CHITO RODRIGUEZ URGES LMB TO CANCEL SEASON

Cuauhtémoc “Chito” Rodríguez

A widely-respected Salon de la Fama member with over four decades of Mexican League front office experience is calling on the LMB to cancel the 2020 season due to ongoing uncertainty regarding the Wuhan virus outbreak in Mexico.

Cuauhtémoc “Chito” Rodríguez was inducted last year in Monterrey after an executive career during which his Dos Laredos Tecolotes reached the playoffs 15 times (winning two pennants) before taking over as president of the flagship Tigres franchise in 1994 and overseeing six title-winning teams in Mexico City, Puebla and Quintana Roo before his 2018 retirement after Fernando Valenzuela purchased the team from Carlos Peralta. He was recognized as "King of Baseball" at the Baseball Winter Meetings in 2011.

When asked by writer Angel Villegas last week about the upcoming Mexican League season, Rodriguez was quoted as saying, "cancel it," in Puro Beisbol. "I don't think baseball being played in the LMB is possible this year. The country is immersed in the virus and we don't know when it will be solved."

Rodriguez elaborated that the Liga's plan to play games with people in the stands is impractical: “The situation in the country and in the world is very complex regarding the virus. I would not recommend playing with the public in the stands in the Mexican League. It will not be controllable until you have a vaccine to counteract this evil. Therefore, it is not practical for anyone to be in a sport that people go to the stadiums and I do not only mean baseball but also others such as soccer, basketball and American football."

Rodriguez at the 2011 Baseball Winter Meetings

He echoed LMB president Horacio de la Vegas by saying that teams can't afford to play behind closed doors either. “Doing it without an audience in the stadiums as the United States plans, if it takes shape, is very different," Rodriguez explains. "MLB has very strong television income. In this case, they'll try to get their season off for television rights and sponsors are not interested in whether or not there are people. It's a situation very different from that in Mexico."

Rodriguez suggests that calling off the season gives the Mexican League an opportunity to create peace with the winter Mexican Pacific League, who would not have to shorten their season to accomodate a Mexican League schedule stretching into November. "It is time for the two leagues to make amends," he says. "I would go with the LMB Board of Directors and would do the same with the Winter Council and tell them, 'Look, we must make peace. We did not do it for many years because there are difficulties between us so there was no approach. We've criticized each other, but now it's time to lean on each other.'

“It's a complicated situation so it would be best if the Mexican League told the winter league that they can start as usual in October, finish it and play their Caribbean Series. Everyone in peace."

DE LA VEGA: LMB WILL NOT PLAY GAMES IN EMPTY BALLPARKS

Mexican League president Horacio de la Vega

Although the 2020 Mexican League season is tentatively scheduled to open August 7, it's with the full knowledge that the Wuhan virus pandemic makes everything a fluid situation and that the season may not be played at all. One thing that isn't going to change, according to LMB president Horacio de la Vega, is that the Liga will NOT play games in front of occupied stands in 2020.

"We are not going to play behind closed doors. That is our determination. The only possibility is to do it with the capacity allowed," de la Vega said.

According to the Hitazo website, de la Vega explained that he expects to start the season on August 7 to end on November 10 with a 48-game campaign for each team in the regular season, but that will depend on how the pandemic plays out over the next few weeks.

Unlike leagues elsewhere, the Mexican League is not in the financial position to play without people in the stands because the LMB does not have deals with sponsors similar to those found in the United States, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan while the majority of its 16 teams are dependent on revenue from ticket, merchandise and concession sales to meet payroll and cover their other expenses. Games behind closed doors would almost certainly lead to franchises folding, perhaps even during the season.

Tabasco Olmecas will need fan in the seats 

As a case in point, the Korea Baseball Organization (where Hermosillo-born Roberto Ramos has become a star in his first season in Asia) has played in front of empty stands since opening their season on May 5. Although the KBO is in better financial shape than the LMB and has had their games beamed to a North American TV audience on ESPN, SportBusiness.com reports that some teams are reportedly beginning to struggle without ballpark revenues and corporate team owners may be forced to take out bank loans to meet front office and team payrolls. One KBO club official said, "We've been paying our players and employees in full but if we keep playing without fans in July, a lot of teams will run into extremely serious trouble.

The leader of Mexico's summer baseball circuit accepted that after the Wuhan virus, it will be necessary to change uses and customs of the game, such as spitting on the ground (something usual between pitches) or eating sunflower seeds.

"It will radically change the behavior of the players," de la Vega stated. "There is a protocol that will imply changes, not only for the players, but also for the fans."

BANUELOS CUT BY MARINERS, SIGNS WITH TEAM IN TAIWAN

Manny Banuelos with Culiacan in 2019-20

If nothing else, Manny Banuelos' passport has been getting a good workout this year.

The 29-year-old lefty will be playing in his fourth country since January after the 5'10" Laguna native signed a one-year contract with the Fubon Guardians of Taiwan's Chinese Professional Baseball League last week. Banuelos will report this week to the team in New Taipei City, where the Guardians roster includes fellow moundsmen Henry Sosa, Mike Loree, Bryan Woodall and Ryan Bollinger.

Banuelos was once a highly-regarded prospect after signing a free-agent contract with the New York Yankees in 2008 at age 17. He rose as high as AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre in seven years as a farmhand in pinstripes, but never appeared in the majors until after he was traded to Atlanta following the 2014 season. He made an impressive MLB debut for the Braves on July 2 against Washington at home, shutting out the Nats over 5.2 innings and striking out seven batters in a no-decision 2-1 win. Banuelos followed that outing with another good start five nights later in Milwaukee by holding the Brewers to one run in 5.1 frames and was credited with a 4-3 victory. Although he mostly pitched creditably the rest of the season, he lost his final four decisions, including an 8-4 shelling at Washington on September 6 in which he allowed six runs over two innings in his final outing. That was enough to raise his overall ERA from 3.33 to 5.13 to augment a 1-4 record.

After that, Banuelos was returned to the minors and bounced from the Braves to the Dodgers and White Sox organizations before returning to MLB in 2019 with Chicago, going 3-4 with a 6.93 ERA in 16 appearances, including eight starts. He had a great April for the Chisox, finishing the month with a 2-0 record and 2.70 ERA in six appearances (including four shutout innings on April 22 at Baltimore in a 12-2 laugher), but he allowed 27 earned runs in 20.1 entradas in May to lose four of five decisions and pitched sparingly for manager Rick Renteria after that. A Mexican-American, Renteria led the Mexican League in batting with a .442 average for Jalisco in 1991.

Banuelos spent last winter pitching in the Mexican Pacific League for Culiacan, going 1-1 with a 5.40 ERA in four starts. He began the year helping the Tomateros win the LMP title in the January playoffs, traveled with the team to Puerto Rico in February for the Caribbean Series (where Culiacan reached the semifinals, then went to Arizona for MLB spring training after signing a free-agent contract with the Seattle Mariners.

Banuelos made MLB debut in 2015

Banuelos made one Cactus League appearance with the M's, allowing two runs in as many innings on two hits, two wild pitches and a hit bastman. He appeared ticketed to AAA Tacoma when the Wuhan virus halted camps across MLB, but was among about 50 minor leaguers purged from the Seattle organization on June 2 in order to save the organization $400 a week per player.

Now, Banuelos will resume his career on the other side of the Pacific Ocean. He'll join a Fubon team that has made nine playoff appearances and won three pennants since their 1993 debut as the Jungo Bears, but currently sits third in the four-team CPBL with a 17-23 record after absorbing a 13-4 loss Sunday to the Uni-President Lions, whose roster features former MLB pitchers Ryan Feieraband and Josh Roenicke.

While Taiwan is not where he expected to be when the year began, Manny Banuelos will have one decided advantage over the 750 major leaguers and thousands of remaining minor leaguers he left behind when he departed from North America last week: He'll be playing baseball.

LIGA MAY OPEN IN AUGUST, MEX PAC SETS OPENER

Saltillo's remodeled Estadio Francisco I. Madero

The Mexican League is reportedly considering starting its season in August, with teams playing 51-game schedules (or half the original 102-game total heading into April's canceled openers. However, nothing has been etched in stone as the Wuhan virus panic continues while three LMB teams were even facing the choice of either playing their seasons on the road or canceling altogether, including the defending Liga champion Monclova Acereros.

The LMB Assembly of Presidents held a videoconference early last week to go over their latest options. Saltillo Saraperos president Cesar Cantu told the El Zocalo newspaper that the 16 team owners and league president Horacio de la Vega conferred with Mexican health authorities, who offered advice regarding parameters for when and how the circuit would operate in 2020. According to Cantu, each state with an LMB franchise may make a decision on what kind of events with large gatherings would be allowed (more on that in a paragraph).

Cantu said the Liga is now eyeing an August start, four months after the loop's five-month regular had been slated to begin. Baseball writers south of the border have speculated that the LMB would play a 51-game season, but it would be hard to do that and play a full eight-team, three-stage postseason without stretching well into the winter Mexican Pacific League season, which is tentatively set to open on October 12.

For a short time, there was a question of how many LMB teams might take the field. Coahuila governor Miguel Angel Riquelme last week announced that there would be no more "massive" events in his state through at least September 15 and possibly the end of a year as a preventive response to the Wuhan virus. "We are going to spend many months taking care of sanitary measures," Riquelme was quoted as saying in Puro Beisbol.

Such a measure would affect the champion Acereros, Saltillo Saraperos and Union Laguna Algodoneros. Although there may be options of playing home games in empty ballparks or all games away from their respective homes, Mexican League teams rely on ticket, concessions and ballpark advertising revenue to survive financially and the potential of the three teams simply closing down until 2021 to minimize losses was not off the table. Riquelme backtracked on his statement one day later.

The LMB office had not issued a public comment to that point, perhaps because president de la Vega was trying to dislodge his heart from his throat, but the threat served to heighten the vulnerability of many cash-strapped Liga franchises who lack funds to field a team without recouping the expenses with ballpark income. The bottom line is that the longer it takes for the Mexican League to put its product on the field, the harder it's going to be for the 95-year-old loop to schedule any kind of season in 2020, however abbreviated. As we'll see later, one prominent baseball columnist is calling for the Liga to not play until next year. He won't be the last.

Culiacan averaged 15,000+ in attendance in 2019-20

Meanwhile out west, Mexican Pacific League owners held a videoconference of their own and have confirmed that all ten teams are expected to participate in the upcoming 2020-21 season, which is expected to start on October 12 regardless of what happens with the Mexican League. Although a manpower shortage at the outset of the first half may happen if the two schedules overlap, LMP owners are said to be confident they'll be able to fill their rosters and operate in a state of flux as players complete their LMB obligations.

There has been some debate over the use of imports in both leagues, particularly in the Mexican League, where budget shortfalls make bringing in more-expensive players from the United States a fiscal risk to many teams. Such concerns are not as acute in the Mex Pac, where nearly 10,000 people attended each game last winter (a higher average than any minor league in the hemisphere), but some players who've crossed the border to play winterball in the past may be hesitant to do so if high Wuhan virus concerns in Mexico continue.

LIGA NORTE CONSIDERS WINTER MOVE; NEW BAJA LOOP COMING?

2019 LNM champions San Luis Algodoneros

With their 2020 regular season and playoffs all but scuttled by the Wuhan virus, the Northern Mexico League is now contemplating a move to a winter schedule. However, a group of investors in Baja California Sur is also looking at starting their own league at the same time of year.

During a recent interview posted on the La Paz Delfines Facebook page, LNM president Jorge Rivera said he has not ruled out converting the Liga Norte into a winterball circuit. While stating that his own preference would be to remain a summer league, he noted that economic conditions created by the pandemic might make a move to later in the year more prudent, if not outright necessary. Although Rivera said he would prefer to return to the LNM's traditional April-July schedule in 2021, the changing landscape of baseball in the northwest corner of the country might make a permanent move to a winter schedule more attractive to him and Liga Norte owners.

The LNM, which is considered Class AA within the Mexican baseball system, was dealt a severe blow following their 2018 season when the Mexican League withdrew its official support, along with the player affiliations and 40,000 pesos per team subsidies that came with it. While Liga Norte teams were able to cobble together affiliations with LMB teams last summer, the loss of both their official designation as an LMB "developmental" league and extra cash flow hurt. The LNM fought their way through the 2019 campaign with five teams and had announced expansion to Otay (a suburb of Tijuana), where the Industralies were expected to play in 2020.

Then, after the first of the year, the Liga Norte was dealt a couple of body blows that will be difficult to recover from. The first was the Wuhan virus itself, of course, which has caused baseball across Mexico to shut down and created uncertainty as to when it will be allowed to resume. The second blow, the resurrection of the Sonora Professional Baseball League (or Liga Sonora), may have more longterm implications for the LNM, which itself broke away from the original Northern Sonora League in 2012. The LNS survived two summers before shutting down in 2014 while the LNM carried on, but the revived Liga Sonora appears to be coming back with a vengeance. Leaders were in talks with LMB president Horacio de la Vega earlier this year about affiliation agreements and two of their proposed eight franchises appear to be current LNM teams, the 2019 Liga Norte champion San Luis Algodoneros and Caborca Reds.

La Paz' Estadio Arturo C. Nahl reopened in 2019

If the Mexican League does indeed make the Liga Sonora their Class AA farm league in 2021, the Liga Norte's best chance for long-term survival may be to make a permanent move to winterball and serve a similar role as a feeder circuit for the Mexican Pacific League. The Mex Pac used to be able to call up players from both the Liga Noroeste (in the state of Nayarit) and the Veracruz Winter League, but the LNB shut down as a professional circuit in 2015 and the LIV went dark last winter with prospects no brighter for 2020-21, as sisters Regina and Fabiola Vazquez (who underwrote the LIV in 2018-19) now appear to be pursuing the return of the Mexican League to Veracruz instead. LMP sports managers had difficulties finding in-shape players last winter to fill roster spots when their own players were injured, released or left the team, so there's reason to believe an agreement could be worked out between the Mex Pac and LNM.

The Liga Norte may face a potential challenger in winter baseball. Editor Fernando Ballesteros of Puro Beisbol reports that businessmen representing the proposed Southern California League (or Liga Sudcaliforniana) approached the Mexican Pacific League earlier this year inquiring about an affiliation agreement of their own. The director of municipal sports in La Paz, Guillermo Ortalejo, reportedly already has that city's Estadio Arturo C. Nahl (home of the LNM Delfines) in mind for games this winter, but Ballesteros writes that while the LMP certainly could use a new in-season source of replacement players, leaders there were not prioritizing the new league. One potential outcome is a merger of sorts between the Liga Norte and the upstarts, who may need each other more than either might be willing to admit.

BENCOMO: "MEXICAN LEAGUE CONDEMNED TO STOP IN 2020"

One of Mexico's most-respected baseball writers, Hitazo.com editor Hector Bencomo, wrote a May 18 column urging the Mexican League to shut down for the current year in order to avoid steep financial losses while regrouping to come back stronger in 2021. Here is a Google Translate version of that column, with minimal translation from Googlese for grammatical clarity:

Every year, most teams in the Mexican Baseball League announce that they lost money by operating their ball clubs.

Perhaps the Sultanes, Tijuana and maybe Diablos could boast of having "won" a little in the last two seasons, but they are profits that are reinvested to continue giving baseball to their loyal fans.

Mexican teams depend on three main factors to stay afloat: advertising, box office and concessions (sale of beer, food, souvenirs).

On some occasions they have depended on the great fortunes of their owners, for whom spending on their team was like taking a cat's hair. But those times seem to be over.

With the Covid 19 pandemic, the national (and world) economy has plummeted and many companies have closed, many people have lost their jobs, and business sales have fallen, so advertising has started to drop out of the screens, radio, newspapers, etc.

Without advertising and with the only option to start a mini season with empty stadiums, what is the point of playing the 2020 season of the LMB?

For the record, I am not being insensitive, but realistic.

I am sure that all the LMB executives want to carry out the campaign and I applaud them. But given the country's conditions, which businessman wants to go and throw millions of pesos in the trash right now?

Closing the offices and thinking of returning stronger in 2021 would be the healthiest thing for Mexican summer baseball. It is true, the big losers are baseball players, stadium workers, chroniclers and all the businesses that depend on baseball activity, such as vendors of bats, balls, uniforms, etc.

Journalist David Medrano published last May 8 in the newspaper Récord that Mexican soccer would lose 2.5 billion pesos (US$108.7 million) if its 2020 season does not end. But it will lose 800 million (US$34.8 million) when playing without people in the seats. Can you imagine how much money a packed house generates at Estadio Universitario to watch the Liga MX Tigres play?

Soccer is a much better business than baseball in Mexico, so that's why it's in their best interest to lose money now to try to get it back in the next tournaments.

Hitazo.com editor Hector Bencomo

In Mexican baseball the figures are not so abundant but in the same way, it will hurt the owners to lose up to 20 million pesos (US$869,000) in an adventure that they do not even know how it will end because if a new outbreak comes or the players catch it, things are going to get worse when they are all back on the field and have to stop again.

And not to think that the government will provide money to save the season...it would be foolish now that attention should focus on the health sector, where there are still deficiencies.

And that is the panorama that we see from here to August or September. In Nuevo León, they expect the peak of infected for mid-June. Massive events in many states will be banned for months, leaving little room for the LMB to even aspire to start its season.

If you rush me a little, the Mexican Pacific League will have to take out the calculator because perhaps in October there will also be no permits for the public to attend massive events.

They will also be subject to the parity of the dollar against the peso, which would make them think of a season with fewer foreigners or to outright play with pure Mexican talent, something that would put Guasave and Monterrey on the ropes, teams that just arrived in the league who have not solidified their national base.

This being the case, the LMB may do better to follow the wise advice to "stay home" and return to 2021 with more force than ever. Remember that I am telling you this first of all, much to my regret.

What do you think?

hbencomo@hotmail.com

#hitazo #hectorbencomo

WILL PROBEIS TAKE OVER ACADEMY FROM LIGA?

A game at El Carmen Baseball Academy

According to Hector Bencomo of the Hitazo website, a proposal has been made to the organization charged by Mexican president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador with building baseball interest and participation throughout the country, asking that organization (known by the acronym Probeis) to take the reins of the Mexican League's academy in El Carmen, Nuevo Laredo (near Monterrey) from the LMB.

Bencomo reports that rumors of the academy's "disappearance" have grown stronger since the last LMB Assembly of Presidents Meeting. The facility was the brainchild of Mexico City Tigres owner Alejo Peralta, Mexico City Diablos Rojos team president Roberto Mansur and Mexican League president Petro Treto Cisneros and inaugurated on March 25, 1996. 

Since then literally thousands of homegrown prospects have lived in the dormitories and played on the academy's diamonds, many of whom moved on to long careers in Major League Baseball or the Mexican League, including current Houston Astros closer Roberto Osuna, longtime MLB reliever Joakim Soria, Monterrey infielder Ramiro Pena (who spent time in both MLB and Japan), Diablos Rojos slugger Japhet Amador and shortstop Heber Gomez, who parlayed his academy stint that first year into a 22-year Liga career, mostly with Monterrey.

Prospects eating in Academy dining room

The Mexican League's 16 franchises have traditionally shared the costs of housing and development of academy prospects, typically with eight teams supplied with players from two LMB teams each playing a spring schedule after months of on-site training. Since the fine print in a new agreement between MLB and the Liga agreed to last year all but ended the past practice of big league organizations compensating LMB teams for the rights to young players, the expense of keeping the academy operational has become too burdensome on cash-strapped Liga clubs with little to no prospect of recouping some of those costs through player sales. Annual expenses are between 8 to 12 million pesos (US$400,000-US$600,000) per LMB franchise, bearable for wealthier organizations like Mexico City or Monterrey but a real burden for the likes of Aguascalientes and Campeche.

A team of Tijuana prospects ran away with last year's Academy League title, sporting a 42-16 record to finish 8.5 games ahead of a squad of teenagers owned by Monclova and Saltillo. Unsurprisingly, two top Liga Academia players to emerge were both Toros property: Jared Serna hit .367 with seven homers and 52 RBIs in 52 games while pitcher Victor Sepulveda went 5-1 over seven starts (saving two more games) with a 2.31 ERA and 54 strikeouts in 39 innings pitched).

Near futures talking with distant futures

What happens now is anyone's guess. Bencomo says sources have told him a formal proposal has been made to former MLB and NPB infielder Edgar Gonzalez, now director of Probeis, asking that the AMLO-created agency take over operation of the academy. In return for expenses related to housing, feeding and developing top young Mexican ballplayers, Probeis would have the authority to sell them to MLB organizations and keep the proceeds. Whether the same conditions preventing LMB teams from selling players with less than one year on a Liga roster would apply to Probeis because they were not a party to the agreement is a legal grey area that would have to be addressed.

Bencomo says another suggestion was that Probeis broker a deal in which MLB itself takes over the El Carmen facility, which includes four baseball fields with adjacent batting cages and practice pitcher's mounds, a 79-room dormitory for players and coaches, a kitchen and dining room, separate housing for umpires (who also train for future LMB work), two meeting rooms, an administrative offices and a guardhouse at the entry.

The LMB is hoping for a response from Probeis by no later than the April 6 Liga regular season opener. A later answer would likely mean a delay in reporting to El Carmen by young players for this year's session.

MLB, UNION TO ALLOW SOME 40-MAN ROSTER PLAYERS IN OLYMPICS

The World Baseball and Softball Confederation (WBSC) has reached an agreement with Major League Baseball and its players union allowing players on MLB 40-man rosters to participate in this summer's Olympic Games in Tokyo. Previously, nobody on a 40-man roster was eligible for Olympic baseball but the new deal allows such players to take part as long as they are not on their big league team's 26-man active roster. The change means up to 420 more players belonging to an MLB organization will be eligible to play in Japan this July and August.

After an absence of twelve years from Olympic competition (South Korea beat out seven other national teams to win the 2008 gold medal in Beijing), baseball is returning as a demonstration sport with six teams competing. Japan is an automatic entrant as host nation

Fukushima's Azuma Stadium

and will be joined by Mexico, South Korea, Israel and two undetermined teams in Yokohama Stadium and Azuma Stadium in Fukushima. 

Mexico will make its first-ever Olympic appearance after qualifying as the highest-finishing Americas team in last winter's Premier12 tournament, South Korea was the highest-placed Asian team not named Japan in the same competition and Israel was the surprise winner of last fall's Africa/Europe qualifying tournament. The final two teams will be determined at an Americas qualifier tourney in Arizona later this month and a Final qualifier in Taiwan in June. Both events will feature teams that didn't make it past either the Premier12 or Africa/Aurope tournaments last year.

Of course, the breakout of the coronavirus has put many public events either on hold, in doubt or on the cancellation list because of public health concerns. Since the virus first appeared in Wuhan, China and has begun to spread across borders, NPB exhibition games in Japan have been held virtually behind closed doors. The New York Times reports the

Mexico celebrates Olympics-clinching win

World Health Organization held a discussion with doctors from various sports federations recently about continuing the policy during the Olympics as a precautionary measure.

If Olympic baseball is played with or without fans, the El Fildeo website claims a preliminary 24-man Mexican team roster has been discovered. Without attributing a source, El Fildeo says the following is the so-called "shortlist" of 24 eligible players targeted to play for the Verdes Grande this summer (with two more players allowed for Tokyo):

PITCHERS (11): Manny Barreda (Tijuana), Brennan Bernardino (Tijuana), Jordan Guerrero (Tijuana), Carlos Hernandez (Tijuana), Kyle Lobstein (Tijuana), Vidal Nuno (Tijuana), Juan Pablo Oramas (Tabasco), Jose Samayoa (Tijuana), Gerardo Sanchez (Tijuana), Teddy Stankiewic (Tijuana), Edgar Torres (Durango).

CATCHERS (2): Xorge Carrillo (Tijuana), Gabriel Gutierrez (Tijuana).

INFIELDERS (6): Japhet Amador (Mexico City), Daniel Castro (Tijuana), Luis Alfonso Cruz (Tijuana), Philip Evans (Pittsburgh), David Jack Mayfield (Houston), Isaac Rodriguez (Tijuana).

OUTFIELDERS (5): Carlos Figueroa (Mexico City), Fabricio Macias (Pittsburgh), Efren Navarro (Tijuana), Juan Perez (Saltillo), Nick Torres (Tijuana).

Nothing against any of the players listed above, who are no doubt good ballplayers and fine fellows one and all, but the presence of nine pitchers and seven position players from Tijuana on this 24-man roster makes it dubious at best.

PROCESO'S PEREYRA TALKS WITH LMB PRESIDENT DE LA VEGA

New LMB leader Horacio de la Vega

One of Mexico's best sportswriters, Beatriz Pereyra of Proceso, recently sat down with new Mexican League president Horacio de la Vega and talked about some of the problems he inherited when he was hired by the LMB last November to replace Javier Salinas.

It's a very long read (the original is posted at www.proceso.com.mx) so BBM is posting excerpts with as little editing as possible, but the issues discussed are vital as the Mexican League approaches its 96th season of operation with a myriad of issues that De La Vega and the Liga's 16 owners will face in 2020:

Horacio de la Vega will begin his tenure as president of the Mexican Baseball League (LMB) with empty coffers, which means that the owners of the 16 clubs will once again have to solve - temporarily at least - the operating expenses while signing trade agreements that allow for the consolidation of finances.

In addition to payroll, the owners of the teams will be responsible again for the payment of baseballs with which the 2020 season will be played, the operating expenses of the Academy of El Carmen, and the air tickets, lodging and travel expenses of the umpires.

In a January interview, De la Vega explains that he had no room to operate because his appointment was at the end of the year (last November 26), when there was no time to manage sponsorships.

“We have guaranteed the operation of the LMB the first three months of the year. We have no risk of stopping but we definitely have to look for trade agreements soon. I trust that we will not stop operating because I have other types of agreements that are not sponsorships to get resources and free the teams from those expenses,” he says. “Javier Salinas did a great job in the commercial end because the LMB for years generated nothing. He started very well, had ups and downs, but failed to make commercial projects that integrated with those of the teams. That did not allow for growth.”

De la Vega says that in the desire for clubs to stop making economic contributions and the LMB to become self-sustaining, former president Salinas took away the commercial assets from the teams and was in charge of selling them to raise that money. This means that, for example, in a baseball stadium there are spaces that can be marketed, such as the mound. Before Salinas was president, each team sold those spaces.

“When you take away the commercial assets, you harm them,” said de la Vega. “On the other hand, if you do not do so, then the LMB does not have to sell and they have to contribute the money to operate the league.

New sponsorship opportunities are sought

“The question is how do we make it so that the clubs do not continue financing the LMB, it is strengthened, collects more money and can be self-sufficient. Right now there are few commercial assets. If the LMB had five spaces per team, the dugout or the mound in the fences, I would have more to sell. Right now I can't do it.”

One of the most urgent issues to address is the famous clause of the agreement for the sale of Mexican baseball players that the MLB office signed in March 2019, with the LMB teams receiving an additional bonus equivalent at 35% of the amount each player will receive. The objective of that percentage was to financially compensate the clubs that invested in the development of the prospects, but Clause III.C contravenes the nature of the agreement and, because of its deceptive wording, refuses to hand over compensation to Mexican teams. The signing of this agreement, among other factors, triggered the departure of Salinas as president.

“I do not rule out making a renegotiation specifically of that clause so as not to have to give away to our players,” states de la Vega. “The agreement is in force for this year and we must comply with it, but I don't see it as a one hundred percent loss. I will travel to New York (headquarters of the MLB office) to make a proposal. The position of club owners is that you have to unlock this,” he says.

Horacio de la Vega details that he wants to improve that agreement because there is a legitimate interest to continue exporting players to the majors. However, that cannot undermine the finances of the teams. He says he intends to reach a broader agreement that allows more regular season games to be held in Mexico and for the fan base to grow.

The president of the LMB was asked whether in this scheme the only winner is the Big Leagues, a business that generates around 10 billion dollars annually, and that has no interest in helping the development of Mexican baseball or in growing the LMB, but it is obvious that there can be no distancing or conflict with such a powerful entity?

"I agree,” de la Vega replied. “The autonomy of the Mexican League must be protected. You're right: Here there are no options of where to sell players, the most viable is the MLB. It is monopolistic. The strategy cannot be such a negotiation. You have to understand that they are a business and have their interests. The LMB wants more Mexicans in the majors.”

It is abusive that there is a clause that goes against the payment of a percentage for the clubs that develop the players. Should we make MLB see what they are doing?

“Totally. You have to face it like this. It is not a subject of interpretation of the clause. The international players' signature is a business for them. Period.

“We cannot fight with a giant of that size. That is why the negotiation will be interesting. We aim to sell, not to give players away. We are in a position of openness and understanding.”

If you fail to cancel that current agreement, and MLB offers to pay less than 35%, as they did at the beginning, would you accept it?

“When you have nothing, to rescue something is a breakthrough. That contract has a direct impact on the teams and that cannot happen again.”

De la Vega seeks more fans in the stands

The most important project that de la Vega says he will promote will be to standardize the production of baseball games, in order to sell them to all those interested in transmitting them, insisting that it is essential to improve the lighting in the stadiums. All parks must have the same light intensity. In addition, he will generate a production notebook that clubs must agree on together, such as how many cameras there should be, where they should be placed and what angles or shots they should cover.

“I am very clear that it is urgent to achieve the standardization of production,” de la Vega insists. “If we don't have a homogeneous product, I can't sell it.”

How can it be achieved if not all teams have money to invest in that facet?

“It is part of my job to see how to get public resources.  Most of the stadiums are owned by state or private governments with local or foreign entities. I have to generate that system.

“I am not convinced to sell it to a single television station. I am skeptical of that. I prefer a model with many outputs for content distribution. You will remember that last year Facebook had a contract (the social network paid 500 thousand dollars and not the 2 million dollars that were announced), made its selection of games and stayed with the best. That type of system must be changed. I don't know, give Facebook one day and that day only they broadcast. ”

Can you confirm that 2020 will see continued transmissions on Facebook?

“The contract is not signed yet, but we are very advanced. This year will be trial and error. There are also Twitter, Twitch and other social networks. We are going to analyze what suits the league in economic terms, scope and penetration.

“We must also insist that people go to the stadiums and have the best experience. We have to turn out children and young people, because we are interested in them being fans of the LMB clubs. We have to provoke that. How do we do it? By massing baseball with the children in the schools. One strategy is the world championships that we will have in Mexico this year, one of them is Baseball 5, and baseball being promoted in schools.”

The president of the league sets out the example of skateboarding as an Olympic sport: “I would never have imagined seeing skateboarding as an official sport in the Olympic Games, but I understand that it is a youth sport, which is very attractive for television coverage and there are a lot of people who consume that product.

“You have to turn into that or you die.”

ACEREROS HANG TOUGH DESPITE LOSS OF ACE LOWEY

Monclova ace P Josh Lowey is done for the year

It's never good for a team to lose a pitcher many consider the best in their league, especially during a season in which batters are having a field day against most hurlers in the circuit, but that's the slice of reality that's been handed to the Monclova Acereros, who lost ace Josh Lowey to a knee injury during a May 24 game at Campeche.  Lowey's injury ended his season and has left Mere scrambling to fill an unfillable void ever since.

A 34-year-old right-hander, Lowey was cruising along after five innings in his last start, holding Campeche scoreless on one hit (an Oscar Williams single) while striking out six Piratas, whiffing the side on ten pitches in the second.  However, in the bottom of the sixth, he injured his knee after throwing one pitch to leadoff hitter Jose Guadalupe Chavez, who popped out to third baseman Rodolfo Amador.  According to the Piratas' website, Lowey had run over to the third base line to field the pop-up and nearly collided with Amador, catching his spikes on the grass and wrenching his knee in the process.  Wilmer Rios relieved the Floridian and although the Acereros went on to win, 8-2, raising Lowey's season record to 8-0 while lowering his ERA from 4.34 to 3.91, it couldn't have been a celebratory clubhouse afterward.

So how DOES one replace a two-time LMB Pitcher of the Year and three-time strikeout champion who'd gone 63-24 with a 3.04 ERA over 112 starts since joining the Acereros in 2014, whiffing 710 batsmen over 693.1 frames?  So far, Mere hasn't found an answer.  A Monday travel day after Lowey's Friday injury allowed the Monclova skipper to buy a little time but subsequent attempts to fill the slot have met with mixed success.

Former MLBer Darin Downs was brought in, gave up five runs without escaping the first inning in a June 7 home loss to Monterrey, and was released three days later.  Reliever Geno Encina has had three starts since Lowey went down and although the 2017 Midwest League All-Star (while pitching in the Jays system) has won two of them, he hasn't been particularly impressive.  Another reliever, ex-Rangers farmhand Adan Quintana, earned a June 12 win at Dos Laredos by allowing two runs in five innings but Mere returned him to his set-up role.  Former Brewers and Royals minor leaguer Jon Perrin arrived June 25 and was rocked one night later in Oaxaca for five runs in 5.1 innings of an 8-5 Monclova win, so his status is tenuous.  No word on whether Mere or Acereros owner Gerardo Benavides have contacted Lowey's twin brother Jason, who spent eight seasons bouncing between the Braves' system and indy leagues as a reliever before throwing his last pitch in anger five years ago.

Monclova 1B Chris Carter

Although the remaining Acereros staff (including starters Danny Rodriguez, Romario Gil, Andre Rienzo and Jaime Lugo) has been cuffed around a bit, showing a collective 5.08 ERA without Lowey, the team has continued winning.  Mere has had the good fortune of penciling in lineup cards for a team standing second the league in hitting (.322) with 115 homers while averaging nearly eight runs per game.  Monclova is 44-25 for the regular season and sits two games behind Tijuana in third place for the second half lead in the LMB North at 5-4.  Reigning MVP Francisco Peguero is fifth in the loop at .382 with 16 homers and 65 RBIs while Amador has 13 homers and 70 ribbies to augment a .336 average, but it's been former National League home run champ Chris Carter who's caused the most fear among Liga pitchers.

In his first season south of the border, Carter homered against Puebls Sunday to raise his season total to LMB-best 31 for the season and put him on track to belt 54 longballs over the 120-game schedule.  The Mexican League record for homers in a single season is 54 by the late Jack Pierce for Leon in 1986.  Pierce retired the following year but he had married a Mexican and remained in the country as a coach and scout until his 2012 death from a pulmonary embolism in Monterrey at age 63.  Carter is also batting .321 with a league-best 74 RBIs.  The 2005 White Sox' 15th-round draft pick appears to have gotten his groove back following a 2018 season that saw him struggle at the AAA level in the States after his release from the Yankees a year earlier.  Carter is also leading the LMB with 88 strikeouts.


MENESES SUSPENDED ONE YEAR FOR ALLEGED PED USE IN JAPAN

Orix OF Joey Meneses must sit for one year

For a second year in a row, a Mexican-born slugger playing in Japan has been suspended after failing a drug test, but this time the suspension has been doubled.

Last year, designated hitter Japhet Amador (now with the Mexico City Diablos Rojos) was suspended for six months after testing positive for chlorthalidone and furosemide while playing for the Rakuten Golden Eagles.  This time, according to the SeptimaEntrada.com website, it's Culiacan native Joey Meneses getting the order to sit down for one year after testing positive for stanozolol, a substance considered to be an anabolic steroid by the World Anti-Doping Agency.  Based in Montreal, WADA was formed in 1999 by the International Olympic Committee in response to past substance abuse by Olympic athletes and has since been given authority by over 600 sports organizations to monitor drug use among athletes.

Meneses, in his first year overseas with the Orix Buffaloes, first tested positive for stanozolol on April 9 after belting a homer in a 3-1 home win over Rakuten in Osaka, just eight games into the current regular season.  SeptimaEntrada.com reports that after the initial test result, a second test on Meneses was carried out May 27 that reportedly confirmed the first finding.  The suspension was handed down last Friday by Nippon Professional Baseball and the Buffaloes have asked for authorization to cancel the remainder of Meneses' one-year contract, estimated to be worth 100 million yen (or about US$925,000).  The team says the 27-year-old has violated terms of the contract and NPB has given the go-ahead to move forward with their claim.

Meneses as a National Team member

A first baseman and outfielder, Meneses signed a free agent contract with Atlanta as a 19-year-old in 2011.  He went on to spend seven seasons in the Braves' system, earning All-Star mention in the AA Southern League in 2017 before signing with Philadelphia as a free agent following the season.  Last year with the Phils' Lehigh Valley affiliate, he was both Rookie of the Year and Most Valuable Player of the AAA International League after batting .311 with 23 homers and 82 RBIs to lead the IronPigs to the playoffs, where they lost in the semifinals to the Yankees' Scranton/Wilkes-Barre affiliate.

Meneses signed with Orix in late October.  Hopes in Osaka were that the 6'3" 220-pounder would add power to the middle of the Buffaloes order.  Instead, Meneses (now 27) struggled out the gate and was batting .206 with four homers and 14 RBIs in 29 games when his suspension was handed down.

It is not known whether Meneses will eventually appeal either the suspension or a contract revocation.  Last year, Amador appealed his suspension with tepid support from the Eagles front office and lost.  The Mexican League chose to honor the NPB ban and Amador was barred from playing last Fall for Mexico City, who owns his LMB rights.  The Mexican Pacific League allowed him to perform last winter and he hit .283 with six homers in 27 games for Jalisco.  The 32-year-old, listed conservatively at 310 pounds, is currently batting .312 along with 13 homers and 55 RBI with the Diablos.


MLB NOT PAYING 35% MEXICAN PROSPECT COMMISSIONS

Academia de Alfredo Harp Helu in Oaxaca

Earlier announcements that Major League Baseball franchises would give 100 percent of signing bonuses to Mexican prospects, with 35 percent of bonus amounts earmarked for the Mexican League franchise holding the youngster's domestic rights, appear to be inaccurate.  Editor Hector Bencomo of the Hitazo.com website says that while technically the 35 percent commission remains intact, certain conditions in the agreement between MLB and the LMB contain elements that will make collecting commissions difficult to impossible.

According to Bencomo, LMB owners meeting during All-Star Weekend in Mexico City earlier this month learned the agreement includes provisos that the prospect in question must A) be 16 years old, B) has lived at least two years in Mexico and C) has one year of experience in the Mexican League.  While the first two conditions are not generally hard for Liga teams to work with, the third has been a sticking point with a number of signings occurring after the pact was signed in March.  Most of the prospects had been playing at either the LMB academy near Monterrey or one of the smaller academies operated by individual Mexican League teams such as Tijuana, Monclova and Mexico City.  The Liga reportedly sought to have the terms of the agreement changed but MLB responded that the deal will remain intact over its two-year life.

While Mexican League teams once held all the cards when selling prospects to Major League organizations, most (if not all) stand to receive nothing when prospects without LMB experience sign with big league teams.  Bencomo says the result will be losses in the millions (of pesos) for Liga teams who historically have depended on selling prospects to MLB teams and likely put a brake on domestic development of talent south of the border, adding that he believes it's the fault of those who negotiated the contract with MLB for not paying attention to the fine print.

Game at LMB Academia near Monterrey

LMB teams are not obligated to sell prospects to MLB teams, Bencomo says, and one potential response would be to register their top prospects on their rosters for one year (whether they actually take the field in a Liga game or not) before selling them and collecting the commission.  Bencomo warns that such an approach could be seen by parents of prospects as taking money out of their son's pockets, which could yield disastrous long-term results for Mexican teams.

Prior to March's agreement, Major League Baseball had prohibited teams from signing Mexican prospects for nearly a year due to "bad or dubious practices" among LMB teams who owned their rights.