With IBAF World Cup 38 looming on the horizon in less than two months time, the Cuban Baseball Federation yesterday announced a list of 58 players who will compete to fill 24 coveted roster spots for the opening of the September games in Barcelona. These 58 hopefuls comprise two all-star rosters that will compete in a trial exhibition series staged throughout the island from late-July until late-August. Representing (more or less) the two Cuban League regional divisions, these all-star clubs will be directed by Esteban Lombillo (manager of the recent Occidentales champions, Habana Province) and Eduardo Martin (skipper of the Orientales National Series finalists, Villa Clara). The complete announced rosters are as follows:

The finals of the Rotterdam World Port Tournament on Sunday afternoon proved to be a perfect mirror image of the entire twelve-day event, with Cuba tattooing Dutch pitching for an easy 9-3 victory. Cuba's top two hurlers--Miguel Alfredo González (Habana Province) and Maikel Folch (Ciego de Avila)--both stymied Netherlands hitters most of the afternoon. The only significant Dutch uprising came with a two-run homer by Sydney de Jong off González in the top of the sixth. Folch allowed a single scratch hit over the final four frames to pick up the championship victory. Cuba's attack was led by catcher Eriel Sánchez (3 for 5 with a two-run homer in the fifth) and first baseman Ariel Borrero (also 3 for 5 with two RBI). The title was Cuba's fourth straight in this event (following wins in 2001, 2003 and 2007).

Complete coverage of (and commentary on) the 2009 World Port Tournament is still available at http://www.baseballdecuba.com/rotterdam2009.asp

Cuba (represented by the Cuba B second-string national team roster) dominated the tournament from start to finish, losing only a meaningless final pool-play game to Japan and suffering a tie match with Chinese Taipei (played on a day when rainouts forced three scheduled games and thus prevented extra-inning play). The runner-up Netherlands was represented by essentially the same ball club that embarrassed the Dominican Republic big leaguers in the March World Baseball Classic, while Japan and Taiwan fielded national university all-star ball clubs.

Below is a summary of tournament individual awards, statistics and final standings:

Individual Player Awards

Most Valuable Player: Yoelvis Fiss (Cuba)

Top Pitcher: Maikel Folch (Cuba)

Leading Hitter: Adonis García (Cuba)

Home Run King: Yoelvis Fiss (Cuba)

Best Rookie: Nick Urbanus (Netherlands)

Most Popular Player: Nick Urbanus (Netherlands)

World Port Tournament Final Standings (End of Round Robin Games)

Team, Record (Runs For and Against as Tie-Breaker), Point Totals

Cuba 7-1-1 (53-16) 15 points

Netherlands 4-5 (31-42) 8 points

Chinese Taipei 3-5-1 (33-36) 7 points

Japan 3-6 (21-44) 6 points

Finals: Cuba 9-17-1, The Netherlands 3-6-1

Top Ten Tournament Hitters (End of Round Robin Games)

Adonis García (Cuba) .500 (30 ABs, 15 Hits, 6 Runs)

Bas de Jong (Netherlands) .440

Yoelvis Fiss (Cuba) .429 (.657 slugging average, 2 homers, 12 RBI)

Ariel Borrero (Cuba) .414 (.655 slugging average)

Eriel Sánchez (Cuba) .367 (.567 slugging average)

Eugene Kingsale (Netherlands) .344

Bryan Englehardt (Netherlands) .333

Sydney de Jong (Netherlands) .324

Leonys Martin (Cuba) .300

Raily Legito (Netherlands) .300

Yorbis Borroto (Cuba) .300

Batting Leaders (End of Round Robin Games)

Batting Average: Adonis García (Cuba) .500

Slugging Average: Yoelvis Fiss (Cuba) .657

On-Base Percentage: Adonis García (Cuba) .545

Home Runs: Yoelvis Fiss (Cuba) 2

RBI: Yoelvis Fiss (Cuba) 12

Stolen Bases: Yohei Yamamoto (Japan) 5

Base Hits: Adonis García (Cuba) 15

Runs Scored: Ariel Borrero (Cuba) 8

Doubles: Eriel Sánchez (Cuba) 6

Total Bases: Yoelvis Fiss (Cuba) 23

Top Ten Tournament Pitchers (End of Round Robin Games)

Michiel van Kampen (Netherlands) .000 ERA (7.1 innings)
Chen-Hua Lin (Chinese Taipei) 0.00 ERA (7.0 innings)
Diegomar Markwell (Netherlands) 0.57 ERA (15.2 innings)
Ryota Takayama (Japan) 1.04 (8.2 innings)
Ching-Ming Wang (Chinese Taipei) 1.13 ERA 8.0 innings)
Yadier Pedroso (Cuba) 1.29 ERA (7.0 innings)
Syogo Suenaga (Japan) 1.33 ERA (20.1 innings)
Yaumier Sánchez (Cuba) 1.50 ERA (12.0 innings)
 

Pitching Leaders (End of Round Robin Games)

Wins-Losses: Miguel Alfredo González (Cuba) 2-0

Wins-Losses: Yaumier Sánchez (Cuba) 2-0

Wins-Losses: Rob Cordemans (Netherlands) 2-0

ERA Pct.: Maikel Folch (Cuba) 0.00 (14.0 innings)

Innings Pitched: Syogo Suenaga (Japan) 20.1

Opponents Batting Average: Miguel Alfredo González (Cuba) .083

Game Appearances: Chen-Hua Lin (Chinese Taipei) 5

Games Started: Chih-Lung Huang (Chinese Taipei) 3

Strikeouts: Yaumier Sánchez (Cuba) 16

Strikeouts (per 9 innings): Yaumier Sánchez (Cuba) 12.0

Walks: Yaumier Sánchez (Cuba) 11

Shutouts: Syogo Suenaga (Japan) 1

Complete Games: Syogo Suenaga (Japan) 2

Note: USA Baseball (fourth-place finisher at Rotterdam in 2007) was invited to this year's event but elected not to send an American team.

Cuba lost its undefeated record on the final day of World Port Tournament pool play (dropping a 2-1 decision to last-place Japan) and the host Dutch rallied for a 6-5 victory over Taiwan and a place in Sunday's championship finals. Miguel Alfredo González (Cuba's post-season National Series MVP) and veteran Diegomar Markwell (Andruw Jones's cousin) will square off in Sunday afternoon's gold medal match.

But the big story of the day in the Cuban camp was yet another oddity of the type that so often mark the island sport. Cuban manager Roger Machado, attempting to conserve pitchers for the all-important finale, made a surprise pitching move on Saturday that sent Cuba League aficionados scrambling for the record books.

The surprise moment of the week came with a most unorthodox maneuver by manager Machado in the ninth inning. Not wishing to burn up any more of his pitchers on the eve of the finale and also opting not to wear down middle-relief specialist Lahera, Machado inserted Pinar del Río outfielder Jorge Padrón to work the ninth frame. Outfielders and infielders have been occasionally used on the hill at all levels of baseball by managers hoping to rest exhausted bullpens in lost games (especially where the run differential might be 15 or 20 runs). This has happened from time to time even in the majors. But it is hard to recall any bench boss anywhere who has ever asked a totally untested position player (that is, one who has never before pitched to a single batter) to debut on the mound at the crucial juncture of a ninth-inning tie game. Padrón (who batted .345 this past season and enjoyed one 6-for-6 game during National Series #48) certainly met the new challenge in grand style. The unpracticed lefty yielded a harmless single to only the second batter he faced and also walked yet another batsman, but nonetheless escaped the inning without yielding a single tally.

The ninth-inning oddity wrote yet another strange chapter in Cuba's always colorful baseball saga. Preliminary research indicates that Padrón is the first Cuban ballplayer since the debut of National Series play back in 1962 ever to take the mound for a Cuban national team in international tournament action without having tossed a single inning in regular Cuban League domestic action. This author and several colleagues from the Cuban journalist corps are currently pouring over national team records in an effort to uncover a single similar case.

Below is the complete summary of National Series #48 (2008-2009) Cuban League All-Star voting and individual post-season awards. Three rare oddities should be noted in the balloting. First and foremost is the fact that Rafael Orta (Habana Province, pictured here ) was selected as one of the Gold Glove Outfield choices, even though Orta was employed for almost the entire season as team DH (frequently drawing comments in this role, since he batted cleanup and yet completed the entire regular season without a single home run). Given the fact that Orta is so widely considered one of the league's best fly chasers, and also given his lack of offensive punch in the DH role, one has to question why he was used in that latter capacity. Nonetheless it is difficult to second guess manager-of-the-year Esteban Lombillo's decision on this count, since Orta was one of the post-season offensive heroes and Lombillo's team did capture the league championship.

A second intriguing observation is the fact that Sancti Spíritus stalwart third baseman Yulieski Gourriel was the only individual to appear on both the league all-star team and the all-defensive team selections (tying for the latter honor). And finally there is the issue of Alfredo Despaigne's easy victory as league MVP. Here the same question must be raised that always comes up when discussing major league MVP balloting. Despaigne unquestionably enjoyed one of the great offensive seasons in Cuban league annals, establishing a new league home run mark. Undoubtedly the Granma outfielder was "player of the year" by any measure. But how "valuable" was he to his last-place team? It is a safe bet indeed that Granma would have finished 30 or more games off the pace and failed to make the playoffs even without Despaigne on their roster. Should not the MVP award go to a player whose presence dramatically improved or contributed to team performance?

Most Valuable Player: Alfredo Despaigne (Granma)

First: Alfredo Despaigne (Granma) 76 points (21 first place votes)

Second: Yulieski Gourriel (Sancti Spíritus) 49 points (2 first place votes)

Third: Michel Enríquez (Isla de la Juventud) 36 points (4 first place votes)

Rookie of the Year: Michel Gorgüet (Guantánamo)

First: Michel Gorgüet (Guantánamo) 75 points (21 first place votes)

Second: Denis Laza (Habana Province) 34 points (3 first place votes)

Third: Wilfredo Aroche (Metros) 31 points (3 first place votes)

Manager of the Year: Esteban Lombillo (Habana Province)

First: Esteban Lombillo (Habana Province) 28 votes

Second: Eduardo Martin (Villa Clara)

Third: Roger Machado (Ciego de Avila)

MVP (Post-Season): Miguel Alfredo González (Habana Province)

Unanimous Selection

Rookie of the Year (Post Season): Dennis Laza (Habana Province)

First: Denis Laza (Habana Province) 28 votes

Second: Ramon Lunar (Villa Clara)

National Series #48 League All-Star Team

Catcher: Rolando Meriño (Santiago de Cuba) 27 votes

First Base: Yoelvis Charles (Ciego de Avila) 22 votes

Second Base: Yoilan Cerce (Guantánamo) 20 votes

Third base: Yulieski Gourriel (Sancti Spíritus) 22 votes

Shortstop: Alex Guerrero (Las Tunas) 16 votes

Outfielder: Alfredo Despaigne (Granma) Unanimous

Outfielder: Giorvis Duvergel (Guantánamo) 27 votes

Outfielder: Yoennis Céspedes (Granma) 16 votes

DH: Lerys Aguilera (Holguín) 20 votes

Utility: Leonys Martin (Villa Clara) 10 votes

RHP: Yunieski Maya (Pinar del Río) 21 votes

LHP: Maikel Folch (Ciego de Avila) 26 votes

Relief Pitcher: Vladimir García (Ciego de Avila) 32 votes

All-Defensive Team (Gold Glove Winners)

Catcher: Yaimel Alberro (Matanzas) 24 votes

First Base: Leslie Anderson (Camagüey) 16 votes

Second Base: Mario Vega (Ciego de Avila) 27 votes

Third Base (Tie): Yulieski Gourriel (Sancti Spíritus) 13 votes

Third Base (Tie): Marino Luis (Cienfuegos) 13 votes

Shortstop: Yorbis Borroto (Ciego de Avila) 22 votes

Outfielder: Juan Carlos Linares (Habana Province) 24 votes

Outfielder: Alexei Bell (Santiago de Cuba) 23 votes

Outfielder: Rafael Orta (Habana Province) 16 votes

Pitcher: Wilbert Pérez (Isla de la Juventud) 22 votes

Earlier I reported my personal ballot for the National Series #48 (2008-2009) Cuban League All-Star team. Below are the just-released  final results of the recent Cuban media poll for this season's league all-star squad. A total of 33 votes were cast (31 island journalists plus USA-based correspondents Peter C. Bjarkman and Ray Otero of www.basebbaldecuba.com). The only unanimous choice for the mythical team was Granma outfielder Alfredo Despaigne, this season's home run and RBI leader. The second highest vote getter was Ciego de Avila closer (relief pitcher) Vladimir Garcia. The named selections are as follows:

Smack in the midst of the Rotterdam World Port Tournament, a major story has broken in Havana this weekend with the announcement that Lourdes Gourriel will return to his old post as manager of the Sancti Spíritus Gallos for the coming National Series season. One of the island's biggest offensive stars for two decades (1976-1996), Gourriel previously managed the Gallos (Roosters) for seven seasons (NS#40 through NS#46) before giving way in 2007 to Pinar del Río catching great Juan Castro. Gourriel's previous managerial reign (381 wins and 295 losses) featured six straight winning seasons and a surprising 2002 appearance in the National Series post-season finals. Since relinquishing the bench post in his native province, Gourriel has served the past two seasons as manager of the Bóer Indians in the Nicaraguan Professional Baseball League.

Gourriel enjoyed considerable island fame as a slugging outfielder during 20 Cuban League seasons (20 National Series, 19 Selective Series, and one Revolutionary Cup campaign), posting a .323 career batting average, amassing 2,026 lifetime base hits (number 13 all-time in island annals), and slugging 247 career homers (still the Sancti Spíritus team record). With Team Cuba the towering right-hander batted .413 in six World Cup appearances (65 games), .364 in eight Intercontinental Cup Tournaments, and .410 in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. His numerous clutch base hits in important international tournament matches earned such colorful island nicknames as "Hombre de los Grandes Momentos" and "Héroe de Parma" among others. His most memorable outings on an international stage included a gold medal game-winning hit versus Team USA at the 1980 Tokyo World Cup, plus as a towering MVP performance in the 1989 Intercontinental Cup in Puerto Rico (where he also homered and knocked in four runs in the title game versus the Japanese).

Lourdes Gourriel will be now rejoining the team on which his son Yulieski is a star performer at third base and a second son, Yunieski, patrols central field. It is a ball club known for its potent offense built around national team standout Yulieski and additional sluggers Frederich Cepeda, Elier Sánchez, Liván Monteagudo and Yenier Bello. In their first campaign under Gourriel's replacement, Juan Castro, the Gallos lost a thrilling seven-game post-season semifinal series to eventual league runner-up Pinar del Río; this past spring the slow-starting club rallied to another playoff appearance after the World Baseball Classic mid-season interruption, but then collapsed against the same Pinar club in a brief five-game opening quarterfinal round.

Gourriel was quick to tell a Prensa Latina correspondent in Havana yesterday that his biggest challenge will be replenishing his ball club's weak pitching, which proved to be this past season's playoff Achilles' heel. "We will have to search for an injection of youngsters in the province with strong arms," Gourriel candidly observed. "It is indispensable to elevate the training of our pitchers, but the rest of the club is among the best on the island." If anything can turn around the lackluster fortunes of the recently underachieving Gallos during the coming National Series season it is most likely to be the veteran hand of one of the islands most notable baseball figures, Lourdes Gourriel.

The visit by Cuba's "second string" national team to this year's Rotterdam World Port Tournament in The Netherlands grapped attention this week for the news that southpaw phenom Aroldis Chapman had abandon the Cuban contingent on the eve of last Thursday's opening contest with the host Netherlands. While Chapman has drawn the attention of MLB scouts for his blazing fastball (once clocked at 102-mph earlier this season in National Series play), his record in Cuba has been spotty and he pitched himself off of last summer Beijing Olympic squad with consistent subpar performances during the June José Huelga Tournament in Havana. While Chapman may have a bright pro future, he was pencilled in as the number four starter (behind Miguel Alfredo Gonzalez, lefty Maikel Folch, and 20-year-old Freddy Asiel Alvarez) on the current Cuba B squad. His departure therefore may well have little impact on Cuba's national team plans for the upcoming September IBAF World Cup tournament in Europe.

The below three paragraphs touching on Chapman's "defection" are lifted from my recent www.baseballdecuba.com WPT report filed yesterday on the tournament's opening two days (in which Miguel Alfredo Gonzalez and Maikel Folch both pitched brilliantly in consecutive shutouts of The Netherlands and Japan). For the full story and continued Rotterdam coverage see our tournament webpage at http://www.baseballdecuba.com/rotterdam2009.asp. 

This year's visit to Rotterdam would seemingly not contain the same exacting demands of last year's Haarlem Olympic tune-up. It is true enough that there will be enormous pressures on the Cuban World Cup squad in September to atone for a series of recent disappointments (the second-place finishes at the 2007 Taiwan World Cup and 2008 Beijing Olympics, and the failure to reach the final round at this spring's second edition of MLB's World Baseball Classic). But this is not at all the same ball club that the Cuban Federation will field come September, and the island's World Cup hopes are in no way hanging on the performances of this month's Rotterdam contingent. Nonetheless things did not start out well this week in The Netherlands, with one major setback coming before Machado's club even had a chance to take the field. On the eve of the opening game there was already a major disruption in the form of the unexpected "defection" of star pitcher Aroldis Chapman from the Cuban camp. Long coveted by major league scouts for his limber portside arm and touted 100-mph fastball, Chapman decided to make a break for the seeming Promised Land of untold big league riches. The blow was probably more psychological than strategic, since it is not at all apparent at this point in time just how seriously Chapman figured in Cuba's September World Cup plans.

Chapman remains a considerable mystery and his future in North American professional baseball is not easy to predict. The 21-year-old Holguín lefty has opted to trade potential gold medals for designer golden neck bracelets and a huge bank account--that much is certain. But will he become the next José Contreras or the next Maels Rodríguez? Contreras, of course, had accomplished far more in both international and domestic play by the time he abandoned the island back in 2003 while touring in Mexico. Rodríguez broke every imaginable strikeout record on the island before suffering an unfortunate arm injury that ruined his pro prospects even before his own departure later that same year. Chapman definitely has his negatives, foremost among them a demonstrated lack of strike-zone control, a one-pitch arsenal, and an inconsistent Cuban League performance over four National Series campaigns. Hurling for a Holguín club that made this year's post-season and has been largely a middle-of-the-pack outfit during Chapman's tenure, the southpaw flame thrower has won only slightly more than half his decisions (24-21), though he did enjoy his best season (11-4 and a league-best 130 Ks in 118 innings) this past winter. He has twice topped the 100 K mark but never approached Maels's record-setting standards. Chapman is definitely more a raw "thrower" than a savvy "pitcher" and numerous questions surround his abilities to master the finer details of his craft. But Aroldis Chapman has definitely already displayed one easily definable characteristic of a true major leaguer: by abandoning his teammates on the eve of an important international tournament (and thus leaving the squad short of starting pitchers) he has dramatically signaled that personal career advancement for him far outweighs any ball club loyalties. He is only the most recent poster child for rampant baseball free agency.

Chapman's record--more so than that of Maels Rodríguez a few years back--was largely one of brief moments of brilliant potential rather than one of any truly noteworthy record-book feats. Chapman enjoyed one great game in international play as a 19-year-old (during the 2007 World Cup semifinals versus Japan) but never quite returned to that stellar form. His Cuban League record had some noteworthy features (379 Ks in 341 innings) but was on the whole disappointing (210 walks over the same span, only one career shutout, a lofty 3.72 ERA, an 0-2 post-season record, only one winning season in four tries). Chapman pitched badly enough in last summer's José Huelga Tournament in Havana to play himself off the Cuban Olympic roster, and while his fastball drew attention in two outings at the recent WBC, he was hardly dominant against either the Australians or the Japanese. The bottom line is that Chapman has great potential and could well end up in a major league uniform. Certainly he will hold up some big league franchise for millions in signing bonuses and thus enrich both himself and some opportunistic player agent. But the jury is still out (and likely will be until at least September) regarding how badly this departure might actually damage Cuban national team prospects. The full impact of Chapman's loss is especially open to question given what has transpired on the playing field at Neptunus Family Stadium in slightly more than 48 hours since his departure.