OLYMPIC TEAM CHOSEN; UNPICKED CLARK STEAMED

    Players for Mexico's first-ever Olympic baseball team have been selected, with 24 athletes slated to make the trip to Tokyo later this month along with manager Benji Gil and his coaching staff. Twelve are pitchers on the roster along with two catchers, six infielders and four outfielders.

    The two most internationally-experienced members of the team are first baseman Adrian Gonzalez and relief pitcher Oliver Perez. The former major leaguers are the only two players to have represented Mexico in the first four editions of the World Baseball Classic. Both are currently in their first seasons playing in the Mexican League, with Gonzalez playing for Gil in Guadalajara and Perez coming out of the bullpen for Omar Vizquel in Tijuana.

    In all, the Mexican roster includes eight players of dual nationality while eleven belong to the Mexican Pacific League's Culiacan Tomateros, who've won two consecutive winterball pennants under Gil's management. That latter point has raised a few eyebrows among the country's baseball cognoscenti, many of whom have said that there were better choice available. That skepticism has extended into the playing ranks, with one ballplayer in particular being very vocal over being passed over by selectors from the Mexican Baseball Federation (FEMEBE).

    Leon Bravos first baseman Matt Clark represented the United States in the 2011 Baseball World Cup but homered for Mexico against the USA in the 2019 Premier12 tournament's third-place game to help the Verdes Grande win the contest, punching their ticket to Tokyo in the process. Clark was expecting to be rewarded for his contributions during the Qualifier and was outraged after Gonzalez and Efren Navarro, who has played the past two winters for Gil in Culiacan, were selected to play first instead. Taking to Twitter, Clark said, “What a joke. Without my homerun Mexico is not even in the Olympics. I wish the players the best but what an absolute sham by the LMB and the people that make the team.”

Leon Bravos 1B Matt Clark

    Clark hit .316 with 27 homers and 87 RBIs for Leon in 2019 but was traded to Monterrey in February as part of a five-player swap that netted the Bravos outfielders Felix Perex and Chris Roberson. Since returning to the Bravos from Monterrey on June 15 (when the Sultanes traded for outfielder Carlos Alvarez), the 34-year-old Clark has hit .337 for Leon with seven homers and 19 RBIs over 21 games. Gonzalez, 39, is sixth in the LMB with a .375 average to go with five homers and 38 RBIs (tied for third) in 35 games after not playing since 2018. Navarro, 35, was batting .339 with no homers and 16 ribbies for Tijuana after 37 games. Outfielders Joey Meneses and Sebastian Elizalde can also play first if needed.

    One of the players chosen to make the trip to Japan was unsurprisingly sanguine about the Olympics. Former Yankees infielder Ramiro Pena, who has also played in Japan and is currently toiling for Monterrey. Pena told Thomas Lopez of Septima Entrada that he thinks Mexico stands a good chance of earning a medal. “I think the team is going to be very good,” Pena said. “It is very well formed. I think that with the names that are there, we can do a very good job...I think there will be very good results.” Pena, who turns 36 on July 18 and has played in Culiacan the past 13 winters, also expressed confidence in manager Gil: “Obviously I know Benjamin and I know how he is. I think he's a very good manager and I think he'll help us focus on bringing in the gold."

    The Olympic baseball squad will begin gathering in Mexico City on Saturday, with a July 21 evening departure to Tokyo. The Mexican League office has announced that the nine LMB teams with a total of 16 players going to Japan will be allowed to bring in players of any nationality to replace them on their rosters while the Summer Games are going on. The other eight players representing Mexico have been playing in Japan, Taiwan and MLB-affiliated minor leagues. One of them, former Red Sox second-round draft pick Teddy Stankiewicz, earlier pitched in Taiwan for the Uni-President Lions this season (a 1.07 ERA over 50.1 innings) before being given his release July 1 so he could play in the Olympics. Stankiewicz signed with Tijuana one day later but has yet to pitch for the Toros.

    Mexico's first Olympic baseball game is scheduled for July 30, when they take on the Dominican Republic. Their second game will be one day later against host Japan, whose hoe-field advantage will not include a partisan crowd in the stands. It was announced last week that after a recent upsurge in Wuhan virus cases in the island nation, no spectators will be admitted to any Olympic event. Initially, limited audiences were to have been permitted, but with no cheering allowed from the seats.

STREAKING MARIACHIS CREATE BREATHING ROOM ATOP LMB NORTH

Guadalajara P Masaru Nakamura

    A week before he leads the Mexican Olympic baseball team to Tokyo for the Summer Games, manager Benji Gil and the Guadalajara Mariachis reeled off a seven-game winning streak to open a 3.5-game lead over Tijuana in the Mexican League's Northern Division standings. The first-year franchise posted a weekend road sweep in Mexico City and and won two games each against Puebla and the Toros to build their record up to an LMB-best 30-9 before dropping a 6-4 decision Sunday in the border city.

    The Guadalajara offense has been firing on all cylinders the entire season, leading the Liga with a .339 team batting average while scoring 7.77 runs per game. Infielder Niko Vasquez second behind Durango's Tito Polo with a .425 mark. The Mexican League isn't seeing the inflated averages this year that marked the 2019 campaign after switching back to a Rawlings baseball instead of the livelier Franklin ball used that season. Only three teams are averaging above .300 in 2021 compared with ten in 2019 (Yucatan averaged .299 while three more teams were .294 or better).

    Despite losing Sunday, Guadalajara's 30-10 mark leads Tijuana (29-16), defending champion Monclova (28-16) and Saltillo (26-18) in the LMB North standings while Union Laguna (19-22) and Aguascalientes (17-20) are in a virtual tie for fifth place. Despite being swept at home by the Mariachis early in the month, Mexico City (26-15) is ahead of Yucatan (23-19), Veracruz (23-21) and Puebla (21-21) in the LMB South, although the Pericos have stumbled to one win over their past ten games after starting July with a 20-12 record. Tabasco and Quintana Roo have identical 21-23 records to tie for fifth in the division.

 

Durango Generales CF Tito Polo

   Colombian centerfielder Polo of Durango took over the lead in the Mexican League batting race after going 3-for-5 with a double and his fifth homer of the season during Friday's 7-3 Generales win at Dos Laredos and finished the weekend at .426, one ahead of Vasquez. Henry Urrutia of Saltillo is third with a .414 average. Leon's Xavier Batista continues to lead the circuit with 14 homers, one more than the 13 of Rainel Rosario, a former teammate of Batista's on Japan's Hiroshima Carp. Three players have 12 dingers each and Urrutia is one of four players tied for sixth with 11 roundtrippers and is closing the gap on the LMB's RBI leader Leandro Castro of Tijuana, whose 50 ribbies are just three ahead of Urrutia's 47. Toros second sacker Isaac Rodriguez, who'll be playing in the Olympics later this month, now has 17 stolen bases. Alonzo Harris of Oaxaca trails Rodriguez with 15 swipes.

    Ageless wonder Bartolo Colon of Monclova and longtime NPB hurler Masaru Nakamura of Guadalajara both won games last week, while Aguascalientes reliever Anthony Vizcaya somehow won two despite a 6.64 ERA to tie for the lead among Mexican League pitchers with six win apiece. Nakamura's ERA is a solid (for this league) 3.10 while Colon is right behind at 3.14 as both rank among the top ten in that category behind Veracruz' Dylan Unsworth's 2.57. Unsworth has walked just four batters in 42 innings and tops the loop with an 0.98 WHIP. Puebla's Jose Valdez has overtaken Mexico City's Hector Hernandez for the Liga leadership in strikeouts, 52 to 50. Tijuana's former MLB All-Star Fernando Rodney heads the list with 13 saves, one more than closers Carlos Bustamante of Monclova and Union Laguna's Jenrry Mejia.

    Looking ahead, Mexico City will host defending champion Monclova from Tuesday through Thursday in an important matchup of two divisional contenders. Tijuana will play in Guadalajara for trio of games next weekend with the Toros minus infielders Efren Navarro and Isaac Rodriguez along with reliever Oliver Perez, who'll be heading to Tokyo for the Olympics along with first baseman Gonzalez and skipper Gil from the Mariachis.

PURO BEISBOL: CHARROS FOR SALE, PERICOS OWNER A BUYER?

Quirarte (L), Navarro (R) in happier times

    The ongoing battle between Jalisco Charros co-owners Armando Navarro and Salvador Quirarte has been well-chronicled in Baseball Mexico. The conflict between the two men, which led Quirarte being stripped of his duties as the Guadalajara team's president last winter, has gotten personal and nasty while seemingly destined to end up in a courtroom. And now there's another apparent twist in the saga: The Mexican Pacific League team may be up for sale to an outside owner.

    Puro Beisbol editor Fernando Ballesteros has been one of Mexican baseball's best-connected columnists since starting the social media outlet in 2004. The Culiacan-based scribe reported in his Zona de Contaco column last week that Navarro and Quirarte may both be willing to sell their respective shares in the Charros.

    Jalisco has become one of the MexPac's flagship clubs since the two men bought the Guasave Algodoneros following the 2013-14 season and moved the team to Guadalajara's retrofitted Estadio Panamerica, which had housed both baseball and track & field events during the 2011 Pan American Games. The 16,000-seat ballpark, now named Estadio Charros, is located in the Guadalajara suburb of Zapopan and has hosted games in the 2017 World Baseball Classic as well as the 2018 Caribbean Series.

    While the Charros have become one of the LMP's bright lights on the field and at the gate, the front office has degenerated into a proverbial dog's breakfast. Relations between Navarro and Quirarte have deteriorated over the past seven years, culminating in Quirarte being forced out of the team's day-to-day operations last year after allegations of financial irregularities surfaced. The two have held competing press conferences hurling accusations at each other since then, and the split appears as permanent as it does severe.

    Complicating matters is that there are two companies involved and potentially working at cross purposes. According to a Google translation of a January story in Milenio, “Quirarte explained that the Holding Deportiva de Jalisco, SA de CV company is the one that has shares in a series of operating companies, among which is Juegos y Espectáculos Beisbol Charros, SA de CV which operates the cash flow and has the concession of the stadium; Holding Deportiva is where the share percentages of the different team members are derived.

    “According to Quirarte, Juegos y Espectáculos is 99 percent owned by Holding Deportiva (in which Quirarte has 41.5 percent shares) while the other 1 percent belongs to Armando Navarro, who is the sole general administrator of Juegos y Espactaculos.” Quirarte was quoted later in the story that “All I want is to reach a fair agreement for the good of the team, the fans and the league.”

Puebla Pericos owner Pepe Miguel

    That “fair agreement” may be the sale of the Charros, something Quirarte says he's willing to do. Ballesteros writes that two sources from within the State of Jalisco government are saying that businessman Jose “Pepe” Miguel (aka The King of Beans) was interested in possibly purchasing the Charros, something that the owner of the Mexican League's Puebla Pericos denied in a letter to Puro Beisbol.

    Miguel bought the Pericos franchise in 2019 after it was one of four LMB franchises brought back from contraction on orders from newly-elected Mexican president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. While the other three revived franchises (Aguascalientes, Laguna and Leon) have all resumed bleeding red ink, Miguel's Pericos drew well at the gate in 2019 and their resuscitation has been a success thus far, with Miguel's proactive approach in reaching out to fans in the colonial city deserving much of the credit.

    The open conflict between the two men whose success in Guadalajara has been recognized by the international baseball community appears to be thankfully coming to an end. No matter how things play out, however, both Armando Navarro and Salvador Quirarte deserve much credit for bringing a tailender winterball franchise to a city that had never previously embraced baseball and making sure the team not only survives, but thrives.

MEXICAN LEAGUE, ESPN 3-YEAR DEAL FORMALIZED

ESPN to stream LMB games for 3 years

    With days to go before the 2021 season opens, the Mexican League has reached an historic agreement with ESPN which includes the 2021, 2022 and 2023 seasons. ESPN's carriage of LMB games will reach millions of fans in Mexico, Latin America and the Caribbean, according to a joint press release. Terms were not announced and there was no mention regarding availability of of Mexican League games to viewers in North America. ESPN gave exposure to Korea Baseball Organization games last year while Major League Baseball's season was placed on hold until late July due to the Wuhan virus.

    LMB president Horacio de la Vega said, “We are very proud to have reached this agreement so that the Mexican League can be seen on ESPN's multi-platform screens, which will bring us closer to the most fervent fans and will also allow us to conquer new followers and (why not?) inspire the next generation of baseball players in Mexico.”

    The head of the LMB highlighted the visibility that ESPN gives to the largest baseball league in Latin America, where hundreds of Mexican, American, Dominican, Venezuelan, Puerto Rican, Panamanian, Colombian and many other nationalities take the field.

    "At ESPN, we are very happy to be part of this new stage of baseball in Mexico," said Gerardo Casanova, Head of Sports for the Walt Disney Company in Mexico. "We are proud to expand our relationship with the LMB, home to many of the best players in Mexico and Latin America, and as a brand, ESPN is leading the way in bringing baseball content from the region to fans across the continent."

ESPN executive Gerardo Casanova

    ESPN's coverage will include both regular season and playoff matchups. In all, 150 regular season games will be broadcast on ESPN's signal, including 14 games per week: Two on “online channels” every Thursday and Saturday, and 12 carried digitally via the ESPN app during the regular season. In the final phase of the campaign, there will be full series of Playoffs, including the opening rounds, Division Championships and the Serie del Rey in September.

    “Our alliance with ESPN is a home run with the bases loaded because today, it is essential to reach beyond people television,” concluded de la Vega. “The way of consuming sports content has evolved and that's how we've understood it. We want to reach a large audience through the different platforms that ESPN offers us.”

    The Mexican League season opens Thursday night when the defending champion Monclova Acereros host rival Monterrey in a single game. The rest of the LMB will begin play on Friday.

ROBERTO OSUNA, OLIVER PEREZ TO PITCH IN LIGA

Roberto Osuna returns to Diablos

    A number of players with years of MLB experience will be playing in the Mexican League this summer, and two more veteran pitchers have come to terms with LMB teams while a former All-Star infielder may also appear south of the border in 2021.

    Right-handed closer Roberto Osuna will be back in Mexico City on the team he made his pro baseball debut with as a 16-year-old in 2011. Osuna appeared in 13 games for the Diablos Rojos that year, mostly as a reliever, and went 0-1 with a 5.49 ERA. He was signed by Toronto in September 2011 for $1.5 million, of which all but $375,000 went to the Diablos (the signing bonus rules have since been changed by MLB more in favor of the player).

    The nephew of former MLB reliever Antonio Osuna made the jump from Class A to the Jays' 2015 opening day roster as a 20-year-old and went on to be named to the American League All-Rookie team that season. The younger Osuna posted 30 or more saves three times between 2016 and 2019, appearing for the AL in the 2017 All-Star Game and leading the junior circuit in 2019 with 38 salvados.

    Osuna was not controversy-free during his six-year MLB career, however. He was unavailable for a game with Toronto in 2017 due to an anxiety disorder, for which he received counseling from a psychologist. One year later, he was arrested and charged in the assault of the mother of his 3-year-old child. MLB handed down a 75-game suspension retroactive to the day of the alleged incident, during which the Jays traded the closer to Houston. Osuna went on to pitch for the Astros in their 2019 World Series loss to Washington, but arm problems shortened his 2020 season and he could not find any takers on the free agent market during the last off-season despite holding a showcase event in the Dominican Republic.

    Another reliever born in Sinaloa, Oliver Perez, has signed with the Tijuana Toros after earlier turning down an assignment to Class AAA by the Cleveland Indians. Perez made five appearances from the bullpen for the Tribe this season and allowed no earned runs, although he lost his only decision on April 17 in Cincinnati when he entered a 2-2 game in the bottom of the tenth and gave up an RBI single to Tyler Stephenson that plated automatic runner Sean Doolittle from second base.

    The 39-year-old lefty's time with Cleveland marked his 19th season in MLB, a record for Mexican-born players. Like Osuna, Perez cut his teeth in the Mexican League, although his 11 games with Yucatan in 2000 (going 3-2 with a 4.36 ERA for the Leones) came a year after he'd signed a contract with San Diego as a 17-year-old and appeared in 15 games for the Padres' Arizona Rookie League club.

Oliver Perez in World Baseball Classic

    Perez eventually reached the majors with San Diego in 2002 and went on to a star-crossed career in which he's pitched for eight teams, reaching the double-digit mark in wins three times, going 2-0 over 11 games in four postseasons and earning over $67 million during his MLB career (including a three-year, $36 million contract with the Mets signed in 2009). However, he's also battled control problems and injuries and was unconditionally released by the Mets before the 2011 season despite having another year and $12 million left on his contract. At that point, Perez' career was at a crossroads and he signed a minor-league deal with Washington and essentially started over with Class AA Harrisburg that year.

    At the suggestion of Nats' pitching coordinator Spin Williams, Perez reinvented himself as a relief pitcher after having been a starter in 196 of his 205 MLB games. He worked his way back to MLB with Seattle in 2012 and has exclusively been a middleman ever since. Perez is expected to come out of the bullpen for Tijuana manager Omar Vizquel and is being mentioned as a potential candidate for Mexico's Olympic team at the Tokyo Summer Games this year.

    One more former big leaguer who may play in the Mexican League is three-time All-Star second baseman Brandon Phillips, who recently uploaded an image of the Oaxaca Guerreros presenting him as a new team member on his Instagram account. Phillips spent part of the 2019 LMB campaign with the Guerreros' “big brother, the Mexico City Diablos Rojos, for whom he hit .267 with three homers and 15 RBIs over 36 games.

    A Georgia native, Phillips debuted in MLB with Cleveland in late 2002 after spending several seasons in the Montreal system. He played sporadically with the Indians and spent much time in the minors before being traded to Cincinnati at the beginning of the 2006 campaign. He became a mainstay in the Reds lineup for the next eleven seasons, averaging 17 homers and 17 steals and batting .279 en route to All-Star Game selections in 2010, 2011 and 2013 as well as four Gold Gloves at second base.

    The Reds traded Phillips to Atlanta prior to the 2017 season, picking up $13 million of the $14.5 million he was owed on the last year of his contract. Phillips was dealt that September to the Angels and signed as a free agent with Boston in February 2018. However, he only played nine games with the Red Sox, spending most of the year in the minors, and was let go following the season. After playing with the Diablos in 2019, he played eight games last year with the Baseball Brilliance team in something called the Yinzer Baseball Confederacy (a four-team collection of players from independent leagues playing all games in Washington, Pennsylvania) as well as a trio of exhibition games with the Frontier League Lexington Legends.

PIONEER LEAGUE TEAM TO CARRY ACEREROS PROSPECTS

Monclova to send prospects to Colorado

    A Pioneer League team in Colorado Springs, the Rocky Mountain Vibes, has entered an agreement with the Mexican League's Monclova Acereros to host some Acereros' minor leaguers this season. The Pioneer League was initially formed in 1939 and operated continuously operated from 1946 until last year, when the pandemic caused the suspension of the schedule. During the offseason, Major League Baseball decided they'd be better off without 42 minor league teams as affiliates, after which the Pioneer League (which had been a Rookie circuit since 1963) being forced into Independent status, although they have the dubious honor of being an MLB “partner.”

    The Vibes were created by an earlier shakeup of minor league teams owned by the Elmore Sports Group in 2019, who shifted the AAA Colorado Springs Sky Sox to San Antonio after 30 years in the Pacific Coast League and then moving the Helena Brewers to Colorado Springs to fill the void in the city of 478,221. A Name the Team contest was held, but “Rocky Mountain Vibes” was chosen despite not being one of the five finalists (among which were Rocky Mountain Oysters, Colorado Springs Happy Campers and Colorado Springs Punchy Pikas). The Vibes went 32-43 their first season in 2019, drawing 137,296 to finish second to Ogden in the PioL attendance derby.

    Acereros owner Gerardo Benavides called the player-sharing arrangement with the Vibes a necessary step. “From the moment I made the decision to buy a Mexican League team, I knew what was needed to maintain it,” he said. “It was very clear to me that to win championships, it was necessary to develop talent. That is why we bet and trust in this challenge of exporting our prospects to a high-level league such as the Pioneer League.”

Colorado Springs baseball stadium

    Monclova sports manager Jose Melendez echoed Benavides' sentiments. “We as a club always have the vision of growth and of supporting prospects in their development,” said Melendez. “With the break of last season and the current one in our development leagues, we were fortunate to find the opportunity to play them in this renowned league partnered with Major League Baseball.”

    For his part, Vibes team president Chris Jones said in a press release, “We are beyond excited to begin a historic and what we all hope to be a very long affiliation and relationship with the Acereros of Monclova. Big thanks to Jose Melendez with the Acereros, the Elmore Sports Group and the great Colorado Springs community.”

    The Pioneer League will serve as a laboratory for MLB in 2021 with experimental rules in place for the coming season, including a home run derby to decide winners of games that are tied after nine innings.

MARIACHIS ADD 2-TIME MVP CASTILLO TO ROSTER

Jesse Castillo batting for Guasave

    The brand-new Guadalajara Mariachis are looking to make a splash in their inaugural Mexican League season. However, while adding prominent players to their roster, they've created a logjam for themselves at one position. According to Roberto Espinosa of Beisbol Puro, the Mariachis have picked up veteran first baseman Jesse Castillo after already signing longtime LMBer Saul Soto and former major league All-Star Adrian Gonzalez, who also play the initial hassock.

    While the threesome would have the potential to belt a combined 75+ homers in a full season for the Jalisco squad (if each was healthy and played every day), even if they split time between first base and designated hitter, someone would be sitting because the 42-year-old Soto hasn't caught a game since 2016, the 38-year-old Castillo has played three games at third base since 2015 and Gonzalez (who turns 39 next month) last played the outfield in 2012. It might make the most sense to rotate the three between first and DH over the upcoming 66-game season, meaning each would play 44 times, but it remains to be seen whether any would be willing to sit every third day.

    Castillo comes with some risk after missing all of the 2019 LMB season due to a blown knee suffered when he was rounding first base while batting for Monclova during the Fall 2018 North Division championship series. The Mexicali-born slugger did play winterball in Venezuela during the 2019-20 campaign and with Guasave last season in the Mexican Pacific

League before being named the LMP Finals MVP and belting a homer and driving in five runs for Culiacan as a reinforcement in the Caribbean Series, so it does appear that his bat is back in shape. Castillo was training to play for Leon last spring before the Wuhan Virus-caused pandemic led to the Liga's 2020 season being canceled.

    Prior to his injury, Castillo may have been the most feared hitter in the Mexican League between 2015 and 2018. Over that timespan, the 6'1” lefty swinger never batted below .324 while leading the LMB with an aggregate 557 hits, 315 RBIs and 322 runs scored. He was second with 108 doubles and 293 walks while belting 66 homers to rank sixth in the loop en route to winning consecutive MVP trophies in 2017 and Spring 2018. In other words, he has legitimate bonafides. But so do El Jefe (Soto) and El Titan (Gonzalez).

    With the start of the Mexican League's shortened schedule less than six weeks away, Guadalajara manager Benji Gil will have to determine what kind of balancing act he'll have to use in the regular season over the next two months. If he goes with the three-man, two-position rotation mentioned above, the trio would at worst be fairly well-rested heading into the playoffs in early August.

ACEREROS, TECOS TO PLAY TWO EXHIBITIONS IN SAN ANTONIO

Danny Espinosa at Acereros camp

    Two Mexican League teams will be playing a pair of exhibition games in San Antonio later this month when the defending LMB champion Monclova Acereros take on the Dos Laredos Tecolotes. The games will take place Thursday, April 29 and Friday, April 30 at Nelson Wolff Stadium, home of the Class AA San Antonio Missions, a San Diego Padres affiliate.

    The Acereros will have a major league look on their roster, starting with their manager. The American League's 1992 Rookie of the Year, Pat Listach, took the reins of the team during the 2019 season and led them to the city's first Mexican League pennant 45 years after Monclova's debut season. One of Listach's coaches is former Phillies second baseman Juan Samuel, a three-time National League All-Star. Then there's the Monclova playing roster.

    Former Cubs World Series shortstop Addison Russell signed with the Steelers last month and another big name is reportedly on the way for 2021. Russell will be joined by outfielder Rajai Davis (who played for Cleveland against Russell's Cubs in the 2006 Fall Classic), first baseman Chris Carter (2016 National League home run champion), Erick Aybar (former American League All-Star) and Bartolo Colon, the AL's 2005 Cy Young Award winner. The Acereros have also picked up former Nationals infielder Danny Espinosa, who is slated to play at shortstop while Russell moves over to third base in initials plans for the upcoming season.

    The Tecolotes will not have nearly the same star power as Monclova brings over the Texas border. The biggest name on the Dos Laredos roster may well be their manager, former pitching star Pablo Ortega. A 44-year-old Nuevo Laredo native, Ortega retired in 2019 after 19 seasons in the Liga, finishing with a 156-101 career record and a 4.41 ERA along with 1,119 strikeouts over 2,072 innings pitched. He reached double figures in wins seven times (five times between 2008 and 2012), pitched in six All-Star Games and was the LMB Comeback Player of the Year in 2011. Ortega served as interim manager last winter in Mazatlan, where he led the Venados to a winning record and a Mexican Pacific League playoff berth after replacing Juan Jose Pacho, but will not be back for the 2021-22 season.

Dos Laredos 1B Balbino Fuenmayor

    Ortega's charges will include a pair of former MLBers from Brazil. Outfielder Paulo Orlando was a member of Kansas City's 2015 American League pennant-winning team as a rookie while fellow Andre Rienzo pitched for the White Sox and Marlins between 2013 and 2015. Both spent time in the Mex Pac with the Obregon Yaquis last winter.

    Some familiar names in Mexican baseball dot the Tecos roster. The border team recently dealt for veteran Oaxaca centerfielder Alan Sanchez, a 2017 All-Star and .305 batter since his 2010 Liga debut. Orlando and Sanchez will be joined in the outfield by Roberto Lopez, who was the 2017 Serie del Rey MVP after leading Tijuana to the pennant that year. First baseman Balbino Fuenmayor, who hit .334 with 31 homers for Dos Laredos in 2019, is back in Mexico after finishing the winterball season in his native Venezuela. One notable member of the Owls' roster is pitcher Luke Heimlich, the Pitcher of the Year in 2018 at Oregon State, who went 8-7 with a 4.58 ERA over 21 starts with the team in his 2019 pro debut.

    Game times in San Antonio for the series will be 7:05PM both night. Ticket prices for the exhibition games will range from $10 to $30 each.

SIXTEEN MEXICANS ON MLB OPENING DAY ROSTERS

Oliver Perez in 19th MLB season

    The Mexican contingent that opened the 2021 Major League Baseball season this month consisted of 16 players. While Oliver Pérez is adding a 19th MLB season to his resume, eight other players of Mexican descent had their first experience on a big league Opening Day roster, including brothers Luis and Ramón Urías.

    The Urías brothers are not the first Mexican-born pair of siblings to open the season on a Major League Baseball roster. Adrián and Édgar González, Mexicans born in California, did it playing for the San Diego Padres in 2009. In the case of Oliver Pérez, he will continue to set the record for most seasons by a Mexican in MLB, In 2020, he passed Fernando Valenzuela, Aurelio Rodríguez and Juan Gabriel Castro, who participated in 17 calendars in The Show.

    Eight of the 16 players who opened the season in the Major Leagues experienced an Opening Day at that level for the first time: José Urquidy (Houston), Giovanny Gallegos (St. Louis), Alejandro Kirk (Toronto), Luis Urías (Milwaukee), Ramón Urías (Baltimore), Víctor González (Dodgers), Río Ruiz (Baltimore) and Felipe “Tres” Barrera (Washington). Last year, Urquidy and Gallegos were scheduled to start the campaign with their teams but the pandemic prevented that from happening.

    The number of 16 Mexicans opening the 2021 MLB season is the most since the same number was recorded in 2017, but still far behind the record of 24 Mexican nationals on Opening Day rosters in the 2003 campaign.

MEXICAN NATIONALS ON 2021 OPENING DAY ROSTERS:

Baltimore infielder Ramon Urias

Felipe “Tres” Barrera (Washington Nationals)
Luis Cessa (New York Yankees)
Phillip Evans (Pittsburgh Pirates)
Giovanny Gallegos (St. Louis Cardinals)
Victor Gonzalez (Los Angeles Dodgers)
Alejandro Kirk (Toronto Blue Jays)
Oliver Pérez (Cleveland Indians)
Daniel Ponce de León (San Luis Cardinals)
Sergio Romo (Oakland Athletics)
Rio Ruiz (Baltimore Orioles)
Joakim Soria (Arizona Diamondbacks)
Julio Urías (Los Angeles Dodgers)
Luis Urías (Milwaukee Brewers)
Ramón Urías (Baltimore Orioles)
José Urquidy (Houston Astros)
Alex Verdugo (Boston Red Sox)

PEGUERO TO REJOIN NARANJEROS THIS SEASON

Francisco Peguero, Yadier Hernandez, Mike Kickham

The Hermosillo Naranjeros last Friday announced their three allowable foreign-born players for the upcoming Mexican Pacific League season, including a Dominican outfielder who's become one of the top hitters in both leagues south of the border in recent seasons.

Francisco Peguero will be back for a third winter with the Orangemen after coming to terms with the team. Last season, Peguero hit .337 with seven homers in 33 games for Hermosillo but it was his initial 2018-19 LMP campaign that raised the most eyebrows among observers. That year, he hit .352 to edge teammate Jasson Atondo by one point on the final day of the season for the Mex Pac batting title. Peguero also finished fourth in the circuit with 44 RBIs and tied for tenth with six homers over 54 games.

The former San Francisco Giants gardener has had a greater impact during the summer in the Mexican League. Peguero debuted with Quintana Roo in 2015 and hit .294 with 16 homers for the Tigres. After a postseason trade to Monclova, he batted .311 with 15 homers for the Steelers in 2016. That was enough to earn a 2017 contract with the Toyama GRN Thunderbirds of the independent Baseball Challenge League in Japan, where he set a season record with 114 hits. Peguero then spent part of 2018 with the NPB Chiba Lotte Marines' farm team (hitting .277 with nine homers in 50 games) before returning to Monclova in time for the LMB's Fall season, and that's when he really hit his stride.

During that truncated 56-game season, Peguero batted .368 with 13 homers and 60 ribbies and was named the Liga's Most Valuable Player for his efforts. The 6'0" right-hander followed that up with another terrific season for the Acereros in 2019, belting 31 homers, driving in 106 runs and hitting .380 as Monclova went on to win their first pennant in 46 years of existence. He's expected to help anchor the middle of the Hermosillo batting order for manager Juan Navarrete.

Also joining the 32-year-old Peguero with the Naranjeros this year will be Cuban outfielder Yadiel Hernandez and American pitcher Mike Kickham, both of whom also played in Hermosillo in 2019-20. Hernandez debuted at 21 with his hometown Matanzas team in 2009-10 and hit .328 during the Cuban National Series that winter. He spent six seasons with the Cocodrilos, batting .324 with 53 homers over 514 games before defecting to the U.S. while playing against college teams in North Carolina in April 2015.

Francisco Peguero batting for the SF Giants

The Washington Nationals signed Hernandez for $200,000 a year later and he's since spent three summers in their farm system, batting an aggregate .301 and crashing 63 homers despite his 5'9" frame. Hernandez had a banner year with Fresno in the AAA Pacific Coast League last year with a .323 average, 33 homers and 90 RBIs and was a Nats non-roster Spring Training invitee this year. The 32-year-old hit .336 for the Naranjeros last winter, finishing second to Los Mochis' Isaac Rodriguez for the batting title, while his .462 on-base percentage (thanks to an LMP-best 50 walks) was tops in the Mex Pac. As with Peguero, the lefty-batting Hernandez will likely be a middle-of-the-order batter for the Orangemen this winter.

Kickham was a teammate with Peguero when both played for San Francisco in September 2013 (each spent parts of two seasons with the Giants) after signing as sixth-round draft pick out of Missouri State University in 2010. The 6'4" lefty spent five years in the Giants system before the Chicago Cubs picked him up on waivers after the 2014 season. That began a baseball odyssey during which the Cubs traded the 31-year-old to the Mariners a month after acquiring him. Kickham ended up pitching for four different organizations (Mariners, Rangers, Marlins and the Giants once more), plus a 2016 stint with Kansas City of the independent American Association. He was a 2017 Southern League midseason All-Star pitching for the Marlins' AA Jacksonville farm club.

In 2019, Kickham went 5-5 with a 4.27 ERA splitting time between the starting rotation and the bullpen for the Marlins' AAA affiliate in New Orleans, and was a non-roster invitee at the Boston Red Sox training camp this year before the Wuhan virus halted the baseball baseball season in its tracks. He made his first appearance in Mexican baseball last winter for Hermosillo and was outstanding, going 4-2 with a 1.97 ERA in seven starts, and will likely be in manager Navarrete's rotation this winter.

LMB WOULD HAVE OPENED TO EMPTY BALLPARKS IN 2020

Mexico's pandemic "traffic light" system

According to a story on the SeptimaEntrada.com website, the Mexican League would have started their delayed 2020 season playing in empty ballparks if they'd moved forward with their tentative plans for a shortened schedule. Instead, conditions brought on by a pandemic that has spread across Mexico caused LMB president Horacio de la Vega and the loop's team owners to cancel the season instead.

In hindsight, that turned out to be a wise decision. Septima Entrada writer Irving Furlong reports that when the abandoned August 7 opening day arrived, all 16 Liga teams were located within 14 states that had "red" or "orange" designations under Mexico's so-called Traffic Light system determining what type of activities will be allowed while the pandemic remains a problem. According to the system, a red traffic light means a maximum level of restrictions is applied, allowing only activities deemed essential and no public gatherings, while an orange traffic light indicates a high level of restrictions with some easing from red standards.

Given that sporting events at which fans would be allowed to attend will only be allowed in yellow-light (medium security) or green-light states (low security), along with longterm uncertainty in virus management, the LMB announced their better-safe-then-sorry decision to call off the 2020 season on July 1 with an eye on readying for a 2021 schedule.

According to Furlong, among LMB North franchises, only Tijuana and Aguascalientes were in orange-light states on August 7 while the remaining six teams operate in red-light states, including three in Nuevo Leon: Monterrey, Monclova and Union Laguna. Things were a little better in the LMB South, where Puebla, Tabasco and Yucatan were the only three teams in red-light states. In all, nine Mexican League teams were in red-light states while the remaining seven clubs were in orange-light settings.

Mexican Ministry of Health undersecretary Hugo Lopez Gatell said that as long as red or orange traffic light restrictions were in effect, professional sporting events could only take place behind closed doors. De la Vega said in an interview that it was not feasible to play without an audience in the stands, since around 60-70 percent of the income of LMB clubs comes from the box office and the general sales inside stadiums.

In addition, Furlong says de la Vega told Septima Entrada prior to the decision to cancel the season that teams not receiving governmental authorization to open their gates to fans for games might have chosen to sit out the season regardless of what was decided on a leaguewide level, making the LMB a short circuit (so to speak) this summer. Ultimately, all 16 team owners reportedly agreed that conditions made calling off the schedule the only prudent choice they could make.

PEREYRA: OLIVER PEREZ HAS ADJUSTED, SURVIVED

On July 26, Oliver Perez pitched in relief late in a game for the Cleveland Indians against Kansas City. The trip from the Tribe bullpen was his first in 2020, marking the eighteenth season he's appeared in a Major League Baseball game. That makes him the longest-serving Mexican player in big league history, breaking the record of 17 seasons he'd shared with Fernando Valenzuela, Juan Gabriel Castro and the late Aurelio Rodriguez.

Proceso.com.mx writer Beatriz Pereyra interviewed Perez after the historic event and talked about how the Culiacan native has had to adjust his approach to pitching and life to still be pitching in the majors long after his 2002 debut with San Diego. We repeat the translated column in its entirety here:

October 3, 2010. Last game of the season. The New York Mets face the Washington Nationals at home, both in the basement of the NL East. Mexican Óliver Pérez comes in to pitch the 14th inning of a game tied at one run apiece.

It's been 27 days since the left-hander has left the bullpen. Since May he has not been in the starting rotation. Not even as a reliever did the Mets use him. All season he has swallowed the boos of New York fans who deride his disastrous performances.

After striking out the first batter, Perez, the first player from Culiacan to reach the major leagues, gives up one hit. Unable to throw strikes, he walks two. Full house. Another base on balls. The winning run scores. Thirty pitches, of which only 11 were strikes. Óliver Pérez leaves the field of play under a rain of complaints. Final score: Washington 2, Mets 1.

At the end of the season, the Mets fired manager Jerry Manuel and general manager Omar Minaya, the one responsible for giving a three-year, $36 million contract to Oliver Perez, the left-handed pitcher who was completing his fifth season with the team (ninth in the majors) and who, after he signed for that amount, the saints turned their backs on.

The team also released the Mexican. The Mets board didn't mind paying him the $12 million they still owed him as long as he left. There would be no 2011 for Óliver Pérez in New York, where the press berated him periodically and reporters hounded him every day like wasps with stinging stings.

"It was very painful,” says Oliver. “Even if you are making millions, they come and tell you: 'We don't want you here anymore, get off the team!' It's very ugly. You feel like the smallest being on Earth; you want to hide because you think that everyone looks at you with hatred. I could have said: 'I'm staying, I have a contract,' but I'm not a conformist. I put up with that season and at the end, I continued preparing.”

July 26, 2020. Third game of an atypical season due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The Cleveland Indians host the Kansas City Royals in a duel of teams from the American League Central Division. The Mexican Óliver Pérez enters to pitch in the seventh inning of the game that the locals are winning 8-2. The southpaw is part of the relief corps, which in baseball is known as a "situational pitcher." He won a contract for this year because in 2019 he exceeded 55 appearances by participating in 67 games.

After teammate Carlos Carrasco allows a double, manager Terry Francona sends Pérez to restore order. He strikes out two opponents and the third rolls out to first base. Fifteen pitches, nine were strikes. Óliver Pérez leaves the field and his teammates congratulate him in the dugout. Final score: Cleveland 9, Kansas City 2.

With this performance Pérez became the first Mexican player to reach 18 seasons in the Major Leagues. A pale shadow remains of that tall player who made his debut with the San Diego Padres on June 16, 2002 at 20 years and 305 days. He is no longer that 97 mph fastball shooter who can strike out 239 opponents in one season.

Effort and perseverance

The 671 games in which Pérez has participated –195 as a starter and 476 as a reliever– and the 1,441 innings he has thrown have helped him to learn that skill is better than strength, that in baseball not everything is joy, that you learn to get up after you fall, that sacrifices have rewards, and that if you have to go down to the Minor Leagues there, you have to start over again.

“It's an honor to have played all this time,” Perez remarks. “What I've been through has not been easy. I've wondered in recent months how important this record is. All the Mexicans who have stepped into the Major Leagues must be an example for the new generations, to show who we are and telling children that everything is achieved with effort and dedication, even if there are stumbling blocks. "

This year, Pérez should be celebrating the start of his 19th season in the majors, but the setback he suffered left him out during 2011. That year he spent with Harrisburg, the Washington Nationals' AA farm team where he trained alongside of boys between the ages of 18 and 20 who looked at him from the bottom up because he was a major league player.

There, among kids, Pérez rebuilt himself with the help of Rafael “El Paisa” Arroyo, the Mets bullpen catcher whom he first befriended and now both call each other brothers. With his experience managing pitchers although he never played in the major leagues, Arroyo (a Los Angeles-born Mexican-American) took on Oliver's problems.

Arroyo witnessed how, with the Mets, Pérez's fastball lost speed, topping out at 89 MPH. He believes Perez misplaced security and trust. It didn't matter that Oliver arrived early, trained hard and was always ready to get on the mound. Fortune abandoned him. Together, they began to train with barbells and gym equipment, ate better and discussed in long conversations why they could not correct their course.

“I had tendinitis in his right knee in the leg I land on after every pitch,” says Perez. “One must land with the tip of the foot forward and mine fell horizontally. At the moment of turning the foot, the knee twisted. Imagine that for 100 pitches, over who knows how many games? One day it had to give. They were three very difficult years (from 2008 to 2010). That happened to me by not saying that I wasn't well and insisting on playing.”

For this reason it altered his pitching mechanics. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't get out of the pothole. The Mets asked Perez to go to the minor leagues to try to compose himself. The player, thinking that to qualify for a pension he must accumulate 10 years of service in the Major Leagues, exercised his right of refusal.

His agent, Scott Boras, famous for landing clients multi-year contracts in exchange for millions of dollars, advised him not to agree to leave the roster of 25.

After the Mets released him, he went along with Arroyo, first to Phoenix and then to Culiacán. In the midst of family support, he tried to get ahead. Before the start of the 2010-11 season of the Mexican Pacific League, he trained to be fit and play with the Tomateros, but he was booed there too. He still couldn't find the strike zone and opponents were hitting him.

“I had to start from scratch. I had no team and that's when Washington caught me in 2011 to go to the minors. I felt the taste of the game again. I was with young kids and I also felt like a kid at 29 years old. That motivated me. They called me a leader and copied how I trained. I had a good season and that helped make Seattle notice me in 2012."

Great support

In his eagerness to help Oliver, Rafael Arroyo searched for videos of when he played for San Diego. He wanted to understand why his fastball had lost speed. He found that to compensate for the pain in his knee, the Culichi stooped down and that changed the angle of his arm and took away his strength. It took a lot to correct it. Barbell training, jogging on Camelback Mountain in Phoenix and shedding a few pounds also helped.

“Oliver gained strength and confidence, increased the speed of his fastball and started the rumor that he was in shape and ready to return,” says Arroyo. “Seattle gave him the opportunity to be a reliever and he did great because having to face fewer batters using fewer pitches, he could throw more than 97 MPH.”

In June 2012, just 10 years after his major league debut, Pérez returned to San Diego with the Seattle Mariners to face the team that opened the doors for him for the first time.

“It was watching the game go round. Everything was perfect. His family was there. Confidence is very important in this game and when you're not pitching regularly, you start to doubt. You have no control of the ball. You are not well physically, mentally nor emotionally but when you adjust, everything works,” explains the ex-catcher, now a physical trainer for other Mexican major leaguers such as Luis Cessa and Julio Urías.

Two seasons with Seattle led to one-and-a-half with the Arizona Diamondbacks, a few months with the Houston Astros and two more with the Washington Nationals, where he became a left-hander specializing in dominating left-handed hitters. The idea came from pitching coach Spin Williams, with whom Pérez worked in his early major league days with the Pittsburgh Pirates. Back then, Williams recommended that the Nationals sign him for the Minors in 2011.

The advice couldn't have been better. “You have a very good arm. You throw really well against lefties,” advised Williams, “so go to the bullpen and learn how to dominate lefties.” Perez eventually pitched for Washington in the 2016 and 2017 campaigns.

Statistics show that starting in 2012, when the average speed of his fastball was 94 miles per hour (with peaks of up to 97), Pérez began to challenge left-handed hitters by putting the ball in the center of the plate and not on the inside corner like he used to.

His rate of home runs allowed for every nine innings has also decreased, which is paradoxical because the trend in the major leagues has been for pitchers to give up more and more home runs. Pérez also stopped regularly using his sinker, a weapon with which lefties dominate right-handed hitters.

As of 2018, when he arrived with with the Cleveland Indians, it was clear how Oliver Pérez began to throw the slider more and depend less on his four-seam fastball. By becoming a left-handed specialist, he discovered that that power is what dominates lefties. He recognized that he could prolong his career by making these changes.

“You have to study everything you can face,” says Perez. “Right now we have all the statistics. The teams give you everything and you have to take advantage of it because that helps when you go up the hill. It makes sense: They told me that the percentage of being hit by the slider is lower than if I throw fastballs. That's why I took it. All of us, pitchers and hitters, have a lot of information and we have to study the situations that I face.

The Fastball Pitcher

In 2012, Pérez began throwing his fastball at the highest vertical launch point of his career. To put it in simpler terms: he stopped bending over – his knee injury gone now - and straightened his back. Those mechanics were used until 2017. That year, he lowered the angle of his left arm to make things uncomfortable while facing lefties.

Beyond the advanced statistics, his own experience leads him to make other types of adjustments that he invents.

Pérez fervently believes that both his fastball and the slider can be varied if, for example, before throwing home he pauses, shorter or longer, depending on who he is facing or, on the contrary, if he throws fast he sometimes lifts his leg up or down. He says he's reading hitters and wants to break their rhythm.

One day, in a game in Culiacán, he had to face a player who hit foul balls 13 times. Annoyed at being unable to get him out with a 94 MPH fastball, Perez lifted his right leg and suspended it in the air for three seconds and struck the hitter out. He improvised on that occurrence to see if that way he could dominate his rival.

“I want them to not get into the rhythm if they are waiting for the fastball,” explains Perez. “I take away their strength and I break their timing. I always think about how to decrease the possibility of giving up solid contact. Little by little I was inventing it. Sometimes a hitter gives you 10 fouls and you have to improvise those things.”

Perez only needs to play and win in a World Series to go debt-free to baseball. He has spent every fall of his career watching these games on television. He doesn't want to retire without the delight of having a championship ring, hopping on the field while colored paper rains down on him and dousing himself with champagne in the dressing room.

“Something I would like is to be the oldest player in the major leagues,” Perez says. “When I came up in 2002, I was the youngest in the entire league. I want to be there when a player born in 2002 makes his debut.”

Ahead of Pérez, who turned 39 on August 15, the player with the most campaigns in the Major Leagues in 2020 is the Dominican Albert Pujols. At 40, Pujols is completing his 20th season. The Los Angeles Angels' first baseman made his debut in April 2001 with the St. Louis Cardinals. Perez admits that every season is a little tougher than the one before:

“We go year by year. I try to take better care of myself and eat healthier because if I have extra weight, my knees, ankles, and back hurt. Now I think about reaching season 20. Who knows if in 2021 I will have a contract? There is no other Mexican in any sport who has been active for so many years although when I wake up, everything hurts."