This Year’s Cuban League Playoffs Promise a Novel Appearance

by Peter C. Bjarkman

May 06, 2009

This should be the year for Pinar del Río and Yunieski Maya to finally celebrate a long-awaited championship.
The cherished “final act” of Cuban League baseball—post-season playoff fever—is about to unfold in all its glory, even if the scene might appear more than a bit strange to island fanatics this time around. We are now in the midst of the forty-eighth winter of national series baseball (Cuba having abandoning its one-city professional league back in 1962) and the twenty-fourth year in which an island champion will be determined by a multi-team, multi-week post-season playoff system. But this year’s playoffs carry a rather different “look” for some veteran aficionados, and especially for the multitude of fans native to the baseball-crazed metropolis of Havana. On only three previous occasions since the spring of 1985 (National Series #25) has the capital city not been proudly represented in post-season wars under the banner of the tradition-rich Industriales Blues Lions. And it is not unreasonable to expect that as a direct result this year’s event will stir less interest than normal among more than a third of the nation’s true fanatics.

The only previous playoff clashes without an Industriales entry came under the early four-team-only formats of 1988 (Vegueros, Santiago, Habana Province, Camagüey), 1991 (Camagüey, Habana Province, Henequeneros, Santiago) and 1995 (Pinar del Río, Habana Province, Villa Clara, Holguín). Since an eight-team system (complete with quarterfinals) was adopted with National Series #37 (1998), Industriales has graced the field on every occasion, and back in 2000—thanks to a rare uprising by usually tame Metropolitanos—both capital city clubs made it into the year-end festivities. Now for the first time in fourteen long years venerable Latin American Stadium will remain strangely silent when the season’s most dramatic baseball action opens in four outlying districts across the island.

But for all the apparent oddness of a baseball post-season relegated strictly to the outlying provinces, there will nonetheless be plenty in this year’s playoff picture to strike a somewhat familiar cord. For starters, last winter’s finalists—Santiago and Pinar del Río—are both back in the picture and a repeat of the March 2008 finale is thus a strong possibility. In fact, a full three-quarters of last year’s post-season field represents holdovers from National Series #47, with only Holguín (replacing Las Tunas out east) and Isla de la Juventud (substituting for Havana-favorite Industriales in the western sector) bringing any fresh blood into this year’s title showdown. Between them, Santiago (1999, 2000, 2001, 2005, 2007, 2008), Pinar (1997, 1998), Villa Clara (1993, 1994, 1995) and Holguín (2002) have claimed every one of the past 17 crowns not won by now-absent Industriales (themselves victors in 1992, 1996, 2003, 2004, and 2006).

Such repetition and imbalance is the price Cuban baseball inevitably pays for a socialist sporting system in which all ballplayers remain attached to their local provincial clubs and trading or free agency are as completely unknown on the diamond scene as are both greedy player agents and performance-enhancing chemicals. The changeless makeup of Cuban rosters guarantees deep fan loyalties while at the same time assuring less competitive pennant races.

And yet, if this spring’s playoffs will provide an odd mix of both the unfamiliar (no Industriales) and the familiar (Pinar and Santiago again reigning as the odds-on favorites), there will certainly be no lack of anticipated drama to whet a true fan’s appetite. A tense season-long two-way pennant battle between hefty-hitting Pinar del Río and pitching-rich Habana Province in the western sector—plus a three-month, three-way shootout between upstart Ciego de Avila, perennial also-ran Villa Clara, and defending champion Santiago in the eastern sector—hopefully foreshadow a full dose of tense action for the championship showdown struggles opening Wednesday evening in two western ballparks (Estadio Captain San Luis and Estadio Nelson Fernández). And the subsequent drama could well stretch all the way to June 11, if the showcase east-west finale itself ultimately lasts the maximum seven games.

The Occidental League seems the easier “call” for would-be prognosticators, although you will get plenty of heated and well-reasoned arguments from rival quarters, whether your choice is Habana with its superior mound corps, Sancti Spíritus with its powerful offense, or Pinar with perhaps the western division’s most artfully balanced attack. Only surprise-entry Isla—the one post-season qualifier in either league that failed to win more than half its matches—seems a poor bet to make it out of the first round. Yet even the Pine Cutters have their boasting points in the league’s top batsman (Michel Enríquez, finishing at a torrid .401 to wrest the crown from Yulieski Gourriel on the season’s final day) and most unlikely mound ace (44-year-old Carlos Yanes, now hurling his 26th league season). If Isla only limped into the playoffs, they were nonetheless impressive down the final stretch while holding off the futile late charge of Industriales and thus punching their own last-minute post-season ticket.

Habana Province ran away with last year’s regular season (winning 61 games) and seemed to have the pitching depth a year ago to glide unchallenged through the playoff rounds. But it didn’t quite happen that way, as weak hitting proved this club’s fatal Achilles Heel during last spring’s quarterfinals debacle versus Sancti Spíritus. This winter the pitching has been a shade less impressive, with nothing to quite rival Yulieski González’s league récord 15-0 “perfect season” (González “slipped” to a still-impressive 9-4 this time, while watching his ERA soar from 2.25 to 3.04). Last year’s ERA champ Jondar Martínez (1.55) was replaced in that department by this winter’s league pace-setter Yadier Pedroso (1.91). And with Martínez, González and Pedroso all winning an identical nine games, Miguel Alfredo González (8-4, 2.86, 101 Ks) also building credentials as the island’s best number-four starter, and Miguel Lahera and José Angel García working most effectively out of the bullpen, the Cowboy’s vaunted pitching is still the most balanced on the island. The problem is still offense, however, where Ernesto Molinet and Juan Carlos Linares are the only reliable run producers and where limited team long-ball production (54 HRs, .417 Slugging Average) fails to match division rivals Pinar (94 HRs, .458 SA), and Sancti Spíritus (108 HRs, .481 SA).

Pinar del Río limped along through most of National Series #47 (finishing at an even .500) before miraculously coming to life in last year’s post-season (easily wiping out Industriales in the opening round and then barely edging past Sancti Spíritus in a seven-game semifinal series that was last year’s unmatched post-season highlight). This winter the Tobacco Growers (inspired by new skipper Luis Casanova) have been far more impressive, and their torrid finish almost enabled them to overhaul Habana Province for the league title during the waning weeks of the season. Lazo (9-2, 2.79 ERA) is still a force on the hill and Yunieski Maya (13-4, 2.22 ERA, 146 innings) was the league’s most effective workhorse starter. Vladimir Baños (9-4, 63 Ks) has also now matured into a more-than-adequate third man in the rotation. The full lineup is potent from top to bottom with Yosvani Peraza (23 HRs, .663 SA), Donald Duarte (.330 BA, 108 hits), Rafael Valdes (.310, 104 hits, 26 doubles), and speedy lead-off man Jorge Padrón (.345 BA, 124 hits) doing most of the damage. Now playing under a popular and respected manager (Casanova replaced ailing Jorge Fuentes between seasons), and with the quarterfinals now being stretched out to a full seven-game series (a factor which favors teams with greater pitching depth), Pinar’s seasoned club is now likely to hold an upper hand against any of its western division rivals (and also against challengers from the more balanced Oriental League).

Sancti Spíritus proved surprisingly vulnerable in the season’s early going and at the mid-season World Baseball Classic recess it looked like the overmatched Gallos (Roosters) were already dead and buried. The story then changed rather dramatically. During the month of April the emboldened Gallos suddenly awoke with a vengeance, and Cepeda and company strolled down the stretch as the island’s strongest and most surprising second-half club. The question now, of course, is which one of Jud Castro’s teams will show up for the post-season tussles. There is little question about how dangerous this team is on the offensive end of the game. Freddie Cepeda (the WBC offensive hero and unanimous all-star choice) enjoyed his usual potent National Series outing (.338, 100 hits, .547 Slugging Average); and Cepeda is one of the best-ever when it comes to post-season output. Yulieski Gourriel (perhaps the island’s most underrated superstar) enjoyed his top career season, not only missing the batting crown by a whisker on the last day (he hit .399) but also crushing 22 homers and knocking home a league second-best 90 runs. Eriel Sánchez may have lost his backup catcher’s slot with the national team but he is hardly finished in the Gallos lineup (92 hits and 12 homers). Additional power and production comes from Yenier Bello (19 HRs and .550 SA), Liván Monteagudo (.328, 104 hits, 20 doubles, 17 HRs) and Yunier Mendoza (.364, 117 hits, 21 doubles). The weak link, of course, is the pitching depth. Ismel Jiménez (13-5, 4.26) enjoyed a breakout season as one of the circuit’s most reliable aces; but Norelvis Hernández (8-7, 5.12) and Angel Peña (6-4, 4.93) barely held their own in the rotation and top relievers Yaniel Sosa and Yoen Socarras were at best inconsistent. The bullpen (which also offers some strength in numbers, with Jorge Pérez, Dany González and Jorge Carbonell all boasting more than 20 appearances) will likely be credible enough behind so potent an offensive, but only one top starter (Jiménez) is not a very likely prescription for post-season success.

Isla de la Juventud represents the true “Cinderella Story” of this year’s island season, and the fact that the Pine Cutters are in the post-season at all seems like something of a minor miracle. The Isla forces have always had the toughest road to travel, as representatives of the nation’s least populous (and thus most talent-thin) corner. But this year was especially trying. Several late summer and early fall hurricanes devastated Nueva Gerona and left recently revamped Cristobal Labra Stadium without functioning electric lights. The team was thus forced to play all home contests under daylight conditions, including several morning-afternoon twin bills down the stretch run. The late-season charge to the playoffs (nipping Matanzas and Industriales in the final two weeks) was thus occasion for joyous island-wide celebrations among Isla faithful who have had little to feel very good about over the past ten months. Isla may not have much of a shot at post-season survival, but the team does carry some interesting storylines beyond the post-hurricane hometown conditions. Team Cuba third sacker Michel Enríquez roared down the stretch to overhaul Yorelvis Charles and Yulieski Gourriel for the batting title; Enríquez has now ironically won both of his hitting crowns in the immediate aftermath of the two World Baseball Classic events. Ageless Carlos Yanes (league leader for all-time losses with 230) also climbed into third slot in total career victories with 231 and now stands only three wins behind runner-up Jorge Luis Valdés. And between them Enríquez and outfielder Rolexis Molina combined for more than 70 doubles and more than 130 runs batted in. Another plus for the Islanders has been the emergence of southpaw starter Wilber Pérez who posted a solid 12-4 ledger with the league’s fifth best ERA (2.74).

From the perspective of this writer, at least, Habana Province should face little true challenge from the Isla forces, and Pinar should also survive despite a more highly competitive battle with slugging Sancti Spíritus. Isla simply doesn’t have the offensive guns to win four times (at least once on the road) against the likes of Pedroso, Jonder Martínez, Yulieski González and Miguel Alfredo González. The Gallos will likely find just enough run production in the bats of Cepeda and Gourriel to make things tense for Lazo and company; but in the end they won’t get sufficient pitching—once they have exhausted Ismel Jiménez and Noelvis Hernández—to survive for seven tense outings. A semifinal match-up between Pinar and Habana might well provide some of May’s most gripping drama. If the final week of the season is any clue, however, Pinar seems to have Habana’s number, sweeping the Cowboys by a combined score of 17-5 in three closing contests at Capitan San Luis. Although there may be some bumps and bruises along the route, especially in the series with Sancti Spíritus, I look for Pinar to fight its way back to the title round as Occidental zone champion for the second consecutive season.

The Oriental League race is a bit more difficult to call. For years now Villa Clara has often looked like the club to beat in early-season going and then has pulled its infamous disappearing act just in time for the post-season dance. This year has been no exception to the rule, the only difference perhaps being that this time around an expected late-year slide can not be attributed to the unpopular managerial style of now-departed Victor Mesa. Ciego de Avila has admittedly been the league’s most consistent force all winter long, but Ciego simply doesn’t have much of a playoff history to fall back on; the normally clawless Tigers never made the “show” even once under the four-team playoff format, and they now own a lame combined 3-15 récord in their five quick-exit post-season outings since 1998. Holguín represents the obvious long shot selection among the eastern sector quartet, and yet in a short series the gritty Perros (Dogs) might occasionally prove dangerous even if they are not consistently very frightening. Holguín’s problem is that Aroldis Chapman can not pitch every day. Santiago, the defending champion and pre-season favorite, has quietly loomed in the shadows all winter long and may now be ready to awaken (like Pinar a year ago) at just the right moment.

Ciego de Avila has to be the consensus favorite, at least on paper, and fans all across the island have to be asking “who are these guys?” Of course we all know that sporting events (especially baseball games) are never won on paper but only on the unforgiving field of play. Nonetheless, if this year’s playoff season has a rather novel appearance, that fact certainly has as much to do with the sudden emergence of the Ciego de Avila Tigers under second-year manager Róger Machado as it does with the rare absence of Industriales under rookie skipper Germán Mesa. Ciego boasts great team balance in the form of six potent bats (Yorelvis Charles, Yoelvis Fiss, Adonis García, Mario Vega, Yordanis Pérez and veteran Isaac Martínez) plus the circuit’s strongest four-man rotation outside of Habana Province (righties Valeri García and Alien Mora, plus southpaws Maikel Folch and Alfredo Unzue). When it comes to the bullpen, there is no more dominant closer in Cuba than 20-year-old Vladimir García, whose 25 saves equaled the National Series récord (set in 2002 by Orestes González, when Pinar del Río also ironically claimed an identical 64 victories). But there may be some weak spots here waiting to be exposed under the heat of post-season battle. The current crop of Tigers is largely untested in playoff waters beyond the quarterfinal round, where they failed in 2004 (swept by Santiago), 2005 (swept by Villa Clara), 2006 (only one win against Santiago), and 2008 (edged 3-2 by Villa Clara). But then none of those earlier Tigers teams (except the last and most successful) had flame-throwing Vladimir García looming out in the bullpen.

Santiago de Cuba boasts almost the exact same team fielded in 2007-08 for a previous championship run. José Julio Ruiz (last winter’s stolen base champ) has fled Cuba, but that is not itself a devastating loss given the strength of manager Pacheco’s top-to-bottom lineup featuring Rolando Meriño (24 HRs, .651 Slugging Average), Luis Navas (.320 BA), Héctor Olivera (.346, 16 HRs), Ronnie Mustelier (100 base hits), Reutilio Hurtado (.357, 105 hits) and Pedro Poll (.322, 100 hits). Alexei Bell (who last year dominated the league with his 31 HRs and 111 RBIs but this season slumped to 11 round trippers) has been suffering all year after his unfortunate plunking by Maya on Opening Day, and that may be the biggest difference between the current club and the previous edition. But there is still abundant ammunition in a Santiago attack featuring five batters with 100-plus base knocks (Ciego actually boasts six) and last season’s post-season MVP (Meriño). And the pitching is hardly second-rate either. Norge Vera continues to perform as the top starter (11-5, 3.08) and one-time ace Dany Betancourt (8-6, 4.56) seems to have finally recovered from injuries that kept him on the shelf for three full seasons. Yaumier Sánchez (10-3, 3.47) has also now developed into a solid number two starter and may be one of the keys to an anticipated semifinals showdown with Ciego de Avila’s equally potent offensive attack. One element falling heavily on Santiago’s side of the ledger is the Wasps’ remarkable defense up the middle, with Navas and Olivera providing the best keystone combo in the league and Meriño still unparalleled as a defender behind the plate.

Villa Clara looked like it would run away with things in the early going (winning 14 straight at the outset and 16 of their first 18), but this is not the first time this has happened. Villa Clara has started strong a number of times in recent years and then predictably faded down the stretch, before unraveling altogether in the post-season. In the past the island’s fandom was always been quick to point out how the team would inevitably wilt in April, and the near-universal opinion was that Victor Mesa (with his less-than-player-friendly managerial style) seemed to be the reason. With Victor now gone everyone thought this year would at last be different under new skipper Eduardo Martin. But the five weeks following the WBC hiatus proved an unrelieved disaster for the Villa Clara outfit which lost repeatedly down the stretch and was easily overhauled not only by steady Ciego but also by streaking Santiago. Injuries didn’t help any, with Eduardo Paret out of the lineup for half the season, Pestano gone for about one-third of the games, and Leonys Martin losing nearly one hundred points off his shrinking batting average between early January and early May. Paret is now lost for the duration of the year and veterans like Pestano, Andy Zamora (.300 and only one homer on the season), Ariel Borrero (.325, 10 homers), and Leonys Martin (the club’s long-ball leader with an unimpressive total of 11) will all have to reclaim once-impressive but now-missing batting skills if the Orangemen actually expect to stay around very long against ever-potent Santiago.

Holguín has very few recognizable stars in its corner but the no-name Perros do claim a solid-enough lineup that managed to hit .297 overall and slug 81 homers. The problem is that all the offense comes from just three slots in the lineup: Lerys Aguilera (Juventud Rebelde’s recent choice for the DH role on their mythical NS #48 all-star squad), Yeral Sánchez (.352 BA, 17 HRs, and JR’s all-star right field selection) and Edilse Silva (.349 BA, 15 HRs). Aguilera tied Peraza for fifth in the individual home run race (with 23) and was led by only Despaigne, Gourriel, and Meriño in the runs batted in department (he had 81). With a top young southpaw phenom in Aroldis Chapman (the league pacesetter in strikeouts) and one of the island’s craftiest veteran hurlers in Luis Miguel Rodríquez (a durable workhorse who inexplicably faded after the WBC interlude), the Dogs could potentially be a handful for any team that doesn’t take them seriously enough entering any short series. And this team also displayed a lot of grit during the April stretch run, when it held off a serious challenge mounted by Guantánamo and thus tenaciously clung to its hard-earned playoff berth. If there is a surprise in May 2009 it might well be upset-minded Holguín, but then again don’t bet the family farm on that actually happening.

Ciego de Avila has to be the popular Oriente region pick, if only because of their dominance from the opening bell of National Series #48 and their near-récord 64 regular season victories. Only Industriales (with 66 victories in 2003) has claimed more single-season National Series triumphs during the post-1985 “playoff era.” Pinar also garnered an identical 64 games in NS #41 (2002) before slipping in the semis that year to surprising Sancti Spíritus (who in turn succumbed to Holguín). It is a nice piece of irony, perhaps, that Pinar earned an unwanted distinction in 2002 of being the first team in Cuban League annals to win 60-plus games and not claim a league title; Habana Province duplicated the unwelcome feat only last year. Pinar’s 64 wins were identical to this season’s Ciego total, yet the post-season success story back in 2002 belonged to an underrated and overachieving Holguín team that pulled off the biggest upset in island history. It should not go unnoted that Ciego’s opening round opponent this week is none other than another upset-minded Holguín ball club. Will history perhaps repeat itself? This writer, for one, is simply not convinced that Ciego de Avila is actually blessed with the intangibles that equate to championship material.

If there is to be a major upset in this post-season, then, it could well come in the opening week match between Ciego and Holguín, especially if Rodríguez and Chapman are at the top of their games in the opening two contests. If the favored Avileños do manage to survive intact against the pesky Perros, they will almost certainly next face dangerous Santiago in their first-ever trip to the semifinals. And that, I believe, is where the Ciego post-season dream will end rather abruptly. Bell is finally awakening from his year-long injury-induced slump, and if the heart of the Wasps lineup (Meriño, Poll, Navas and Olivera) is perhaps only a shade better that the corps owned by Ciego (Charles, Fiss, Martínez and Yordanis Pérez) it is nonetheless a good deal more experienced.

And then there is also the history of Santiago’s post-season dominance over the Tigers: in two previous post-season meetings between these clubs in 2004 and 2006, the Wasps hold a lopsided six-games-to-one advantage. In brief, I foresee another Santiago showdown with Pinar for the coveted league title. And this time around Santiago is seemingly just enough weaker (with Norge Vera aging, Bell still not in top form, and José Julio out of the mix) and Pinar just enough stronger (especially if Maya’s post-season form matches his year-long dominance) to guarantee a very different result from that of a year ago. There will be no four-game sweep this time around. If Maya pitches as he should and Peraza and Duarte neutralize Olivera and Meriño on the offensive side of the equation, the long-denied Tobacco Growers may well be poised for their biggest harvest of the past decade. Pinar del Río should claim the 2009 championship (their fifth all-time) in six hard-fought games.

With the team assessments and personal prognostications out of the way, a few additional factoids may be of some interest. Of the 24 post-season tournaments (including this current upcoming one), half have involved eight teams (the first 12 featured only four clubs) and almost half (11) have been played with wooden bats (the others with aluminum). Thus the post-season carnival splits neatly down the middle regarding both size and style of play. Of the three winningest teams in post-season history, two will return again this season, with only Industriales left on the sidelines. Santiago (seven titles) and Industriales (six crowns) have dominated the quarter-century of post-season venues, especially over the near-half-dozen years of the wooden-bat era. Pinar (including its earlier manifestation as Vegueros) has walked off with three championships, the last coming back in 1998 with the inaugural eight-team affair. Only three other clubs have ever worn the league crown: Villa Clara (three times), Henequeneros (twice, while representing Matanzas Province), and Holguín on that surprising single occasion in 2002.

On the managerial front, current league commissioner and recent WBC team skipper Higinio Vélez (Santiago de Cuba) remains the most successful bench boss in playoff history with four titles to his credit. Antonio Pacheco (Santiago), Rey Anglada (Industriales), and Pedro Jova (Villa Clara) trail with three apiece and all have earned their titles in clusters. Pacheco thus now has a chance to match his mentor Vélez as top post-season Cuban League manager with his third straight crown (also the third three-peat in playoff history) and his fourth of the past five seasons. Finally, of the eight entries on the scene this year, four have won titles under the current playoff system. Of the remaining four, both Ciego and Isla have yet to claim a league banner under any format whatsoever. It is in this last respect that any Ciego de Avila sprint to the finish line (as some out in the central provinces, at least, are now predicting) would perhaps be this winter’s biggest surprise of all.





Peter C. Bjarkman’s analyses of Cuban baseball can also be followed on his website at www.bjarkman.com, on his personal blog at www.bjarkmanlatinobaseball.mlblogs.com, and on the Cuban League site found at www.radiococo.cu (English-language page). His new book entitled Who’s Who in Cuban Baseball, 1962-2007 will be published by McFarland at the end of the coming year.