remained as a coach or manager in the Diablos system before owner Alfredo Harp Helu send him to manage the billionaire's other Liga team in Oaxaca this year.  The Guerreros serve a similar, if not as direct, role to the Diablos that the Kansas City A's used to serve as the New York Yankees' de facto Class AAA affiliate in the American League (which both teams conveniently played in).   Sandoval took Oaxaca's perennial red-headed stepchild team to a last-place finish in the LMB South at 22-35.  While he had more talent than Castro in Dos Laredos or Jimenez in Tabasco had to work with (including such notables as Yuniesky Betancourt, Adan Munoz and Erick Rodriguez), Sandoval's roster reflected the old wartime song, "They're Either Too Young or Too Old," and sank out of contention early.

Sandoval will be replaced at the Guerreros helm by Cuban Jose Alvarez, the former Durango manager who was recently hired to manage Mazatlan this winter in the Mexican Pacific League.  Alvarez won two Gulf Coast League rookieball pennants and one Class A Florida State League title between 1986 and 1990 managing in the Dodgers system.  He spent 2017 as the helmsman in Durango, keeping the newborn Generales at .500 while the team played their first month on the road while their ballpark at home was being readied, but the team ran out of steam the rest of the season as players missed paychecks as the schedule played out (many were traded to save costs) and Durango missed the playoffs.