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.

KOREAN TEAM RELEASES P EDGAR GONZALEZ

There is now just one Edgar Gonzalez playing pro ball in Asia. One of them, the former Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher, was released last week by the LG Twins of the Korea Baseball Organization after going 0-6 with a 7.68 ERA in nine starts (although his last start was decent enough as he allowed two runs in six innings of work). He had reportedly signed with LG for over $200,000 in the offseason.

The other Edgar Gonzalez, an ex-San Diego Padres infielder (pictured), has had his own struggles with the Yomiuri Giants of Japan’s Central League, batting .221 with one homer in 24 games as a part-timer.