• Submitted by: lena campos
• Sports
• 06 / 27 / 2013

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On the heels of an unorthodox National Series season featuring a split campaign, two distinct divisions, drafted reinforcement players, and a rather surprising league champion, Cuban baseball now heads into its annual summer international phase with July visits to Holland (World Port Tournament) and North America (renewal of last year’s friendly series with the USA Baseball College All-Stars).

First up is the showcase World Port Tournament in Rotterdam, a four-team event staged on odd-number years since 1985 and a venue where the Cubans have walked off with eight of the previous thirteen titles. This year’s small-field tournament will feature the defending champion Taiwanese (winners over Cuba in a gripping 11-inning “Schiller Rule” title game two summers back), the reigning IBAF World Champion Dutch (gold medal winners over Cuba at the final 2011 IBAF Panama World Cup), a strong Curaçao ball club (featuring a number of talented Dutch League regulars), and a strong Cuban squad that in large part resembles the team sent into action in last the March for a Third Edition of the MLB World Baseball Classic.

Unlike past seasons when Team Cuba rosters have been announced well in advance of tournament play, a veil of secrecy has clouded the Cuban squads chosen for this year’s Rotterdam event and also for the upcoming renewal series in late July with the USA collegians.

Part of the reason has likely been the late finish of this year’s domestic post-season, but it is now apparent that WPT officials also asked the Cuban Federation not to announce details about their squad until after June 25. The Cuban team by agreement would be first revealed to the Dutch media during a special June 25 press conference in Rotterdam as part of the kick-off celebration of this year’s event. While this website was aware of the Cuban roster at a slightly earlier date, we agreed not to reveal it in advance of the “official” announcement on Dutch soil. But the roster has now been made public on at least one other European-based website in advance of the official press release.

Cuba will indeed be well represented in Rotterdam with a ball club that largely mirrors the strong contingent send to Japan earlier this spring for WBC III action under the leadership of Victor Mesa. The starting lineup of position players will in fact be identical to the WBC club with the small exceptions of left-fielder Alfredo Despaigne (recently allowed to spend the summer on the roster of the Campeche Mexican League club), DH Freddie Cepeda (currently sidelined for three months with a hand injury), and spare outfielder Alexei Bell (also currently on the injured list and thus also missing for the second half of National Series action).

Ismel Jimenez y Yasmani Tomás

The biggest changes will come on the bench (where rookie manager Yovani Aragón replaces Mesa as manager) and in the pitching corps (where only starters Ismel Jiménez, Odrisamer Despaigne and Wilber Pérez, plus reliever Raciel Iglesias return from the WBC roster). The most notable absences from the normal top Cuba squad (outside of Alfredo Despaigne and Freddie Cepeda) will be ace right-handed pitchers Vladimir García (starter in the final March Tokyo shootout with Holland) and Freddy Asiel Alvarez (fresh off his stunning and record-smashing MVP performance in this year’s National Series playoffs with league champion Villa Clara).

Source: Havanatimes.org