NEW STADIUM ON DRAWING BOARD FOR YUCATAN

      A new, privately-financed, solar-powered multipurpose stadium is being planned for Yucatan with a targeted opening of Spring in 2023. Estadio Sostenible (“Sustainable Stadium”) is projected to seat 23,000 for baseball's Yucatan Leones of the Mexican League and 27,000 for soccer's Yucatan Venados FC of the Liga Expansion MX, a new semipro circuit that hopes to open this fall as a replacement for the financally-plagued Liga Ascenco (which had been Mexico's second-tier soccer league until folding last winter). Concerts will hold 32,000 attendees. Stands will be portable to allow configurations for various events.

    The site of the state-of-the-art facility has not been determined, although the Merida area (which currently serves as home for both the Leones and Venados FC) is all but certain. A related announcement is expected by the end of 2020. Yucatan governor Maurico Vila Dosal presided over last Wednesday's press conference revealing the project and said, “We are creating a world-class project which will generate more than four thousand jobs during its construction phase. When it begins to operate, it will generate more than a thousand permanent jobs.”

   According to a Leones press release, Estadio Sostenible Yucatan will be “the best stadium in Mexico,” with a shopping center, hotel, restaurants and museum, all inspired by the Mayan culture. The estimated cost will be 2.2 billion pesos, or about US$104 million. The company reportedly making the investment will be New York-based Juego de Pelota, which was represented at the press conference by founder Cesar Octavio Esparza Portillo and operations director Jose Antonio Tellez.

    Leones co-owner Erick Arellano said, “This is great news for lovers of baseball and any sport, it is something we were looking for since we took command of the team, now we can be satisfied that Yucatan will have a stadium at the height of its fans. With this, we will seek to bring in Major League Baseball games since we will have one of the best stadiums in the world.”

   Although Merida is considered one of the LMB's most stable franchise sites, it wasn't always that way. The original Leones entered the Liga in 1954 and won their first pennant in 1957, but only lasted through 1958 before the team moved to Veracruz the next season. Yucatan's second Mexican League team lasted five seasons between 1970 and 1974 before that version of the Leones shifted west to Villahermosa in 1975 and became the Tabasco Olmecas. The current iteration of the Yucatan Leones returned in 1979 and have played continuously since, winning six LMB South championships and three Serie del Rey titles.

    The team's current home stadium, the 14,917-seat Parque Kukulcan, was opened in 1982 and is considered one of the nicest ballparks in the LMB as Yucatan annually ranks at or near the top in attendance. In 2019, the Leones drew 520,350 fans to 60 home games for an average of 8,673, ranking third in the Liga (and all minor league baseball) behind only Tijuana and Monterrey.

TWO PROSPECT LEAGUERS SIGN CONTRACTS WITH MLB TEAMS

New Padres prospect Jose Reyes

       Under the auspices of the federal ProBeis agency, the Prospect League is wrapping up its second short season in Guadalajara as a showcase tournament for many of the country's top young ballplayers. Participants are hoping the event, which is attended by scouts from most Major League organizations and several American colleges, leads to either a contract with an MLB or Mexican League team or a scholarship offer from north of the border. Two such players had their dreams realized last week.

    Team Cantu pitcher Jose Reyes, a Mexicali native in his second summer in the Prospect League, has signed a contract with the San Diego Padres. Reyes, who turned 18 last month, is a 6'2” righthander who tips the scales at 190 pounds and can reach 89-92 MPH on the radar gun and, according to MLB.com's Jesse Sanchez, also includes a slider and change in his repertoire.

    The AlBat.com website quotes Padres scout Emmanuel Rangel as saying about Reyes, “We've followed him for a long time and we like the way he works on the mound. His speed is very good, his breaking pitches have a very good rotation and we believe that with his discipline, he can go a long way.” Reyes, who has left Guadalajara to join his hometown Aguilas in training camp, says, “Another of my dreams is coming true. One of them was to belong to the Mexicali Aguilas and now I am fulfilled by belonging to a Major League organization.”

    The other Prospect Leaguer to ink a deal is Team Castro outfielder Alejandro “Alex” Osuna, brother of Houston Astros closer Roberto Osuna. The younger Osuna, a Los Mochis product, has come to terms with the Texas Rangers.

Rangers sign Alex Osuna

   Osuna ranked second among the Prospect League batting leaders this summer, his first in the loop, batting .467 with 13 RBIs over his first 12 games. Along with his twin brother Pedro, Alex signed with the LMB Monclova Acereros on February 7 of last year as part of older brother Roberto's 24^th birthday celebration. The winterball rights to all three Osunas are held by the Mex Pac's Jalisco Charros, who are hosting the Prospect League this year.

    Alex Osuna is no stranger to American baseball. The 5'9” 17-year-old has received a “9” grade from the Perfect Game organization, which rates young players from across the continent. His left arm is strong for an outfielder, with his throws clocked as high as 86 MPH. Not surprisingly, he's done some pitching. While not especially tall, Osuna has a compact build and is considered a very good line-drive batter with some power to right field.

    With two games remaining on the 15-game Prospect League schedule, Team Juan Gabriel Castro was running away with the regular season crown with a record of 9-4-0, well ahead of Team Jorge Cantu at 5-6-2. Team Joakim Soria (4-5-4) was in third while Team Oliver Perez was fourth at 3-6-4. A pair of three-game semifinal series will run Tuesday through Thursday this week, followed a three-game championship set Friday through Sunday.

RAMOS BREAKS KBO SEASON HOMER RECORD FOR MEXICANOS

   When LG Twins slugger Roberto Ramos crashed a home run against the Lotte Giants early last week, it was his 31st of the Korea Baseball Organization season, setting a single-year KBO record for Mexican-born players. The old record was held by former MLB outfielder Karim Garcia, who socked 30 roundtrippers for the same Lotte Giants in 2008.

    The Twins were trailing, 10-1, when Ramos stepped up to the plate in the top of the third inning on September 7 in Busan. Facing Giants starter Park See-Woong with a man on base, Ramos took one pitch for a ball before launching a Park delivery for a high-arcing drive over the wall in right-center field that landed on an exit to a tunnel for his record-breaking longball. The Twins ended up losing the contest, 12-6.

    After a red-hot start to his first season in Asia in which he was leading the KBO with 13 homers while sitting in third place in both batting average (.391) and runs batted in (31), Ramos missed a few games in June with back and ankle pain. While he's regained his home run stroke and his 70 RBIs lead the team, his average has dropped to .250 since returning to the Twins lineup. The team dropped a pair of games to the Samsung Lions over the weekend to fall to 59-45-3 for the season, but are still in a good position to earn a playoff berth in third place just three games behind the co-leading NC Dinos and Kiwoom Heroes.

    Born and raised in Hermosillo, the 25-year-old Ramos moved to San Fernando, California prior to his junior year of high school and hit .429 with 11 homers as a senior. Bypassed in the 2013 draft, he enrolled in College of the Canyons in nearby Santa Clarita and played one season of Juco ball, batting .317 with seven homers for the Cougars in 2014. That was enough for Colorado to draft Ramos in the 16^th round that June.

    The 6'3” first baseman-outfielder went on to spend six seasons in the Rockies system, batting .292 and belting 98 homers over 496 games. Ramos had a banner 2019 for AAA Albuquerque, hitting .309 with 30 homers and 105 RBIs in 127 contests, earning midseason PCL All-Star honors. Despite his impressive numbers and a lack of power at first base with the parent club, the Rockies traded his rights in January to the LG Twins, who then signed him to a reported one-year, $500,000 contract (according to South Korea's Yonhap News Agency).

    Ramos is one of three imports on the Twins roster, joining former Padres pitcher Casey Kelly and ex-Orioles hurler Tyler Wilson.

CITY OF MAZATLAN OKAYS 2021 SERIE DEL CARIBE

Estadio Teodoro Mariscal, Mazatlan

Several weeks after evicting the Mazatlan Venados from Estadio Teodoro Mariscal for violations of their lease, the City of Mazatlan has announced that the Mexican Pacific League team will be allowed to use the ballpark for the upcoming 2020-21 season, including hosting the 2021 Caribbean Series in early February.

The City physically escorted Venados front office employees out the stadium in early April, locking the facility up after it had been cleared out. The government claims the team had violated a number of conditions of their ballpark lease, including sponsorship of local basketball players and boxers and delivering Venados game tickets to senior citizens. The team was also asked to let the City use the ballpark to deliver services to seniors in relation to the Wuhan Virus outbreak, but refused the request.

The imbroglio led to concerns that the Caribbean Series would be moved out of Mazatlan if things were not resolved soon, with the Pan American Baseball Confederation (COPABE) giving the Mex Pac until the end of this month to broker a truce between the warring sides.

On Saturday, the Mazatlan City Council released this (translated) statement promising cooperation in allowing the Venados to return for the LMP season and that the Caribbean Series, which brings tourism money to host cities, may go ahead as planned:

The Municipal Government and Mayor Luis Benitez Torres express their commitment to guarantee all the facilities and the granting of permits for the 2020-2021 season of the Mexican Pacific League and the Caribbean Series 2021 at Estadio Teodoro Mariscal.

The City Council and the Mayor know the importance of sports culture and the economic and tourist impact that both baseball tournaments represent for the Mazatlan fans and for the municipality itself.

For this reason, this Government is open to communication with the company "Espectaculos Costa del Pacifico" and with the Caribbean Professional Baseball Confederation to reach agreements for the holding of the two sporting events here in Mazatlán.

The Municipal President expresses our will to grant the right to use, enjoy and enjoy the facilities of Estadio Teodoro Mariscal as well as any authorization for local activities, thereby guaranteeing that there is no impediment to holding such tournaments.

These measures are considered convenient for the benefit of society between the exploitation of a property in the public domain and the social, sports and tourist benefit of Mazatlecos.

Although the statement appears to give the go-ahead for business as usual at the ballpark, it's also notable for what it DOESN'T say. There is no mention of resumption of the lease between the Venados and the City, nor is anything said about a contract pulled by the City from team owner Jose Antonio Toledo that has allowed his family control of ballpark concessions since 1980 before purchasing the team 25 years later. While there does seem to be a truce, it promises to be an uneasy one.

Relations between the Venados and Mazatlan leaders soured quickly after Estadio Teodoro Mariscal reopened in October 2018 following a US$18 million renovation, when drinking water to the facility was shut off in the wake of a discovery that the team had created a clandestine drinking system there.


TOROS PLAN TO RE-OPEN CAMP JULY 15 IN OAXACA

Tijuana Toros to resume training next month

With an August 7 date tentatively set for finally beginning the 2020 Mexican League season, the Tijuana Toros were planning to re-open their training camp on July 15 in the southern state of Oaxaca. The Toros were training in Tempe, Arizona in mid-March when the LMB office ordered all 16 teams to close their camps and put the regular season on hold after the Wuhan virus appeared in Mexico and started claiming lives. As of last weekend, the number of confirmed cases of the Wuhan virus topped 139,000 nationwide, with over 16,000 deaths attributed to it (over 4,000 of them in Mexico City alone).

Toros sports director Oscar Romero, a former LMB pitcher whose son (Oscar Junior) is an 18-year-old third baseman in the Tijuana organization, said that Oaxaca was the most logical place for the team to spend three weeks prepping for the delayed season.

"This is more or less how the panorama is and all the teams are making the maximum effort so that we have the season with the necessary protocols," the elder Romero was quoted as saying on the El Fildeo website. "Our number one option is to train in the city of Oaxaca and it's for several reasons. The first is that they have the proper facilities there to do a good workout."

Besides being home to the Guerreros of the LMB, Oaxaca is also the site of a baseball academy owned and operated by Alfredo Harp Helu, who owns both the Guerreros and Mexico City Diablos Rojos. All three teams are expected to use the facility for training and warmup games until the regular season opens.

Tijuana is considered one of the preseason favorites to win the LMB North Division championship and a contender for copping the Serie de Rey. First-year manager Omar Vizquel will field a veteran outfit including everyday players like first baseman Ricky Alvarez, second baseman Isaac Rodriguez and outfielder Jesus "Cacao" Valdez with catching tandem Xorge Carrillo and Gabriel Gutierrez receiving pitches from Yoanys Quiala, Manny

Academia de Beisbol Alfredo Harp Helu, Oaxaca

Barreda, James Russell and closer Jake Sanchez.

Vizquel takes the reins in Tijuana from Oscar Robles, who managed the Toros to a 75-45 record in 2019 to tie Monclova for the LMB's best regular season record before falling to the Acereros in the LMB North Championship Series in seven games. Monclova went on to win their first pennant by beating Yucatan in the Serie del Rey. After a playing career likely to land him in Cooperstown as a sweet-fielding shortstop and timely batter, Vizquel managed two seasons in the Chicago White Sox system before parting ways with the Chisox after serving as dugout boss in AA Birmingham last year and is no doubt aware that Tijuana ownership will likely not accept anything short of the city's first pennant since 2017.

Meanwhile, Romero allows that the August 7 target for inaugural Liga games is a tentative one. "The first days of July are contemplated approximately to define whether or not there will be a 2020 season," he told El Fildeo, "and all this is conditioned on improving the difficult situation that we are going through with this pandemic."

KBO HOMER LEADER RAMOS SHELVED WITH ANKLE, BACK PAIN

Roberto Ramos raising eyes (and arms) in Korea

Hermosillo native Roberto Ramos' sensational debut season in the Korea Baseball Organization has been placed on hold after the LG Twins slugger was placed on the injured list last week with ankle and back problems. Ramos had played both games of a doubleheader on Thursday before the decision was made to sit him down for at least a three-game home series last weekend with the Busan Lotte Giants.

At the time he was shelved by the Seoul-based team last Friday, Ramos was leading the KBO with 13 homers while sitting in third place in both batting average (.391) and runs batted in (31). His .777 slugging percentage and 1.226 on-base plus slugging percentage both ranked second as Ramos was a prime reason the Twins were tied for second with the defending champion Doosan Bears in the standings at 21-12, four games behind the 25-8 NC Dinos.

"He had some discomfort in his right ankle after the double header, and he woke up this morning with a sore back," Twins manager Ryu Jong-Il said about Ramos in his pregame media availability Friday. "He took an injection in his back. We'll see how his recovery goes, but it looks like he won't be available this weekend." In Ramos' absence, the Twins called up first baseman Kim Ho-Eun from the minors. A 2016 sixth round draft pick, Kim made his KBO debut over the weekend.

Ramos going deep for LG Twins

The KBO has instituted a new procedure for injuries in 2020. Previously, whenever the league removed a player from their active roster due to an injury, they were required to sit for at least ten days before being reactivated. Now, there is no minimum number of days to remain out of the lineup, theoretically allowing a player placed on the IL on Friday night to sit one one game on Saturday before returning to the lineup Sunday afternoon.

Born in Hermosillo, the 25-year-old Ramos was a 2014 draft pick of the Colorado Rockies out of College of the Canyons in California. He spent six years in the Rockies farm system, socking 98 homers and batting .292 (including 30 longballs and 105 RBIs with a .309 average last season for AAA Albuquerque in the Pacific Coast League). Ramos signed a one-year free agent contract with the Twins in the offseason for $400,000 with a $50,000 signing bonus.

Ramos has played parts of six winterball seasons with his hometown Hermosillo Naranjeros, but without the same level of success that he's seen during the summer. Over 175 Mexican Pacific League games, he's hit .253 with 26 roundtrippers and 88 ribbies.

MEXICAN LEAGUE: AUGUST 7 OPENER, 12-TEAM PLAYOFF

Baseball to return to Uni-Trade Stadium, Laredo

The Mexican League announced last week that they will play a shortened season of 48 games per team beginning Friday, August 7, followed by a postseason in October and November that will include a record 12 teams. Unlike other leagues, LMB teams will not play behind closed doors.

The decision, which was unanimous among the LMB's 16 teams, was released by the Liga's Mexico City office last Thursday. After the August 8 openers, teams will play six games per week for eight weeks before concluding the regular season on Thursday, October 1. Games will be limited to teams within their respective eight-team divisions, meaning no LMB North teams will face their LMB South counterparts until the Serie del Rey. Since a 48-game schedule does not balance out among seven competitors, it may be assumed that each team will face one "rival" two extra series for a total of 12 games over four series, as opposed to six games over home-and-away series with the remaining divisional opponents. There will be no All-Star Game, which had originally been schedule for June 14 in Monclova.

The Mexican League playoffs will commence Saturday, October 3, two days after the regular season concludes with six of eight teams in each division being given a berth. The LMB has not announced a format for their postseason. There may be a possibility that the Liga could adopt the Mexican Pacific League's old "Lucky Loser" system, in which the first round loser with the most wins in their series advances to the second round along with the three winners. That system was discarded after several seasons by the LMP last winter after the loop expanded to ten teams with eight advancing to the playoffs. Another possibility is that the top two teams in each division earn a first-round bye with the remaining four teams playing for the two remaining slots in the division semifinals, but it's all speculation at this point.

Estadio Monterrey could be crowded in October

However the format turns out, the Serie del Rey is scheduled to begin on Monday, November 2, with Game Seven (if needed) slated for Tuesday, November 10 in what will be the latest season in LMB history. The Mexican Pacific League announced Saturday that if the LMB ends up canceling their season, which is still possible, they would go ahead with their planned season opener on Monday, October 13. If the LMB does play into November, however, the Mex Pac will delay their season opener several weeks for THEIR latest start ever. In announcing his league's options, LMP president Omar Canizales did not outline how their regular season and playoff schedules would be altered.

The situation could create an even tighter player crunch than had been anticipated due to the Wuhan virus. Concerns are that players in the United States might take the winter off instead of venture south of the border, where the virus is still very much a concern. A real scheduling logjam may occur in Monterrey, where the MLB Sultanes may still be playing in the postseason at the same time their LMP namesake begins their regular season, with only one ballpark between them.

The two leagues appear to be taking different courses as to whether they will play in empty ballparks. Canizales has said the Mex Pac is considering going that route in response to safety concerns, but the LMB announced they WILL open their stadia to fans. The latter decision is economically based, since many financially-struggling Liga teams are dependent on revenue from ticket sales, concessions, merchandise and ballpark display ads to survive because the LMB has no large media contracts to share among its member franchises. The league has developed a so-called "Diamond Plan," based on WBSC guidelines and administered by federal health authorities, to maximize safety among players, coaches, umpires and fans during games.

HERMOSILLO NATIVE RAMOS TEARING UP LOOP IN KBO DEBUT

Roberto Ramos is the talk of Korean baseball

After six years of slowly working his way up the ladder in the Colorado Rockies system, including a big season for Albuquerque during his AAA debut in 2019, Roberto Ramos is making the most of his first year playing ball in South Korea, where his bat has attracted more attention than usual due to the paucity of baseball outside Asia.

A 25-year-old native of Hermosillo, Sonora, Ramos has worn Korea Baseball Organization pitchers out to the tune of a .375 batting average with 10 homers and 21 RBIs over his first 23 games with the LG Twins of Seoul. He stroked two doubles and drawing a walk over four plate appearances in his May 5 KBO debut against their in-house rivals Doosan Bears (the two teams share the 25,553-seat Jamsil Stadium) to begin an eight-game-hitting streak. Ramos had a two-homer game May 10 against the NC Dinos and a walkoff grand slam May 24 to defeat the KT Wiz, drawing global attention as the KBO and Taiwan's Chinese Professional Baseball League are the only two circuits in the world currently playing regular season games. Through Sunday, Ramos led the KBO in homers by three longballs, was tied for fourth in RBIs and stood fourth in batting average.

The 6'3" 220-pounder was Colorado's 16th Round draft pick in 2014 out of College of the Canyons in Santa Clarita, California. He struggled that summer while splitting time with the Rockies' Class A Tri-Cities and Rookie Grand Junction farm teams, hitting a combined .213 with three homers in 39 games. However, he started regaining his stroke with Class A Asheville (.341 with 10 homers in 42 games) in 2015 and began climbing the organization's ladder. Ramos socked 32 homers playing for both Class A Lancaster and Class AA Hartford affiliates in 2018, but he really found his groove last summer with Albuquerque in the Pacific Coast League, abusing pitchers to the tune of a .309 average with 30 homers and 105 RBIs in 122 games for the Dukes.

After six years in the minors, Ramos accrued 98 roundtrippers and 349 ribbies to augment a .292 average in 496 outings, playing in All-Star Games in both the California League and PCL. Even so, he was released by the Rockies off the Albuquerque roster in January and sold his contract to the Twins, who gave him $300,000 (including a $50,000 signing bonus) for 2020. Thus far, he's been worth every won LG has paid him.

Ramos hits a grand slam for Hermosillo in 2016

Interestingly, while he's shown a potent bat in the American minor leagues and the KBO, Ramos has not enjoyed a lot of success at the plate playing winterball with his hometown Hermosillo Naranjeros. The lefty slugger, who plays both first base and the outfield, has batted just .220 in five Mexican Pacific League campaigns with the Orangemen, including a .230 average last winter under then-manager Vinny Castilla (himself a longtime Rockies star who still works in Colorado's front office). In fairness, Ramos has seen limited action in the Mex Pac (his 48 games in 2019-20 the most he's played in the circuit's 68-game regular season) and he has knocked out 14 homers over 145 contests in the pitching-dominated league.

Now Ramos is drawing notice for his bat work in South Korea, including among Rockies fans he left behind. One of them is Noah Yingling, who wrote on the Roxpile.com website, "While he was never a top prospect in the Colorado Rockies organization, they should have held on to Roberto Ramos." Yingling posted those now-prophetic words on May 6, the morning after Ramos' KBO debut.

MONCLOVA SIGNEE COLON WANTS BACK IN MLB, EVEN AS BATBOY

Bartolo Colon (c) at Monclova press conference

Although he is under contract to pitch for the Mexican League Monclova Acereros should their season start on August 7 as planned, Bartolo Colon told an ESPN reporter that he wants to return to Major League Baseball, even as a batboy. "If any major league team wants an old man," Colon told Marly Rivera in May, "I'm available." Colon turned 47 on May 24.

A native of the Dominican Republic, Colon posted a career 247-188 record over 21 MLB seasons, pitching in four All-Star Games and one World Series while winning the American League's Cy Young Award in 2005 after going 21-8 for the Los Angeles Angels, who copped the AL West title and reached the second round of the playoffs that year. Colon finished among the top six in CYA balloting three other seasons. His last year in MLB was in 2018, when he went 7-12 with a 5.78 ERA in 28 games (24 starts) for the Texas Rangers, who finished last in the AL West and granted Colon free agency after the season. He did not pitch in 2019.

Amid great fanfare, Colon signed a one-year deal in February with Monclova and was expected to be in the starting rotation for manager Pat Listach's defending LMB champions, who also signed former Cleveland outfielder Rajai Davis the same week. The man nicknamed "Big Sexy" by former New York Mets teammate Noah Syndergaard reported for training camp in early March, telling gathered media, "I feel very happy and thank the organization for calling me." At the same press conference, Listach (a former American League Rookie of the Year) remarked, "Bartolo brings a lot of experience and a lot of victories. He knows how to win and he'll bring more wins to the Acereros."

Instead, training camps were halted weeks later by the Mexican League, who postponed their regular season after the Wuhan virus landed in the country after it looked for a while that the LMB might be able to play as scheduled. Colon, like all ballplayers, has been in a state of limbo ever since. "This situation with the pandemic is very difficult for everyone," he told Rivera. "I left all my stuff in Monclova and I told them I wanted to come back to play this season. But we'll all see what happens with the virus because it doesn't seem like this is going to end anytime soon."

Colon poses in t-shirt as a Mets pitcher

Colon did allow as how he would love to return to MLB one more time, with one team in particular. "If it was up to me, I would retire with the Mets," he said. "I would like my career to end in New York. I've played with eleven teams but with the Mets, the way all those players treated me, how that entire franchise treated me, from the front office to the kitchen staff, was amazing. I felt like all the players were a family and the support that the team and the fans gave me was great."

Although it's fairly likely the Acereros would prefer that Colon fulfill his contract with him, the corpulent right-hander says he's hoping to be back in the majors, even if it means a role outside pitching.

"I just want to go back to the big leagues," he maintains, "even if I'm just picking up bats."

OLMECAS DEAL KARIM GARCIA TO SALTILLO

Former major league outfielder Karim Garcia has been traded to the Mexican League's Saltillo Saraperos by the Tabasco Olmecas.  A 40-year-old Obregon native, Garcia spent all or part of ten seasons in MLB playing for seven teams between 1995 and 2004, batting .279 with 66 homers for his career.  His best season was in 2002, when he hit .292 and whacked 16 roundtrippers in 53 games for Cleveland and the New York Yankees.  Garcia batted .286 for the Yanks in their 2003 World Series loss to the Florida Marlins.

After his MLB playing days ended, Garcia toiled for Japan's Orix Blue Wave and the Mexican League's Monterrey Sultanes before embarking on a four-year run in Korea from 2008 and 2011.  He hit .264 with 103 homers for the Lotte Giants and Hanwha Eagles, including a .283/30/111 campaign for Lotte in 2008.  Garcia has played the last four years in the LMB for Monterrey, Quintana Roo and Tabasco, batting .230 with 4 homers as a part-timer with the Tigres and Olmecas in 2015.

To bring the former KBO All-Star to Saltillo, the Saraperos parted with veteran first baseman and DH Refugio Cervantes.  After breaking into the Liga as a teen with Nuevo Laredo in 1997, the 37-year-old Cervantes has appeared in 19 seasons in the LMB, batting .295 with 195 homers and 749 RBIs for six teams.  He's had three stints in Saltillo, including an eight-year stretch between 2006 and 2013.  In 91 games with the Saraperos last summer, he posted a .258/10/42 slash line.

KARIM GARCIA HEADS BACK TO KOREA

Monterrey Sultanes outfielder Karim Garcia has gone to Korea for another tour of duty. The former big leaguer signed a one-year contract last week with the Hanwha Eagles of the Korea Baseball Organization for a reported $180,000.

The product of Sonora was an immediate fan favorite with the Lotte Giants of the KBO in 2008 by hitting .283, blasting 30 homers and driving in 111 runs while making the first of three All-Star Game appearances. However, his performance tailed off in 2010 as he hit .252 with 26 homers and 83 RBIs as his season reached its nadir in September when he was suspended seven games and fined $3,000 for arguing with an umpire during a game.

The incident more or less capped a year in which his father, former Mexican League star Pancho Garcia, died in January 2010, just before Karim got married a week later and took a quick honeymoon break from the Mexican Pacific League playoffs with eventual LMP champion Hermosillo. Last winter, Karim played sparingly for the Naranjeros, hitting .333 with 9 homers and 31 ribbies in just 22 games, but hit a disappointing .211 as Hermosillo got bounced in five opening round games.

The 35-year-old Garcia was a highly-touted Dodgers prospect in the mid-90’s before embarking on an MLB odyssey that saw him hit .241 with 66 homers for ten teams between 1995 and 2004. He also played in Japan before heading to Korea. In 53 games for Monterrey this season, Garcia was hitting .322 with 7 homers and 53 RBIs.

GARCIA GOES 7-FOR-7 TO SET KOREAN LEAGUE RECORD

If Karim Garcia starts his Korean Baseball Organization season slowly because he’s “tired,” wait’ll he catches his breath. The Obregon native has reportedly endured some criticism among Korean fans and media for playing winter ball in the Mexican Pacific League because he’s worn out by the time he joins the Lotte Giants for the start of the KBO season, but judging by a 7-for-7 night at the plate in a 15-12, 12-inning loss to the Hanwha Eagles on April 9, he’ll be in good shape once he gets some rest.

Garcia had a homer, scored three runs, drove in six and mustered up enough energy to steal a pair of bases in the game, in which he broke the KBO record for hits in a game. He also threw out a baserunner at home plate from his outfield position for good measure.

The former major leaguer is in his third season of Korean ball, but got off to a slow start last year, drawing complaints that he was tired from playing in the MexPac. Garcia told the Puro Beisbol website, “In my career, I’ve always played winter ball after completing the summer league. It’s like giving back to the Mexican fans who can see me play,” adding that he was tired after playing for Mexico in the 2009 World Baseball Classic.

Garcia hit .361 in 15 regular games for Hermosillo last winter before batting .239 in 14 LMP playoff games and .231 for the Naranjeros in three Caribbean Series contests.