SOLANO TRADED, SILVA RETIRING; 1ST HALF END NEARS

    Career changes involving two of the Mexican Pacific League's most notable pitchers over the past decade were in the news last week. Longtime Mexicali starter Javier Solano was sent to Guadalajara after the Aguilas announced a four-player trade with the Jalisco Charros while Mazatlan hurler Walter Silva announced his pending retirement as a player to focus on serving at the Venados pitching coach at a press conference.

    Solano, a 31-year-old righty who's in his 14th winter of LMP action, has pitched 177 games over the seasons (107 as a starter) and has a Mex Pac career record of 48-36 with a 3.44 ERA. The San Luis Colorado native nicknamed “El Terrorista” was the loop's Pitcher of the Year in 2015-16, the ERA champion in 2019-20 and won a Gold Glove last winter. Solano, who made his LMP debut in 2008-09 with Hermosillo, was off to a rough start for Mexicali this season with an 0-4 record and 8.37 ERA in five starts after going 2-6 and 7.12 for Quintana Roo in the Mexican League over the summer.

    The former Dodgers farmhand was sent to the Charros along with fellow right-hander Felipe Arredondo in exchange for pitchers Fredy Quintero and Jesus Cruz. Arredondo is a middleman who has yet to pitch this winter but was 2-0 and 2.75 for the Charros last season before coming to the border city in the offseason. In return, the Aguilas get a veteran reliever in Quintero who was 1-0 and 4.76 for Jalisco this season while Cruz (5-2 and 4.76 in four years for the Charros) is another reliever who pitched one MLB game for St. Louis in 2020.

    Meanwhile, Silva is calling it a career after 20 years on the mound. After signing with Monterrey in 2002 at the relatively advanced age of 25, the Mazatlan product pitched for the LMB Sultanes and his hometown Venados (along with a one-year stint in Taiwan) before inking a free agent deal with San Diego in 2009. The 6'1 righty pitched six times that year for the Padres (0-2, 8.76) as a teammate of brothers Edgar and Adrian Gonzalez, with whom he'd previously played winterball in Mazatlan.

    After returning to Mexico for good, Silva spent ten more years in the Liga (five with Monterrey) and compiled a lifetime record of 97-86 over 16 seasons with a 4.56 ERA. He pitched another ten winters for Mazatlan and two more in Guasave. He was picked up as an emergency pitcher for Panama in the Caribbean Series last February and appeared in two games out of the bullpen. Now 44, Silva will make his first start this season (and last of his career) for the Venados against Jalisco at home on Wednesday night before becoming a full-time pitching coach under Mazatlan manager Eddie Diaz. His number 39 will be retired.

    Surprising Navojoa has created some breathing room at the top of the Mex Pac standings with a 19-10 record, three games ahead of 16-12 Guasave. With three games remaining in the first half, the Mayos are within grasp of clinching first place and the 10 points that come with it. For their part, Nipping the Algodoneros' heels are Jalisco, Obregon and defending champion Culiacan , all with 16-13 ledgers. At the bottom of the standings, hapless Los Mochis (8-20) has clinched last place and 3.5 points.

    Christian Villanueva of Jalisco holds the batting lead over Navojoa's Tirso Ornelas by a slim .386 to .383 margin. Yoelkis Guibert of Culiacan is third at .354. Navojoa's Kyle Martin has taken the home run lead with seven longballs after just 16 games, one more than Mayos teammate Maikel Serrano and Nick Torres of Hermosillo. Guasave's Jesse Castillo are tied for the lead in runs batted in with 25 each and Luis Alfonso Cruz of Hermosillo) is third with 23 ribbies. Culiacan's Dairon Blanco is tops with 12 stolen bases while teammate Sebastian Elizalde and Los Mochis' Isaac Rodriguez tied for second with 10 swipes.

    Elian Leyva of Hermosillo finally allowed an earned run during his sixth start Friday when Jalisco's Felix Perez singled in Julian Ornelas during the fourth inning of a 5-1 Naranjeros win, but Leyva's 0.24 ERA over 37 innings still leads all LMP starters. Jalisco's Orlando Lara is right behind at 1.13 and Hector Velazquez of Obregon is third with a 1.64 mark. Navojoa's Carlos De Leon has won all five starts for a 5-0 record to lead in wins, one more than Leyva and Lara. Luis Escobar of Obregon has an LMP-best 34 strikeouts in 35.1 innings, ahead of Obregon's Arturo Lopez (32) and new Jalisco starter Javier Solano (28) on the K table. Mexicali's Jake Sanchez continues to top the saves category with nine in 12 outings as Fernando Salas of Hermosillo trails with eight and Navojoa's Carlos Bustamante is third with seven salvados.

MEXICAN PACIFIC LEAGUE Standings: Navojoa 19-10, Guasave 16-12, Jalisco 16-13, Culiacan 16-13, Obregon 16-13, Hermosillo 15-14, Mazatlan 13-16, Monterrey 13-16, Mexicali 12-17, Los Mochis 8-20.

TWELVE CUBAN PLAYERS DEFECT AFTER U-23 WORLD CUP

    The final day of last month's WBSC Under-23 Baseball World Cup in Sonora saw the Cuba drop the Bronze medal game to Colombia, 5-3, in Hermosillo's Estadio Sonora. However, the Cubans suffered a greater loss with longer-lasting implications off the field after 12 young players had defected to Mexico by the time the tournament ended.

    Officials with the National Sports Agency in Havana referred to the largest group defection of Cuban athletes in years as “vile abandonments” involving players of “weak morals and ethics.” The remaining players and coaches returned to Cuba on Monday, October 4, two days after the loss to Colombia, during which 11 of 24 rostered players appeared.

    According to the Periodico Cubano website, the 12 players (all members of Cuban National Series teams) who remained behind in Sonora were LHP Dariel Fernandez (Pinar del Rio), LHP Leinel Zayas (Isla de Juventus), RHP Bryan Chi (Industriales), RHP Luis Dany Morales (Sancti Spiritus), RHP Uber Luis Medina (Santiago de Cuba), C Loidel Rodriguez (Sancti Spiritus), IF Miguel Antonio Gonzalez (Granma), IF Dismany Palacios (Sancti Spiritus), IF Yandy Yanes (Camaguey), OF Geisel Cepeda (Sancti Spiritus), OF Loidel Chapelli, Jr. (Camaguey), and OF Reinaldo Lazaga (Pinar del Rio).

    Gonzalez (.385), Yanez (.333) and Chapelli (.320) were Cuba's top three hitters in World Cup competition Chi went 1-2 with a 4.45 ERA and 11 strikeouts in 11 innings and Zayas struck out both batters faced in his lone appearance. While 11 of the 12 are technically free agents (Cepeda is under contract with Los Mochis of the Mexican Pacific League), all will first have to establish residency in Mexico or another country before being allowed to negotiate with any non-Cuban baseball organization.

    Cuban ballplayers have been defecting from the island nation for years since failed pitcher Fidel Castro took over in 1959 and subsequently ruled that baseball would henceforth be an “amateur” sport. Current Tampa Bay infielder Randy Arozarena defected to Mexico in 2016 after two seasons with Pinar del Rio and spent a year playing in the Mexican League for Tijuana and with Navojoa of the Mexican Pacific League (leading the loop in homers) after signing with St. Louis for $1.25 million. Arozarena still resides in Merida, Yucatan and has stated his desires for Mexican citizenship and a spot on the Mexican National Team. Several Cubans have made Mexico their permanent baseball home, including Ronnier Mustelier, Henry Urrutia, Daniel Carbonell and Elian Leyva.

    A 2018 deal between Cuban authorities and Major League Baseball allowing some players to sign directly with MLB organizations was canceled by then-president Donald Trump, signaling a return to the flotilla method of players leaving the island under the coak of secrecy hoping for higher pay and a better life elsewhere.

    A December 13, 2013 story in England's Guardian newspaper said Cuban star Yuliesky Gurriel (28 at the time and now playing for Houston) had just been given a “huge” standard salary raise to 13,000 Cuban pesos per month, or about US$414 at the time, to play for Sancti Spiritus of the National Series. In 2016, Gurriel signed a five-year, $47.5 million contract with the Astros five months after first defecting from Cuba during the Caribbean Series in the Dominican Republic and then establishing residency in Haiti.

MEX PAC ROAD TRIP (Stop #6): Los Mochis, Sinaloa

    Driving from Navojoa, Sonora 98 miles southbound on Highway 15 for about two hours, our virtual Mexican Pacific League Road Trip takes us into the state of Sinaloa and Los Mochis, our sixth stop and a city with 300,000 metropolitan residents founded in 1893 by Pennsylvanian Benjamin Johnson.

    While it's a wealthy city in a fertile agricultural area, Los Mochis (like most LMP sites) is not geared towards tourism. It's a hub of sorts, connected by ferry to La Paz, Baja California Sur; a busy airport with flights to and from Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Phoenix and Tucson; and the western terminus of the legendary Copper Canyon railroad, Mexico’s last major passenger railway featuring one of the most spectacular views in North American train travel.

    Los Mochis sits on the Rio Fuerte, which irrigates an extensive valley region whose main crops are vegetables (e.g., beans and corn) and sugar cane and for which the city is the commercial and financial center, and is 15 miles east of the Gulf of California port of Topolobampo, famous for its shrimp and fishing activity. Among the native animals is the yellow crocodile, which can grow as large as 38.8 feet and weigh over a ton.

    Visitors to town should check out Parque Sinaloa, which contains the most complete collection of palm trees in Mexico, including rare species imported from around the world, and is a great setting for a stroll in the cool of the evening. Parque Sinaloa is set in the old “Colonia Americana” section of Los Mochis, a former residential district for North Americans easily identified by its USA-style architecture featuring brick houses with front porches and yards on all four sides, giving a unique character to Los Mochis rarely seen in Mexico.

    Los Mochis can trace its baseball history to 1947 and the Pericos of the old Pacific coast League, a predecessor to the present-day Mexican Pacific League. The team was renamed Caneros, or “Cane Growers,” in subsequent seasons and after a couple of stops and starts, re-entered winterball for good in 1962. While the Caneros are rarely prime contenders for a title, Mochis has won three LMP pennants: in 1968-69 with manager Ben Valenzuela, 1983-84 under Vinicio Garcia and in 2002-03 for Chico Rodriguez. In two Caribbean Series, the Caneros have gone 4-8.

    The Caneros play home games at Estadio Emilio Ibarra Almada, which opened in 1947 as Estadio Mochis with a capacity of 4,700 fans. The ballpark has undergone three renovations over the years: One in 1962 included expansion of seating to 6,000 and the addition of lights for night games; another in 1982 after Hurricane Paul devastated the facility nearly doubled the capacity to 11,000 and included a new lighting system; and finally a major 285 million peso upgrade completed in 2018 that raised capacity to 12,000 seats. The ballpark (which was renamed in 1972) has hosted six LMP All-Star Games, ten Mex Pac championship series and the 2015 WBSC U-15 Baseball World Cup.

LMP TO OPEN PLAY THURSDAY AMID VIRUS CONCERNS

Inspection at Los Mochis ballpark

    Despite ongoing worries about possible effects the ongoing pandemic might have on both the playing field and in the stands, the Mexican Pacific League is preparing for the opener of its 76th season of winterball on Thursday night, when five games are slated to be played. While the LMP expects to become the first professional baseball league across the globe to start their season on time and (mostly) with people in the stands, things could be running a little smoother.

    On the positive side, the Los Mochis Caneros have gotten the okay from local government to open Estadio Emilio Ibarra Almada seating to 40 percent capacity for home games this winter. The leader of the Municipal Health Directorate in Ahome, Dr. Francisco Espinoza Valverde, and Civil Protection director Salvador Lamphar toured the ballpark with Caneros owner Joaquin Vega to verify that protocols are being followed and subsequently gave the green light for fans to witness games in person. Estadio Emilio Ibarra Almada is located in Ahome, a community of over 10,000 within the municipality of the same name in which Los Mochis is the seat, thus local officials have jurisdiction for such decisions.

    Since the stadium seats 12,000 under normal circumstances, the adjusted capacity to start the season will drop to 4,500 for the start of the season. There will be signage indicating which seats may or may not be used, with no more than three seats allowed to be purchased together. Tickets for Caneros home games are due to go on sale Monday. The decision brought the number of Mex Pac teams being allowed to host games with people in the seats to six: Culiacan, Guasave, Hermosillo, Los Mochis, Mazatlan and Mexicali.

    On the other hand, Septima Entrada reports that Jalisco governor Enrique Alfaro has confirmed that due to conditions related to the pandemic, the public will not be allowed to attend sporting events in the state, including Jalisco Charros home games in Guadalajara. “This is an endurance race and it is not known how long it will last,” Alfaro said on Twitter. “We are all tired, with exhaustion from not being able to go out, of not being able to celebrate in the stadiums, of not celebrating our traditions, but it is not time to relax things.”

    Alfaro noted that Jalisco is one of many states in the country designated with a virtual orange traffic light, which reflects the second-highest stage of alert in Mexico. “For now, there are no conditions to advance in the opening of new activities. We still cannot allow the return of people to the stadiums or the opening of clubs or any type of massive activity," added the governor.

Seats to remain unfilled in Culiacan

    To complicate things even further, Sinaloa (where four of the five LMP teams planning to allow fans play) is one of seven states in which their virtual traffic lights have been downgraded from yellow to orange, which has the potential to force those teams to rescind their decisions and play behind closed doors. The state of Sonora, which has Mex Pac teams in Hermosillo, Navojoa and Obregon, is still under a yellow traffic light but ironically none of those three clubs had said they'd be playing in front of limited capacity crowds until the Naranjeros made a statement to that effect on Saturday. Monterrey, in the virus-ravaged state of Nuevo Leon, will also be playing before empty seats.

    Last week, the LMP office in Guadalajara announced that 669 tests for the Wuhan virus had been carried out in two stages. “The first stage showed that 25% of the players had already contracted the virus prior to arrival at the training fields and that they already had antibodies,” the press release states. “7.7% of the players and coaches were positive at that time in the first stage. 6.2% of the players and coaches were positive in a second stage.”

    The press release adds that both stages of the tests were applied to the same people, showing that the LMP protocol has “generated a downward result in infections” and that the number of positives has been lower than the average of each state where games are played. More to the point, the league says “the results to date to not represent a threat for the season to take place.” Teams will be allowed to use players from extended 70-man rosters to allow for more flexibility in case the virus hits any of them harder than anticipated.

    Thursday's schedule has Jalisco at Monterrey to take the cellophane off the season at 5:00PM EDT, followed by Guasave at Culiacan (9:00PM EDT), Mazatlan at Los Mochis (9:30EDT), Mexicali at Obregon (10:10 EDT) and Hermosillo at Navojoa (10:30 EDT).

TIGRES TO MOVE FROM CANCUN, HOPE TO LAND IN SONORAN CITY

Tigres appear done in Cancun

    One of the Mexican League's flagship franchises will be moving for the third time in less than 20 years years after Quintana Roo Tigres owner Fernando Valenzuela notified the league office of his intention to shift the team out of Cancun after 14 years in the resort city. While nothing is firm yet, the former Cy Young Award winner and his wife Linda are planning to move the Tigres to the border city of San Luis Rio Colorado, Sonora.

    Formed in 1955, the Mexico City Tigres (first under founder Alejo Peralta and then his son Carlos) formed an intense rivalry with the Diablos Rojos as the two teams shared the beloved Social Security Park for 45 years before it was razed and replaced by a shopping center. After playing the 2000 and 2001 seasons and winning pennants both years at Foro Sol (a larger facility but ill-suited for baseball), the younger Peralta moved the club to Puebla in 2002 and renamed them the Angelopolis Tigres. They shared Estadio Hermanos Serdan with the Pericos for five years and won the LMB pennant in 2005, but Carlos Peralta moved the team again, this time in 2007 to Cancun. Now known as the Quintana Roo Tigres, the team won three pennants between 2011 and 2015 but never really caught on with locals or tourists, who were more interested in spending time at the beach or in the bars.

    Carlos Peralta was a competent owner by LMB standards, but his passion never came close to his father's and he was ready to sell the Tigres after ten seasons in Cancun. Enter Fernando Valenzuela, who had pitched against the team in Mexico City when he was a teenager pitching for Yucatan in 1979. Valenzuela and his wife bought the Tigres franchise from Peralta in February 2017 and immediately began having problems.

    After partners bailed out to leave the Valenzuelas as the sole owners, five Tigres prospects who'd been on a list of players they were given while negotiating for the team had been transferred to the Diablos Rojos before they assumed ownership. The Rookiegate scandal, which resulted in two of those prospects being sold to the Texas Rangers for over $2 million, soured the Valenzuelas (who could've used the money to counteract the meager crowds at Estadio Beto Avila) and they had to run the once-proud franchise on a frayed shoestring over the next three years. The canceled 2020 season likely sealed the Tigres' fate in Cancun.

    When Proceso writer Beatriz Pereyra tweeted less than a month ago that the Tigres would be moving, the team categorically denied her but Pereyra stood her ground and repeated what she'd heard. As it turns out, she was correct. Although many people have clamored for years to have the Tigres back in Mexico City and others in Veracruz have been trying to bring an LMP team back to the port city, Valenzuela is said to be planning to move the ballclub to San Luis Rio Colorado, a city of 200,000 sitting on the Mexico-Arizona border that has never had a team in either the Mexican League or Mexican Pacific League.

 

Ballpark awaits in San Luis Rio Colorado

   San Luis Rio Colorado (commonly known as simply "San Luis") has been a member of the North Mexico League. The Algodoneros, who can trace their own beginnings to 1946, won their third LNM pennant in seven years in 2019 but the future for that club, classified as Class AA in the Mexican system, is in doubt. The city has refurbished Estadio Andres Mena Montijo from 2,500 seats into a new-look facility that can hold 7,000 spectators, and the Algodoneros were reportedly refused the opportunity to lease the updated ballpark this year before the Liga Norte shut down anyway due to the Wuhan virus.

    Although San Luis would be one of the smallest markets in the Mexican League, it's located in the baseball-crazy state of Sonora, a proven breeding ground for players and fans. San Luis has hosted games for past editions of the Mexican Baseball Fiesta with good turnouts, so crowds may be above the LMB average at worst. The city is located less than 300 miles from Valenzuela's home base in Los Angeles, a much shorter commute than Cancun has been. The Tijuana Toros would have a natural travel partner, although one never knows how the Uribe family would react to a team that could draw fans from Mexicali or even Yuma who've been going to El Nido for ballgames. While San Luis can get scorching hot in the summer, so does Monclova and all the Acereros did was win the last MLB pennant. San Luis mayor Santos Gonzalez already has a good relationship with president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. Both Fernando and his son, Tigres GM Fernando Junior, have visited San Luis and toured the ballpark. The stars seem to all be aligned.

    In other words, barring fireworks at the next Assembly of Presidents meeting, we'll be seeing the San Luis Tigres in 2021. Then again, what would a Mexican League Assembly of Presidents meeting be without fireworks?

TOROS SKIPPER VIZQUEL ACCUSED OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

    A nasty divorce just got nastier after Tijuana Toros manager (and Cooperstown candidate) Omar Vizquel's soon-to-be ex-wife accused him of domestic violence during a session on Instagram Live.

    “I am in a divorce process,” Blanca Vizquel said last week, according to Puro Beisbol. “It is a hard process where the man wants me to shut my mouth. That is his request: That I keep my mouth shut so as not to damage his career, so as not to damage his Hall of Fame chances, but he never thought of me nor my well-being. I was his trophy. It cut off all my hopes and dreams."

    Omar Vizquel's first wife, Nicole, was a Seattle native the Venezuelan had met as a young player with the Mariners, leading to their 1992 marriage and two children before their.divorce a few years later. Blanca Garcia, a Colombian fitness trainer 20 years younger than the 53-year-old ex-shortstop, married the 11-time Gold Glove winner in 2014.

    After retiring as a player in 2012 following a 24-year MLB career in which he played in three All-Star Games and collected 2,877 hits, Vizquel has gone into coaching. After spending time as a roving instructor for Angels minor leaguers and as Detroit's infield coach for four years between 2014 and 2017, he moved to the Chicago White Sox system in 2018, leading Winston-Salem to an 84-54 record in the Class A Carolina League and then 64-74 with Class AA Birmingham for 2019 before the Chisox let him go. Vizquel also managed Venezuela to a 2-5 record in the 2017 World Baseball Classic.

    Vizquel was hired to manage Tijuana in 2020 but saw the season end before it got started after the Mexican League canceled its schedule. Now his future with the Toros may be in doubt due to these allegations.

The Vizquels in apparently happier times

    Blanca Vizquel also said on Instagram, “He demanded that I go everywhere with him so in order to not bother him and for not pay the consequences, I had to agree to smile, be well-dressed and well-groomed with makeup, when all I wanted was to cry…but it wasn't an option for me.” In a story posted on the en24.com website in Venezuela, she claimed that Vizquel lost his job with the White Sox for this reason and that he only gave her “crumbs of money” because he did not stop financially supporting his ex-wife. She said she couldn't elaborate on the case at the suggestion of her lawyers but details about her troubled relationship with Vizquel would soon be revealed. No details of actual physical violence have been given.

    Besides the threat to his current job status, the allegations are also a setback for Vizquel's chances at joining another slick-fielding shortstop, Luis Aparicio, as the only Venezuelans in the Hall of Fame. He earned 36.9 percent of the vote in 2018, his first year on the ballot) then saw his support rise to 4.8 percent in 2019 and 52.6 this year. It takes being on 75 percent of BBWAA ballots for induction and Vizquel was looking like a good bet to get in before his ten-year ballot limit was reached. Whether these allegations hinder his chances or not, they certainly won't help.

LMP SEASON REAFFIRMED, THREE TEAMS WORRIED

LMP teams say they're committed for 2020-21

The Mexican Pacific League held a Board of Presidents meeting last Thursday and while the LMP reaffirmed their intention to play a full schedule in the upcoming 2020-21 season, one website reports that at least three teams broached the possibility of sitting out the campaign due to concerns originating from the Wuhan virus.

Tito Escobar of ElJonronero.com reports sources told the website that three unnamed franchises expressed their concerns over operating at all next winter while discussions were held to address difficulties in securing advertising, contract disagreements and readjustments regarding beer and soft drink brands sold at ballparks and the uncertainty over how many fans will be allowed to attend games (if health authorities allow people in the stands at all).

Another worry brought up among the owners was the status of the Caribbean Series which is scheduled to take place in Mazatlan from late January into early February. Caribbean Professional Baseball Confederation president Juan Francisco Puello has already spoken of the possibility of affiliated leagues not playing their season because of the Wuhan virus, which would necessitate a Plan B of sorts if the Serie del Caribe is to be salvaged. One possibility is that a de facto all-star team consisting of players on LMP rosters could be cobbled together, in a fashion similar to how National Teams are formed, to represent Mexico in the Crown Jewel of Latin Baseball.

In the end, all the hesitant teams agreed to move forward, however tenuously, toward playing the upcoming winterball season. Although the Monterrey Sultanes will be playing their home games in Mazatlan, sharing Estadio Teodoro Mariscal with the hometown Venados, no other similar arrangements were announced, even though there's been talk of the Mexicali Aguilas moving to Hermosillo for the season and alternating home series with the Naranjeros. Another rumor involved the less-likely prospect of the Jalisco Charros wintering in Culiacan and playing at Estadio Tomateros. Guadalajara, which also hosts the LMP office, is closer to other Mex Pac cities than either Monterrey or Mexicali while Charros ownership would be loathe to want to ship their team out of town for the season. The LMP was scheduled to announce the regular season schedule on Monday, August 10.

Locker rooms to be empty for player safety

The SeptimaEntrada.com site reported that safety protocols for the season were discussed. LMP president Omar Canizales said during a videoconference that there are a number of steps the Mex Pac and its ten franchises will take to help ensure the health of players, coaches and team staff. The first step, Canizales said, is to talk with players and staffs, asking them to stay away from any risk and to isolate themselves and monitor their health for 15 days before they think they'll report to their teams.

He said the next step would be to test everyone for the Wuhan virus upon their arrival to training sessions, with those testing positive quarantined according to procedure. Finally, players and coaches will be instructed to leave their hotels for games already in uniform, while waiting upon their return to change in order to avoid the use of ballpark dressing rooms, where players would be in close proximity to each other while dressing before and after games.

YOANYS QUIALA SIGNS WITH CPBL FUBON GUARDIANS

Yoanys Quiala pitching for Los Mochis

The Mexican Pacific League's 2019-20 Pitcher of the Year has signed a one-year contract with a team in Taiwan after his anticipated summer with the Tijuana Toros was scuttled when the Mexican League pulled the plug on playing games in 2020.

Cuban right-hander Yoanys Quiala inked a pact last month with the Fubon Guardians of the Chinese Professional Baseball League, who also signed Mexican pitcher Manny Banuelos s an import in June. The CPBL is the only league in the world to begin its season on time in April and play a full schedule (minus rainouts) while other loops have delayed or canceled their seasons altogether due to the Wuhan virus. Quiala will undergo a physical and two-week quarantine in New Taipei City before being activated.

The 26-year-old Quiala was born in Mayari, Cuba but defected from the island nation prior to signing a free agent contract with the Houston organization in time for the 2015 season, when he posted a 2-0 record with a 1.54 ERA in nine appearances (four stats) for

an academy team in the rookie Dominican Summer League.

Quiala as an Astros prospect

Quiala pitched in the Astros minor league system for four years, appearing in the 2017 Carolina League All-Star Game while pitching for Buies Creek. However, his 2018 season with AA Corpus Christi ended early after he received an 80-game suspension for using steroids. Quiala was subsequently released by Houston and signed a minor league free agent contact with San Francisco for the 2019 campaign. He was 6-8 for the Giants' AAA Sacramento affiliate and had a 6.68 ERA for the River Cats before he was released on August 10. The 6'3” righty, who tips the scales at 235 pounds, signed with Tijuana last November.

Expectations weren't high when Quiala reported to Los Mochis last season. He'd pitched for the Caneros in 2018-19 and went 3-5 with a 4.37 ERA as a swingman, which had been his usual role over five professional seasons. However, after he was used solely as a starter with Sacramento, Caneros manager Victor Bojorquez gave Quiala the ball every fifth game and he rewarded Los Mochis with a 9-2 mark (for a 32-36 team), leading the MLP in innings pitched (87.2), wins (9) and WHIP (0.98) while coming in second in ERA (2.57) and strikeouts (71) en route to an easy win as the Mex Pac Pitcher of the Year.

Quiala was set to help fill Tijuana's starting rotation this year before the season was called off and rumors began circulating early last month that he was in talks with Fubon to pitch in Taiwan. The CPBLstats.com website reports that five days later, the Guardians filed a hiring application for a new player with the Ministry of Labor and Quiala was confirmed as that player. At last report, Quiala was awaiting results of a test for Wuhan virus and hoping to arrive in New Taipei City by early August.

LMB TEAMS TO LOSE 1-3 MILLION PESOS MONTHLY IN SHUTDOWN

Yucatan's Estadio Kukulkan sits unused in 2020

According the Beatriz Pereyra of Mexico City's Proceso.com.mx, the Mexican League's sixteen franchises stand to lose between one to three million pesos (US$45,000-135,000) per month now that the LMB has cancelled its 2020 schedule. LMB president Horacio de la Vega called off the season in late June for the first time since its 1925 inception due to ongoing concerns over the Wuhan virus, which has taken a steep toll in confirmed cases and deaths south of the border.

The possibility of playing games behind closed doors was considered until it was determined that most Liga teams could not afford to put teams on the field without ballpark-related revenue. Owner decided that their losses would be reduced by not playing a shortened regular season followed by playoffs. Although there are a handful of franchises like the Mexico City Diablos Rojos, Monterrey Sultanes and Tijuana Toros who have the financial strength to withstand what will be a year's worth of red ink without income generated at their home stadiums, most of the teams were already operating on the margins even before the pandemic arrived last spring, causing an initial delay in the LMB's anticipated April openers.

Empty coffers to devastate LMB teams

Even though the anticipated monetary losses will cause further damage to the league's Have-Nots, LMB franchises will spend money to help finance the league office in the nation's capital, including financial support for ballplayers and the circuit's 36 umpires, because the loop does not have sponsorship resources allowing it to fund itself at the executive level. Pereyra says the league office issued a statement saying, “The LMB and its 16 teams have agreed to provide financial support to the players, as well as to the corps of umpires.”

As a result, each team will analyze what percentage of salaries for their rostered players as well as coaching staff members. Pereyra states that the average player in the Mexican League is paid US$6,700-7,600 per month, although there are novice players earning US$2,000-2,250. At the higher end of the payroll, star players may receive up to US$22,500 per month during the season, although the range for them is usually closer to US$13,500-18,000 every 30 days.

With the 2020 campaign abandoned, the LMB is moving ahead with plans to open their next season in April 2021 and using their extended offseason to invest in a “digital and technical transformation,” as the league office says, while addressing a television and media infrastructure that de la Vega considers a “weakness.”

Mexican Pacific League Directory 2017-18

A Interior, 4 Edificio Las Palmas

Bulevar Solidaridad No. 335

Centro de Negocios

C.P. 83246  Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico

Telephone: (662) 310-9714

Fax: (662) 310-9715

Email: lmp@lmp.mx

Website: www.lmp.mx

Facebook: www.facebook.com/lmpbeisbol

PRESIDENT:  Omar Canizales Soto

GENERAL MANAGER: Christian Veliz Valencia

ADMINISTRATIVE MANAGER: Remigio Valencia Navarro

ACCOUNTING MANAGER: Jorge Luis Rios Valenzuela

MERCHANDISING DIRECTOR: Ramon Ruiz Meyemberg

DIRECTOR OF UMPIRES: Oscar Marin Calderon

CULIACAN TOMATEROS

President: Marco Ley Lopez

GM: Mario Valdez

Manager: Benji Gil

Ballpark (capacity): Estadio Tomateros (20,000), opened 2015

2016-17 attendance (average): 554,737 (16,316)

First season: 1945

Pennants: Fifteen (1948-49, 1949-50, 1950-51, 1951-52, 1955,56, 1966-67, 1969-70, 1977-78, 1982-83, 1984-85, 1995-96, 1996-97, 2001-02, 2003-04, 2014-15)

2016-17 record: 36-32 (Third, lost to Los Mochis in Semifinals)

Team colors: Red, maroon

Website:  www.tomateros.com.mx
Facebook: facebook.com/ClubTomateros

HERMOSILLO NARANJEROS

President: Enrique Mazon R.

GM: Derek Bryant

Manager: Lorenzo Bundy

Ballpark (capacity): Estadio Sonora (16,000), opened 2013

2016-17 attendance (average): 425,514 (12,515)

First season: 1945

Pennants: Nineteen (1946-47, 1955-56, 1956-57, 1960-61, 1961-62, 1964-65, 1970-71, 1974-75, 1975-76, 1979-80, 1981-82, 1989-90, 1991-92, 1993-94, 1994-95, 2000-01, 2006-07, 2009-10, 2013-14)

2016-17 record: 34-34 (Fourth, lost to Mexicali in Semifinals)

Team colors: Orange, black, white

Website: www.naranjeros.com.mx
Facebook:  facebook.com/ClubNaranjeros

JALISCO CHARROS

President: Armando Navarro

GM: Gabriel Low

Manager: Tony Tarasco

Ballpark (capacity): Estadio de Beisbol Charros (13,000), opened 2011

2016-17 attendance (average): 294,165 (8,914)

First season: 2014-15

Pennants: None

2016-17 record: 28-39 (Eight, no playoffs)

Team colors: Blue, gold

Website: www.charrosjalisco.com
Facebook: facebook.com/CharrosBeisbolOficial

LOS MOCHIS CANEROS

President: Joaquin Vega Acuna

GM: Joaquin Vega Inzunza

Manager: Luis Sojo

Ballpark (capacity): Estadio Emilio Ibarra Almada (11,000), opened in 1947

2016-17 attendance (average): 228,449 (6,719)

First season: 1947-48

Pennants: Three (1968-69, 1983-84, 2002-03)

2016-17 record: 38-30 (Second, lost to Mexicali in League Championships)

Team colors: Green, yellow, white

Website: www.verdres.com.mx
Facebook: facebook.com/verdesxsiempre

MAZATLAN VENADOS

President: Jose Antonio Toledo

GM: Jesus “Chino” Valdez

Manager: Daniel Fernandez

Ballpark (capacity): Estadio Teodoro Mariscal (14,000), opened in 1962

2016-17 attendance (average): 198,589 (5,851)

First season: 1945

Pennants: Fourteen (1945-46, 1952-53, 1953-54, 1954-55, 1957-58, 1973-74, 1976-77, 1986-87, 1992-93, 1997-98, 2004-05, 2005-06, 2008-09, 2015-16)

2016-17 record: 29-39 (FIfth, lost to Los Mochis in First Round)

Team colors: Red, grey, white

Website: www.venadosdemazatlan.com
Facebook: facebook.com/VenadosdeMazatlan

MEXICALI AGUILAS

President: Dio Alberto Murillo

GM: David “Chile” Cardenas

Manager: Roberto Vizcarra

Ballpark (capacity): Estadio B’Air (17,000), opened 1976

2016-17 attendance (average): 436,232 (12,830)

First season: 1969-70

Pennants: Five (1970-71, 1985-86, 1988-89, 1998-99, 2016-17)

2016-17 record: 37-31 (Sixth, Defeated Los Mochis for League Championship)

Team colors: Red, blue, white

Website: www.aguilasdemexicali.mx
Facebook: facebook.com/aguilasdemexicali

NAVOJOA MAYOS

President: Victor Cuevas Valenzuela

GM: Lauro Villalobos

Manager: Willie Romero

Ballpark (capacity):  Estadio Manuel “Ciclon” Echeverria (11,500), opened 1970

2016-17 attendance (average): 222,478 (6,543)

First season: 1959-60

Pennants: Two (1978-79, 1999-00)

2016-17 record: 39-29 (First, lost to Mexicali in First Round)

Team colors: Yellow, red, white

Website: www.mayosbeisbol.com
Facebook: facebook.com/OficialMayosBeisbol

OBREGON YAQUIS

President: Rene Arturo Rodriguez

GM: Alfonso Lopez

Manager: Miguel Ojeda

Ballpark (capacity): Nuevo Estadio Yaquis (16,000), opened in 2016

2016-17 attendance (average): 265,301 (7,803)

First season: 1948

Pennants: Seven (1965-66, 1972-73, 1980-81, 2007-08, 2010-11, 2011-12, 2012-13)

2016-17 record: 30-37 (Seventh, no playoffs)

Team colors: Navy, green, white

Website: www.yaquis.com.mx
Facebook: facebook.com/YaquisdeObregon