The Most Very Succinct Argument for Mexican Baseball
Among all the barely read posts published by the author at this site, one of the most barely read ever was this past Thursday’s effort dedicated to the Mexican League, in which post I endeavored to identify the five players within that circuit whose combination of age and performance most recommended them to a place (hypothetically, at least) within affiliated baseball.
The purpose of this current dispatch is not to comment once again upon the virtues of that Thursday post, nor to bemoan its lack of audience. Rather, it’s to (first) show and (then also) tell the reader why Mexican baseball oughtn’t be ignored.
With regard to the allure of that league, here’s a visual argument very decidedly on its behalf (from here):
And here’s a brief explanation of that visual argument: it’s an excerpt from the box score from today’s game between Mexico City and Tijuana. Specifically, it’s the part of that box score which documents Tijuana’s pitchers. What one notes is that those pitchers were Jose Contreras (formerly of the White Sox and Yankees) and Dennys Reyes (formerly of an extra-large major-league uniform). “Importer/Exporter of the Marvelous,” it reads on each of their business cards. And how do I know this? Because of Mexican baseball, is how.
QED.
Carson Cistulli has published a book of aphorisms called Spirited Ejaculations of a New Enthusiast.
No mention of #3 hitter Yuniesky Betancourt?! Or #4 hitter Miguel “Miguel is Spanish for Mike but don’t call me Tyson” Olivo?
Ivan Terrazas sounds like the name of an old Eastern Bloc heel in the Mexican Wrestling Federation 🙂
Jose Contreras was born in 1971. He seems to still be effective in this league. Not sure this is argument for.
Jamie Moyer was 46 when he put up nearly 3 fWAR for Philly, is that some how evidence that the NL was terrible that year? He was also 40 and 41 when he put up nearly 4 fWAR in Seattle, again, does this mean that the AL was terrible in 2002-2003? Lets also not forget that Randy Johnson was 45 when he put up over 3.5 fWAR for Arizona in 2008, and he missed all of 2007. Then there’s Satchel Paige… Not sure how age and being effective means that the league is terrible.
Fine… how about in his last 3 years in MLB, he was able to put up 1.0 WAR combined.
I think you mean his last four, but you’re also talking about a span in which he totaled 89 IP as a reliever? His last two years in the Mexican leages actually look partial 2010, so he might actually be better than replacement level in the majors if he could stay healthy. This would be a hell of a troll if I didn’t think you might actually be serious about this.
Maybe true fact: Jose Contreras lied about his age when he signed out of Cuba. He actually debuted in the majors at age 36, and last pitched in the majors at age 46.
I thought I had recently read that former MLB relief pitcher Dennys Reyes (who last pitched in affiliated baseball in 2011) had been signed out of the Mexican League to a minor league contract with Boston.
But, after looking it up, I can confirm that it was former MLB relief pitcher Denny Bautista (who last pitched in affiliated baseball in 2011) who was recently signed out of the Mexican League to a minor league contract with Boston.
Denny Bautista and Dennys Reyes may or may not be different persons.
Carson,
We have real honest-to-goodness MLB games going on. Really, are you surprised that nobody is reading your posts about Mexican baseball? There were 15 “real” games yesterday, and I could only watch/follow a couple of those. Mexican baseball is down on my list somewhere behind “do my laundry.”
In addition, I want NUMBERS! What was the magnitude of this “Lack of Audience”? And some context too. How many standard deviations below other “Lack of Audience” posts was this post to earn the title of ‘one of the most barely read ever’? Rápidamente!
I enjoy the occasional asides Carson provides on fringe players and now Mexican and College games. At times I can understand his apathy in regards to the fairly consistent same-ness in MLB these days. I understand the desire to look at other forms of baseball around especially given that Fangraphs has hordes of other writers and articles about MLB.
Keep up the good work Carson. Enjoy your hipster baseball leagues just don’t be grumpy in a few years if you are successful and everyone is into college baseball even though you thought it was cool before most anyone else.
I think his point (and it is a good one) is that most of the audience is not nearly so sick of MLB baseball as the writers here. It is amazing how little coverage there is of days to day things at times, particularly telling during the podcast where you really get to hear what is on people’s minds.
It doesn’t have to be sportscenter or “MLB day in review”, but the disconnect from the actual games in order to talk about really tenuous relationships that are telling us extremely little is at times frustrating.