When you think North America, Mexico tends to be one of the big 3 countries you think of along with Canada and the United States. But while Canada and the USA get grouped together pretty much all the time in WBC pools, Mexico trades places year to year into the Central America dominant pools some years as well. In the inaugural WBC, they matched up with America and Canada (...and South Africa because they had nowhere else to go, I guess).
Mexico debuted with a 2-0 loss to the Americans. They rebounded with a 10-4 beatdown of South Africa. With a final matchup with the 2-0 Canadiens looming, Mexico needed to win and win big to advance. Their 9-1 victory not only allowed them to win the pool via tiebreakers, but they beat Canada so bad that their RA/9 average was swelled and they went from 2-0 and ready to advance to eliminated.
The second round saw Mexico drop back to back games; 2-1 to South Korea and 6-1 against Japan. At 0-2, they were once again in need of a big win to hopefully advance. This time their opponent was the United States in a round 1 rematch. They beat America this time 2-1, but the tiebreaker didn't fall in their favor this time, as their 3.50 RA/9 fell well short of Japan's 2.55 RA/9 and the only consolation Mexico had was they took the United States down with them.
Vinny Castilla was in the final season of his career, but he was still a big deal with Mexico. He was team captain for 2006 and he would return in future WBCs as Manager.
Gonzalez still had untapped potential by 2006, but his card here would make a solid contributor off the bench.
Amezaga offers good multi-position utility, which makes him an option if you're looking to fill out the bottom of your roster on the cheap.
Middle Infielders with +0 defense are always a risky option, especially if they have poor on-base.
If you're gonna have an on-base of 5, you better bring better defense at SS than +2.
Davis Cortes brings a pretty decent card for a guy who pitches in Colorado. Usually a Rockies pitcher with a control of 5 comes with the tradeoff of homers on his chart.
I have a De La Rosa card from the 2001 set that allowed homers on his chart. This card is much better, even if he allows baserunners at 16-20 with the 3 control.
You may remember Elmer Dessens from the official Showdown era as a mediocre Starting Pitcher. As a Reliever, he has much better utility.
I'll take a hard pass on Edgar Gonzalez. Bad enough he allows homers, but 18-19 doubles is a huge problem. I have a Denny Neagle card from the OG Showdown PR set with similar looks, but he at least had a control of 6.
Post-all star years for Esteban Loaiza. Still a pretty okay card, but you know he could do better.
Rodrigo Lopez still an Orioles Starter with just a 1 for control, but his chart is more appealing than in his official Showdown card.
The only Mexican Catcher from the 2006 team is a big shrug with the chart.
Oliver Perez badly needs either more innings, more strikeouts or better control. Getting none of those makes him a complete nonfactor in even the more desperate teams for a pitcher.
I remember Reyes from the 2000 PR set, no doubles and a 3 control made him better than average. Bump that control up to a 6 like here and he becomes one of the best options.
Rincon's card here isn't exactly fair. He got hurt about a week into the regular season and needed season ending Tommy John surgery, so I'll refrain from any criticisms for this card.
Villarreal was young when he debuted in the Showdown years and his card looked the part with a 1 control and a bad chart. If I were to do a
Righting Wrongs series for the 2001-2005 sets, this would be a candidate for a much better Oscar Villarreal card.
