Elite League: What does each one need?

No less than 12 will be chosen, a number unprecedented so far in domestic baseball competitions, and which is due above all to the need to keep the country’s main talents in competition.

Those should be the ones that be in the majority in the managers’ preferences this Thursday, but the realities are different in each squad.

The champion of the last National Series, Las Tunas, needs pitchers above all, and his coach, Abeysi Pantoja, had to change his first selection, because he was thinking of José Ramón Rodríguez, but it seems that the Camagüey native will sign with the Tigres de Chinandega, of the Nicaraguan Professional League, and that rattles the script. Los Leñadores, in their advanced roster, presented very few starters, so they will obviously emphasize that aspect, and it’s likely that they will also look for their second offensive baseman, which could be Carlos Benítez from Granma if he is fit, or his compatriot Osvaldo Abreu (.341 average, .418 OBP, .386 slugging, .804 OPS), who drove in 19 runs in the NL, to make moves in the infield.

The runner-up Industriales also hinted from his progress that it will look for offense, especially in the outfield, where he gave only three names, and it would not be bad to take Yasmani Viera (.329, .386, .421 and .807), with 31 RBIs , For example.

Santiago de Cuba points to a seasoned catcher (Osvaldo Vázquez is the best choice, with a line of .300, .432, .573 and 1.005, in addition to 15 home runs and 47 RBIs), infielders, perhaps an outfielder (it could be the Guantanamo native Robert Luis Delgado, with .325, .414, .458 and 35 RBIs) and pitchers, like everyone else.

Matanzas continues to be a very complete roster, and according to the list of 20, it is missing at least one catcher (perhaps Raudelín Legrá from Holguín, with figures of .329, .373, .435 and .808 with 43 RBIs in the last Series) and reinforce outfield and pitching staff.

In the case of Sancti Spíritus, they lost their first choice catcher, but his replacement did quite well in the National Series and perhaps they will not opt for that position, everything will depend on the remaining options, because their priority should be on utility players and starters .

Finally, Artemisa looks like the least powerful of all and except in catching, in the rest of the areas it must go out in search of good players from the 10 teams that will not be present.

Among the hitters to choose could be the Pinar del Río players Luís Pablo Acosta (.370, .443, .490, .933 and 31) and Yasser Julio González (.270, .320, .520, .840 and 39), the Camagüeyans Luis González (.313, .415, .553, .968 and 55) and Yordanis Samón (.362, .471, .566, 1,037 and 65), Jonathan Bridón (.347, .407, .542, .949) and 58), the Mayabeque players Yasniel González (.332, .480, .594, 1,074 and 64), Dennis Laza (.337, .450, .594, 1,044 and 74) and Rangel Ramos (.318, .378, . 486, .864 and 33), the Cienfuegos players Yoasnier Emilio Pérez (.365, .418, .495, .913 and 41) and Pavel Quesada (.321, .470, .476, .946 and 21), the Guantanamo player Andrés de la Cruz (.364, .428, .508, .936 and 41), Holguín players Yordan Manduley (.352, .408, .469, .877 and 53) and Edilse Silva (.349, .445, .516 , .961 and 48) and from Isla de Pinos Eliseo Rojas (.321, .417, .412, .829 and 26) and Luis Felipe Rivera (.320, .414, .474, .888 and 32).

Likewise, the most coveted pitchers must be the leader of pitchers Erly Casanova (six wins and five losses, rival average of .239 and Earned Run Average of 2.05), Orisbel Borges (4-5, .243 and 3.29, in addition to nine Games Saved), pirates Franky Quintana (6-4, .234 and 2.77, with 11), Jonathan Carbó (5-5, .241 and 2.59) and Kendry Hernández (3- 7, .236, 3.41 and 5) , the Villa Clara natives Dairon Casanova (4-1, .240, 2.96 and 7) and Yasmany Hernández (4-4, .243, 3.73 and 5), from Los Toros Dariel Góngora (7-5, .233, 2.78) and Fernando Ramos (5-3, .219, 2.84 and 7), los Elefantes Islay Sotolongo (10-4, .256, 3.43) and Luis Serpa (3-6, .282, 1.64 and 2), from Los Huracanes Yadián Martínez (7- 3, .298, 3.53) and Adrián Sosa (5-6, .274, 3.86 and 12), from Los Tigres Vladimir García (4-0, .235, 2.86 and 12), the Guantanamo-born Yeudis Reyes (5-4, . 281, 2.78 and 5), from Los Cachorros Michel Cabrera (6-3, .267, 3.34 and 10) and from Los Alazanes Carlos Santana (1-4, .216, 2.03 and 9) and Miguel David Paradelo (4-5, . 253, 3.17 and 2).

Of course, all this will depend on the contacts between coaches and players, and whether any of them recently signed a contract to play abroad.