While the World Series has the attention of the baseball world, it also means many of the offseason leagues are in full force. I will take a look at each league and focus on some of the players of note participating. The first league I will take a look at is the winter league based in Mexico, where there are few headline making players participating.
When scrubbing through the rosters, three of the eight teams had no one of note on their rosters that jumped out to me, so if you have a chance to see a game involving the Caneros de los Mochis, Charros de Jalisco, or Mayos De Navojoa, chances are the game will feature nobody you have ever heard of.
Meanwhile two teams, the Naranjeros de Hermosillo and Venados de Mazatlan each have a single player of note. Hermosillo will feature a starter for the San Diego Padres, Juan Oramas, who has eight seasons of pro ball, all in the minors, but is really knocking on the big league door. He had a rough season in Triple-A this season, posting a 5.61 ERA, but got four outings back at Double-A this year and allowed just three earned runs over 25.2 innings.
Mazatlan will roll out a five year big league vet in Collin Balester, but he has not pitched in the bigs the past two seasons. His big league ERA is 5.30, with his best season coming back in 2010 when he had 17 relief appearances for the Washington Nationals and had an ERA under 3. He is now a 28 year old who has pitched for two different organizations over the past two years, the Texas Rangers in 2013 and the Pittsburgh Pirates this past season.
Yaquis de Obregon has three big leaguers on their roster, two of whom had some decent success at times this season. Dean Anna started five games at short for the New York Yankees this season while Derek Jeter was still getting healthy. He had worked himself out of the team’s plans by July, when he was selected off waivers by the Pirates. Donald Lutz has had two seasons of 20 home run ball in his minor league career, but simply hasn’t hit enough to be a big league first baseman. Jake Smolinski made his big league debut late this season for the Rangers and hit .349 in 24 games. He may have one of the best nicknames that can’t be shared in an article like this, but let’s just say he looks great in the uniform and in BP, but prior to his success this season, has been rather disappointing.
The Aguilas De Mexicali have one of the biggest names in the league this season, which is not saying much since it is Gil Velazquez. Velazquez spent 2014 with the Mexican League team in Yucatan this season where he hit .288 with a .738 OPS. Mexicali has another former Marlin in Mike Jacobs, who has an even 100 career big league home runs, but hasn’t played in the bigs since 2012. He spent all of the 2014 season in Triple-A Reno in the Diamondbacks organization where he hit a point under .300 and came one long ball shy of 20. Shane Peterson has spent all but eight plate appearances over the past two years in Sacramento for the Oakland A’s, those eight other PAs came in the big leagues where he does have a single hit. He hit over .300 this season with the River Cats and posted a .841 OPS.
The longest list of notable players can be found on the Tomateros de Culiacan, where even their manager was a big league journeyman in Benji Gil. The polarizing Alfredo Aceves is on the pitching staff, which likely means Culiacan will lead the league in bench clearing incidents, and leave Ali Solis a lot of cleaning up to do from behind the plate. Nick “Chili”
Buss will man the outfield in Culiacan after being claimed off waivers by the A’s from the Los Angeles Dodgers. Buss has a very short big league track record, but has stolen double digit bags every year in the minors except his initial season, which was just 36 games in Ogden after being drafted for the second time by th