2001-2002 Cuban National League
From BR Bullpen
The 2001-2002 season was the forty-first season of Cuba's national baseball system.
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[edit] Serie Nacional
The 41st Serie Nacional was won by Holguín, who were managed by Héctor Hernández. The team won in the playoff finals against Sancti Spíritus, four games to three. The Serie Nacional was followed by a 27-game super-provincial series in the summer called the Súper Liga, featuring four teams.
The Zona Occidental was dominated by Pinar del Río, who were led by returning former national team manager Jorge Fuentes and had the league's best record at 64 – 26. The zona's surprise was Sancti Spíritus, which went from seven games under .500 in last year's serie, to winning the Grupo B by a single game over Industriales. Rounding out the playoff teams was second seed Isla de la Juventud. The Sancti Spíritus-Isla de la Juventud went the full five games, with the surprise team emerging victorious, while Pinar del Río rolled over Industriales. Sancti Spíritus then defeated Pinar del Río 4 games to 2 to advance to the finals.
In the Zona Oriental, the top three teams (Holguín, Villa Clara, Santiago de Cuba) were all within a game of each other and .600, while four-ranked Camagüey finished a game under .500. Holguín edged three-time defending champion Santiago de Cuba by one game to win Grupo C and gained the first seed. They then beat Camagüey in their semifinals matchup and Villa Clara (who had defeated Santiago de Cuba) to reach the finals.
Sancti Spíritus was led by a trio of young pitchers – Yovani Aragón, 27 years old; Ifreidi Coss, 18 years old; and Maels Rodríguez, 22 years old. Rodríguez was the ace sporting a 14 – 3 win-loss record, 2.13 ERA and a league leading 219 strikeouts and 85 base-on-balls. Ifreidis Coss was 10 – 3 in the regular season with 1.94 earned run average and 87/26 K/BB ratio in his rookie season. Aragón went 12 – 8, had a 3.46 ERA while striking out 129 and walking 46. The team's top batters were Frederich Cepeda whose .378 batting average was fourth in the league and who hit 10 home runs; Eriel Sánchez, who also hit 10 round-trippers; and Yulieski Gourriel who hit 26 doubles. Other batters include Yunier Mendoza, as well as Loudres Gourriel's brother Luis Enrique and son Yuniesky.
Unlike Sancti Spíritus, Holguín had little star power or spectacular players. The team's top two pitchers were Orelvis Avila who went 14 – 7 wtih a 2.87 ERA, 74 strikeouts, and 58 walks, while Luis Miguel Rodriguez was 13 – 6 with 119 opposing batters struck out, 30 base-on-balls, and a 2.94 earned run average. Waldo Denis was by far the team's best hitter with a .366 average and a team-leading 9 home runs, designated hitter Luis Rodríguez Williams sported a .341 average with 23 doubles, while Juan Rondón hit .332, third on the team.
The final series between Sancti Spíritus and Holguín went the full seven games. In the first game at Estadio Calixto García Íñiguez Sancti Spíritus's Ifreid Coss threw a 6 – 0 shutout of the home team. The second game was a slugfest as Holguín scored four runs in the first knocking out Sancti Spíritus starter Ramón Licor and reliever Noelvis Hernández. In the third the visitors respoended with five runs, forcing Oscar Gil and Félix Borbón to leave the game. Holguín responded with six runs over the next four innings while Juan E. Pérez and Orelvis Avila shutdown Sancti Spíritus. In the top of the ninth – down 10 to 5 – Sancti Spíritus scored five runs on four hits, a walk and an error. The game went into extra innings, and in the bottom of the twelfth, Oscar del Rosario got a single, was moved to second base by Gabriel Rojas sacrifice and scored on a Yoanis Quintana hit to center field.
The series the moved to Estadio José Antonio Huelga for the middle set of games. Holguín went up 2 to 1 with a 4 – 3 win despite a complete game by Sancti Spíritus's Yovani Aragón and then won the fourth game 5 – 2 to move one game away for the team's first title. Ifreidi Coss threw another shutout in game five, 5 – 0 with Holguín's Orelvis Avila getting pulled before recording a single out, and Juan E. Pérez coming in on relief and finishing the game. Game six, back in Holguín, was won by Sancti Spíritus 4 – 2. The game was 4 – 0 until the bottom of the ninth when Juan Pacheco hit a two-run home run off Yovani Aragón. Maels Rodríguez then came in and struck out the side.
Game seven saw the 18-year old Ifreidi Coss taking the mound for Sancti Spíritus against the 26-year old Orelvis Avila for Holguín. Coss pitched three innings but was pulled for Maels Rodríguez after giving up an Ernesto Martínez home run to lead off the fourth. Holguín added another run in the fifth on a Juan Rondón double and Waldo Denis single. Avila took a shutout into the ninth, and was one out from completeing the game when he gave up a hit to Ixis Valle. Pinch-hitter Reinier Yero then hit a double moving Valle to third. Liván Monteagudo then hit a texas leaguer plating Valle and moving the tying run 90-feet from home. Oscar Gil was then brought in, he first walked Yonelkis Villas to load the bases and bring up Frederich Cepeda – who had a postseason-leading batting average of .394. Gil struckout Cepeda to give Holguín their first title.
Osmani Urrutia of Las Tunas win his second consecutive batting title with a .408 average, 98 hits in 240 at-bats. Matanzas's Michel Abreu hits 23 home runs, top in the league, he also scores a league leading 78 runs. Teammate Juan Manrique is walked 90 times, breaking his own record of 89 from three years prior. Pinar del Río's Pedro L. Lazo is the league's leader in wins with 15 while teammate José Contreras is the ERA champ with a 1.76 earned run average – 28 earned runs in 143.1 innings pitched. Fellow pinareño Orestes González breaks Duniel Ibarra's record for games pitched and relief appearances by relieving in 50 games.
Industriales' switch-hitting utility player Kendry Morales sets has the league's best season for a rookie. He sets a rookie records for home runs with 21; runs scored, 60; runs batted in, 82; base hits, 114; extra base hits, 56; and slugging percentage, .577.
The Serie Nacional season also sees the retirement of many of the league's greats from the 1980s and 1990s. Among these are longtime Industriales shortstop Germán Mesa and pitcher Lázaro de la Torre, longtime camagüeyano Luis Ulacia, career home run leader Orestes Kindelán, all-time base hits leader Antonio Pacheco, and batting average leader Omar Linares. Linares will go on to play for the Chunichi Dragons for three season before retiring.
[edit] Standings
- Bold indicates Zona champion; Italics indicates Serie Nacional champion
[edit] Zona Occidental
| Grupo A | Grupo B | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team | G | W | L | WPCT | GB | |||||||||
| Pinar del Río | 90 | 64 | 26 | 0.711 | -.- | Sancti Spíritus | 90 | 53 | 37 | 0.589 | -.- | |||
| Isla de la Juventud | 90 | 51 | 39 | 0.567 | 13.0 | Industriales | 90 | 49 | 41 | 0.544 | 4.0 | |||
| Matanzas | 90 | 48 | 42 | 0.533 | 16.0 | La Habana | 90 | 45 | 45 | 0.500 | 8.0 | |||
| Metropolitanos | 90 | 31 | 59 | 0.344 | 33.0 | Cienfuegos | 90 | 33 | 57 | 0.367 | 20.0 | |||
[edit] Zona Oriental
| Grupo C | Grupo D | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team | G | W | L | WPCT | GB | Team | G | W | L | WPCT | GB | |||
| Villa Clara | 90 | 54 | 36 | 0.600 | -.- | Holguín | 90 | 55 | 35 | 0.611 | -.- | |||
| Camagüey | 90 | 44 | 46 | 0.489 | 10.0 | Santiago de Cuba | 90 | 54 | 36 | 0.600 | 1.0 | |||
| Ciego de Ávila | 90 | 42 | 48 | 0.467 | 12.0 | Granma | 90 | 38 | 52 | 0.422 | 17.0 | |||
| Las Tunas | 90 | 23 | 67 | 0.256 | 31.0 | Guantánamo | 90 | 36 | 54 | 0.400 | 19.0 | |||
[edit] Playoffs
| Quarterfinals | Semifinals | Finals | |||||||||||
| OCC1 | Pinar del Río | 3 | |||||||||||
| OCC4 | Industriales | 1 | |||||||||||
| OCC1 | Pinar del Río | 2 | |||||||||||
| Occidental | |||||||||||||
| OCC2 | Sancti Spíritus | 4 | |||||||||||
| OCC2 | Sancti Spíritus | 3 | |||||||||||
| OCC3 | Isla de la Juventud | 2 | |||||||||||
| OCC2 | Sancti Spíritus | 3 | |||||||||||
| OTE1 | Holguín | 4 | |||||||||||
| OTE1 | Holguín | 3 | |||||||||||
| OTE4 | Camagüey | 1 | |||||||||||
| OTE1 | Holguín | 4 | |||||||||||
| Oriental | |||||||||||||
| OTE3 | Villa Clara | 2 | |||||||||||
| OTE2 | Santiago de Cuba | 0 | |||||||||||
| OTE3 | Villa Clara | 3 | |||||||||||
[edit] All-Star Game
The seventeenth Juego de las Estrellas (All-Star Game) was held at Holguín in Holguín, Holguín (Serie Nacional)|Holguín on March 17, 2002. In the game, Occidentales defeated Oriente by a score of 8 to 1. Occidentales had 14 hits to Oriente's 7, while the errors were 0 to 1 in favor of Oriente. The winning pitcher was Carlos Yanes and the losing pitcher was Vladimir Hernández.
[edit] Leaders
- Bold indicates either wooden bat record or aluminum bat record (1976-1977 to 1998-1999), Italics indicate Serie Nacional record
[edit] Batting
[edit] Pitching
[edit] Award Winners
The Most Valuable Player (Jugadores más Valiosos) was Michel Abreu a first baseman with Matanzas. The Most Valuable Pitcher (Lanzadores más Valiosos) was Michel Abreu of Matanzas. Kendry Morales of Industriales was the Series' Rookie of the Year (Novatos del Año).
[edit] Súper Liga
The first Súper Liga was won by Habaneros who defeated Centrales in the best-of-three championship series. Habaneros (Súper Liga)|Habaneros was managed by the Armando Johnson.
[edit] Standings
| Team | G | W | L | WPCT | GB |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Habaneros | 27 | 16 | 11 | 0.593 | -.- |
| Centrales | 27 | 16 | 11 | 0.593 | -.- |
| Occidentales | 27 | 12 | 15 | 0.444 | 4.0 |
| Orientales | 27 | 10 | 17 | 0.370 | 6.0 |
[edit] Playoffs
The Súper Liga Championship Playoff featured the first and second place teams in a best-of-three series. The second place Habaneros defeated the first place Centrales, 2 games to 1.
[edit] Leaders
[edit] Batting
- Batting Average: .391 - Andy Zamora, Centrales
- Base Hits: 35 - Frederich Cepeda, Centrales; Juan Carlos Linares, Occidentales
- Runs Scored: 24 - Frederich Cepeda, Centrales
- Doubles: 11 - Frederich Cepeda, Centrales
- Triples: 3 - Yasser Gómez, Habaneros
- Home Runs: 7 - Frederich Cepeda, Centrales
- Runs Batted In: 19 - Bábaro Cañizares, Habaneros; Ariel Borrero, Centrales; Frederich Cepeda, Centrales
[edit] Pitching
- Win-Loss Percentage: 1.000 (4 - 0) - Orestes González, Occidentales
- Games Pitched: 12 - Orestes González, Occidentales
- Wins: 4 - Vicyohandri Odelín, Habaneros; Yadel Martí, Habaneros; Orestes González, Occidentales
- Innings Pitched: 43.1 - Ciro Silvino Licea, Orientales
- Strikeouts: 41 - Maels Rodríguez, Centrales
- Earned Run Average: 1.13 - Orestes González, Occidentales
[edit] Sources
- (March 17, 2004). "Cronología: 2002 (Spanish)". Radiococo. Radiococo. Retrieved October 29, 2006.
- (March 22, 2004). "Tabla de Posiciones de la XLI serie 2002 (Spanish)". Radiococo. Radiococo. Retrieved October 29, 2006.
- (November 18, 2005). "Guía Digital 2005-06". Guía Oficial de Béisbol 2005 (Digital). Instituto Nacional de Deportes, Educación Física y Recreación. Retrieved October 29, 2006.
- Peter C. Bjarkman. A History of Cuban Baseball, 1864–2006. : McFarland, 2007. ISBN 0786428295
