“JUGAR A LA PELOTA!” LIGA OPENS 2021 SEASON

Monclova Acereros P Bartolo Colon

    The Mexican League played its first regular games since September 2019 over the weekend, starting last Thursday night when defending champion Monclova bopped visiting Monterrey, 9-3, behind the arm of Bartolo Colon and the bats of Erick Aybar and Chris Carter. Colon, the American League's 2005 Cy Young Award winner, tossed five innings for the Acereros, throwing 91 pitches (57 for strikes) while giving up one earned run on five hits before being replaced by Zach Phillips in the sixth frame.

    Despite allowing a solo homer by Sultanes centerfielder Jose Cardona to lead off the top of the third, Colon (who turns 48 on Monday) pitched well enough to earn the win in the first game of the 2021 LMB season. After the contest the 21-year MLB veteran said, “The hills are old but they still turn green.” Aybar aided the Monclova cause with three hits and an RBI while Carter (who led the Liga with 49 homers in 2019) socked a solo blast.

Tabasco OF Jovan Rosa

    The rest of the LMB swung into action Friday with a full slate of games. One of them, the Dos Laredos Tecolotes opening series against Tijuana had to be shifted from Nuevo Laredo's La Junta Park across the border to Texas' Laredo Ballpark after a rainstorm with winds topping 90 MPH swept through the Mexican border city last Monday, causing flooding and electrical problems. The Toros ended up winning Friday night's opener, 8-3, behind homers by Peter O'Brien and Leandro Castro while Balbino Fuenmayor launched a roundtripper for the Tecos.

    Among Friday's other LMB lid-lifters, Adrian Gonzalez drove in five runs as the expansion Guadalajara Mariachis topped the Durango Generales, 12-3; Roberto Osuna tossed a 1-2-3 ninth inning to seal the Mexico City Diablos' 8-4 triumph over visiting Veracruz at Estadio Alfredo Harp Helu; Henry Urrutia went 4-for-5, driving in two runs and scoring twice as Saltillo overwhelmed Aguascalientes, 10-2; Michael Choice collected four hits and two runs as every Laguna batsman had at least one hit in the Algodoneros' 15-7 triumph over Leon in Torreon; Puebla clobbered Oaxaca, 16-9, as David Olmedo-Barrera and Danny Ortiz combined for six RBIs as the Pericos posted 19 hits on the night; and Tabasco slipped past Quintana Roo, 2-1, in 12 innings at Villahermosa on Jovan Rosa's walkoff RBI single. The entire Campeche-Yucatan series in Campeche was rained out.

    Following Sunday's games, four LMB North teams ended the weekend without a loss. Monclova, Guadalajara and Laguna are all 3-0 as of Monday morning while Tijuana is 2-0. Conversely, Monterrey, Durango and Leon show 0-3 records and Dos Laredos is 0-2.

LMB LAUNCHES JONRON TV, EXPECTS UP TO 10K SUBSCRIBERS

    The Mexican League unveiled another facet of their expanded digital presence for the 2021 season last week when they unveiled their new Jonron TV, from which subscriptions to view LMB games this year are now available. Proceso's Beatriz Pereyra filed this translated report:

    The Mexican League announced the implementation of its channel for subscribers from the season which will allow it to generate revenues of between 50 million and 100 million pesos during the next three years.

    At a press conference, the president of the LMB, Horacio de la Vega, presented Jonrón TV, a platform to which fans will be able to subscribe for 449 pesos (with a discount) and a 549 pesos regular price per season.

    According to their estimates for the 2021 campaign, they expect between 5,000 and 10,000 people to subscribe, a figure that by 2024 should increase substantially.

    “Other platforms have between 50 thousand and 100 thousand subscribers. Our goal is that in three years we'll have between 50 and 100 million pesos of profits. There is a free pre-registration on Jonrón TV for people to experience,” de la Vega explained.

    Likewise, de la Vega said that the names of two other television channels where LMB games will be broadcast will be announced shortly, and that they will join ESPN, Channel 11, Multimedios and Azteca Digital: “On all these platforms we will reach more than 32 million homes on open television and another 20 million on pay television models where the 594 games of the regular season plus the playoffs can be seen.

   “We are going to have four or five times more income from the sale of television rights than in 2019 and since the agreements we signed are for more than three years for the most part, almost all of them have an increasing scale so that they are more productive until reaching 40% more than what we generate right now,” he explained.

    According to LMB figures, in 2019, five million people attended LMB games at a baseball stadium and the league has 4.9 million followers on social media.

    “We will reach more than 30 million people on the different platforms. If you don't see baseball, we are not going to grow in fans. We have to position our stars and carry out a very powerful marketing project,” emphasized de la Vega.

    For his part, the director of Marketing and Communications of the LMB, Alberto Guadarrama, asserted that the league's project is aimed at “offering baseball both to traditional audiences and to new generations who have different forms of consumption such as more short videos (highlights) and thus hook these new baseball fans.”

LIDDI DEALT TO MEXICALI IN SIX-PLAYER LMP SWAP

Former Mazatlan IF Alex Liddi

   Former MLB infielder Alex Liddi has been sent by the Mazatlan Venados to Mexicali as part of a six-player Mexican Pacific League trade last week. Relief pitcher Felipe Arredondo and first baseman Fernando Diaz were packaged with Liddi to the Aguilas while infielders Hector Hernandez and Alex Valdez went to Mazatlan along with pitcher Juan Pablo Tellez. The 6'4” Liddi (who turns 33 in August) played parts of three seasons for Seattle between 2011 and 2013, batting .208 with six homers and 16 RBIs over 61 MLB games after debuting in the Mariners organization as a 17-year-old in 2006.

    Liddi was traded to Baltimore during the 2013 season, starting an eight-year odyssey that saw the native of San Remo, Italy play in four big league minor league systems, Taiwan, Mexico and winterball stints in both the LMP and Puerto Rico. Liddi spent two seasons with Mazatlan, struggling to a .187 average over 39 games with the Venados in 2019-20 after batting .278 with four homers in 63 games the previous season. Last winter, he hit .242 with one homer over 17 games with Manati in Puerto Rico. The only native Italian to play in both MLB and the CPBL, Liddi will play this summer with the Mexican League's Yucatan Leones in Merida, where he now lives year-round.

    Arredondo, a 34-year-old righty, is a former Angels minor leaguer who has pitched in the Mexican League since 2011 (currently with Quintana Roo). He pitched briefly for his hometown Culiacan Tomateros in 2010-11 and has pitched for three LMP teams the past two winters. After going 2-0 with a 2.75 ERA for Jalisco last winter, he was traded to Mazatlan during the season and was 0-1 with a 13.50 ERA in two appearances. Diaz is a 19-year-old Ensenada product who hit .270 with six homers in 54 games for the Cardinals Dominican Summer League rookie team in 2019 before becoming one of the hundreds of victims of MLB's minor league purge last year.

Aguilas trade vet IF Hector Hernandez

     Hernandez is a longtime veteran infielder in both Mexican leagues. The 38-year-old Cosamaloapan product is capable of playing both left side positions as well as second base. He debuted in the LMB with Veracruz and played for Los Mochis that winter. He's gone on to play for nine LMB teams in 15 years, his last two for Yucatan in 2018 and 2019, and has a career .278 batting average over 1,234 games. In the Mex Pac, Hernandez appeared for three clubs in ten winters (the past five for Mexicali). As a utilityman for the Aguilas in 2020-21, he batted .268 in 83 plate appearances during 24 games.

    Valdez spent nine years in the Athletics organization and has also played with minor league teams in the Nationals and Red Sox systems. The Dominican corner infielder (who can also play second base) came to the Mexican League in 2011 and has hit .302 with 14 homers in eight seasons, splitting the 2019 campaign between Yucatan, Oaxaca and Mexico City. Valdez is a 13-year veteran of winterball, mostly in the Liga Dominicana. He hit .455 in seven games for the Aguilas 2019-20.

    Tellez is a 21-year-old right-hander who was a reliever in the 2019 Latin American Series for the old Xalapa Chileros and is now on the roster of the Mexican League's expansion Veracruz Aguilas.

CANEROS WIN 2ND HALF; LMP PLAYOFFS OPEN TUESDAY

Los Mochis manager Victor Bojorquez

The Mexican Pacific League's 2018-19 regular season came to an end Sunday and while the second-half standings were tight at the top, Los Mochis won at Mexicali, 8-3, on the final day to hold off both Obregon and Hermosillo by a game to finish in first place and pick up the eight playoff points that go with the first slot, giving them an overall total of 11 points.  Culiacan, Mazatlan and Jalisco have also qualified for the postseason as all six teams will open first round play Tuesday night.

The Caneros scored six runs in Sunday's first inning and cruised to victory as manager Victor Bojorquez' squad completed a remarkable turnaround after coming in last in the first round with a 15-20 record.  Los Mochis stumbled out the second-half gate under dugout boss Ramon Orantes, who was fired with the club at 3-6.  Bojorquez is currently the Mexico City Diablos Rojos helmsman who has managed pennant winners in both the Northern Mexico and Mexican Winter leagues.  He reversed the Caneros' fortunes and led them to an 18-6 mark the rest of the way and bypassed Hermosillo at the top over the final week of the schedule.  Los Mochis will be looking for their first MexPac pennant since 2002-03 (and fourth overall since the team began playing in 1947) and while playoffs are by nature unpredictable, the Caneros are the hottest team in the circuit right now and the reinforcement draft addition of Jaime Lugo and Josh Outman will make a good pitching staff even better.

Defending champion Culiacan won the first-half title by going 21-14 and while the Tomateros finished fifth in the second stanza at 17-16, the 4.5 points they earned gives them 12.5 points overall for the top playoff seeding.  Obregon and Hermosillo were tied for second with 12.0 points but the Yaquis earned the nod for second seed by posting a 37-29 record for the entire season, best in the LMP, while the Naranjeros clocked in at 37-31.  Los Mochis tied Mazatlan with 11.0 points but the Caneros' 36-32 season record was two games better than the Venados, good enough to give them the fourth playoff seed while Mazatlan (who stumbled after manager Joe Alvarez left the team in first place early in the second half and was replaced at the helm by Juan Jose Pacho) takes the fifth.  Jalisco had an unremarkable season in going 32-35 overall and finishing with 8.5 points, but that was good enough to earn the Charros the sixth and final playoff seed by a point over Navojoa and Mexicali.  The Mayos will miss the postseason after reaching the finals last winter while the Aguilas, just two years removed from winning their fourth pennant, had the worst record in the MexPac 26-40 and never really showed signs of life over the course of the season.  Mexicali went through three managers over the eleven-week season (Felix Fermin currently holds that title) and one can expect major changes with the border team during the offseason.

The first round will open with three games Tuesday as Jalisco visits Culiacan, Mazatlan travels to Obregon and Los Mochis will play in Hermosillo.  Game Two will feature those matchups and venues Wednesday before a Thursday travel day precedes weekend action in Guadalajara, Mazatlan and Los Mochis.  As usual, the three series winners will move on to the semifinals along with the "lucky loser" team that wins the most first-round games in a losing effort.


LEYVA WINS PITCHING TRIPLE CROWN; PEGUERO COPS BATTING TITLE

Jalisco's Triple Crown pitcher Elian Leyva

He had to toss one inning on the regular season's final day and record a strikeout to do it, but Jalisco's Elian Leyva earned the Mexican Pacific League's pitching triple crown by either leading or tying for the lead in wins, strikeouts and ERA while registering the lowest WHIP in the circuit to boot.  But it didn't come easily.

The Cuban-born righty was held out to rest for the playoffs following a masterful December 22 performance in Culiacan (6.1IP, 1H, 0R, 10K), but after Mexicali's David Reyes struck out seven Obregon batters last Thursday to pass Leyva in whiffs, 67 to 66, Charros manager Roberto Vizcarra sent Leyva out to the mound against Mazatlan Sunday in Guadalajara.  Leyva struck out Venados leadoff hitter Justin Greene, whose two-strike foul tip was Jalisco's veteran catcher Erick Rodriguez to complete the K and match Reyes' total.  Leyva labored through the rest of the scoreless frame, throwing just nine strikes in 19 pitches, and was taken out of a game eventually won by Mazatlan, 3-1, but the 11,805 fans in the Estadio Charros stands still witnessed MexPac history.

Besides tying Reyes for the LMP strikeouts title, Leyva (who has been a reliever in seven previous Cuban National Series seasons and last summer in the Atlanta Braves system) had a 6-2 record to tie four other pitchers for the league lead in wins.  Los Mochis had two of them, Andres Avila and Jonathan Castellanos, while Hermosillo's Dennis O'Grady and Konner Wade of Mazatlan also recorded six wins.  The 29-year-old Leyva completed the Triple Crown by turning in a 2.02 ERA, well ahead of Culiacan's Manny Barreda (2.65), while his WHIP of 1.08 led in that category.  The Havana native also topped the loop with 14 games started, tying Javier Solano of Mexicali.  About the only positive pitching stat Leyva didn't lead in was saves, where third-generation MLB pitcher Casey Coleman picked up 22 salvados for Hermosillo to break Jose Silva's old team record of 21.  Navojoa setup man Jose Isidro Marquez, son of the Mexican League's all-time saves leader Isidro Marquez, led the LMP with 15 holds.

Jasson Atondo signing in Douglas, Arizona

Among batters, Hermosillo third baseman Jasson Atondo underwent a late-season cooldown during which he hit just .231 over his last ten games to just miss winning the batting title with a .351 average as teammate Francisco Peguero went 2-for-3 against Navojoa Sunday to sneak past Atondo for the batting title by finishing at .352. Peguero, who was the Mexican League's Fall MVP with Monclova, will play in Japan in 2019.  Although the 23-year-old Atondo has been a reserve infielder for four years with the LMB's Campeche Piratas, he had never made more than 53 plate appearances in any of three previous winters with the Naranjeros, technically making him a rookie in the MexPac.  Jalisco infielder Dariel Alvarez (a former Baltimore Oriole) hit four homers in a six-game stretch for the Charros to tie Navojoa's Jovan Rosa for the LMP longball title.  Alvarez also led with a .571 slugging percentage.  Yet another Charros player, Manny Rodriguez, was tops in RBIs with 52 in 66 games.  Rodriguez and Atondo tied for the league lead with 80 hits apiece.  Navojoa's Alonzo Harris led with 51 runs scored and swiped six bases in a nine-game stretch between December 19 and 28 to pull away with the steals title at 28, well ahead of the 20 by Culiacan outfielder Rico Noel.

Other offensive leaders included Mazatlan's Alex Liddi with 18 doubles while Venados teammate Edson Garcia whad four triples. Ramon Urias of Los Mochis led the tables with both a .432 on-base percentage and a .962 OPS percentage.


ROSA TAKEN FIRST BY CULIACAN IN REINFORCEMENT DRAFT

New Culiacan third baseman Jovan Rosa

Third baseman Jovan Rosa was the first player selected in the Mexican Pacific League reinforcement draft Sunday when the defending champion Culiacan Tomateros picked the LMP home run co-champion from the Navojoa Mayos, who were joined by the Mexicali Aguilas on the sidelines for January's playoffs.  Traditionally, teams still alive in the MexPac postseason choose two players from clubs who've been eliminated from contention after every playoff round.

The first three players taken Sunday were all plucked from the Mayos rosters.  Pitcher Jaime Lugo was the second selection by the Los Mochis Caneros while outfielder Alonzo Harris (the LMP runs and stolen bases leader) was taken by the Jalisco Charros with the third pick.  Two Mexicali players went next as relief pitcher Jake Sanchez went to the Hermosillo Naranjeros and second baseman Ramon Rios was selected by the Mazatlan Venados.  Navojoa first baseman Victor Mendoza's name was called by the Obregon Yaquis to round out the first round.

The Yaquis had the first pick of the second round as teams made their selections in reverse order, and Obregon took their second Mayos performer by calling for closer Jesus Pirela.  Mazatlan had the second pick of Round Two and took Mexicali outfielder Chris Roberson.  Aguilas middle reliever Michael Devine went to Hermosillo with the next selection, Mexicali catcher Xorge Carrillo was taken next by Jalisco, Los Mochis chose Navojoa pitcher Josh Outman and Culiacan rounded out the draft by selecting Mexicali starter David Reyes.

Two more reinforcement drafts will take place after the six-team first round and following the semifinals.  The LMP champion will have their pick of any player from the other seven teams to join them for the Caribbean Series, scheduled to take place in early February at Barquisimeto, Venezuela.