Can Cougars Maul Pirates and Lumberjacks? A Baseball Champions League Americas Group B Preview
Leif Skodnick - World Baseball Network | Apr 8th, 2025 1:00pm EDT
The 2025 Baseball Champions League Americas starts this afternoon, and there are three questions to answer with the teams of Group B.
Can the American Association produce a repeat champion? Will tiny Curacao be a giant killer in this event? And how deep is the pitching on the Lenadores de Las Tunas, the two-time defending champion of the Serie Nacional de Cuba?
The first two days of group play at the BCL Americas are followed by quarterfinal games where the second place team in each group faces the third place team from the opposite group, with the first place team having the day off.
Santa Maria Pirates
League – Curacao ‘AA’ League
About the League – The Curacao ‘AA’ League is a short-season league that plays in Curacao, a Caribbean island that is part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands located about 40 miles off Venezuela. The league has featured several former MLB players over the years.
Notable Players – SS Andrelton Simmons, IF Jonathon Schoop, P Scott Prins
Outlook for the BCL Americas – Curacao’s Santa Maria Pirates are possibly the most unique team in this tournament. They come from an island with 150,000 residents, but that island has produced more MLB talent per capita than any other country in the world. They play in a league with seven teams, one ballpark, and a short schedule, yet they match up pretty favorably with the other teams in the BCL Americas. While it’d be a mild surprise for the Pirates to take first place in Group B, it’s within the realm of possibility, especially if Schoop and Simmons play to their ability and they get some pitching. They should have a better than 50/50 chance of making the semifinals, especially if they can finish second in Group B, which would likely get them a matchup against the Titanes de Florida in the quarterfinal.
Kane County Cougars
League – American Association
2024 Record – 55-45
About the League – The American Association of Professional Baseball is a 12-team independent league that plays in the midwestern United States and Canada. Founded in 2005 and not to be confused with the defunct Triple-A league that used the same name, the level of play is generally viewed as being somewhere between Double-A and Triple-A.
Notable Players – P Landen Bourassa, P Vin Tampanelli, OF Max Murphy, OF Ross Adolph
Outlook for the BCL Americas – The Kane County Cougars look to become the second American Association team to win a BCL Americas title, joining the Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks who won the inaugural event in 2003. They’re not going to be on the level of the Diablos Rojos del Mexico, who, if they had played an MLB schedule in 2024, might have won more games than the Chicago White Sox. But they should be able to, at minimum, split their group play games. Should they go 2-0 in Group B, a trip to the championship game is a possibility if pitching is there, though few, if any, of the pitchers have dealt with the Mexico City altitude before, though every team save for the Diablos Rojos will have that problem.
Lenadores de Las Tunas
League – Serie Nacional de Cuba
2024 Record – 42-28
About the League – The Serie Nacional de Cuba is the top league in Cuban baseball, which replaced professional baseball when professionalism was abolished following the Communist Revolution. Originally a winter league, the Serie Nacional shifted to the summer briefly when the Federacion Cubana de Beisbol established the Cuban Elite League, but the Serie Nacional is again a winter league, as the two leagues have again swapped seasons.
Notable Players – OF Roel Santos, OF Yoelkis Guibert, IF Roberto Baldoquin, P Yoennis Yera
Outlook for the BCL Americas – It’s hard to project how good the Lenadores are beyond the players that have represented Cuba as part of the national team, but if the performance of the Alazanes de Granma at the 2023 BCL Americas is any indication, they will be competitive. Granma beat the eventual champion at the 2023 BCL Americas, topping the Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks 3-1 behind a stellar start from Erly Casanova, and if the Lenadores can get some good pitching, they’ll have a good chance to get to the semifinals. The real question, though, is whether there is much pitching depth to this team. At the 2023 World Baseball Classic and the 2024 WBSC Premier12, Cuba’s pitching depth was their achilles heel, and baseball talent has steadily departed the island nation over the past six years. The Serie Nacional features the best players on the island, and we’re going to find out how good the players who are still in Cuba are in relation to the other leagues at the BCL Americas.
Photo: You won’t see many ballparks as architecturally striking as Estadio Alfredo Harp Helu in Mexico City, which hosts the 2025 Baseball Champions League Americas this week. (Photo by Leif Skodnick/World Baseball Network)
