Bravos de Margarita's New 2012-13 Manager: Hensley Meulens

 Hensley Meulens ratificado como mánager de Bravos de Margarita

      While it's a bit late, congratulations are in order for Hensley Meulens.  After being the fill-in manager for the end of the past two seasons for the last place Bravos de Margarita of the Venezuelan Winter League (after the initial managers were dismissed), Meulens has been announced as the full-time manager of the team for next season.  Hopefully he will have better luck with the team, starting at the beginning, rather than being handed the task of pulling them out of the cellar with one month left to play.

     Sadly, Meulens has no Venezuelan cards, so I have nothing to accompany this post.  Hopefully that will change if he is successful guiding the Bravos to the playoffs next season.  It's not easy finding checklists for the sets Lineup produces, so I'm not sure if they even have cards for their managers, but here's hoping.  I really wish there was a more consistent trade between the US and Venezuela, because paying upwards of $5 per card when ordering from the one or two Venezuelan sellers on eBay is hard on the wallet.

Bam-Bam Takes The Helm (Again)

     Twice in as many seasons, the Bravos de Margarita of the Venezuelan winter league have parted ways with their manager as the playoff drive gets underway. Finding the team in last place with a 15-27 record, team vice-president, Tobías Enrique Carrero,  relieved manager Don Baylor of his duties, in what is described as a "mutual decision" (sure it was).

Baylor cesa funciones en Bravos

     Also twice in as many seasons, the Bravos have handed the reins over to hitting coach Hensley Meulens. One has to wonder if the team might have just appointed Bam-Bam as manager for the season were he not potentially tied up with the Giants in the playoffs this year.

Getting to be a habit.

     In any case, congratulations, once again, Mr. Meulens. I wish you well!

Now managing for the Bravos de Margarita...."Bam-Bam" Meulens!

Bravos con nuevo mánager

      Congratulations are in order for Mr. Meulens as he has been appointed manager of the Bravos after the sacking departure of Luis Dorantes, manager for most of the season (but who apparently missed three days with the team for organizational meetings with the Pittsburgh Pirates), who led the team to 4th place after 61 games of the 74 game Venezuelan Winter League season.  While it is perhaps not the best way to land one's first professional managerial posting, it counts nonetheless, and puts Meulens in the unenviable position of reviving his team's offense and pitching in a last ditch effort to make it to the Venezuelan championship series.

      With this achievement in mind, coupled with his role of hitting coach, helping the Giants to their World Series title this fall, let's have a look at the coaching career of one Hensley Filemon Acasio Meulens.

Minor Leagues
2003-2004 Bluefield Orioles (App)

Both cards produced by Grandstand Cards

2005-2008 Indianapolis Indians (IL)
It would seem Mr. Meulens spent a good portion of his time in Indianapolis testing the sturdiness of the dugout guard rails. 

All Indianapolis cards by Choice Marketing

 2009 Fresno Grizzlies (PCL)

By MultiAd Sports

Winter Leagues
2005 Peoria Saguaros (AFL)
If I could find any photos of Bam Bam in his Peoria Saguaros uniform, I'd make my own custom card to fill this glaring hole in the baseball card chronicles of his illustrious career.

2006 Honolulu Sharks (HWB)

Hawaii Winter Baseball apparently produced all of their own card sets in-house.

2009 Bravos de Margarita (LVBP)
The photo at the top of this post was taken shortly after Meulens arrived with the team last year.  He wasn't there long as shortly after the Winter League season began, the Giants vacated their hitting coach position and promoted Meulens into the role, subsequently asking him to report to Arizona to oversee the development of San Francisco's minor league talent participating in the Arizona Winter League season as a roving instructor.  As a result, he only got to spend a couple of weeks with the Bravos.

Major Leagues
2010 San Francisco Giants (NL)

Topps/Emerald Nuts Giants Stadium Giveaway

International
2004 Netherlands (Summer Olympics)
2009 Netherlands (WBC)

Baseball of Winters Past

     Now that the Giants have wrapped up their season, while some get to go home, others just get to go back to work, albeit in warmer climes.  While Burrell and Rowland rest their creaky bones, and Renteria goes home to stare at his new trophy, coaches Hensley Meulens and Roberto Kelly will both have to pack their bags and board a plane to Venezuela to pick up their winter jobs, already in progress.  Meulens and Kelly both signed on as coaches of the Bravos de Margarita.  Last year, Meulens just barely had enough time to report to the team and put on his uniform before being hired away by the Giants and sent to Arizona to monitor the progress of their talents in the Arizona Fall League. 

     For a couple of years now, I've been attempting to reconstruct a complete record of Hensley Meulens playing days, to include his time in affiliated and independent minor league baseball, MLB, Nippon Professional Baseball, Liga Mexicana de Béisbol, the Korea Baseball Organization and even the winter leagues.  All of that has been rolled into a neat (if less than aesthetically pleasing) GoogleDocs spreadsheet:

Hensley Meulens (Mostly) Complete Professional Career Statistics

     At one point, according to the biographical page of his Dutch Antilles Baseball Academy website, Meulens held the distinction of being the only player to have played in all four of the Caribbean's winter leagues, Liga de Beisbol Dominicano, Liga de Béisbol Profesional de Puerto Rico, Liga Mexicana del Pacifico and Liga Venezolana de Béisbol Profesional.  It's a real shame no one is making baseball cards for winter league teams anymore.  But while I may not be able to hold a card of Bam Bam in driving one over the fence in Estadio Gral Ángel Flores, I have been able to dig out most of his numbers from those seasons.

     During his playing days, Meulens spent his winters touring the Caribbean.  He spend the 1988-89 through 1991-92 seasons (and probably the 92-93 season) in the Dominican, playing for the Azucareros del Este.  This is the only stop that provided a baseball card, thanks to Lime Rock's one-off series of Dominican Winter Baseball from 1993.

     After returning from Japan (incidentally, with the Giants winning the World Series this year, Hensley Meulens joins what is likely a very small club to have championship rings in both the U.S. and Japan, having helped the Tokyo Yakult Swallows to a Nippon Series victory in 1995.  I'll have to see if I can construct that list), there was a brief stop for part of the 1997-98 season with the Pastora de Los Llanos in Venezuela.  Following the expiration of his contract with the Expos and pick up by the Diamondbacks (and subsequent trade to the White Sox), the 1998-99 winter season was spent in Puerto Rico, playing for the Cangrejeros de Santurce  (I've not found any stats for that season, yet).

     Getting no bites from the Majors after the 1999 winter, Meulens took a stab at independent baseball with the Newark Bears, and while having a decent year, he wasn't ready to hang it up.  The 1999-00 winter was spent in Mexico, splitting time between the Algodoneros de Guasave and the Yaquis de Obregon of the Mexican Pacific League.  Mexico is where he would spend most of the remainder of his professional playing career (after a brief stab at Korea, where he hit a meager .196 in 14 games for the SK Wyverns...and in Korea, foreigners don't get a chance to adjust, they either perform, or they hit the road).

     The 2000-01 winter season proved to be the last for Meulens, splitting time, back in Mexico, between the Aguilas de Mexicali and the Tomateros de Culiacan.  After hanging up the cleats and throwing his towel in the coaching arena, Meulens went on to participate in two more winter leagues, in 2005 with the Peoria Saguaros of the Arizona Fall League, and then in 2006 with the Honolulu Sharks of Hawaii Winter Baseball.

     That vest he's wearing has turned up on eBay a couple of times, but unfortunately for a lowly Hensley Meulens collector, #31 was also worn by Austin Jackson when he played for Honolulu, effectively doubling the sale price.