HOPPER SKIPS OUT ON CULIACAN CONTRACT TO PLAY IN PUERTO RICO

Milwaukee Brewers minor league outfielder Norris Hopper will apparently not play this winter for the Culiacan Tomateros after all. Hopper, a 31-year-old former Cincinnati Reds outfielder who spent last summer playing for Nashville of the Class AAA Pacific Coast League (where he batted .286 with 22 stolen bases), had signed a contract with the Tomateros in early November to join the team this season.

Instead, the Primera Hora newspaper in San Juan, Puerto Rico has announced Hopper will be joining the Mayaguez Indios instead. Tomateros GM Ray Padilla was quoted on Puro Beisbol.com as saying, “We have sent the plane tickets twice. And we just heard the Navojoa Mayos also sent the plane tickets last year but he (Hopper) never reported”. It was first said that Hopper’s arrival in Culiacan was delayed by a problem with the U.S. Treasury, then that a car crash while traveling with his wife further delayed his reporting in Mexico. Padilla says the Tomateros will not protest Hopper’s preemptive defection.

Hopper played for Cincinnati between 2006 and 2008, batting .316 in 168 games. The North Carolinian hit .329 for the Reds in 2007, but was out of the majors by July of 2008 and has not been back.

VENADOS, TOMATEROS BRING IN REINFORCEMENTS

Although perennial Mexican Pacific League contenders Mazatlan and Culiacan have broken slowly out of the gate this season, they can’t be accused of not making moves to right their respective ships.

The Venados, who reaped immediate dividends from recent signee Tim Raines, Jr. when the ex-Baltimore outfielder singled in the game-winning run in his first contest for Mazatlan Tuesday, have brought in another former big leaguer, Jolbert Cabrera. A versatile player who can perform anywhere on the field but pitcher and catcher, Cabrera was sixth in the Mexican League with a .364 average last summer for Oaxaca. He spent eight seasons in the majors and two more in Japan before coming to Mexico.

Meanwhile, Culiacan has added ex-Cincinnati Reds outfielder Norris Hopper to the club. The 31-year-old Hopper spent the 2010 season with Milwaukee’s AAA affiliate in Nashville, hitting .286 and stealing 22 bases in 119 games for the Sounds. An eighth-round draft pick by Kansas City in 1998, Hopper hit .316 in 168 games for Cincinnati between 2006 and 2008, including a .327 average in 121 in 2007.