Liga Venezolana de Béisbol Profesional

With the second half of the Caribbean Leagues to go in the series we stop at the penultimate country; Venezuela. Liga Venezolana de Beisbol Profesional is the only other winter league in the world that contains as many 'big names' as the Dominican Republic league. This may have something to do with the exceptional weather or that the Venezuelan League has far and away the largest roster sizes in professional baseball. One team in 2012, Navegantes de Megallanes, currently lists 111 players as active on their roster! The league begins play before MLB playoffs are finished on the first of October with the start of the post season on the second of January.

The Venezuelan League began play officially with four teams in 1946 and at first, similar to Wrigley Field in Chicago, could only play games during the day as none of the stadiums had the benefit of artificial light. Originally the season contained just thirty games and was a one round system. Eventually after a series of club transactions and movements from the 40's through the 60's the league moved to a regular season and playoff format. After the regular season the top two teams would play in a five game series to determine the champion.

Since the 2007-2008 season the league consists of eight teams and two divisons; the East and West. After a 63 game phase (nine games against each of the other seven teams), the top two teams from each division as well as the best third place team (equivalent to the wildcard) are placed in a semifinal round robin phaset. The two teams with the best record after the semifinals play a best of seven for the right to represent the country in the Caribbean Series.

The Caribbean Series features the champions of the Venezuelan, Domincan Republic, Puerto Rican, and Mexican winter leagues. The first time Venezuela hosted the Caribbean Series was 1951 in the country's capital of Caracas. Navegantes de Magallanes were the first Venezuelan team to notch a Series win in 1970 coincidently also as the host country. Tigres de Aragua became the most recent team to win the Series from Venezuela in 2009 defeating Mazatlan of the Mexican League.

In addition to the Navagantes, the Aguilas de Zulia, Bravos de Margarita, Cardenales de Lara, Caribes de Anzoategui, Leones del Caracas, Tiburones de la Guaira, and the Tigres de Aragua also populate the league. While the Navagantes may have had the most recent international success, Leonoes del Caracas have clearly been the most dominant team nationally; winning twenty Venezuelan League Championships to the Navagantes ten.

In 2011-2012 the Venezuelan League houses some of the Red Sox most prized property including left handed bullpen arm Franklin Morales (Leones) and catching prospect Ryan Lavarnway (Bravos). While Lavarnway played well in his brief five game stint in South America, hitting .357 before being sent home with a stomach virus, Morales has been dominant. Boasting an ERA of 0.00 in 19 and 2/3 innings, Franklin is a perfect five for five in save opportunities striking out 23 of the 69 batters he's faced as of December 19th.

The rest of league is chalk-full of recognizable names to the PawSox faithful. Position players like Scranton Wilke-Barre's Terry Tiffee and Gustavo Molina, Indianapolis' Gorkys Hernandez, Lehigh Valley's Scott Podsednik, and the Pacific Coast League slugger Bryan LaHair (Iowa) are all improving their games this winter. Royce Ring, Clevelan Santeliz, and Annibal Sanchez are a few former Pawtucket Red Sox hurlers also in Venezuela. Other former and current major leagues participating include Macier Izturis, Dmitri Young, Pablo Sandoval, Jay Gibbons, Joel Zumaya, Juan Rivera, and Yorvit Torrealba.