LMB: Five Questions That Will Be Answered Over The Season’s Final 5 1/2 Weeks

There are just 11 series — 33 games per team — remaining on the schedule for the Liga Mexicana de Beisbol as the league returns from the All-Star Break today.

As the season rapidly approaches its conclusion, here are five questions that will be answered before the end of the regular season on August 7.

1. Who Will Win the Zona Norte? The Diablos Rojos del Mexico are running away with the Zona Sur, taking an 11-game lead over the Pericos de Puebla into the final month-plus. But in the Zona Norte, the standings are quite a bit tighter.

The Tecolotes de los Dos Laredos lead the Zona Norte by a game over the Sultanes de Monterrey, but even last-place Durango, 11 1/2 games out, is still in the hunt for the playoffs, trailing sixth-place Saltillo, which would get the sixth and final playoff spot if the season ended today, by just four games.

Only three teams have allowed fewer runs than Dos Laredos (329) in 2025, and all are Zona Norte rivals: the second-place Sultanes de Monterrey have allowed 312 runs, the fifth-place Acereros de Monclova have allowed 318, and the third-place Toros de Tijuana have allowed 317. The Tecos have the best run differential in the Zona Norte at +74, and have combined hot bats with good-enough pitching to get to the division lead.

The question of whether they’ll be able to keep or extend the lead is a big question. Of their 33 remaining games, 21 are against teams who are currently in the playoffs, while they have just 12 against non-playoff teams, including three each against Chihuahua, Aguascalientes, and Durango, the teams at the bottom of the division.

2. How Many Sub-.500 Teams Will Make the Playoffs From Zona Sur? Aside from the division-leading Diablos Rojos, there are a lot of average and below-average teams in the Zona Sur. The Diablos, at 40-16, are running away with the division crown, and the two teams chasing them, the Pericos de Puebla (30-28) and Guerreros de Oaxaca (30-29) are barely above .500. The rest of the division more losses than wins, meaning that three sub-.500 teams would get in the playoffs were the postseason to begin today. While none of the less-than-magnificent seven other teams are out of the playoff hunt, it’s unlikely that last-place Queretaro (21-36, 19 1/2 games back of first place) or ninth-place Quintana Roo (24-36) will make the playoffs, but that still leaves five teams in the hunt for the final five playoff spots, all of whom have losing records. Maybe they’ll turn it on! Maybe they won’t.

3. Who’s the Top Pitcher In the LMB? Last year, the answer to the question was obvious, but with Trevor Bauer having returned to Japan, it’s open for debate. Only two starters, Tyler Danish of Tabasco (3.45) and Yoanner Negrin of Yucatan (3.93), have an ERA below 4.00. Aguascalientes’ righty Deylen Miley leads the league in strikeouts with 73, and has a 4.88 ERA pitching for a team in ninth place, which is impressive, as his opposition batting average of .229. Wilmer Rios is having another solid season for Monclova, where he’s got a 4.43 ERA in 67 innings of work over 12 starts.

4. Who Will Lead the Rieleros de Aguascalientes in Homers? Yeah, the Rieleros aren’t great this year. There’s a talent gap top to bottom when it comes to both pitching and hitting. But they do have three of the top 10 home run hitters in the league, which at least gives fans in Aguascalientes something to cheer for. Angel Reyes is second in the LMB with 20 homers this year, while Andretty Cordero is third with 18. Teammate Orlando Martinez is tied for seventh in the league with 16.

5. Will Queretaro Draw Enough Fans To Survive Another Year? Queretaro struggled with ballpark problems in their inaugural season last year, but finished 50-38 and took second place in the Zona Sur. This year, they’ve struggled on the field, going 21-36, and at the box office, though it’s not exactly easy to say for certain how badly the team is struggling at the box office. The LMB doesn’t keep a running tally of attendance available on the league’s website, as most U.S.-based leagues do, so you have to go through the box scores for Queretaro’s home games to compile the numbers. Of course, not every game has a reported attendance figures, and it’s hard to say whether or not the attendance figures provided to the official scorer are accurate. For example, the box score for the Conspiradores’ 7-4 win against Monterrey on June 23 has no attendance figure. Four times this year, on May 2, May 13, May 15, and June 17, the club announced attendance of exactly 2,750 fans. It’s more than a little suspicious that a team drew such an even number of fans four times in 30 home games, but then, if you think sports teams don’t sometimes fudge attendance numbers, there’s a bridge for sale you might want to look into.

Photo: Juan Carlos Gamboa scored in the bottom of the seventh for the Mexico National Team at the 2025 LMB All-Star Game. (Photo courtesy of the Diablos Rojos del Mexico)