All winter long we heard from strong players, which leave the reigning Spanish champion Tenerife Marlins Puerto Cruz. Luis Perez, Daniel Sanchez, Daniel Martinez and some others are all gone. The only known acquisition so far was their new closer, Jorge Balboa, who returned to Spain from the Italian club Telemarket Rimini. This week their website finally went up again in a refurbished design and it revealed the signing of two outfielders. One of them is the Venezuelan Luis Landaeta (picture), the other the Cuban Nguyen Boulet Diaz.
Landaeta was born on March 4th 1977 in Valencia, Venezuela. He signed with the Colorado Rockies as an amateur free agent in 1996 and spent seven seasons in the affiliated minor league ball with the Rockies and later the Pittsburgh Pirates organization, playing at all levels between the Rookie and Triple-A leagues. After his release by the Pirates Landaeta was playing in the Independent Canadian Baseball League in 2003 and joined the Mexican League in 2005 and 2006.
Landaeta is coming to Tenerife straight out of the Venezuelan Winter League, where he batted .339 (OBP .397/SLG .613) with five homeruns, eight runs scored and 20 RBI in 35 games for Navegantes del Magallanes. Last September he also was part of the Venezuelan national team, which finished seventh out of 22 teams in the Baseball World Cup. He batted .300 (OBP .345/SLG .580) with four homeruns, eight runs and eleven RBI in 13 games.
Boulet played for the Belgian First Division club Mortsel Stars in 2009 and was probably their most valuable player last season. He batted .350 (OBP .387/SLG .524) with three homeruns, four triples, eight doubles, 35 runs, 42 RBI and 18 stolen bases in 165 plate appearances. He also led the Stars in pitching, going 8-2 with an ERA of 2.67 and 84 strikeouts (65 walks) in 97 2/3 innings.
The Marlins open the season in the Spanish Division de Honor next weekend at home against San Inazio Bilbao.
Photo: © Gregor Eisenhuth www.eisenhuth-photographie.de