The selection for the Under-23 Pan-American tournament, starting this coming Saturday in Panama, which is a qualifier for the Under-23 World Cup, brings together 24 players from ten of the 16 teams of the season. They will rejoin their teams after the coming 6th of October.

Today the quarter-final matchups of the 64th National Series begin, of which there are two very intriguing ones: those that will see Matanzas and Pinar del Río as rivals, and Industriales and Granma. But also starting today, 24 players from ten of the 16 teams of the season will not be in the line-ups.

The selection for the Under-23 Pan-American tournament, starting this coming Saturday in Panama, which is a qualifier for the Under-23 World Cup, brings together those players, who last played this past Sunday. They will rejoin their teams after the coming 6th of October.

Many of them already carry significant weight in their provincial teams, and the managers will have to make adjustments so that their absence is felt as little as possible. Between the final preparation stage, which would be this week, and the tournament, which will be played next week, there are two sub-series, precisely the ones that would complete the first third of the campaign.

Of the 24 on the Cuba Under-23 team, two squads, which furthermore face each other starting today, Granma and Industriales, contribute eight to that roster, four each. Santiago de Cuba, Las Tunas, Pinar del Río and Villa Clara supply three, and Ciego de Ávila, Camagüey, Isla de la Juventud and Mayabeque, one.

For example, the current league leader, Santiago de Cuba, would be without Raider Sánchez, who was already the top home run hitter of the last Under-23 series, and who is now second in that category in the Cuban classic of balls and strikes, with an average of 389. They would not have their starting catcher, Harold Vázquez, currently batting 421 with 16 runs batted in. These two lads, with a line in the batting box of 500 obp, 944 slugging and 1,444 ops, Sánchez; and 452/632/1,084, Vázquez, are a difficult gap to fill.

Although he is returning from an injury that required surgical treatment on one of his legs, for the Wasps, the sturdy Euclides Pérez is also crucial.

The Blues are in a similar situation, because while offence is vital for the indomitable Santiago team, the capital city team depends more on its pitching, and of their four in the selection, they have three relief pitchers: Rafael Perdomo, Fher Cejas and Lee Andy Plumas. Along with them is Dayron Miranda, who, before Tuesday’s games, was batting 341. In contrast, the Granma team will have to make do without batters like Yuileski Remón (375), Leonardo Alarcón and Ernesto Pérez, both at 333, and their main starter, Alexei Ricardo.

The Lumberjacks yield Jean Lucas Baldoquín, batting over 300, and Yasel Izaguirre at 455; furthermore, their star starter, Eliander Bravo, will not play for two weeks. The Villa Clara team has three enrolled in the Panamanian event, but due to their contracts in Japan, they have not yet seen their shortstop Cristian Rodríguez or left-handed pitcher Darío Sarduy in the 64th Series. The other is catcher Yoan Montenegro.

Juan Manuel Pérez, with a 333 average, and reliever Frank Denis Blanco González, are the Pinar del Río players in the national colours. So will Randy Martínez, but this pitcher, in Japanese baseball, has not yet taken the mound in the home calendar.

Although the Camagüey, Avilanian and Mayabeque teams lose only one player each, they are key pitchers. Yuniel Batista is the best pitcher of the Tigers; Riquelme Odelín is called to become the Camagüey reference, which he is fulfilling, alongside José Ramón Rodríguez; and José Ignacio Bermúdez is vital for the Hurricanes, and Cuban baseball has high hopes for his talent. Boris Madrazo is the only player missing from the Isla de la Juventud team.

Up to Sunday, the performance in the season of the Under-23 men, who will be managed by Danny Miranda, champion of the last Elite League, was summarised by a 335 average, with 14 home runs; a 3.30 ERA pitching performance, with 85 strikeouts and 44 walks, and in the field, over 15 games, they have 16 errors.