Cuban Baseball Quarterfinals Meet Expectations 

Por Peter Bjarkman*

An opening week of post-season action has followed close to form and thus brought precisely the results most prognosticators envisioned. Defending champion Habana Province and 2009 semifinalist Ciego de Avila have already cruised on to the second round, and last year's runner-up Villa Clara is also knocking loudly on the door of a semifinal berth.
  
So things have played out just about as most analysts had earlier projected, with the better pitching ball clubs (especially Habana Province led by Esteban Lombillo and Ciego de Avila under the guidance of Roger Machado) encountering few obstacles in their first-round matches.

Well, almost as projected, that is. There is the matter of the Sancti Spíritus-Industriales series which quickly proved to be an absolute shocker. I wrote one week ago that the Gallos-Blue Lions encounter appeared to be the easiest one to call in advance, with the forces of Lourdes Gourriel seeming to have all the momentum after a terrific 63-win campaign. But I also did caution (remember?) that this was precisely the series (since it seemed so one-sided at the outset) that might very well provided the league’s biggest upset of the year. And now it turns out that I was absolutely right on at least one count. Unfortunately for Gallos partisans it was my caution and not my original projection that turned out to be most strictly on target.

Occidental League: Industriales versus Habana Province
  
In San José it is pitching, pitching, pitching, and then more pitching. Lombillo’s team definitely has it all when it comes to the game’s most important department. And one of the sport’s oldest and most oft-proven dictums is that pitching alone wins these short playoff series. That was the story for a Habana team boasting little offense last year, and it will be the same story for the Cowboys despite even less offensive punch this time around. Industriales will probably have its brief moments of heavy hitting, especially in the games played at Latin American Stadium. But the top four starters for Habana—Yulieski González (11-7, league’s second-best 2.22 ERA), Jonder Martínez (8-4, third-best 2.48 ERA), Miguel Alfredo González (6-6, but a 2.98 ERA) and Yadier Pedroso (league ERA champ one year ago)—are all proven national team stalwarts and probably the best four-man rotation in a half-century of National Series history. Pedroso and Martínez both work effectively out of the bullpen as long relievers whenever needed. Miguel Lahera (11 saves) and José Angel Garcia (33 relief appearances this year, with 10 saves) are the league’s best tandem of solid late-inning closers. No manager on the island has ever boasted a deeper collection of effective arms than the one Esteban Lombillo directs. And that is by far the most effective weapon for any manager at this time of year.

Bjarkman’s Prediction: Habana Province wins in six games.
 
Oriente League: Ciego de Avila versus Villa Clara

This was a great series in last year’s eastern semifinals—one that was a lot closer than the final five-game results might suggest—and it should be a great series once again. Ciego may have a slight pitching edge, especially if Maikel Folch lives up to expectations in his anticipated two starts. Vladimir García (11-4, 2.68) registered a huge success this season in his conversion from the bullpen to a starting role, tying Folch, Yulieski González and Norberto González (Cienfuegos) for the league lead in victories. But Fred Asiel Alvarez is still much better than his disappointing sophomore 3-10 ledger would suggest, and veteran Luis Borroto (9-1, 3.79) is coming off the best winter of his nine-year career. Villa Clara with slugging youngsters Leonys Martin (.325, 10 HR) and Ramón Lunar (.350, 18 HRs, and now playing at third base), plus veterans like Pestano, Ariel Borrero (.341, 11 HR), and Andy Zamora (.346, 52 RBI), definitely has the hitting edge. The Orangemen should eventually wear down the Tiger pitching in the games when Folch is not out on the hill, unless Vlad García proves to be this year’s post-season surprise. In the end I foresee a repeat of last season’s Habana Province-Villa Clara finale.
 
Bjarkman’s Prediction: Villa Clara wins in six games.

So there we have it. It should be Habana and Villa Clara back on center stage once the early round dust has finally cleared. Again the Cuban playoffs are living up to their advanced billing in every respect imaginable. Habana Province has displayed the best of its remarkable pitching mastery, Ciego de Avila and Villa Clara have demonstrated once again they are now the most balanced clubs in the east, once again the regular season run-away pacesetter has wilted under playoff pressure—last year Ciego and this year Sancti Spíritus. And perhaps best of all, Industriales has risen from the near-dead to awaken the enthusiastic fandom of the island’s most populous city. When the Industriales Lion roars the most voluminous and enthusiastic fan interest is always aroused.  
 
Those who still think that “March Madness” has something to do with high-salaried collegiate athletes wearing short pants and tossing oversized balls through elevated steel hoops obviously still haven’t discovered the most exciting venue that the sport of bats and balls has to offer. Forget October’s badly misnamed professional “World Series”. (In what sense, after all, does an autumn playoff series between mercenary-filled corporate teams involve anything that might be called “the World”?) For me, true playoff baseball is always about the month of March.

* Peter C. Bjarkman is author of A History of Cuban Baseball, 1864-2006 (McFarland, 2007) and is widely considered a leading authority on Cuban baseball, both past and present. He reports on Cuban League action and the Cuban national team for www.BaseballdeCuba.com and also writes a regular monthly Cuban League Report for www.ibaf.com. He is currently completing a book on the history of the post-revolution Cuban national team.