World Baseball Classic returns March 8 with 20 teams carrying their nations’ hopes
The World Baseball Classic has finally returned to the international stage after a six-year hiatus rather than the usual four— and the current tournament is the biggest and most inclusive yet. There are now 20 teams from all over the world vying for national bragging rights, up from 16 in 2017 when USA beat Puerto Rico for the title, with many of them boasting several established Major League players. Nearly 70 All-Stars are suiting up to represent their native countries, among them eight former MVPs including Miguel Cabrera (Dominican Republic) and Jose Altuve (Venezuela). The tournament, which starts on Wednesday
AL homer champ Jorge Soler sets record for Cuban-born player
By Robert Dominguez Jorge Soler's 48th and final home run in the Royal’s last game of the 2019 season on Sept. 29 was cause for a double celebration. The first-inning, nearly 400-foot blast against the Minnesota Twins not only sealed his title as American League home run champion (the injured Mike Trout was second with 45), it also gave Soler the single-season record for most homers by a Cuban-born player. The 27-year-old rightfielder/DH passed Rafael Palmiero, who hit 47 homers in both 1999 and 2001 for the Texas Rangers. Make that a triple celebration: Soler’s home run was also the
A Sizzling Yordan Alvarez named ALCS MVP, carries Astros into the 2021 World Series
Yordan Alvarez is using the 2021 postseason to prove what the Houston Astros have known all along: The 24-year-old slugger from Las Tunas, Cuba, is one of the best young hitters in the game despite a rocky start to his career. A year after missing all but two games of the pandemic-shortened 2020 season due to surgery on both knees, Alvarez — the 2019 AL Rookie of the Year — is putting a bright, beautiful bow on his comeback campaign with a torrid postseason. He was named the AL Championship Series MVP on Friday after the Astros beat the Boston
El Mundo de Las Grandes Ligas Podcast Joins LatinoBaseball.com
LatinoBaseball.com is proud to announce that sportscasting industry veterans Felix DeJesus and Kevin Cabral will be joining the team as we syndicate their podcast, “El Mundo de Las Grandes Ligas.” The popular podcast is already broadcast worldwide and on MLB.com, and moving forward you will be able to find their weekly episodes posted here as well. You can also access their catalog of previous episodes to catch up on anything you may have missed. Both of these powerhouses have joined forces to bring you insightful commentary on the happenings each week in baseball. Felix DeJesus is the producer of the
David vs. Goliath: Altuve beats out Judge for AL MVP
Size doesn’t matter. At least not in baseball. Jose Altuve, the Houston Astros’ dynamic — and diminutive — second baseman, handily beat out Aaron Judge, the New York Yankees’ gentle giant, for the American League MVP honor announced Thursday night. But it was hardly a David vs. Goliath battle to see which of the two heavily-favored players would be the one to bring home the hardware for most valuable player. It was no surprise the 27-year-old Altuve, who is generously listed at 5 feet, 6 inches, um, tall — he’s the shortest player in the game — added his first
He finally put a ring on it: Beltran retires as World Series winner
Carlos Beltran was always a winner, but he went out a champion. After a formidable 20 year-career and enough stellar stats to get the Hall of Fame argument rolling, the Puerto Rico-born outfielder/DH decided to hang up his spikes after using his bat – and baseball brains –- to help the Houston Astros win their first-ever World Series championship this past season. The 40-year-old Beltran announced his retirement on Nov. 13, admitting he made the decision to call it a career during the middle of the 2017 season regardless of how far the Astros went in the playoffs. “At the beginning
Glove Story: Lindor, Arenado, Peralta among players who struck Gold in 2019
A player’s contributions on defense are often overlooked these days in baseball’s current homer-happy, offense-minded era. Thankfully, there’s the annual Gold Glove awards to remind fans that the best players are the ones who can flash some leather, too. Here are some of 2019’s winners, who were chosen by a vote of MLB managers and coaches plus a sabermetric index by the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR): Catcher, American League Roberto Perez, Indians It was virtually impossible for a pitcher to get a ball by Perez, who didn’t allow a passed ball last season en route to his first
Carlos Carrasco wins 2019 Roberto Clemente Award
Carlos Carrasco’s remarkable comeback from a cancer diagnosis to take the mound again for the Cleveland Indians wasn’t the only feel-good moment in the right-hander’s roller-coaster 2019 season. On Oct. 25, the Venezuelan native received the 2019 Roberto Clemente Award, the annual honor named for the Pittsburgh Pirates icon from Puerto Rico killed in a 1972 plane crash while bringing aid to earthquake victims in Nicaragua. The award is given to a player who displays “extraordinary character, community involvement, philanthropy and positive contributions both on and off the field,” according to MLB, and the 32-year-old pitcher certainly lives up to
