LEANDRO CASTRO NAMED MEXICAN LEAGUE MVP

    Tijuana Toros outfielder Leandro Castro received 65% of the votes en route to winning the Mexican League's 2021 Most Valuable Player award last week. The 32-year-old Dominican easily beat out Henry Urrutia (Saltillo), Niko Vasquez (Guadalajara), Leo Heras (Guadalajara) and Alex Liddi (Yucatan) for top honors.

    Castro missed only one of the Toros' 65 regular season games and led the LMB with 93 hits and 72 runs batted in, finished second with 159 total bases, third with 36 extra-base hits and a .646 slugging percentage, sixth in batting (.378), tenth with a .433 on-base percentage and twelfth with 14 homers.

    Castro has a .311 Mexican League career batting average and has cranked it up a notch since coming to Tijuana from Saltillo in 2019. He batted .361 that summer, which was his Liga best before this year's .378 after the 2020 campaign was called off due to the pandemic.

    The 5'11” 175-pounder has an overall .288 average with 202 homers and 231 stolen bases over 1,612 games after 15 years of summer and winter action. Castro signed with Philadelphia in 2007 as an 18-year-old free agent and spent that summer with the Phillies' Dominican Summer League team, batting .278 with six homers in 59 games. 

    He went on to play eight seasons in the Phils' system, reaching AAA Lehigh Valley in 2013 and 2014, where he hit a combined .257 with 14 homers, 27 steals and 105 RBIs over two years with the IronPigs. Castro played independent ball in the Canadian-American Association and American Association in 2015 and 2016 before signing with Leon of the LMB for the 2017 season.

    Castro bounced between the Bravos, Dos Laredos and Saltillo before coming to Tijuana in the middle of a 2019 season during which he hit .361 with 27 homers for the Saraperos and Toros in 111 total games. He's currently in his sixth winterball season in the Mexican Pacific League, where he played five seasons with Los Mochis before being sent to Obregon last year and traded to Mexicali prior the current schedule (the Aguilas returned him to the Yaquis after three weeks). Castro was consistently a top batter for the Caneros but after 30 games in 2021-22, he was only hitting .193 with one homer and seven RBIs before being placed on the reserve list last week.

    In other Mexican League awards for 2021, Guadalajara's Benji Gil was named Manager of the Year, Mariachis hurler Masaru Nakamura was voted Pitcher of the Year, Fernando Rodney of Tijuana topped balloting for Reliever of the Year, Veracruz outfielder Yasiel Puig won the new Defensive Player of the Year award, Jesse Castillo of Guadalajara was named Comeback Player of the Year and Oaxaca catcher Juan Carlos Camacho won Rookie of the Year honors.

HERMOSILLO WINS 6 OF 9, TAKES LMP SECOND HALF LEAD

    After a tepid first half in which they went 16-16 to finish seventh in the Mexican Pacific League standings, the Hermosillo Naranjeros are off to a fast start in the second half of the regular season schedule. The Orangemen have won six of the their first nine games to take the lead in the LMP standings, one game ahead of five teams who share identical 5-4 records: Mexicali, Monterrey, Mazatlan, Obregon and first-half champion Navojoa.

    The Naranjeros are led by manager Juan Navarrete, a Salon de la Fama second baseman who defied the odds to reach a second season under impatient Hermosillo owners who've gone through dugout bosses like Elizabeth Taylor went through spouses in search of the team's first pennant since 2013-14. 

    Navarrete has enjoyed having one of the Mex Pac's best pitching staffs this season, including starters Elian Leyva, Wilmer Rios, Ryan Verdugo and Juan Pablo Oramas along with closer Fernando Salas and middleman Heriberto Ruelas. Hermosillo is allowing a league-low 3.60 runs per nine innings (compared to an LMP average of 4.30 R/9 average). Leyva, Rios and Oramas have combined for 12 of Hermosillo's 22 wins on the season.

    Offensively, the Naranjeros have been a middle of the pack team (.266 average with 26 homers and 4.46 runs per game), but they've had some batters who've stood out. Outfielder Nick Torres is sixth in the circuit with a .329 average and is tied for second with seven homers, veteran third baseman Luis Alfonso Cruz is tenth in the batting race at .312 and is tied for sixth in RBIs with 28 and centerfielder Jose Cardona leads the LMP with 34 runs scored amid a well-rounded season during which he's hitting .291 with five homers and nine steals. At this point of the campaign, Navarrete has Hermosillo looking good enough at the plate and on the mound to be a factor in the postseason if they play to their capabilities.

    Leaguewide, Navojoa's Tirso Ornelas (.386) has a clear lead over teammate Samar Leyva (.353) and Yadir Drake of Guasave (.351) in the batting derby. Another Mayos batter, Kyle Martin, isn't hitting homers at the same pace he started out at, but he socked a longball on Sunday to raise his season total to 10 over 29 games, three ahead of four other LMP batsmen. One of those four, Jalisco's Julian Ornelas, leads with 34 RBIs while four competitors are tied for second at 31 ribbies apiece. Dairon Blanco of Culiacan has reached 20 stolen bases after playing 29 games, eight more than Tomateros teammate Sebastian Elizalde and Ramon Rios of Mazatlan.

    Hermosillo's Leyva won his fifth game to tie Carlos De Leon of Hermosillo for the wins lead while ten other hurlers are tied for third with four wins each. Leyva's 1.17 ERA is tops for pitchers, ahead of moundmate Rios at 2.08 and Obregon's Arturo Lopez (2.11). There's a three-way deadlock for the strikeouts lead at 40 apiece between Obregon's Lopez and Luis Escobar along with Octavio Acosta of Navojoa. Mexicali's poor first half didn't appear to affect closer Jake Sanchez, whose 15 saves leads the LMP to augment his 1.93 ERA while Hermosillo's Salas is second with 11 and Carlos Bustamante of Navojoa has 10.

    Attendance is up across the Mex Pac after a disastrous pandemic-fueled season in 2020-21. While the numbers aren't at their usual pre-Covid levels, a total of 1,155,655 fans have clicked the turnstiles through 205 games thus far for an average of 5,637 per opening. That would be enough to lead every minor league north of the border in 2021 but is well below the typical 9-10,000 average in previous LMP seasons. 

    Hermosillo leads the ten-team loop with 187,323 fans over 22 home games for an average of 8,515 per game while Culiacan is right behind at 175,456 over 22 openings, or 7,975 per game. Guasave ranks last at 44,044 in attendance for a 2,318 average while Mazatlan (usually one of the better draws in the Mex Pac) has only had 54,375 visitors at Estadio Teodoro Mariscal, an average of 2,862.

MEX PAC ROAD TRIP (Stop #8): Culiacan, Sinaloa

    This week, we pay a visit to Culiacan, the eighth Mexican Pacific League site on our virtual ten-city road trip. Culiacan is a two-hour drive lasting just over 100 miles south from Guasave (our last stop) on Highway 15 and is set a few miles inland from the Gulf of California. While Mazatlan is better-known among North Americans, Culiacan is a thriving city and the state capital of Sinaloa. The name “Culican” is an old native word which means “place where they adore the God Coltzin.”

    A municipality of just over a million residents, Culiacan was a small village when Spanish conquistador Nuno Beltran de Guzman founded the villa of San Miguel de Culiacan on September 29, 1531. From the end of the sixteenth century and throughout much of the 1700’s, San Miguel de Culiacan served as an important staging area for the Spanish conquest of the Mexican West. However, independence from Spain was eventually won for Mexico in the early 1820’s, and Culiacan was granted the status of “city” in 1823. At that time, Sinaloa’s state capital was in Mazatlan, but was eventually shifted to Culiacan in 1873.

    As with most of the Mex Pac cities, Culiacan is an agricultural center, surrounded by some of the most arable land in Mexico of which the major crop is tomatoes. While Culiacan has a reputation as a tough town, it is also, in fact, a thriving and busy place with a fine State university in the city center, a lovely 19th Century cathedral sitting three blocks away from the ubiquitous Mexican mercado, there are beaches on the Gulf a few miles away in Atlata and El Tambor, and Ernesto Millan Escalante Park features gardens, pools, an open-air Hellenic theater and the longest water slide in northern Mexico. The Centro Cultural Genaro Estrada contains two theaters, several museums and a café, and is a centerpiece for the arts.

    Something else worth a try is catching an LMP game at Estadio Tomateros, which cost an estimated 305 million pesos (about US$20.8 million during construction) before opening in time for the 2015-16 season. At 20,000 seats, Estadio Tomateros is one of the largest ballparks in minor league baseball and rates among the best in Mexico. Culiacan has been a baseball hotbed for decades and the Tomateros are annually among the leaders in Mex Pac attendance, drawing 16,000 per game during pre-pandemic seasons. Unlike most baseball stadiums in Mexico, Estadio Tomateros is not owned by the government by by the team itself.

    The Tomateros have given their fans a lot to cheer about over the years, with 13 Mex Pac pennants since their 1965 formation: Six of those under manager Francisco “Paquin” Estrada, who also brought home two Caribbean Series titles, while ex-MLB infielder Benji Gil has managed the Guindas to four more titles since 2014-15, including the last two. Players who've wintered in Culiacan include Salome Barojas, Esteban Loaiza, Aurelio Lopez, Oliver Perez and Vicente Romo (all Major League Baseball pitchers).

AGS, LAGUNA WIN LAST NORTH SLOTS; PLAYOFFS OPEN

   After Aguascalientes and Union Laguna emerged from a four-way dogfight for the final two playoff berths in the Mexican League's North Division while Puebla and Quintana Roo pulled away from Leon for the last two slots in the LMB South last week, the 2021 postseason got underway over the weekend.

    With six teams in each division qualifying for the playoffs this year and Guadalajara (46-17) and Mexico City (41-23) winning their divisions in commanding fashion, most of the drama was reserved for the lower seedings in the LMB North. Aguascalientes won seven of their last ten games to finish in fifth place at 30-31, a half-game game ahead of 31-33 Union Laguna. Monterrey had been in eighth most of the season prior to a late charge that made it close before closing in seventh with a 30-33 mark, a half-game behind the Algodoneros to miss the playoffs for the first time since 2015. Dos Laredos had been in the hunt before losing six of their last ten to drop below the Sultans into eighth at 30-36.

    Things weren't as tight in the LMB South, where Leon had a puncher's chance to reach the playoffs entering the final three games of the regular season. The Bravos had to win all three of their games while Puebla had to lose all three of theirs to force a one-game play-in. Leon's 8-1 home loss to Aguascalientes and a Puebla doubleheader sweep of Oaxaca last Wednesday served to knock the Bravos (29-37) out of contention. In fact, the Pericos won all three of their games over the Guerreros to finish at 33-33, leapfrogging in to fifth place ahead of 32-33 Quintana Roo (who lost all three to Veracruz to end the regular season).

    With the regular season in the rearview mirror, the playoffs got underway Saturday with six games. In the LMB North, Guadalajara thumped Laguna, 13-4, as Adrian Gonzalez socked a two-run homer and scored three times for the Mariachis. Aguascalientes surprised Tijuana, 6-1, at El Nido behind Henry Rodriguez' two homers and seven innings of one-run pitching by Rieleros' starter Erick Leal. Monclova held on to take a 5-4 victory in Saltillo as Addison Russell's two-run homer and RBI double helped overcome a shaky Bartolo Colon start (5IP/3R/9H/2E).

Yucatan Leones vet slugger Luis Juarez

    In Saturday's LMB South first round games, visiting Quintana Roo walloped Mexico City, 12-2, as all nine Tigres batters had at least one hit, including Alex Robles' two-run double during QRoo's 10-run second inning. Yucatan's uncharacteristic power display (five homers, two by Luis Juarez) keyed a 15-2 swamping of Veracruz in Merida. Puebla's Miguel Guzman scored from third on an eighth-inning Derrick Loop wild pitch to give the Pericos an eventual 2-1 win over Tabasco.

    Sunday's action saw five of the six series tied up at one game each as the previous night's losers came back with wins. Guadalajara topped Laguna again, 7-3, as Christian Ibarra and Johnny Davis belted sixth-inning homers off Cottoneers starter Rafael Pineda. Venerable slugger Luis Alfonso Cruz had three hits (including a homer and double) and scored three runs as Tijuana bounced back with an 8-4 win over Aguascalientes. Saltillo knotted things with Monclova with a 4-2 win with Henry Urrutia's two-run bomb in the eighth breaking a 2-all tie. Yasiel Puig's two-run homer capped a four-run first as Veracruz went on to cop an 8-3 win in Puebla. Mexico City rebounded with a 7-5 triumph over Quintana Roo, thanks in part to Julian Leon's two-run roundtripper. Juan Pablo Oramas tossed six innings of one-run ball as Tabasco beat Puebla, 3-1, to level their set.

    Monday will be a travel day for all series with six Game Threes scheduled for Tuesday night at ballparks for the lower seeds.

HERAS (.401) TAKES BAT TITLE; 8-0 NAKAMURA COPS WINS CROWN

2021 LMB batting champion Leo Heras

   Baja California product Leo Heras finished 2021with a .401 average to become the 16th native son to be awarded a Mexican League batting championship. The Guadalajara outfielder went 63-for-157 to become the first Mexican to cop a batting title since Tijuana's Isaac Rodriguez in the Spring 2018 season. Heras played 46 of the Mariachis' 65 games, or 70.8 percent. Mariachis teammate Niko Vasquez, a Californian played 59 games and finished second at .387 while Cuban Henry Urrutia of Saltillo came in third at .385 over 56 contests.

    Saltillo slugger Rainel Rosario won his second home run title by crashing 20 to edge out Leon's Xavier Batista's 19. Rosario, a Dominican who led the LMB in 2017 with 26 HRs, becomes the second Sarapero batsman to win more than one homer crown (Andres Mora did it three times). Rosario also led the league with 41 extra-base hits and 174 total bases.

    Another Dominican, Leandro Castro, finished with 72 runs batted in over 64 contests for Tijuana to lead in that category. Batista and Mexico City's massive Japhet Amador tied for second with 57 RBIs, well behind Castro (who had a great season in batting .378 for the Toros while leading the loop with 93 hits, including 20 doubles and 14 homers.

    Quintana Roo's Reynaldo Rodriguez stole 21 bases to finish first in that category, just beating out the 20 of Tabasco outfielder Herlis Rodriguez. A first baseman from Colombia, Rodriguez beat his previous personal best of 14 swipes to become the first Tigres player to lead the Liga in steals since Luis Polonia's 48 in 1997.

    Other LMB batting leaders included Guadalajara's Beau Amaral with 65 runs, Veracruz' Jesus Valdez stroked 30 doubles, Durango outfielder Tito Polo legged out 7 triples, Mexico City's Jon Singleton had a .503 on-base percentage and 1.196 OPS over 46 games and Puebla rookie David Olmedo-Barrera's .694 slugging percentage ranked first.

Tijuana's Fernando Rodney won saves title

    Japanese import Masaru Nakamura capped a great Mexican League debut by finishing with an 8-0 record over nine starts, good enough to lead the LMB in both wins and won-lost percentage. Nakamura also finished fourth with a 3.25 ERA, striking out 46 batters on 52.2 innings of work after compiling a 15-17 ledger over all or part of nine NPB seasons.

    Tabasco starter Luis Escobar joins fellow Cartagena product Reynaldo Rodriguez of the Tigres in leading the LMB in an individual category. Escobar's 2.54 mark makes him the fifth Olmecas hurler to win an ERA title, joining former Red Sox pitcher Mike Nagy (1978) and becoming the first Tabasco player to do so since Jean Jesus Alvarez in 1999.

    Two pitchers tied for the strikeouts championship with 69 apiece, with Dos Laredos' Jackson Stephens and Puebla's Jose Valdez sharing the award. Stephens (a former Cincinnati Reds starter) got his K's in 65 innings while walking just 16 while Valdez needed 72 innings, walking 32 opponents in the process.

    Former MLB All-Star Fernando Rodney capped a successful first year in Mexico by winning the saves title, securing 16 salvados in 19 chances. Rodney won all three of his decisions and had a 1.80 ERA in 28 appearances. Tabasco' Fernando Salas finally allowed his first earned run in 21 outings to finish with an 0.42 ERA, going 12-for-12 in saves.

    Other LMB pitching leaders included Yucatan's Jake Thompson with a 1.07 WHIP, fellow Leones hurler Radhames Liz had two complete games, Veracruz' Dylan Unsworth and and Aguilas moundmate David Reyes tossed the year's only two shutouts (Unsworth's was a no-hitter), Rafael Pineda of Laguna was tops with 77 innings pitched, Monterrey middleman Norman Elenes led with 38 games pitched and Derrick Loop of Tabasco had 12 holds.

BRAVERMAN: MANY RESPONSIBLE FOR OLYMPIC COLLAPSE

Out 27 columnist David Braverman

    While many Mexican baseball fans have been vocal with their outrage and disgust over their country's 0-for-3 performance at the Tokyo Summer Olympics, it appears that few journalists and broadcasters have joined the chorus. Not so with syndicated columnist David Braverman, whose “Out 27” is one of the most widely read commentaries in Mexico.
 
   Braverman's column last Friday outlined what he believes were the causes of Mexico's collapse during their first foray into Olympic baseball. In this edited Google Translate version of that column, titled “Ostrich of Baseball,” he shares his observations:

    With the great Olympic failure of the Mexican baseball team still fresh in the minds of the fans and the protagonists back with their different teams in the LMB and other leagues, a very small sector of the Mexican baseball press continues to question what the hell happened but even more so, what the main responsible parties will face.

    Give opinions, point out, criticize, always with arguments: that is the true work of the journalist who boasts of being one. The rest is the least and Mexican baseball is full of characters who call themselves journalists or reporters, but whose criteria do not go beyond "looking good" with whom they agree. The same thing happens with narrators and commentators. I deeply respect their admirable work and there are very good ones, but their work will never be journalistic and much less critical when they put on the shirt of the team for which they work. They are part of the promotion and, I repeat, very respectable.

    The poor results in Tokyo were simply the chronicle of a death foretold. Removing those who achieved the Olympic qualification, paying attention to tantrums and stubbornness of those who feel like owners of the bats and balls because they were major leaguers or simply allowing that ridiculous occurrence of publishing a photo of several selectees with the uniform of their winter team are clear samples that it was never understood that they were going to an Olympic Games and the importance of what that represented.

    Of course, everyone involved is to blame. The players disappointed Mexico and only a couple responded on the diamond. The majority created a fiasco ending as the worst offense of the tournament and one of the two worst pitching staffs. In baseball, the statistics don't lie. Managers and coaches never studied their rivals and thought they were going to face poor teams like the Oaxaca Guerreros or the Durango Generales. They were very wrong.

    But for that failure to occur on the field of play there were those who orchestrated it and not just now, but long ago. It was during the management of Javier Salinas, the worst president that the Mexican League has had in its history, when the FEMEBE that Enrique Mayorga inherited after the death of Lieutenant Alonso Pérez handed him the management of the Mexican team.

    Salinas, an illiterate baseball player but a good seller of mirrors, stuck his nose in until he reached the president of the World Baseball and Softball Confederation, Riccardo Fraccari, with that unsuccessful attempt by the hesitant called Baseball 5 and other “business”. From then on, there were characters in the LMB who played the tambourine of the relationship with Fraccari at their convenience as well as the management of the team. You can not forget that "Chabelo Tour" of 2019 for two games in Japan and Salinas taking his entire entourage for a walk, of course, in exchange for loyalty.

    The subject had been inherited since his arrival by the current president of the summer circuit, Horacio de la Vega, a chess expert with total ignorance of baseball and a former Olympian who knows the strict doping controls in the event that brings together more than 200 countries every four years. It was precisely the doping that presented problems in assembling the team, especially if we take into account that currently in the LMB the controls are hesitant and the positive tests are paid with financial fines, not with punishments to the player. So imagine the result of the mixture that gives us a total ignorance of baseball with the risk that the players will test positive for Olympic doping.

    With the endorsement of the inoperative baseball federation and the hidden but direct supervision of Edgar González's PROBEIS, the LMB (through its president and sports director Gabriel Medina) removed the manager who had obtained the Olympic berth, Juan Gabriel Castro, to bring in Benjamín Gil and from there form the team fulfilling the whims such as Adrián González, who clearly agreed to play in Mariachis with the condition of going to the Olympic Games. The result? Tremendous disappointment.

    Those responsible for the worst failure of Mexican baseball internationally have names and from my point of view, they have been clearly named in this column, which ends with the following questions:

    Why do some of the members of the Mexican team find it so hard to call failure to failure?

    Finishing in last place being a country with professional baseball all year...isn't that failure?

    Who orders and who executes decisions for the Mexican baseball team?

    Will LMB, FEMEBE and PROBEIS sleep soundly?

    Will those responsible stand up and resign?

    Knowing Mexican baseball for decades and its current reality, the answer to the last question is a resounding NO. It will be the fable of The Ostrich of Baseball.

VERACRUZ' UNSWORTH SIGNS WITH TAIWANESE TEAM

Dylan Unsworth: Goodbye, Mexico

    As Mexican League teams continue to tweak their rosters with just none games remaining in the 2021 regular season, a pair of transactions made across the Pacific Ocean may have an effect on how two LMB teams fare during the postseason.

    Veracruz pitcher Dylan Unsworth has been place on the Aguilas' reserve list, allowing him to sign a contract with the Fubon Guardians of the Chinese Professional Baseball League in Taiwan. The 28-year-old South African had announced his presence with authority during his first Liga season with the expansion Aguilas, tossing the loop's only no-hitter of current campaign (dominating the powerful Mexico City Diablos Rojos on May 28 with a 75-pitch performance in an 8-0 win) en route to a 4-0 record over eight starts during which he walked just four batsmen over 42 innings while striking out 27. His 2.57 ERA was leading the LMB after his last start earlier this month.

    The former Mariners farmhand had signed to pitch for Puebla in 2020 but never saw a regular season inning after the campaign was canceled due to the pandemic. Unsworth joins the Taipei-based Guardians following the releases of former MLB pitchers Manny Banuelos and J.C. Ramirez earlier this month. Banuelos is on the Mexican roster at the Summer Olympics in Tokyo while Ramirez (who was let go for “personal reasons”) has joined Mexico City. The loss of Unsworth will no doubt harm a Veracruz pitching staff whose ERA was 5.27 even with the righty on the team. The top starter for the Aguilas, who are in a five-way battle for second place in the LMB South and will likely secure a playoff berth this week, is now likely Jorge Martinez, a 36-year-old Cuban with a 3-2 record and 5.06 ERA over ten starts.

    Meanwhile, former LMB hurler Mitch Lively has been let go by his CPBL team, the ChinaTrust Brothers of Taichung. The well-traveled 6'5” right-hander arrived in Taiwan during the 2018 season and had some good moments for the Brothers his first three seasons, going 23-20 between 2018 and 2020 with a 3.66 ERA in 68 games (55 of them starts). This year, however, the 35-year-old Californian had an 8.35 ERA with a 1.88 WHIP over 36.2 innings at the time of his release.

    After making his pro debut in 2007 with the Rockies' Casper Rookie affiliate, Lively spent seven years in the Giants system (including 2012-14 at AAA Fresno) and one-plus year in the Nationals organization before becoming a baseball globetrotter. He pitched for Japan's Nippon Ham Fighters in 2015 and played for three Mexican League teams between 2016-17 (going 9-4 with a 2.26 ERA for Laguna, Reynosa and Leon) before heading to Taiwan. 

    Lively also pitched five seasons of winterball in Venezuela from 2012-17 and for Mazatlan of the Mexican Pacific League between 2017 and 2020, going 18-4 for the Venados with a sub-3.00 ERA all three years and winning Pitcher of the Year honors in 2018-19. Lively's LMB rights appear to still belong to Leon, which means he could land with the Bravos intramural parent club in Monterrey if he chooses to seek work in Mexico, since the Sultanes are only a half-game out of a playoff berth.

Mitch Lively: Goodbye, Guardians

    Guadalajara (39-15) holds a solid six-game lead over 34-22 Tijuana in the LMB North, with Monclova (33-24) and Saltillo (32-25) both within striking distance of the Toros. With six teams per division qualifying for the postseason this year, a spirited battle for the final two berths has developed among Union Laguna (25-30), Aguascalientes (23-28) and the aforementioned Monterrey (24-30). Durango (18-38) is basically out of contention.

    The LMB South regular season title is Mexico City's (36-19) to lose. Hard-charging Tabasco (20-27) has won five in a row to move into second, seven games behind the Diablos and one game ahead of Puebla (27-26), Yucatan (28-27) and Veracruz (29-28). Sixth-place Quintana Roo (28-28) is only a half-game out of third and 1.5 games behind Tabasco, which shows how tight things are in the jockeying for playoff seeding. Leon (24-33), Campeche (22-32) and Oaxaca (20-36) will all need a late win streak to get back into it.

    Leo Heras of Guadalajara is listed as the LMB batting leader with a .412 average despite missing 15 of the Mariachis' 54 games while Tito Polo of Durango (37 of 56 games) ranks second at .407. Satillo teammates Rainel Rosario and Kennys Vargas are tied with Leon's Xavier Batista for the LMB lead with 17 homers each while Leandro Castro of Tijuana has 58 RBIs to top the circuit. Quintana Roo's Reynaldo Rodriguez has 20 steals, good enough to lead Tabasco's Herlis Rodriguez and Tijuana's Isaac Rodriguez (no relation among any of them) in that category.

    Guadalajara's Masaru Nakamura got a win last week to run his record to a perfect 8-0, topping the Liga in wins while Miguel Pena (Saltillo), Edgar Torres (Mexico City) and Anthony Vizcaya (Aguascalientes) are tied for second with seven wins apiece. Logan Ondrusek of Yucatan is listed as the ERA leader at 2.38 over 45.1 innings with Tabasco's Luis Escobar (2.60 in 62.1 IP) in second. Puebla's Jose Valdez (6-0, 3.94) heads the strikeouts list with 63 in 64 innings, ahead of Dos Laredo's Jackson Stephens at 60. Fernando Rodney of Tijuana picked up another save last week to raise his Liga-leading total to 14, augmenting his 1.73 ERA. Carlos Bustamante (Monclova) and Fernando Cruz (Guadalajara) are tied for second with 13 each, although Bustamante will lose ground while pitching for Mexico in the Olympics.

    All remaining series take on added significance with two playoff races underway and only nine games left to play. The biggest upcoming midweek series may be when Tijuana visits Monterrey with the Sultanes trying to move up from seventh while next weekend's most important series will likely be in Aguascalientes, where the Rieleros host Dos Laredos in a matchup of two teams battling for their postseason lives.

MEXICAN OLYMPIANS IN FLAP OVER UNIFORM PHOTO VIOLATION

Tomateros Olympians in Tokyo

    After being a constant companion for years with Mexican Olympic baseball team manager Benji Gil, it wouldn't be a major surprise if one of the 24 roster spots had been assigned to Controversy. As it is, Controversy made the trip to Tokyo along with the players and coaches anyway and appeared in a team photo last week. Sort of.

    Eleven of the players on the Mexican roster play under Gil for the Culiacan Tomateros of the Mexican Pacific League during the winter, so the skipper of the two-time defending LMP champions thought it would be fun to post an online photo of those players (along with staff members) wearing Culiacan jerseys inside the Olympic Village beneath the five-ring Olympic logo. It's a nice picture but there's a problem: It's also against Olympic protocols.

    Rule 50 in the International Olympic Committee charter states that wearing of unsanctioned clothing or uniforms, including manufacturer logos, is prohibited. The photo, which showed those posing without masks (another protocol violation) was initially posted on Tomateros social network accounts before threats of sanctions and an outraged response by the president of the Mexican Olympic Committee was enough to have it pulled off the internet, but not before the scene was memorialized by screen grabs.

    “This is an insult to the delegation and to Olympism,” Mexican Olympic Committee president Carlos Padilla was quoted as saying in Reforma. “In this case, it's more than ignorance because they signed the letter of commitment in which they are obliged to wear only the authorized uniform.

Mexican Olympics head Carlos Padilla

    “I think this goes further and implies other types of agreements with a team with which they will act, with the corresponding legal actions. It is not a coincidence that they think they are in Disneyland,” added Padilla.

    Gil originally defended on Twitter the decision to pose his eleven Tomateros players in Culiacan jerseys as well as Mexico caps, but later deleted the posts. Hours later, the entire team posed in the same place with the official uniform. Mexico is participating in Olympic Games baseball for the first time in its history after qualifying with a third-place finish in the World Baseball Softball Confederation's Premier12 tournament in November 2019. The Summer Olympics are now underway in Tokyo following a year-long delay due to the Wuhan virus.

    Mexico is one of three nations in Group A along with host Japan and the Dominican Republic while three others comprise Group B: South Korea, Israel and the United States. The Verdes Grande play their first game against the Dominicans on Friday at 12:00 local time, after which they'll take on Japan Saturday at noon local time (with both games at Yokohama Baseball Stadium). Group play consists of one game against each member for seeding purposes in next week's Knockout Round, a convoluted eight-game format to determine the four combatants in the Bronze and Gold medal games on Saturday, August 7.

WBSC U-23 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS SET FOR SONORA

Estadio Sonora, Hermosillo

  After a yearlong delay due to the ongoing worldwide pandemic, the World Baseball Softball Confederation has rescheduled its Under-23 World Baseball Championship Tournament for September and October in Hermosillo and Obregon. Twelve nations will be competing with mostly minor league players for the U-23 crown, which was last played for in 2018, with Mexico copping the title in Colombia. Mexican outfielder Norberto Obeso was named to the tournament's Dream Team after finishing second among batters with a .500 average.

    A six-team Group A field will congregate in Obregon at Estadio Yaquis while six Group B contestants will converge on Estadio Sonora in Hermosillo for the round-robin first stage of the competition, with the opening games scheduled for September 23.

    After the first round dust settles, the top three teams from each Group will gather in Hermosillo for the Super Round, featuring crossover games against nations advancing from the opposite group added to previous results to determine seedings for the Bronze and Gold medal games on Saturday, October 2. The bottom three from each group will convene in Obregon for the Consolation Round using a similar format to determine placings from seventh through twelfth place.

    For the 2021 edition, the WBSC approved that 24-year-old players can participate due to the pandemic causing the postponement of a year of the event. Thus, players born from 1997 to 2003 may be chosen to the rosters of their respective national teams.

Estadio Yaquis, Obregon

Group A (Obregon)
Czech Republic
Mexico
New Zealand
Nicaragua
South Korea
Taiwan

Group B (Hermosillo)
China
Cuba
Germany
Japan
South Africa
Venezuela

    A schedule of games for the WBSC U-23 World Championships has not been released yet.

TEAMS ADD PITCHING AS LIGA HITS HOME STRETCH

Kodai Hayama as Mazatlan Venados P

    With fewer than three weeks remaining in the Mexican League's regular season, many teams looking ahead to the playoffs have started bringing in pitching help. One is coming from Japan, another from Taiwan and one more is returning to Mexico after being buried in the minors despite exemplary numbers at the AAA level.

    The expansion Veracruz Aguilas have purchased 28-year-old Kodai Hamaya from the Ibaraki Astro Planets of Japan's independent Challenge League. Hamaya was a Planets teammate of former LMB and LMP outfielder Dariel Alvarez. The left-handed Hamaya pitched between 2014 and 2018 in NPB for the Rakuten Golden Eagles as well as a brief stint with Yokohama in 2019, going 3-1 with a 7.25 ERA over 40 appearances (all but one in relief). He also spent one winter in the MexPac, going 3-0 with a 1.44 ERA as a starter for Mazatlan in 2019-20. Hamaya will become the second Japanese pitcher to appear in the LMB this season, joining Guadalajara's Masaru Nakamura.

    Mexico City bolstered their mound staff by picking up former Los Angeles Angels starter J.C. Ramirez, who was released earlier this month by Taiwan's Fubon Guardians. A six-year veteran of MLB, the 30-year-old Nicaraguan had a 3.43 ERA and 1.18 WHIP for the CPBL club over 57.2 innings at the time he was let go. Ramirez will be making his Mexican League debut with the Diablos Rojos, but he has winterball experience in Venezuela in with Culiacan in the LMP, for whom he went 4-2 with a 1.74 ERA in 2020-21.

    Former Red Sox pitcher Hector Velazquez has returned to Mexico by signing with Monclova after being released by Houston despite pitching well in relief for AAA Sugar Land, the Astros' top affiliate. An Obregon native, Velazquez was 1-1 with a 1.46 ERA for the Skeeters in 14 appearances after posted an 11-7 record in 89 games for Boston between 2017-19.

    The 32-year-old righty made his first start for the Acereros last Friday night in Mexico City, tossing four shutout innings before allowing a run in his fifth and final entrada during an 8-7 loss to the Diablos. Velazquez allowed six hits and two walks, striking out three in his first outing for the defending champions since 2016, when he pitched for Monclova after spending six summers in Campeche. With former AL Cy Young Award winner Bartolo Colon out of the Steelers lineup for a week after taking a line drive off a knee in his latest start, Velazquez' acquisition from the Astros' organization gained in importance even before his first pitch.

    Monclova will need both Velazquez and Colon as they try to catch up to Guadalajara in the LMB North standings. The Mariachis lead with a Liga-best 34-12 record, four games ahead of 32-18 Tijuana. The Acereros and Saltillo are tied for third at 29-22 apiece while Aguascalientes (20-23), Dos Laredos (22-27), Union Laguna and Monterrey (both 20-27) battle for the final two playoff slots. Durango, at 15-37, are the only North Division team out of contention for the postseason.

Hector Velazquez back with Monclova

    In the LMB South, Mexico City has won six straight and nine of their last ten to take a commanding seven-game lead with a 22-16 mark. Yucatan has dropped seven of their past ten but still possess second place at 26-23. Veracruz (25-25) is third, ahead of Puebla (23-24) while Tabasco and Quintana Roo (24-26 each) are tied for fifth. Campeche (21-26) dropped games Saturday and Sunday after winning seven of their previous eight but still hold a one-game lead for seventh over 22-29 Leon. Oaxaca is showing their first sign of life all season by winning seven of their last ten games, but still bring up the rear at 18-31 overall.

    Guadalajara's Niko Vasquez holds a slim lead over Tito Polo of Durango in the batting race, .413 to .409, as the only two regulars in the LMB still above the .400 mark. Saltillo's Rainel Rosario has caught up with Leon's Xavier Batista in the home run derby at 15 apiece, two ahead of five others at 13 (including Rosario's Saraperos teammate Kennys Vargas). MVP candidate Henry Urrutia, another Saltillo slugger, is now just one RBI behind Tijuana's Leander Castro, 53 to 52. The stolen base lead has been taken by a first baseman, with Quintana Roo's Reynaldo Rodriguez showing 18 swipes in 24 attempts, one more than Tijuana's Isaac Rodriguez, who will likely be in Tokyo for the Olympics for the rest of the regular season.

    Both Guadalajara starter Masaru Nakamura (7-0) and Aguascalientes reliever Anthony Vizcaya (7-1) have seven wins to lead the Liga, one ahead of Bartolo Colon (6-1) of Monclova and Tabasco's Ignacio Marrujo (6-3). Veracruz' Dylan Unsworth continues to top LMB starters with a 2.57 ERA but was placed on the Aguilas' reserve list last Thursday, two days after signing to pitch this winter with Cibao of the Dominican League. Puebla's Jose Valdez is 5-0 and leads the circuit with 58 strikeouts in as many innings pitched, two more than Mexico City's Hector Hernandez. Tijuana closer Fernando Rodney has converted 14 saves in 17 opportunities to lead Carlos Bustamante of Monclova by one in that category. Worth noting is that Tabasco closer Fernando Salas (1-0 with 11 saves) has yet to allow a single run in 20 outings for manager Pedro Mere's surprising Olmecas.

ADRIAN GONZALEZ TO RETIRE AT END OF SEASON

Adrian Gonzalez to retire as a Mariachi

    After having achieved his final baseball goal by representing Mexico in the upcoming Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Adrian Gonzalez will retire from the game after finishing the current Mexican League season with the Guadalajara Mariachis. The 39-year-old first baseman made the announcement last week.

    “For me, this is my last season,” Gonzalez said. “They (the Mariachis) want to convince me to keep playing, but I also have to dedicate my life to my family so hopefully I can close with a medal and a championship.”

    The first player selected in the 2000 MLB draft by the Florida Marlins (receiving a $3 million signing bonus), Gonzales made his big league debut in 2004 with the Texas Rangers and went on to play 15 seasons in the majors, appearing in five All-Star Games, winning four Gold Gloves and appearing in the postseason five times. He began experiencing back problems in 2017 while playing for the Los Angeles Dodgers and ended up with the New York Mets in 2018 before being released in June of that year. Gonzalez concluded his major league career with a .287 batting average, 317 homers and 1,202 RBIs over 1,929 games.

    The man nicknamed El Titan, whose father David was a ballplayer in Obregon and spent much of his youth growing up in Tijuana, has also played for Mexico in all four World Baseball Classics between 2006 and 2017. After not playing in 2019 or 2020, Gonzalez signed a one-year contract with the expansion Mariachis, eyeing a chance to play in Tokyo this summer after Mexico qualified during the Premier12 tournament in 2019.

El Titan to play for Mexico final time

    "Since Mexico qualified for the Olympics, I told myself it was a great opportunity to say goodbye,” Gonzalez explained at a press conference held with Mexican Olympic manager Benji Gil (who also manages Guadalajara's LMB entry) and Mariachis team president Rafael Tejeda. “I wondered what I had to do to be there, and it was not to stop working. That motivated me. I didn't want to be selected for my career but for work. For me it was total dedication to the Mariachis and to show that I deserve to be part of the National Team. For everything I've had, I thank my family and the fans.”

    The 6'2” 215-pounder has batted .340 for Guadalajara with six homers and 41 RBIs over 43 games. Like the rest of his Verdes Grande teammates, who open Olympic play July 30 against the Dominican Republic, Gonzalez may not return from Japan before the LMB playoffs get underway. The Mariachis lead the LMB North standings and while they haven't mathematically clinched a postseason slot, they're currently 14 games ahead of sixth-place Union Laguna and Monterrey with 15 games remaining in the regular season.

TIGRES TO BE ROAD WARRIORS REMAINDER OF 2021

Cancun ballpark facelift to start this week

    Even though they find themselves in the thick of a battle for a playoff berth in the Mexican League's South Division, the Quintana Roo Tigres will have to play the rest of the 2021 regular season (and the entire postseason, if they qualify) away from Cancun.

    After playing the Tabasco Olmecas at Estadio Beto Avila on Sunday, the Tigres are having to vacate the ballpark for the duration of the schedule so the State of Quintana Roo can begin work on renovating the 40-year-old facility. Being planned are reconfiguring corridors, replacing seating and otherwise making movement within the stadium easier for fans attending games.

    Estadio Beto Avila, one of two ballparks in the LMB named after the former Cleveland Indians star and two-time American League batting champion (who attended opening ceremonies in Cancun), was unveiled on November 23, 1980. The 4,500-seater was used by teams in a local league as well as the Cancun Marlins of the semipro Peninsula League.

    However, the ballpark had been all but abandoned by the time an earlier incarnation of the Puebla Pericos moved to the region in 1996 and played as the Quintana Roo Langosteros, splitting home games between Cancun and Estadio Nachan Ka'an in Chetumal for two seasons. Estadio Beto Avila underwent some remodeling at that time, although light towers had not yet been installed for their first home game against Yucatan on March 14. 

    After Chetumal gained its own Mexican League franchise when the Poza Rica Petroleros shifted there in 1998, the Langosteros were renamed the Cancun Langosteros and played all home games at Estadio Beto Avila through the 2005 season before moving to Poza Rica after Hurricane Wilma wrecked the ballpark in October of that year. Estadio Beto Avila underwent extensive renovations in 2006, with capacity more than doubled to its current 9,500-seat configuration.

Tigres to don road jerseys rest of season

    The Angelopolis Tigres rewarded the effort by moving to Cancun prior to the 2007 season after six tepid campaigns in Puebla. The team has remained since, appearing regularly in the playoffs and winning LMB pennants in 2011, 2013 and 2015. Success on the field has not translated to success in the ticket office, with the heritage franchise annually finishing in the bottom half of the attendance derby. Former Dodgers Hall of Famer Fernando Valenzuela bought the team from Carlos Peralta in early 2017 (after Peralta had threatened to pull the team out of the LMB altogether), but has struggled since the ink on sales documents had even dried.

    Last winter, Valenzuela explored moving the Tigres to San Luis Rio Colorado near the Arizona border last winter until the State came up with subsidies (and apparently renovation of the ballpark they play in), so the franchise will remain in Cancun for at least the near future. With pandemic-inspired seating limitations in place, the Tigres have drawn 38,186 fans (13^th in the 18-team loop) over 29 home games for an average of 1,317 per opening.

    Renovations at Estadio Beto Avila are expected to be complete in time for the beginning of the 2022 season. For now, the Tigres have to reschedule their remaining home series against Yucatan and Veracruz to those teams' home venues while trying to hold off hard-charging Campeche for the sixth and final LMB South playoff berth, starting with three games against the Piratas this week in the Walled City.

OSUNA DOMINANT WITH DIABLOS, EYES RETURN TO MLB

Mexico City closer Roberto Osuna

    Former MLB All-Star relief pitcher Roberto Osuna has made the most of what he hopes will be a short stay in the Mexican League this year. Heading into the weekend, the 26-year-old righthander had yet to allow an earned run on seven hits over twelve appearances for the Mexico City Diablos Rojos, winning one game and saving six more while striking out twelve batters and walking none in 12.1 innings of work.

    While much of that was undone by one awful outing on Saturday night against Guadalajara, in which Osuna gave up three runs in one-third of one inning (including homers by Jesse Castillo and Anthony Garcia) and took the loss in a 6-3 defeat at the hands of the visiting Mariachis, the Sinaloa native appears to be back from an elbow injury that derailed his 2020 season with the Houston Astros and may be back in Major League Baseball sooner rather than later.

    Osuna has been a big part of the Diablos' strong start to the 2021 season as Mexico City leads the LMB South with a 22-15 record, although they've dropped five games in a row after being swept at home by the Mariachis over the weekend. Red Devils manager Miguel Ojeda, himself a former major league catcher, thinks it's just a matter of time before an MLB organization brings Osuna back across the border. “He's shown that he's healthy and ready to return,” says Ojeda. “It's just a matter of days and I think he's going to be back in the major leagues. We talk a lot and he tells me he has two real offers.”

    The 6'2” 217-pounder spent six seasons in the big leagues with Toronto and Houston, posting a 14-18 record with 155 saves to go along with a 2.74 ERA in 314 appearances. Osuna was chosen for the 2017 All-Star Game while with the Blue Jays and led the American League with 39 saves as the Astros closer, appearing with Houston in that season's World Series. While an alleged domestic violence incident that never went to trial resulted in a 75-game suspension to close the door on his time in Toronto before being traded in 2018, Osuna headed into the 2020 campaign as a 25-year-old star with one year left on his contract for $10 million and a strong future seemingly ahead of him.

    Instead, Osuna came down with pitching elbow miseries, appearing in only four games before being shut down for the campaign in August. The Astros recommended Tommy John surgery, but Osuna refused and the team placed him on waivers after the season, making him a free agent. When a showcase in the Dominican Republic drew no offers, he signed a one-year contract with the Diablos, the team he made his pro debut with in 2011 at age 16.

    Now that he's showing signs that his arm is recovered, Osuna says he's going to concentrate on getting the job done in Mexico City until an acceptable offer from an MLB organization is made. “I do have a couple of offers out there which I'm still analyzing to see which is the best one,” he said at a press conference last week. “My priority is to stay healthy because I know what I'm capable of when I'm healthy. I've been enjoying every day being with the Diablos and my goal is to help as much as I can.” He added that he'd enjoy pitching for Mexico and Benji Gil at the Summer Olympics in Tokyo if that opportunity arrives.

    The Diablos' recent tailspin has allowed Yucatan to pull to within a half-game at 21-15. The Leones have gone 7-4 since Geronimo Gil was fired last month and have yet to announce the ex-MLBer's replacement. It's assumed that bench coach Chico Rodriguez, a Salon de la Fama member hired the day Gil was canned, is calling the shots, but who knows? Puebla is one game behind the Diablos in third place with a 21-16 mark while Veracruz is right behind in fourth at 21-17. With six teams per division reaching the playoffs this year, there's a spirited three-way battle for the final two LMB South berths between Tabasco (18-20) and both Leon and Quintana Roo (18-21 each).

Bartolo Colon now tied for LMB wins lead

   The LMB North is a two-team race right now, with 26-9 Guadalajara one game ahead of 27-12 Tijuana. Saltillo has won eight of their last ten games to pull into a tie with defending champion Monclova, four games behind the Mariachis with identical 24-15 records. Dos Laredos (17-21) is in fifth place while Laguna (16-20) is sixth. Monterrey (15-21), where expectations are high, continues to struggle. The Sultanes have already brought back third baseman Augie Murillo from de facto farm team Leon (the two clubs are co-owned by Grupo Multimedios) and it would no be out of the question that Monterrey could engineer another player swap with the Bravos to bolster their roster.

    Bartolo Colon's comeback continued as the former Cy Young winner by picking up his fifth win for Monclova last week, tying him with Guadalajara's Masaru Nakamura for the LMB lead. The 48-year-old Colon has tossed a league-leading 50.1 innings over eight starts, striking out 34 while walking just nine batters. Former Mariners minor league reliever Rafael Pineda has been converted to a starter with Union Laguna and the former Texas A&M hurler has a 2.31 ERA after seven starts to lead all qualifying pitchers. Aguascalientes' Erick Leal (3-1, 4.22) ranks first with 43 strikeouts in 32 innings, or 12.1 per nine innings for the former Cubs farmhand. Tijuana closer Fernando Rodney, who saved 318 games in 17 MLB seasons (ranking 18^th all-time), now leads the Mexican League in salvados with 11. The 44-year-old Rodney has struck out 20 over 18 innings while lowering his ERA to 1.00 for the Toros.

    Four players are still batting above .400, led by Saltillo's Henry Urrutia at .439. Xavier Batista, who came to Leon in the Murillo trade is tops with 13 homers (all hit during his 25 games for the Bravos after hitting none over 13 games with the Sultanes). Batista belted 62 homers over 261 games for Hiroshima in NPB between 2017 and 2019. Tijuana's Leandro Castro is ten RBIs ahead of his nearest competitor with 48 RBIs and Toros teammate Isaac Rodriguez (a .407 batter) leads with 15 stolen bases.

WRITER ACCUSES DE LA VEGA, CONADE OF CONFLICT OF INTEREST

Lopez Obrador, Pasquel and de la Vega

   Mexican League president Horacio de la Vega is finding himself embroiled in another controversy. According to Alejandra Crail of the EME/EQUIS digital news site, a fledgling company in which the former two-time Olympic pentathlete is majority owner was awarded a no-bid contract worth almost 11 million pesos by the federal Commission of Physical Culture and Sports. CONADE is headed by another ex-Olympian, Ana Guevara, who represented Mexico in the 2000 Sydney Summer Games as a track athlete along with de la Vega.

    De la Vega's company, Hype Fund, was formed in May 2019, six months after being replaced as director of Mexico City's Sports Institute (INDEPORTE), a job he'd held for six years, to succeed Javier Salinas as president of the LMB. Hype Fund received a contract of 10.994 million pesos to refurbish a pavilion at the National Center for Development of Talent and High Performance (CNAR) in which basketball, volleyball and team handball are played, including replacing vinyl flooring on a multisport playing surface and installing a portable wooden basketball court.

    The contract, which was the highest awarded by CONADE in 2020, was signed at approximately the same time it was announced that the Mexican League had awarded Veracruz an expansion team for this year at a ceremony in the National Palace overseen by Mexican president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and attended by de la Vega along with representatives of both new franchises in Veracruz and Guadalajara, including Aguilas owner Bernardo Pasquel (pictured above). A related story in Proceso says the Veracruz team fulfilled a campaign promise by AMLO to facilitate the return of the Mexican League to the port city.

    In her EME/EQUIS story, Crail says the contract “represents a conflict of interest given the closeness that exists between Horacio de la Vega and Ana Guevara, director of CONADE, as well as with President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, with whom de la Vega has close relationships.” Guevara was appointed by AMLO shortly after he took office in late 2018 to serve as CONADE's executive director, a position de la Vega had been considered for prior to his selection and LMB president.

    The CONADE contract represents the only such deal between Hype Fund and a federal or local governmental entity, although the company has also inked a pact to represent the MONDO sports flooring of Italy. MONDO presumably will play a role in replacing the playing surfaces at the CNAR facility in Mexico City, which was opened in 2006 by former Mexican president and houses over 500 young athletes in several sports.

Pavilion due for Hype Sports renovation

    In an interview with EME/EQUIS, de la Vega denied that his role as a supporter has opened doors for him to obtain contracts with the AMLO administration. “It has nothing to do with it, I openly tell you. The government people have no idea that I am the legal representative. There is a work team that does it...I do not influence it at all and there is no relationship. We are all trying to work on various things, to make our way.

    “I was fortunate that they hired me in some other places: the Pan American Games in Lima as general advisor, in Chile, and then I brought the representation of MONDO in Mexico, which is a most important sports equipment company, characterized by making the running tracks from Montreal 76. You scrub and work your best. There is no relationship between these situations.”

    De la Vega is also one of three people facing criminal complaint charges from the mayor in Mexico City borough Iztalcalco of “fraudulant administration” stemming from his leadership at the National Sports Institute between 2013 and 2018, including allegations that he awarded contracts far exceeding the value of work done on projects within the Sports City complex.

    Among those were construction of an artificial lake for 15 million pesos to be used for swimming, diving and water skiing. The lake, which displaced five soccer fields and four basketball courts, is currently inoperative. In all, de La Vega and former Mexico City mayor Miguel Angel Mancera are rumored to have privatized 70 percent of the Sports City complex with no appreciable benefit to the government that owns it.

RAMOS SUFFERS SPINAL INJURY, RELEASED BY KBO TEAM

Roberto Ramos is out in South Korea

    After last year's standout Korea Baseball Organization debut with the LG Twins, Roberto Ramos has seen his 2021 KBO season cut short after suffering an injury to fifth spinal nerve in his lower back. The Hermosillo native had been struggling in his second season with the Twins, but was still reportedly under consideration as a first baseman for the Mexican Olympic Team in Tokyo later this summer.

    Ramos was hurt on Tuesday, June 8 in Seoul during the eighth inning of a game against the NC Dinos. While fielding a grounder hit in the hole between first and second by the Dinos' Lee Myung-ki, according to South Korea's News1, Ramos wrenched his back when he attempted to throw the ball to first base to beat Lee to the bag.

    Ramos was pulled from the game and did not appear again in the Twins lineup up to his June 29 release by the Twins, who two days earlier signed former Marlins first sacker Justin Bour, who hit .213 with six homers in 33 games for AAA Sacramento this year before the parent San Francisco Giants released him from his contract so he could play in Korea.

    It was a frustrating end to a frustrating season for Ramos, who was batting .243 with eight roundtrippers and 25 RBIs in 51 games for the Twins this year. The former Rockies minor leaguer had gone 2-for-4 in the game against the Dinos before getting hurt and went 2-for-3 with a homer and three RBIs two nights before against the KIA Tigers to raise his average 13 points over his last two games.

    In 2020, Ramos burst on the KBO scene by swatting 38 longballs to shatter the Twins' previous single-season record of 30 homers by Lee Byung-kyu in 1999 while topping Karim Garcia's old standard for Mexicans playing in Korea of 30 homers. Garcia set the mark in 2008 with the Lotte Giants.

    Ramos' performance translated to a large raise from the Twins in 2021 after he'd explored playing in Japan, where salaries are higher. After being paid a reported $500,000 last year, Ramos came to terms with the Twins for a $600,000 salary plus a $200,000 signing bonus and performance incentives that would have paid up to another $200,000.

    Instead, the former College of the Canyons star (who hit 62 homers over his last two seasons in the Rockies system before heading overseas) is now a free agent. There's a chance Ramos will play an eighth Mexican Pacific League season for hometown Hermosillo Naranjeros this winter after some rehab time but for now, the 6'3” 220-pound free agent is weighing his options.