Offseason Notes: Entirely About the Caribbean Series

Scholars maintain that the translation was lost hundreds of years ago.

Caribbean Series Begins Thursday
With the victory on Monday of Dominican Winter League team Escogido over Cibaenas, the four teams for the very entertaining Caribbean Series — which begins Thursday, February 2 — have been decided.

Here they are, with links to team pages and a list of players whose names and/or faces you’re most likely to recognize:

ARAGUA (Venezuelan Winter League)
• Edgardo Alfonzo, Seth Etherton, Wilson Ramos.

ESCOGIDO (Dominican Winter League)
• Julio Borbon, Jose Constanza, Andy Dirks, Francisco Liriano, Julio Lugo, Jordan Norberto, Denis Phipps, Fernando Rodney, Aneury Rodriguez, Fernando Tatis, Pat Venditte.

MAYAGUEZ (Puerto Rican Winter League)
• Jeff Dominguez, Ruben Gotay, Martin Maldonado, Eddie Rosario, Ramon Troncoso.

OBREGON (Mexican Pacific League)
• Alfredo Amezaga, Luis Ayala , Karim Garcia.

Rules of the Game
In 1939, French filmmaker Jean Renoir made a film called La Règle du Jeu — or, en anglais, The Rules of the Game. That’s, like, 3% relevant to the following information — i.e. a description of how the Caribbean Series will be played.

Here’s the description: first, each team plays the other three teams twice; second, the top two teams advance to the championship; third, the winner of the championship is named the Jefe of the Caribbean*.

*Not entirely true.

Watching the Caribbean Series Is Fun… And Easy!
The Caribbean Series is carried — in toto, it seems — by ESPN3. Click here to visit the relevant site. (Note: the first game, between Aragua and Mayaguez begins on Thursday, February 2, at 1:45pm ET. Obregon and Escogido play later that same day, at 5:55pm ET.)

For those who are unable to watch the video, it appears as though some kind of MLB.com Gameday function will be available at the landing page for the tournament.

Video from Last Year’s Series
Here’s some grainy footage from last year’s Series — of Puerto Rico failing to win a fourth game (of six total), and thus giving Obregon (Mexico’s representative this year, as well) the belt and title.