BENJI GIL NAMED MEXICAN OLYMPIC TEAM MANAGER

Mexico's Olympic manager Benji Gil

    In the wake of the surprising ouster of Juan Gabriel Castro as manager of Mexico's Olympic baseball team without public explanation less than two months before the start of the Tokyo Summer Games, Benji Gil has been appointed as the team's new skipper.

    The Tijuana-born Gil had a playing career that included eight seasons in the major leagues, including a berth on the 2002 World Champion Anaheim Angels. He spent seven summers in the Mexican League and was a member of Monterrey's 2007 champions, while also playing several seasons of winterball in the Mexican Pacific League (winning four pennants and two Caribbean Series with the Culiacan Tomateros).

    After retiring as an infielder, Gil went into managing and has led Culiacan to four Mexican Pacific League pennants since the 2014-15 season. He's come under some fire for not winning a Caribbean Series title, but teams still have to be champions to compete for one. Gil is in his first season of managing a Mexican League team and has piloted the expansion Guadalajara Mariachis to a 14-6 record over three weeks, good for a first-place tie with defending champion Monclova in the LMB North.

    The announcement was made by the Mexican Baseball Federation (FEMEBE) last week. FEMEBE is ostensibly charged with overseeing national teams but some baseball journalists in the country have in effect called it a figurehead organization, claiming that the ProBeis federal agency headed by former MLB and NPB player Edgar Gonzalez wields the real power in the Mexican game.

    Gil steps into a landmine-filled situation following the firing of both Castro and Olympic Team GM Kundy Gutierrez, who had steered Mexico to a berth in Tokyo by winning the Premier12 tournament's group stage at Guadalajara and then qualifying for the Olympics with a third-place showing at the medal round in Japan in November 2019. No reason was given for the move and nobody has stepped up and taken responsibility for the move. 

    Castro and Gutierrez had both publicly criticized the National Commission on Physical Culture and Sports (CONADE) for withholding funds meant to cover the baseball team's travel expenses during the trip to Tokyo. CONADE is led by former Mexican Olympic runner Ana Guevara, who was appointed to her post by president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador shortly after the latter had assumed office. Guevara and AMLO have both been members of the same political party, with Guevara serving as a senator under the banner of that party. Some speculation is that the ousters of Castro and Gutierrez were retribution for their criticism of CONADE and Guevara, who has been mired in allegations of job-related corruption for the past several months.

CONADE director Ana Guevara

     Another school of thought is that the firings were directed from the ProBeis office after Castro was publicly cautious regarding the desire of Edgar Gonzalez' younger brother Adrian to go to Tokyo after not playing since 2018. While the hiring of Gil, who manages the same Guadalajara that Adrian Gonzalez plays for, raised a few eyebrows and led to speculation that the appointment virtually assures that El Titan will make the trip to Japan. It should be noted that Gutierrez has been a longstanding friend of the Gonzalez family and that his firing would be unlikely to have been instigated by Edgar Gonzalez. In short, only the principles know for sure and a promised public airing of the situation by Castro has yet to happen.

    While Gil might appeal to the 30+ players who took their name out of Olympic consideration in protest of the firings, he'll have a chance to look over some of the remaining candidates next weekend when Mexico hosts exhibition games against the Dominican Republic and Venezuela at Estadio Alfredo Harp Helu in Mexico City. The game against the Dominicans is set to take place Saturday, June 19 while Mexico will host Venezuela the following afternoon.

    A poll taken by Puro Beisbol before Castro's ouster showed that 52.5 percent of respondents believe that Mexico will not win a medal in Tokyo. Another 26.7 percent are predicting a Gold medal, 14.4 percent foresee a Bronze and 6.4 percent see Silver in Mexico's future. Six nations will compete in Olympic baseball this year. The sport is being discontinued after Tokyo.

RIELEROS SKIPPER HITS PLAYER, BOTH FINED AND SUSPENDED

Rieleros SS Richy Pedroza

    The Aguascalientes Rieleros have struggled on and off the field for years. The Mexican League team has won just one pennant and two division titles since their 1975 debut, played before sparse home crowds at aging Parque Alberto Romo Chavez and lost money on an annual basis. Last August, Rieleros players forced to sit after the 2020 season was canceled on July 2 asked Liga president Horacio de la Vega for financial assistance that had been promised to players and umpires by the LMB office. In short, the Railroaders are perennial also-rans, one of many franchises with that status.

    Given that history, the 2021 season has begun in expected fashion for the team. Monclova's 48-year-old Bartolo Colon became the oldest player in Mexican League history to pitch a complete game Saturday night by tossing a 6-2 home win as the Rieleros lost their fourth in a row to drop to 7-11 and seventh place in the eight-team LMB North. Colon gave up two runs on five hits and struck out seven in going the distance to raise his own record to 3-1.

    Things are never pleasant when a team's season appears to be going bad early but as befits a club from a city named Aguascalientes (meaning “hot waters”), things reached a boiling point in the visitors locker room after the game, when Rieleros manager Luis Carlos Rivera punched former Cal State Fullerton infielder Richy Pedroza, who'd sat out the contest. Photos of a bruised Pedroza circulated on the internet later during the weekend.

    Blanca Cisneros of ABC Noticias reported that the manager lost control and that “players affirm that Richy did nothing to provoke this situation and that he did not respond to the attack.” One Aguascalientes player, third baseman Michael Wing, posted a Tweet stating “Punching players now...what a joke.”

    On the other hand, the Mexican League office handed down one-game suspensions and fines of approximately 14,170 pesos (or about USD$714) to both Rivera and Pedroza. The LMB said Rivera was being punished for hitting Pedroza while the latter was sanctioned for “violating the regulations in team facilities, including insulting the manager.”

Michael Wing's postgame tweet

    The 5'6” Pedroza was batting .241 after playing shortstop and going 1-for-3 with a walk and scoring a run from the leadoff slot in Friday's 15-3 drubbing at the hands of the Acereros. A 29-year-old switch-hitter from Covina, California, Pedroza was a 17th-round pick by St. Louis in the 2013 draft and played all or part of three seasons in the Cardinals system before being released early in the 2015. He landed in Aguascalientes the following season and has been with the Rieleros since, batting .283 with 260 runs scored over 412 total games. Pedroza's best season in the LMB was in 2019, when he hit .310 with 28 doubles and 104 runs scored in 111 games under then-manager Felix Fermin.

    The 42-year-old Rivera is a Chihuahua native who spent part of the 2000 season pitching six games for Atlanta and Baltimore, going a combined 1-0 with a 1.23 ERA after five years in the Braves' organization. Although he was ranked the fifth-best prospect in the Orioles system in 2001, the 6'3” righty didn't pitch that year or the next before his release in 2003. He later surfaced in the Mexican League, where he pitched until 2010 and spent his last four seasons with his hometown Chihuahua Dorados. Before his hiring in Aguascalientes prior to the canceled 2020 campaign, Rivera managed Leon for both Spring and Fall seasons in 2018 and registered 27-29 and 26-28 records.

    The Rieleros front office had yet to issue an official statement on the incident or suspensions as of Sunday.

LMB TEAMS ON TIGHTER BUDGETS AFTER LOST 2020 SEASON

Proceso writer Beatriz Pereyra

    The Mexican League's 2021 season is coming on the heels of their canceled 2020 schedule due to the pandemic and for many (if not most) of the LMB's 18 franchises, year after year of red ink dominating their profit/loss statements before that.

    Beatriz Pereyra of Proceso penned a report detailing how teams have been cutting expenses in an attempt to stop the bleeding. Here is a Google translated portion of her report:

    The pandemic caused by Covid-19 has left a trail of millions in economic losses among the owners of the clubs of the Mexican Baseball League but, at the same time, it has opened the the door to an unprecedented increase in the number of former major league players and the expansion from 16 to 18 teams that will play a schedule shortened from 120 to 66 games, plus the playoffs.

    Depending on the club and the percentage of fans with which they will be allowed to play at home, the economic blow can amount to 70 million pesos. In addition, they must invest in the application of anti-covid protocols which can increase operating expenses in up to 3 million pesos.

    To resist negative impacts, teams took drastic measures such as cutting player salaries by 20 to 50 percent, cutting back office staff, hiring interns and bartering with sponsors via publicity in exchange for service delivery.

    The payroll of players of the Yucatan Leones, owned by the Arellano brothers, which was 79 million pesos in 2018 (the year in which they were champions), was reduced to 43 million in 2019. Now the pandemic forced them to adjust it to 16 million for 2021.

    The team created a financial analysis that included the players, sponsors and even Yucatan's state governor, Mauricio Vila. The document indicates that they still lack 29.8 million pesos to operate the season, a figure that is reduced to 21.8 million if the team is allowed to play with 40% of the capacity at Estadio Kukulcán.

    “We believe that with this reduction in the cost of payroll we will move forward,” says Leones president Juan Jose Arellano. “If conditions improve, we can adjust and raise them. We explained that to the players and they understood it perfectly. They know that not playing all of last season made it difficult for us. Although we did not play, we helped them with their maintenance because if a player does not play, he does not generate income.”

    The days of the “fat cows” are over, when operating for a season cost the team more than 100 million pesos. In 2021, spending on jobs exceeds 53 million. Another of the items sacrificed will be that of player development, which fell from 14 million in 2019 to 8 million during 2020 and 2021.

    “We are also going to reduce travel costs and in whatever way we can because last year's losses were stratospheric,” added Arellano.

    So it is that even one of the LMB's more solid second-tier franchises behind the top tier of Monclova, Tijuana, Monterrey, Mexico City and Oaxaca (the latter two owned by billionaire Alfredo Harp Helu, one of Mexico's richest men) has had to drastically cut expenses in an attempt to likewise cut their losses as a result. If the Yucatan Leones have had to tighten their belt in such a fashion, how are franchises already operating on the margins like Tabasco, Leon, Laguna and Aguascalientes going to tighten belts that have already run out of notches?

NEW STADIUM ON DRAWING BOARD FOR YUCATAN

      A new, privately-financed, solar-powered multipurpose stadium is being planned for Yucatan with a targeted opening of Spring in 2023. Estadio Sostenible (“Sustainable Stadium”) is projected to seat 23,000 for baseball's Yucatan Leones of the Mexican League and 27,000 for soccer's Yucatan Venados FC of the Liga Expansion MX, a new semipro circuit that hopes to open this fall as a replacement for the financally-plagued Liga Ascenco (which had been Mexico's second-tier soccer league until folding last winter). Concerts will hold 32,000 attendees. Stands will be portable to allow configurations for various events.

    The site of the state-of-the-art facility has not been determined, although the Merida area (which currently serves as home for both the Leones and Venados FC) is all but certain. A related announcement is expected by the end of 2020. Yucatan governor Maurico Vila Dosal presided over last Wednesday's press conference revealing the project and said, “We are creating a world-class project which will generate more than four thousand jobs during its construction phase. When it begins to operate, it will generate more than a thousand permanent jobs.”

   According to a Leones press release, Estadio Sostenible Yucatan will be “the best stadium in Mexico,” with a shopping center, hotel, restaurants and museum, all inspired by the Mayan culture. The estimated cost will be 2.2 billion pesos, or about US$104 million. The company reportedly making the investment will be New York-based Juego de Pelota, which was represented at the press conference by founder Cesar Octavio Esparza Portillo and operations director Jose Antonio Tellez.

    Leones co-owner Erick Arellano said, “This is great news for lovers of baseball and any sport, it is something we were looking for since we took command of the team, now we can be satisfied that Yucatan will have a stadium at the height of its fans. With this, we will seek to bring in Major League Baseball games since we will have one of the best stadiums in the world.”

   Although Merida is considered one of the LMB's most stable franchise sites, it wasn't always that way. The original Leones entered the Liga in 1954 and won their first pennant in 1957, but only lasted through 1958 before the team moved to Veracruz the next season. Yucatan's second Mexican League team lasted five seasons between 1970 and 1974 before that version of the Leones shifted west to Villahermosa in 1975 and became the Tabasco Olmecas. The current iteration of the Yucatan Leones returned in 1979 and have played continuously since, winning six LMB South championships and three Serie del Rey titles.

    The team's current home stadium, the 14,917-seat Parque Kukulcan, was opened in 1982 and is considered one of the nicest ballparks in the LMB as Yucatan annually ranks at or near the top in attendance. In 2019, the Leones drew 520,350 fans to 60 home games for an average of 8,673, ranking third in the Liga (and all minor league baseball) behind only Tijuana and Monterrey.

TWO PROSPECT LEAGUERS SIGN CONTRACTS WITH MLB TEAMS

New Padres prospect Jose Reyes

       Under the auspices of the federal ProBeis agency, the Prospect League is wrapping up its second short season in Guadalajara as a showcase tournament for many of the country's top young ballplayers. Participants are hoping the event, which is attended by scouts from most Major League organizations and several American colleges, leads to either a contract with an MLB or Mexican League team or a scholarship offer from north of the border. Two such players had their dreams realized last week.

    Team Cantu pitcher Jose Reyes, a Mexicali native in his second summer in the Prospect League, has signed a contract with the San Diego Padres. Reyes, who turned 18 last month, is a 6'2” righthander who tips the scales at 190 pounds and can reach 89-92 MPH on the radar gun and, according to MLB.com's Jesse Sanchez, also includes a slider and change in his repertoire.

    The AlBat.com website quotes Padres scout Emmanuel Rangel as saying about Reyes, “We've followed him for a long time and we like the way he works on the mound. His speed is very good, his breaking pitches have a very good rotation and we believe that with his discipline, he can go a long way.” Reyes, who has left Guadalajara to join his hometown Aguilas in training camp, says, “Another of my dreams is coming true. One of them was to belong to the Mexicali Aguilas and now I am fulfilled by belonging to a Major League organization.”

    The other Prospect Leaguer to ink a deal is Team Castro outfielder Alejandro “Alex” Osuna, brother of Houston Astros closer Roberto Osuna. The younger Osuna, a Los Mochis product, has come to terms with the Texas Rangers.

Rangers sign Alex Osuna

   Osuna ranked second among the Prospect League batting leaders this summer, his first in the loop, batting .467 with 13 RBIs over his first 12 games. Along with his twin brother Pedro, Alex signed with the LMB Monclova Acereros on February 7 of last year as part of older brother Roberto's 24^th birthday celebration. The winterball rights to all three Osunas are held by the Mex Pac's Jalisco Charros, who are hosting the Prospect League this year.

    Alex Osuna is no stranger to American baseball. The 5'9” 17-year-old has received a “9” grade from the Perfect Game organization, which rates young players from across the continent. His left arm is strong for an outfielder, with his throws clocked as high as 86 MPH. Not surprisingly, he's done some pitching. While not especially tall, Osuna has a compact build and is considered a very good line-drive batter with some power to right field.

    With two games remaining on the 15-game Prospect League schedule, Team Juan Gabriel Castro was running away with the regular season crown with a record of 9-4-0, well ahead of Team Jorge Cantu at 5-6-2. Team Joakim Soria (4-5-4) was in third while Team Oliver Perez was fourth at 3-6-4. A pair of three-game semifinal series will run Tuesday through Thursday this week, followed a three-game championship set Friday through Sunday.

RAMOS BREAKS KBO SEASON HOMER RECORD FOR MEXICANOS

   When LG Twins slugger Roberto Ramos crashed a home run against the Lotte Giants early last week, it was his 31st of the Korea Baseball Organization season, setting a single-year KBO record for Mexican-born players. The old record was held by former MLB outfielder Karim Garcia, who socked 30 roundtrippers for the same Lotte Giants in 2008.

    The Twins were trailing, 10-1, when Ramos stepped up to the plate in the top of the third inning on September 7 in Busan. Facing Giants starter Park See-Woong with a man on base, Ramos took one pitch for a ball before launching a Park delivery for a high-arcing drive over the wall in right-center field that landed on an exit to a tunnel for his record-breaking longball. The Twins ended up losing the contest, 12-6.

    After a red-hot start to his first season in Asia in which he was leading the KBO with 13 homers while sitting in third place in both batting average (.391) and runs batted in (31), Ramos missed a few games in June with back and ankle pain. While he's regained his home run stroke and his 70 RBIs lead the team, his average has dropped to .250 since returning to the Twins lineup. The team dropped a pair of games to the Samsung Lions over the weekend to fall to 59-45-3 for the season, but are still in a good position to earn a playoff berth in third place just three games behind the co-leading NC Dinos and Kiwoom Heroes.

    Born and raised in Hermosillo, the 25-year-old Ramos moved to San Fernando, California prior to his junior year of high school and hit .429 with 11 homers as a senior. Bypassed in the 2013 draft, he enrolled in College of the Canyons in nearby Santa Clarita and played one season of Juco ball, batting .317 with seven homers for the Cougars in 2014. That was enough for Colorado to draft Ramos in the 16^th round that June.

    The 6'3” first baseman-outfielder went on to spend six seasons in the Rockies system, batting .292 and belting 98 homers over 496 games. Ramos had a banner 2019 for AAA Albuquerque, hitting .309 with 30 homers and 105 RBIs in 127 contests, earning midseason PCL All-Star honors. Despite his impressive numbers and a lack of power at first base with the parent club, the Rockies traded his rights in January to the LG Twins, who then signed him to a reported one-year, $500,000 contract (according to South Korea's Yonhap News Agency).

    Ramos is one of three imports on the Twins roster, joining former Padres pitcher Casey Kelly and ex-Orioles hurler Tyler Wilson.

RIELEROS PLAYERS ASK LMB FOR FINANCIAL HELP

Aguascalientes players celebrating a homer

Mexican baseball players are waiting out their summer of Wuhan virus-induced inactivity due to the canceled Mexican league season until they're able to suit up for the anticipated Mexican Pacific League season openers in mid-October. A number of them, however, are reaching the financial breaking point while trying to feed, clothe and house themselves and their families. While many, if not most, players are still waiting for promised assistance from the LMB franchises, one group has tired of empty promises and are appealing to the Liga office in Mexico City directly for help.

According to PuroBeisbol.com editor Fernando Ballesteros, players and coaches for the Aguascalientes Rieleros have written a letter to LMB president Horacio de la Vega seeking aid from the league office because the Railroaders has failed to do so. When the Liga announced on July 2 that they were cancelling their season for the first time in the loop's 95-year history, players and umpires were promised by de la Vega and the 16 LMB franchises that they would receive financial support throughout the summer. Instead, the only teams that have reportedly followed through are the Mexico City Diablos Rojos and Oaxaca Guerreros (both owned by billionaire Alfredo Harp Helu), although there may be others helping their players.

At the time of the announcement, the player assistance seemed a tall order for many of the LMB teams that typically operate on a proverbial wing and a prayer. One of the reasons the 2020 schedule was called off was the likelihood that fans would not be allowed inside ballparks to watch games, taking away the primary source of revenue in a circuit lacking large-scale sponsorships that bring in enough money to at least partially fill the monetary void that would be created by empty ballparks. While a handful of Mexican League teams like the Diablos, Monterrey, Monclova and Yucatan might have enough cash reserves to help their players, the majority of franchises like Aguascalientes simply lack the funds to do so.

When calls have been made in the past for LMB contraction, the Rieleros are usually one of the teams mentioned. Ever since Aguascalientes was first awarded a Liga franchise in 1975 (the current team marks the Railroaders' third incarnation), the city of 832,712 residents has only hoisted one pennant (1978) and more often resides near the bottom of both the standings and attendance tables.

Day game at Parque Alberto Romo Chavez

Last year was no different, as the Rieleros finished 12 games out of the playoffs, coming in sixth in the eight-team LMB North with a 54-65 record, while drawing 2,001 fans per game in 56 dates at 74-year-old Parque Alberto Romo Chavez for a total attendance of 112,077 on the season, 15th in the league (only Campeche attracted fewer patrons). Aguascalientes has averaged 3,000 or better in attendance twice since making their latest return to the Liga in 2012.

Aguascalientes does have some well-respected veterans on their roster like third baseman Michael Wing, catcher Carlos Rodriguez, 2017 LMB Pitcher of the Year Nestor Molina and future Salon de la Fama slugger Saul Soto, but the club is traditionally one of the most undercapitalized in the Mexican League and low revenues prevent bringing in top talent needed for a contending team.

While expectations the Rieleros were low even before the pandemic crossed the Pacific Ocean and scuttled the season, things are reaching critical mass with the team. Ballesteros quotes the letter, which was leaked to Puro Beisbol, as telling de la Vega "We are aware of the serious situation the world is going through, but we appeal to your support so that in some way we can be creditors of a loan or salary advance in order to be able to financially solve the needs of our families before everything returns to normality.”

The letter was signed by all the Aguascalientes players and coaches, including new manager Luis Carlos Rivera, who pitched for both Atlanta and Baltimore in 2000. Rivera managed Leon in 2018, turning in a 53-57 combined record for the LMB's two abbreviated seasons that year and reaching the playoffs in the Spring campaign.

MAYOS HOPING TO BRING BACK TAIWANESE PITCHER

Hu Chih-Wei pitching for Navojoa last year

Like every other team in the Mexican Pacific League, the Navojoa Mayos are figuring out who will comprise the three foreign players they're allowed for the upcoming 2020-21 season. Although team owner Victor Cuevas has confirmed that the Mayos will open the schedule with returnees Juan Perez (a ex-reds minor league who hit 23 homers for Saltillo in 2019) and former White Sox first base prospect Keon Barnum joining a newcomer, left-handed pitcher Mitch Lambson, who has been a starter the past four summers with Winnipeg of the independent American Association after being a reliever in the Astros system).

A fourth import listed as a reserve for Lorenzo Bundy's team will be coming the farthest to play for Navojoa if he gets the call. Taiwanese pitcher Hu Chih-Wei impressed the Mayos last winter in a short spell despite losing his only decision, turning in a 1.50 ERA with 13 strikeouts while walking only two batters over 18 innings in three starts. The 26-year-old righty is staying home for the time being after testing positive for the Wuhan virus but the team has remained in close contact with him.

Although he is a native of Taichung, home of the Chinese Professional Baseball League's Chinatrust Brothers, Hu has never pitched professionally in his homeland (although he did help Taiwan to a Silver medal at the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea. By then, he was already pitching in the Twins system after signing with Minnesota in August 2012 as an international free agent at age 18.

Midway through the 2015 season, Hu was dealt to Tampa Bay and he went on to represent the Rays as the only Asian product on the World roster at the 2016 All-Star Futures Game in San Diego. That year, he went on to lead the AA Southern League with a 2.59 ERA pitching for Montgomery and was named a postseason All-Star.

Hu is all smiles after 2017 MLB debut with Rays

Hu made his MLB debut with Tampa Bay on April 24, 2017 by tossing a perfect eighth inning during a 6-3 loss at Baltimore. He went on to finish with six appearances for the Rays, all in relief, and won his first big league game on the road over the Yankees on September 28, hurling a frame in the Ray's 9-6 triumph as Tampa Bay scored seven times in the fifth inning. The 6'0" 243-pounder finished 2017 with a 1-1 record and a 2.70 ERA in ten MLB innings, spending most of the year with AAA Durham.

After a 2018 campaign in which he was primarily a starter at Durham (although he did pitch five more times for the Rays, going 0-0 and 4.15 while striking out 12 over 13 innings), Hu was traded to Cleveland for second baseman Gionti Turner. His experience with Tampa Bay personified the capricious nature of baseball, as Hu was recalled to the Rays no fewer than eleven times in 2017 and 2018 while being optioned back to AAA an equal number of times before he was shipped to the Tribe.

That began another odyssey of sorts for Hu, who spent time in both the Indians and Cubs organizations last summer (going 3-7 with a 7.74 ERA for four teams at the AAA and AA levels) prior to signing a free agent contract last December with San Diego, who assigned him to AAA El Paso with a slot at the Padres' training camp as a non-roster invitee. Hu returned to Taiwan when he wasn't named to the Padres' taxi squad after training camp was halted, the minor league season suspended and MLB schedule delayed due to the virus.

PROSPECT LEAGUE OPENS SECOND SEASON

As we saw last month in a translated Proceso article, it's been a trying couple of years for Mexico's Probeis and director Edgar Gonzales. The former MLB and NPB infielder was building a successful post-playing career as a Mexican Pacific League manager and team executive before getting tabbed by Mexican president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador to head the federally-funded Probeis program to build baseball from the grass-roots level up. However, as Gonzalez told Proceso's Beatriz Pereyra, much of the funding has not been made available due to Mexico's legendary bureaucracy and the San Diego native (who grew up in Tijuana) been forced to fly by the seat of his pants ever since.

Which has to make the opening of a second season for the Mexican Prospect League (or LPM) that much sweeter for Gonzalez, who's seen enough go wrong since last year to have a heightened appreciation for when things go RIGHT.

The four-team LPM kicked off its 30-day schedule last Thursday with a doubleheader at Estadio Charros in Guadalajara, where the loop will play all games in 2020. The teams are named after four contemporary Mexican baseball figures: Juan Gabriel Castro, Jorge Cantu, Oliver Perez and Joakim Soria.

The LPM is designed to attract the attention of talent-seekers from colleges, MLB and other baseball organizations, dozens of whom were on hand last week. Organizers held a Showcase last Wednesday, a day before the one-month season began. It put 120 players between the ages of 14 and 18 from across Mexico on the field displaying their physical skills through on-field testing and drills.

Play opened the next day as the Cantus topped the Castros, 8-6, in the first game behind the two hits, two RBIs and one run scored by Heber Villalobos. Tadeo Alejandro Osuna, younger brother of Houston Astros closer Roberto, had three hits for the Castros, scoring one run and driving in another. In the nightcap, the Sorias shut out the Perezes, 9-0, with starter Roque Gutierrez earning the win in the two-hitter.

LPM action last Thursday in Guadalajara

Teams will play 15-game regular season schedules through Saturday, September 12, with daily doubleheaders Thursdays through Sundays followed by instruction sessions Mondays through Wednesdays. After an All-Star Game on Sunday, September 13, the LPM will hold three days of playoff semifinal doubleheaders from Tuesday, September 15 through Thursday, September 17. A two-day Final will be held Friday, September 18 and Saturday, September 19, followed by closing ceremonies on Sunday, September 20.

All LPM games will be streamed live and archived free of charge through the World Baseball Softball Confederation's channel on the GameTime website.

According to a story on SeptimaEntrada.com, the LPM "intends to build a successful platform for young baseball players with professional prospects to represent Mexico with dignity. The aim is for this development system to be the most effective in Mexican baseball and to become a benchmark model at the national and international level.

"The mission is to produce a summer league with a professional environment, which brings together the best prospects in the country to transmit academic-sports knowledge that decisively contributes to their personal and professional development."

PROBEIS IS NOT BEING GIVEN PROMISED MONEY

Writer Beatriz Pereyra of Mexico City's Proceso magazine recently produced a special report detailing the travails undergone with a federal program designed to develop Mexican baseball at the grassroots level, particularly in prospect development. The largest problem appears to be funding. A translated version of Pereyra's report follows:

Everything indicates that for the second time, the program for the Promotion and Development of Baseball in Mexico (Probeis), whose funds are managed by the Secretary of Public Education (SEP), will not be fully implemented. Édgar González, director of that office, assures that the pandemic paralyzed everything and although he strives to forge alliances, prepare plans and enable sports centers to apply the 290 million pesos (US$12.8 million) assigned for this fiscal year, the authorities tell him that "when it is the right time, they will speak to me. There is nothing left but to wait."

The Covid-19 pandemic has paralyzed Probeis, which to date has not spent even one of the 290 million pesos assigned for 2020, so for the second consecutive year it will have a shortage of resources.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador also did not authorize the creation of a trust so that public money can be exercised by this means and not through the SEP Senior Office.

“This year we have not exercised anything,” González says. “The SEP has made it difficult to get the money out and now, with the coronavirus, it is more complicated. No bids have been made. I wanted to get ahead in the administrative area so that once we return to work we will use the money. They have not wanted to do them (the bidding rules) and that causes me a lot of problems because when the confinement ends, I will have three months to operate.

“There is no way I will spend 290 million pesos in that time. Then they will tell me that the only way is through direct adjudication. I do not want to make direct awards, but it is the only thing that will be possible,” regrets González.

The difficulties to operate the program began since the director of the National Commission for Physical Culture and Sport (CONADE), Ana Gabriela Guevara, refused to distribute Probeis resources in 2019.

For this year, when he was willing, the president did not want the money to reach this dependency that the SEP pointed out because he detected acts of corruption that in just the first half of 2019 left a loss of 50.8 million pesos (US$2.2 million).

For months, González tried to persuade López Obrador of the need to create a public trust to streamline the Probeis operation. Even the Legal Department of the Presidency designed the document –of which Proceso has a copy– which also considered the marching and boxing commissions, sports that operate with programs outside of CONADE.

However, López Obrador did not authorize it. During his campaign, he promoted the eradication of public trusts, considering them opaque and nests of corruption. With the presidential decree to extinguish those that do not have an organic structure and, later, with the reform initiative that Morena promoted in the Chamber of Deputies to eliminate 44 others, it became clear to González that Probeis will not operate with this scheme.

“He (López Obrador) does not know that with a trust, it is the easiest way to operate, but he put the trusts in the balance and if he was going to remove them all, he would not even create one for Probeis. I am waiting for him to tell me what I have to do. 'The pandemic has been the priority' is what they told me when I asked for a meeting.

“He told me that when the time is right, he will speak to me to tell me how I am going to operate. There is nothing left but to wait. I understand the president because there have been much mismanagement of trusts, but we are left with no concrete way to operate. We have to ask Hector Garza (SEP head) for favors,” says González resignedly.

Probeis' troubles

Probeis leader Edgar Gonzalez

To build four baseball schools during 2019, Probeis signed agreements with Campeche, Jalisco, Quintana Roo and Guanajuato. They also did it with Hermosillo, where the federal government bought Estadio Héctor Espino for 511.7 million pesos (US$22.5 million) with resources from the Banobras National Infrastructure Fund public trust. The renovations in this property began this year, but were interrupted by the quarantine.

González has not only found that the bidding processes take up to four months before the bidding rules are available on the CompraNet portal, but once the SEP sends the money to the states, Probeis does not have the personnel to review and follow up on the work.

“When the money reaches the state,” González explains, “it is theirs and they do with it what they want. You have to be aware and it is difficult to follow up. The only way to do it is with the SEP, with agreements and tenders. Thus everything is limited. What you want to do is one thing, what you can is another. I get it: They want people to not take advantage of the budget but at the same time, the goals cannot be achieved.”

Other states such as Yucatan and Tabasco received federal resources of 11 million pesos each (US$485,000), but they returned the money to the Treasury of the Federation because it arrived almost at the end of last year, when it was already impossible to carry out the work.

Around 100 people work at Probeis, of which only six are hired by the SEP. One of them is González, who as a public servant since January 2020 had earned a net salary of 88,550 pesos (US$3,900) over five-plus months. The rest of the employees charge by the job and fees. In March, when confinement began due to the pandemic, they had not even received the payment corresponding to the first quarter of the year.

Immediate plans

Eighteen months after Probeis started, González boasted the four aforementioned schools, whose first phase of construction has already concluded. They lack details such as paint, finishes and sports equipment.

The official hopes to get them started this year. The works that had been stopped by the pandemic resumed just last month. He hopes that soon the children and young people will be able to train in the afternoons after doing their homework on the premises, an essential requirement to practice baseball in the Probeis program.

Thus, it also expects that the projects of the T1-level schools (equipped with dormitories), whose works are scheduled for Mexico City and Monterrey, will start this year. In the second case, he is already in talks with the Governor of Nuevo León to contribute 60 million pesos (US$2.6 million). Probeis will put another 35 million pesos (US$1.5 million). This will be the largest academy in the country, with a capacity for 200 players.

“Let's see what can be rescued from that.” says González. “The plan is also to start the construction of another small school in Mexicali, finish the one in Hermosillo and start the other four that I told you about, with 11-15 million pesos (US$485,000-660,000) invested in each one.

“I met with the mayor of Azcapotzalco, Vidal Llerenas, and there is a place in a sports hall that has a giant space for a school. He is ready and willing to help us with the terrain. There is another option in Gustavo A. Madero. We are waiting for Claudia Sheinbaum to tell us in which of the two,” he says.

In addition, Probeis plans to build other schools in Playa del Carmen, Puerto Vallarta and in La Paz or Los Cabos; that is, in tourist complexes where tournaments and events such as showcases can be held so more scouts can come to see the prospects.

In order not to spend building schools in Oaxaca and Mazatlán, where the owners of the Mexico City Diablos Rojos and Oaxaca Guerreros (Alfredo Harp Helu) and the Yucatan Leones (the Arellano brothers) have their academies, González asked them to allow him put Probeis players to train there in exchange for a monthly payment.

“I already had talks with them and we are working on it,” González explains. “We pay for the boys we have, they carry out the project, we lower costs for them and we do not spend on buildings. That is also planned for this year. The best thing would be for them to say that they want it and that they support me.”

To carry out the Prospect League in Guadalajara in 2019, Probeis asked the 16 clubs of the Mexican League to lend to their best players. From there, he considers that he has already built a bridge with them to work together.

So far, in its talent screening program, Probeis has evaluated 6,600 children. With the information gathered, González is creating a database in which the strengths and weaknesses of Mexican children and youth can be consulted.

The results show that although, for example, arm strength is at a high level, in other skills, such as running speed, they are below average. Also, physical preparation is poor. That, he says, could explain why Mexico exports so many pitchers and not position players to the Major Leagues.

The idea is to store the data of the leads in an application in which the progress in their performance will be updated. That information will be available for scouts to follow up on. González adds that he will create a collegiate league in the country so that players can obtain scholarships at universities in Mexico and the United States.

Conversation

Intended beneficiaries of Probeis' mission

González is told that the detection of talents to be sold as prospects to the major league clubs is in direct competition with the LMB teams, which could generate conflicts.

The director of Probeis clarifies that in the Mexican League, they do not see it that way, that both parties are aware that it costs a lot to develop players and that the money obtained from the sale does not justify the investment.

“The theme is to develop together. I am in talks with MLB and the LMB so that every child who plays baseball in Mexico from now on also attends high school and that the teams pay them,” he adds.

Because he is the son of David González, owner of the González Academy in Tijuana, where they develop players to sell them to the MLB, and brother of major league player Adrián González, Édgar is said to have a conflict of interest. In the academy, his father does the same as the director of Probeis.

Q: You say that there are no more frictions with the LMB, but I suppose that you are no stranger to the comments that Probeis will take prospects from the LMB teams. That has generated annoyances.

A: “I don't want to fight with them. I want them to do their best because that way, there will be more children playing baseball. I already presented a project on how to help them generate money. It is not that Probeis will give them money, but that the government supports them to generate it.

“I told them (the team owners) that if there are 300 prospects, they keep the best 150 and the others are mine, so they train some and I train others. I want the players to have opportunities. What matters to me is that those who sign are trained well and given school.”

Q. What would you say about the comments indicating that you'll take advantage of Probeis to sign prospects that you will actually send to the González Academy so that your father can sell them to MLB?

A. “I've heard it. I'm not worried because that's not happening. I don't even get into the academy. As I have said, the academy is losing money. Let them show me how many and whom I scouted with Probeis and took them to the González Academy.”

Q. It is also pointed out that you intend to do business with the signing of baseball players for Major Leagues by charging a commission for providing the service of representation of players. Are you going to make money from that?

A. “Not at all. You try, yes, but I don't. This money is public to continue operating, even if the government changes. I don't think it's wrong for Probeis to get 30% of the signing bonus, as the LMB teams do. The player needs that because they don't even know how much they are worth and so they don't get fooled.”

Other projects that were pending prior to the Covid-19 pandemic are the physical preparation and food consultancies that Probeis will offer to players who are already signed with MLB teams to develop faster in the Minor Leagues.

They also could not send the 36 Mexican coaches who were selected in the 12 clinics that were held to train with MLB teams.

“The level of the coaching is very low,” Gonzáles says. “They have no technical knowledge of how the body works, how it should be trained. There are no schools where coaches are taught; they do what they can with what they know.

This report was published in issue 2277 of Proceso.

UPDATE: CARIBBEAN SERIES MOVED TO PANAMA

After a week of speculation concerning whether the Caribbean Series would be played in Barquisimeto, Venezuela as planned, the Caribbean Professional Baseball Confederation (CBPC) announced Monday that the annual tournament has been moved from the strife-ridden nation to Panama City, where it will be held between February 4-10 at Rod Carew National Stadium, a 27,000-seat ballpark completed in 1999.  The event is being pushed back two days from its original February 2 start to allow organizers more time to put things together while completing the tournament in enough time for Major League Baseball minor leaguers to report on time to spring training camps in Arizona or Florida.

For the first time, six national champions will be represented at the Serie del Caribe, including the new host Herrera Toros, who are presently playing in Veracruz at the Latin American Series as titlists from the Panamanian Professional Baseball League, aka Probeis.  Other teams set to converge next week in Panama are the Santurce Cangrejeros (Puerto Rico), Orientales Estrellas (Dominican Republic), Lara Cardinales (Venezuela), Las Tunas Lenadores (Cuba) and either the Jalisco Charros or Obregon Yaquis, who are in the middle of the Mexican Pacific League championship series.

Rod Carew National Baseball Stadium, Panama

Although Panama is a last-minute Caribbean Series entry, the country is no stranger to the crown jewel of Latin baseball.  The Central American nation was one of four charter participants in the 1949 Serie del Caribe along with Cuba, Venezuela and Puerto Rico.  The Carta Vieja Yankees won the 1950 CS under manager Wayne Blackburn as Panama took part in the first twelve tournaments and hosted it three times before new dictator (and former pitcher) Fidel Castro pulled Cuba out after the 1960 event, which was ironically held in Panama City.  That move led to the CS shutting down for nine winters before starting back up in 1970 with Mexico and the Dominican Republic replacing Cuba and Panama in the four-team lineup.  Cuba returned to the fold on a temporary basis in 2014 while Panama is one of the countries in the mix for future Caribbean Series when the six-nation Latin American Series becomes a qualifying tournament for the CS next year.

Puro Beisbol editor Fernando Ballesteros cited sources as saying both Guadalajara and Santo Domingo also expressed interest in filling in as host.

Mexico to host CS semi-annually, Panama to rejoin field

Two major changes in the Caribbean Series were approved this month by the Caribbean Professional Baseball Confederation.  The CBPC signed off on Mexico as hosts of the annual event every two years instead of the traditional four-year cycle with Puerto Rico, Venezuela and the Dominican Republic while original CS member Panama will return in 2019 as a guest participant.

Radio station CMHW in Villa Clara, Cuba reports that the CBPC has determined that Mexico will host the Caribbean Series every odd year through 2028, starting in 2019.  Guadalajara, deemed a commercial success after hosting Pool D in this month's World Baseball Classic, will likely get the nod to host the CS in two years, placing another feather in the hat of Jalisco Charros owner Armando Navarro, whose high-octane activism to bring large-scale baseball events to Mexico's Second City appears to be going well.  Guadalajara has never hosted the Caribbean Series, but 13,000-seat Estadio Charros (pictured) has more than proven itself a worthy venue.

Things get a little cloudy after that.  Mazatlan's turn in Mexico's reconfigured CS rotation is due to come up in 2021, but the aging Estadio Teodoro Mariscal and the lack of progress on a new ballpark north of the Zona Dorado tourist area have combined to make the Pearl of the Pacific a questionable site in four years.  If a new ballpark isn't built or extensive Mariscal renovations completed by then, Mazatlan stands to miss their turn as CS host.  Mexicali would be next up in the Mexican cycle, followed by Hermosillo, Culiacan and now Guadalajara.

The scheduling format change came about after the CBPC determined that the other three nations in the host rotation lag well behind Mexico in terms of commercial viability for various reasons.  Cuba only returned to the CS in 2014 and has not hosted the event since then.  Radio Artemisa in Cuba reports that acting national baseball commissioner Yosvani Aragon says enough documentation and money are on hand to become full members of the CS (perhaps hosting as soon as 2021), but "everyone knows that behind all this is the U.S. government and the blockade" for Cuba's failure to host, a point of view echoed by CBPC president Juan Francisco Puello in Prensa Latina, the official state news agency of the island nation.

Also approved by the CBPC was the inclusion of Panama as guests in the Caribbean Series, starting in 2019.  Panama was one of the four original CS teams when the tournament began in 1949, winning the title one year later.  However, the CS went dark after Fidel Castro pulled Cuba out in 1960, and neither Cuba nor Panama returned when the event resumed in 1970.  Mexico and the Dominican Republic were admitted to fill out the four-nation field.  Puello says that Professional Baseball League of Panama (or "Probeis") officials will need documentation to indicate their house is in order if the former U.S. possession will be allowed to field a team at Guadalajara in 2019.

Probeis is a four-team circuit that began play in 2011.  Three of the four clubs share 27,000-seat Estadio Nacional Rod Carew in Panama City, a $25 million facility that opened in 1999.  Probeis sends its pennant-winning team to the Latin America Series, a de facto AA version of the Caribbean Series that also includes champions from Nicaragua, Colombia and Veracruz, Mexico (which has had its own winter league paralleling the Mexican Pacific League for years, but with a fraction of the LMP's support).  The Panama Metros represented the country at January's Serie Latinoamericana in Colombia, which was won by Nicaraguan titlists Chinandega.  Six Panama-born players appeared in MLB last season, including catcher Carlos Ruiz (now with Seattle) and infielder Ruben Tejada, currently in camp with the New York Yankees.

The next Caribbean Series is scheduled for Barquisimeto, Venezuela in February 2018.  Cuba will be back as a guest participant for a fifth time.  Puerto Rico was due to host the CS in 2019 (when Panama makes its return), but the CBPC's decision to move the tourney to Guadalajara that year pushes the Boricuans' turn back to 2020.