Cleveland Sports Forum

The Industriales lead 1-0 after 2. Top of the 3rd, Rusney Casillo just blasted a 2-run homer to put Ciego de Avila ahead in the game 2-1. The visitors have a game in hand and threatening to take the first two games on the road. Another capacity house - 50,000 additional fans. That's over 100,000 for the two games.

Ciego one step closer to their first Cuban championship taking the first two games from the darlings of Havana, the Industriales Blue Lions on foreign turf no less. The games now shift to Jose Ramon Cepero for three in a row.

Rusney started the Ciego scoring with a home run during the Tigers victorious path.

Championship Cuba 2012: Game 2- Cav 8, Ind 3
Player of the game : The righty Yander Guevara was masterful in relief in Game # 2 of the Finals of Cuba, to put Ciego de Avila halfway to the national title.
The outfielder Rusney Castillo shot a two-run homer to put the Tigers of Ciego de Avila ahead in Game # 2 of the Finals of Cuba. Ciego never trailed after the homer which gave the team a 2-1 lead in the top of the third inning.
Faces of Blue says it all. Industriales had no formula to beat Ciego de Avila Cuba in the finals of Cuba 2012. (

Ciego de Avila is in control of the championship series leading 2 game to none and heading back home to friendly soil. The series continues this weekend with games on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. All three games are home games for Ciego de Avila.

I'll miss the action. I'm heading north for a long weekend of camping, kayaking, and fishing.

Go Ciego!!!

by Circles Robinson

May 29, 2012

2012 Cuban Finals: Game 5- Ind 3, Cav 4 (11 inn)

Player of the Game:

Outfielder Ricardo Bordón was the heroe for Ciego de Avila in Game 5 of the Cuban Finals driving the winning run in the eleventh inning to give the Tigers their first Cuban National Series title. (Photo: Juan Moreno)

Ciego de Avila won its first Cuban baseball championship in style, defeating Industriales, the favorite from Havana, 4-3 in 11 innings on Monday night.

The series ended four games to one, and collective joy broke out in the central Cuban province.

Ciego had several heroes in finishing off Industriales.

Firstly, Yoelvis Fiss drove in the team’s first three runs and Yander Guevara pitched a strong 10.1 innings allowing three runs on seven hits.

However the glory went to Ricardo Bordon who drove in the winning run in the eleventh, and reliever/winning pitcher Lazaro Santana, who managed the final two outs.

Industriales fought hard to stay alive in the series.

Highlights for the Lions were eight innings of three run pitching by Antonio Romero and a homerun and two RBIs from Yoandri Urgelles.

Pinch hitter Irakly Chirino drove in the tying run for Industriales in the seventh to put the game at 3-3.

Julio Rayzan took the loss in relief for Industriales, allowing Bordon’s walk off hit with one out in the bottom of the 11th inning.

The righty Yander Guevara made another performance at the high level against the Industriales to support the success of Ciego de Avila in Game 5 of the Finals of Cuba. (Photo: Juan Moreno)

The people of Avila celebrate on the land of the stadium José Ramón Cepero a triumph expected in the territory for years. (Photo: Juan Moreno)

All-Star team announced the 2011-2012 season

by Ray Otero

June 1, 2012

The All-Star team selection offensive and defensive 2011-2012 season Cuban baseball was announced on Friday afternoon in Havana, and it involved the media in the country.

Thirteen players were selected on offense and nine on defense. The latter are the Golden Glove winners.

The selections were highlighted by the presence of two men, Granma's Alfredo Despaigne outfielder, selected as the Most Valuable Player (MVP) of the season and Ciego de Avila's pitcher, the righty Vladimir Garcia, selected as the MVP pitcher of the Cuban Postseason edition 26.
Alfredo Despaigne (left) was without a doubt the MVP of the 2011-2012 season of Cuban baseball. (right) Vladimir Garcia of Ciego de Avila who took the title in the Postseason MVP 2012.

In turn, Vladimir Garcia of Ciego de Avila took two awards this time winning the MVP as the best pitcher of the season and the MVP as the best pitcher of the Playoffs.

In turn, the choice of Despaigne was expected considering that the Granma outfielder broke the home run record this season with a total of 36, surpassing the 33 held last season by former teammate Yoennis Cespedes and Jose Dariel Abreu of Cienfuegos.

Two major categories were the Rookie of the Year and Manager of the Year, and in them the laurels went to the hands of relief pitcher Juan Carlos Viera from Las Tunas and Ciego de Avila manager Roger Machado, respectively.

Some pretttttty good ballplayers in that group.

Cuban Celebrates a Surprising New National Series Champion

by Peter C. Bjarkman

Jun 05, 2012
Roger Machado has emerged as Cuba’s top manager.

Cuba’s National Series finals provided a few mild surprises, but none bigger than the emergence of Roger Machado at the top of the island’s current list of managerial success stories. Celebrated fan-favorite Industriales not only lost this year’s championship shootout, but was beaten badly, dropping an opening pair of games on home turf, briefly staying alive with a gripping extra-inning victory on the road in Ciego, but ultimately surrendering another two consecutive crucial road games – including both a 10-2 drubbing and a climactic second overtime thriller. If proud Industriales rebounded admirably this season under rookie skipper Lázaro Vargas, this edition of the Blue Lions was clearly not cut from championship cloth.

More surprising perhaps than the early Industriales surrender was the fact that Ciego ace Vlad García ultimately failed in his attempt to join an elite pitching circle he certainly seemed poised to enter. After notching his overall nineteenth win in the rain-delayed opener, Vlad appeared on the verge of an historic 20-win season when he entered the ninth frame of Game 3 cruising along behind a seemingly safe a 3-1 cushion. But it was not to be as the Lions rallied to knot the count (in a knuckle-whitening game that provided their only series win) and therefore sabotage Garcia’s once-promising prospects for a place in the record books. The short five-game series would mean that Machado’s top ace would never return to the hill for a final shot at an elusive victory that might have equaled the 20-win campaigns (post-season games included) earlier posted by both José Ibar (1998) and Carlos Ynes (1999) at the close of the 20th century.


Yander Guevara was a surprise hero of Ciego’s first-ever league championship.

One small irony of this year’s final series was the fact that neither of the top staff aces – García with Ciego de Avila and Odrisamer Despaigne for Industriales – would emerge as the ultimate pitching star. Not that either failed to deliver what was expected of him. García for his part enjoyed two solid nine-inning outings and left the scene with both a victory and a no-decision. Despaigne (18-9 on the year) lost the tense opener but only two games later survived nine frames in his rematch with García to register his club’s only triumph. Yet the obvious hero of this final series was Ciego’s previously unheralded Yander Guevara (10-7 entering playoff action) who mopped up the Game 2 victory with four scoreless relief innings, was the snake-bitten losing pitcher in Game 3 (but only after surrendering an unearned tally in the tenth), and then came back on short rest to start the fifth contest and provide 10-plus brilliant innings in the season’s finale. Guevara was not the pitcher of record in the most important game in Ciego team history (the win ultimately went to Lázaro Santana who knocked off the final two Industriales batters in the visitor’s eleventh). But the slender right-hander’s masterful elongated start placed his team in position to earn the historic clincher in the eleventh frame.

Guevara and not Garcia thus inherited the workhorse role as both starter and reliable reliever for Roger Machado this time around and filled the assignment in truly admirable fashion. Machado has often been criticized in the Cuban baseball press for leaning too heavily on a single pitcher, and he took that risk yet again this time around in the ball club’s biggest series ever – but with Guevara (who worked three of the final four contests) and not with his usual favorite trump card Vladimir García. Guevara’s post-season MVP performance was nothing short of spectacular and now stands as yet another strong measure of Machado’s recent managerial genius.
Perhaps the biggest surprise of all in the end was the fact that the island nation is now celebrating a novel champion for the first time in a decade and only the second time in more than a quarter-century. Eliminating the first two seasons of National Series play (for obvious reasons since first-time winners were inevitable), all Cuba’s first-time champions save five came in the first fifteen years of play (six alone during the decade between 1967 and 1976). During the quarter-century (starting in 1986) that the league has utilized post-season play, only Holguín (back in 2002) has ever captured a first-time title. The rarity of novel winners in this league of course has much to do with the domination of four ball clubs over the past three decades – Industriales (seven titles earned in post-season competition), Santiago de Cuba (also seven), Pinar del Río and Villa Clara (both with three championships over the same 25-year span).

There were other heroes this May in the Ciego de Avila camp and some of them were equally as surprising as Yander Guevara. Little-noted outfielder Ricardo Bordon stroked the biggest hit of the season with his game-winning eleventh-inning smash to the right-field corner off rookie Julio Montesino; the blast plated Yorbis Borroto with the final tally of the campaign and the run that will surely live on for decades in the collective memory of all Tigers faithful. Borroto reemerged as a lynchpin on the ball club, performing brilliantly on the defensive side at shortstop and twice reaching base to launch crucial late inning rallies in the deciding game. Garcia pitched admirably in his two final-series starts and thus cemented his grip on the title of 2012 National Series MVP pitcher. Yorelvis Charles (four hits in Game 4), Yoelvis Fiss (a pair of doubles and three RBIs in the finale) and Isaac Martínez (a trio of RBIs in Game 2 and a homer in Game 4) – the veterans in the middle of the lineup – all made major contributions. Third sacker Raúl González launched the final round with a crucial game-winning RBI in the nip-and-tuck series opener. And in the end emerging superstar Rusney Castillo (three homers and 8 RBI for the series) underscored his rank as perhaps the island’s best all-around ballplayer.

Ciego has steadily emerged step by painstaking step over the past half-dozen seasons and has especially caught fire during the five-year reign of former national team backup catcher Roger Machado. Last season the Tigers came ever-so-close when they reached their first-ever finals only to fall in six games to Alfonso Urquiola’s Cinderella Pinar del Río outfit. The only surprise this season was how close Machado’s crew actually came to not even qualifying for the post-season dance. But the Tigers put it all together when they had to and roared down the post-season stretch after sneaking into the playoff picture of the final afternoon of regular-season play. Castillo, Charles, Fiss and company showed surprising offense potency against Granma in the semifinals – winning games by lopsided 20-0, 13-2 and 11-1 counts. They established several league records for final-round offensive production. And they were clearly the better team when the championship finale rolled around.

Ciego has almost without notice emerged as one of the league’s best teams over the past nine seasons – a complete turnaround from a lethargic early club history that produced only five .500-plus campaigns in the first two decades and not a single post-season appearance until the club’s 21st outing. The Tigers have now averaged above 50 victories per year since 2004 (something no other league club has done), missed the playoffs only once (2007) in nearly a full decade, and in the last four seasons under Machado finished third, fourth, second and first in the circuit. No other league team has enjoyed the same successes over this most recent stretch in league annals.
It is a safe bet that colorful Víctor Mesa remains the top choice of many for this year’s league manager of the year honors. Víctor admittedly deserves all the plaudits possible for breathing new life into a near-moribund baseball scene in Matanzas Province and thus rekindling fan enthusiasm in one of Cuba’s most traditional baseball regions. But baseball like all sports is ultimately about winning and not just about ranking a colorful third or surprising fourth. Thus the vote in this corner will definitely go to the undervalued and under-celebrated Roger Machado as this year’s top Cuban League manager.

Source: Soler, Cubs agree to deal

By Jesse Sanchez / MLB.com | 06/11/12 2:40 PM ET

The Cubs have won the bidding war for Cuban prospect Jorge Soler, coming to an agreement Monday on a guaranteed nine-year, $30 million contract with the young outfielder, according to an industry source.

The Cubs declined to comment.

Soler, 20, a 6-foot-4, 225-pound corner outfielder, was considered by many to be the next big Cuban prospect on the scene after outfielder Yoenis Cespedes, who signed with Oakland earlier this year for $36 million over four years.



Cubs president of baseball operations Theo Epstein and general manager Jed Hoyer have made a big international signing. (AP)Soler, who was declared a free agent last week, was being courted by several teams, including the Yankees, Blue Jays, White Sox, Marlins, Phillies, Orioles and Red Sox.

The prospect has to sign with a Major League club before July 2 or be subjected to new Basic Agreement guidelines, which will limit spending on international prospects to $2.9 million per team without penalty.

Right-handed pitcher Armando Rivero, outfielders Henry Urrutia, Gerald Sanchez and teenage left-handed pitcher Omar Luis, who are all from Cuba, were also declared free agents with Soler and remain on the market.

Welcome to the Dominican Prospect League

Baseball's international signing period, which begins July 2, is one of the most important dates on the calendar in Latin America. The new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) has restricted all teams to a $2.9 million dollar budget internationally in 2012; teams who have been aggressively signing players in the past, stretching their budgets and signing unlimited prospects throughout the International space now have to evaluate their appointed budget. This year's signing class is as solid as ever but by circumstance it has made the signing period more strategic than ever.

With less than 10 weeks left until the signing period begins MLB teams have a feel for names on their target list throughout Latin America. Gustavo Cabrera rated #1 over all by MLB.com and Perfect Game for his athleticism, plus speed, raw plus power and plus defensive skills leads the July 2nd charge along with Amurys Minier, Wandell Rijo, Richard Urena, Frandy Delarosa, Luis Barrera, Natanael Javier, Jose Pujols, Natanael Delgado, Julio Delacruz, Deivi Grullon and Ronny Carvajal.

We will post info of our last event of the year; the upcoming DPL*Perfect Game International Tournament scheduled at the New York Yankees complex May 28-June 1st.

DPL*PG International Series recap

Posted June 11th, 2012 by admin & filed under DPL News, Featured Post.

DPL/ June 9th 2012
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The Dominican Prospect League and Perfect Game USA collaborated to produce the first International Series Tournament at the plush New York Yankees complex in Boca-Chica, Dominican Republic. More than 100 players combined sign eligible, 2012 and 2013 July 2nd prospects from Venezuela, Panama, Colombia and Dominican Republic participated in the 5 day event. With 4 weeks left until the July 2nd signing period begins, the venue drew the attention of more than 120 professional scouts per day including International directors evaluating prospects they will pursue. Louisville Slugger and Redbull were on hand providing product and interacting with the DPL players.
The first day of the event was focused on showcasing the underclassmen that will be eligible in 2013. Hector Martinez-SS ran a 6.6 60 yard dash and showed surprising power in BP. Bryan Olmo ran a 6.7, showing bat speed, and arm strength. Felix Osorio-OF impressed with his power stroke hitting balls over the center field batters eye. Luis Asuncion-OF continued the 2013 power display hitting monstrous shots in BP. Lewis Diaz-OF showed off his LHH power stroke and plus arm strength. Mayky Perez-RHP threw 2-Inn in a simulated game with FB velocity 86-90mph, CB 73-74mph solid rotation; he showed a feel for pitching and command of the strike zone. Christopher Hidalgo-LHP showed an easy delivery with touch and feel, FB velocity 82-84 mph with a good feel for CB and command of the strike zone.
Leury Vargas-1B/3B
Samir Duenes-3B

The 2012 class and Eligible players started tournament play on Tuesday where a group prospects emerged during the week. Hector Roa Jr went 3 for 6 with a triple, HR and 4-RBI, Leurys Vargas-1B placed power frenzy during BP and went 2 for 6, Yancarlos Baez-SS played solid defense and went 3 for 5. Venezuelan Samir Duenez-3B showed impressive power stroke going 3 for 5. Frandy Delarosa-SS went 4 for 6 as he doubled and scored twice. Jhobenin Alvarez-OF 2 for 6, 3-RBI showing speed and defensive skills and Venezuelan Jose Pernalete –C went 4 for 7.
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Pitchers Rafael Paulino-RHP threw 3inn and stuck out the grid (9k) FB velocity 88-89mph and changed speeds well. Wilfrido Magallanes-RHP went 3 Inn allowed 1-H, 3-k with FB velocity 88-90mph. Roquely Ortiz-RHP FB velocity 88-91mph and solid CB-CH 2 Inn, 2-H, 2-k. Winder Novas-RHP FB velocity 85-88mph 2-Inn, 1-H, 4-k. Nelson Tolentino threw 3 Inn , 4k at FB velocity 88-90mph. Gianny Francciolla 2.1 Inn, 6-k.
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The final day of the week was the All-Tournament game where 3B Nathanael Javier was named MVP, he had quality AB’s going 3 for 3 with a double and 2 RBI carrying the blue team to victory. Venezuelan RHP Julio Pinto was named pitching MVP, he was aggressive in the zone at 88-91mph, showed a sharp CB and changed speeds well.
Nathanael Javier 3B
Julio Pinto-RHP

The inaugural DPL*PG International Series was a complete success. There were many sign eligible DPL players who reached agreements with professional teams. The following players will start their professional careers in the rookie level Dominican Summer League which began last weekend.

Rafael Uribe RHP / Oakland A’s

Jose Pernalete-C / Arizona Diamond Backs

Yeudis Penalo-RHP / Arizona Diamond Backs

Andin Diaz-LHP / Chicago Cubs

Gianny Francciolla-LHP /Texas Rangers

Greyfer Eregua-RHP / Chicago Cubs

Francisco Carrillo-RHP / Chicago Cubs

Tomas Alvarez-MIF / Washington Nationals