Today, we put together a team as part two of a two-part series on the best Cuban players of all-time. Here are the players that make the All Serie Nacional team.
A few days ago I released the first part of this series which included the best Cuban players of all-time that played professional baseball. Today I’m going to release the second part of the series that will include my all-time team of players who only played in the Cuban National Series.
It is unfair to create one squad due to the fact that Fidel Castro closed the island off to MLB and professionalism in 1961. Making one team would merge two different types of baseball and would make unfair comparisons with players that played at two different levels of competition.
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Making two teams seems like the fair and just thing to do, in the following I’m going to give you my team based on numbers and in my opinion the best Cuban players in the history of Cuba’s national pastime.
Catcher:
Although Ariel Pestano isn’t the best catcher of all-time behind the plate or in the batter’s box. He is the most complete catcher in the history of the National Series. He is easily one of the most decorated catchers in the history of the national team. He has been an Olympic, Pan American, World champ, and has been a runner up in the World Baseball Classic. Pestano was the stabilizing force for Cuba’s pitching staff in that first edition of the Classic.
For his career, he hit .289 with 147 long balls and drove in 877 runs. On the defensive side, he only committed 73 errors in more than 10,00 innings and had a fielding percentage of .991. He threw out an astronomical 56% of runners attempting to steal. Ivan Rodríguez once quipped during the Classic that he looked like a shortstop behind the plate.
Although he didn’t hit like Pedro Luis Rodriguez or field like Juan Castro he was a more complete catcher than both of them. For that reason, he is my choice to be the backstop.