By José Alejandro Rodríguez Zas
The Cocodrilos de Matanzas team of the National Baseball Series was one of the pioneers in domestic classics in accepting “reinforcements” from other provinces to represent the province. Since the time when the spicy Victor Mesa was his director, many have been “imported” players who have come to the campus to help him achieve important results.
Making a list of all these athletes would be a task that would take a long time to work and, perhaps, the subject of another publication. But the truth is that so many players have come to Matanzas from other parts of the country that Cuban baseball fans have used picturesque nicknames such as “Cubatanzas” to identify the Athens team of Cuba.
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On the afternoon of this Wednesday, October 21, in a publication made on his Twitter profile, Radio Rebelde sports journalist Guillermo Rodríguez reported on the case of the prominent left-handed pitcher from Guantánamo, Dairon Mena, who was released from his province to play with Matanzas in the 61st edition of the National Series.
As confirmed by the journalist from the easternmost of the Cuban provinces, Aramis Sánchez, Mena would be moving to Matanzas because he currently resides in Varadero with his wife and, therefore, it would be much more appropriate for him to play with the Crocodiles.
However, it is valid to note that, a few months ago, at the beginning of June of this year 2021, Mena himself had received a refusal from his native province to move to Matanzas, so this positive news for him should have been very well received. .
OreThe 20-year-old is a promising young pitching player from Guantanamo, with experience in two National Series and although his numbers are not good at all, he presents exceptional physical conditions to develop as a pitcher, with a sustained fastball above 90 mph.
In 27 games launched in Cuba, he has accumulated an adverse balance of victories and losses of 5-17, with a high ERA of 5.32 and a WHIP of 1.74, in addition to 78 strikeouts and 65 walks and a rival batting average of. 297, product of 126 hits allowed in 424 official batting times.
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In his debut series, number 59, Mena was reinforcement of manager Armando Ferrer’s own Matanzas Crocodiles in the second round of the tournament and acted in three games, two of them as a starter, adding a winless defeat, with an excellent average. of 1.42
Mena is part of the shortlist of 30 players who under the orders of Eriel Sánchez is preparing to join the Cuba team at the I Junior Pan American Games in Cali-Valle 2021, incorporated into the group in the last hours.
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