Panama meets for the second year with the elite of world baseball

Panamanian baseball will meet the world elite of this sport for the second consecutive year, when next November it participates for the first time in the Premier 12, the highest sporting event of the World Baseball and Softball Confederation (WBSC).

In 2023, Isthmus baseball was involved in the World Classic, another first-rate competition, but organized by Major League Baseball.

Panama accessed the Premier 12, which replaced the world championships of the senior category, entering this year by points into the group of the best twelve teams in the world.

The ninth national team will have a great challenge in this first experience, since it will have to deal with five of the best teams in the world, in a group in which only the best two will be able to qualify.

Along these lines, our team will be grouped with the United States, the Netherlands, Puerto Rico, Venezuela and Mexico, whose city of Guadalajara will host group A, in its Pan American stadium.

Panama opens on November 9 against the Netherlands, then plays against Venezuela the next day; On the 11th they will do it with Mexico and on the 12th with the United States, to close the 14th against Puerto Rico.

In group B, there are: Japan, Republic of Korea, Chinese Taipei, Cuba, Dominican Republic and Australia, which will have matches in both Japan and Chinese Taipei.

The team manager will be José Mayorga, who led the local team in the last World Classic and who has been in charge of the Federales de Chiriquí, in the Panamanian professional league.

Mayorga expressed that he feels that he will have a fairly strong team, with pitching and defense being his greatest strength.

“Our strength will be pitching and defense, without taking away from hitting,” he said.

“We are going to work on everything (…), on the little things that will influence the tournament, because of how short it will be,” he noted.

The Premier League 12 was born in 2015, after the last major world cup held in Panama, and its first champion was South Korea, holding its second edition in 2019 with Japan emerging as the best.

To be in the organization’s ranking, countries must not only participate with their different teams in the competitions organized by the Confederation but also obtain victories, because in this way they manage to improve their position.

Panama entered this list for the first time this year.

Mayorga made up the preselection with players who were mostly active this year, due to the short time to train together and the preparation of strategies to face each opponent.

In the picture are: Jonathan Araúz, Robert Mullen, Edgar Muñoz, Rodrigo Orozco, Carlos Quiroz, José Ramos, Abraham Rodríguez and Mario Sanjur, Jhony Santos, Rubén Tejada, Luis Tello and Joshwan Weight.

Likewise, Juan Diego Alonso, Fernando González, Jean Arnáez, Leonardo Bernal, Johan Camargo, Luis Castillo, Juan Diego Crisp and Luis Escudero.

The pitchers are: Darío Agrazal, son; Enrique Burgos, son; Alberto Baldonado, Jaime Barría, Bryan Cáceres, Gilberto Chú, Randall Delgado, Paolo Espino, Sadrac Franco, Teidín Frías, Steven Fuentes, Jorge and Rafael García, Miguel Gómez and Severino González.

Likewise, Javier Guerra, Alberto Guerrero, Kenny Hernández, Humberto Mejía, Abdiel Mendoza, Kevin Miranda, Andy Otero, Wilfredo Pereira, Kevin Rodríguez and Abdiel Saldaña.

The group is training at the Juan Demóstenes Arosemena stadium in the capital.

To find out the level of expectation that Panamanian participation in the tournament has generated, we spoke with two experts on national baseball.

“Panama aspires to surprise, as happened in the Classic, with a group as complicated as it looks on paper,” said journalist Aurelio Ortiz.

“It seems that it was the one with the lowest profile, taking into account that in the preselection more than 50 percent are in their first call,” he added.

He said that the doubts, as in recent years, will be in the offense, while the streamer corps looks good.

“The pitching generally looks good, with pitchers coming from the professional leagues,” he said.

“If Panama finishes above .500, that is, wins three of the five games, it would be the surprise of the year (…), it could definitely be considered a very good performance,” he concluded.

For his part, former player and commentator Eric Espino said that: “The competition is tough, very strong, because there are the twelve best teams in the world, and it will be the first time that Panama participates.”

“The group we have is difficult, but nothing is impossible and I think we will fight to win,” he said.

Espino specified that the selection of the preselection was based on the players who have competitive pace, although he accepted that the group is quite new, with good pitching.

“There is practically no one missing there. A broad preselection has been chosen and it is practiced in good weather,” he admitted.

He maintained that the players from the local tournament would also have wanted to participate, but they do not have the necessary continuity, because our major championship is relatively short.