He loves disco and idolizes Dennis Rodman. He once went fishing — and caught a pelican. His nicknames include “Ace”, “Chelly,” and “Patoncito” (translation: Little Big Foot). He married a woman that could be mistaken for a supermodel. He described dressing as the “Indian” from the Village People as “wonderful”. He once rode a pink bicycle with a wicker basket and blue and gold streamers from the locker room “to get to the field faster”. Alfredo Aceves is The Most Interesting Man In The Bronx.
PATONCITO
Ace came from a family of athletes. His brother Jonathan plays professional baseball in Mexico and his sister Yita played in basketball and soccer. Aceves’ father was known as “El Paton” or “Big Foot” and started his career playing for the Apaches of San Luis in 1976. In his first season, his father won the batting title and was named rookie of the year. Alfredo Sr. later played for Pericos del Puebla and Los Tuzos de de Guanajato before finishing his career with Yucatan. Alfredo Jr. followed in his (big) footsteps playing little league in the Liga Cucapah. Surprisingly, young Alfredo showed more interest in basketball than he did in baseball. But that started to change once El Paton immersed his son in baseball while he worked in the San Luis Liga Municipal. Over time, Alfredo Aceves Sr. taught his son the value of hard work. The younger Aceves started hitting the gym hard at the age of 16 to develop his physique. He stayed in top shape with a balanced diet and he always avoided supplements. Alfredo Sr. also taught his son to love music. He introduced Ace to the Bee Gees and Creedence Clearwater Revival. Patoncito also started learning how to play the guitar.
Within a few years, Aceves was spotted by scouts while in the Liga Rural de Mexicali, Baja California. He would soon make his professional debut in the Mexican League for the Leones de Yucatan — the same team his father had played for nearly two decades earlier. It wasn’t long until the teenager was drawing interest from major league clubs. In 2001, his rights were sold to the Blue Jays who sent Aceves to the Dominican Summer League. He requested his release when the Blue Jays assigned him there for the following season. It was culture shock for the young pitcher so he returned to Mexico.
Aceves was again far away from home and had already given up on his first shot at the majors when he joined the Yucatan Lions again. In his first two years with Yucatan, Aceves was primarily a reliever. Fellow Leones pitcher Oscar Rivera complimented Ace’s light-hearted demeanor. He said that Aceves liked to play the guitar, listen to music, and that he worked hard. Rivera also told quite a fishing story about Aceves. They were having problems with the boat and docked to see what they had hauled in. However, they didn’t find a fish on Ace’s hook. They found a pelican.
Patoncito was a full-time starter for all of 2005. In winter ball that year, Ace was a pitcher for Tomatero while his brother played catcher for Navojoa. Their teams met up in November and Jonathan was behind the plate while Aceves was watching from the bench. When a batter took exception to an inside pitch, Jonathan stepped in to intervene and ended up fighting the Tomatero hitter. An all-out brawl broke loose (video above) and Alfredo left the bench to defend his brother — from his own teammates. You can see Ace rip his teammate from the mass of people around his brother just after :45. Patoncito put his foot down. (Please forgive me if I’ve butchered the translation of this story since my Spanish is rusty)
Aceves was dealt to “big money” Sultanes de Monterrey before the 2006 season. By 2007, he was the star pitcher for the Gray Ghosts. He had an 11-5 record and a 3.64 ERA that year. In the Mexican League Series Final, he won two games against his former team, Yucatan, to lift Monterrey to victory. The performance had major league clubs interested in the Mexican pitcher again. The Red Sox, Indians, and Royals had targeted Aceves before the Yankees swooped in. The Bronx Bombers got their man in a deal that sent $450,000 to Monterrey in exchange for five players.
COMING TO AMERICA
Due to his participation in the Mexican Winter League, Ace was forced to rest during Spring Training in 2008. The Yankees didn’t get a good chance to evaluate Aceves and subsequently sent him to Class-A Tampa. The 25 year-old, who was older than most of his teammates, quickly earned a promotion to AA Trenton and continued to dazzle. The New York Times’ Tyler Kepner received this scouting report on Aceves from catcher P.J. Pilittere:
“It’s really kind of changed my perception of how we can pitch some guys. Sometimes you want to go by the book, but with him, there’s absolutely no book. It gives him a little bit of that unique edge where he’ll get late in games and some guys might have not even seen his fastball yet. It’s been enjoyable for me just to kind of sit back and watch what he’s doing. It gives me kind of a mental day off, because I know he’s got a great idea and I can sit there and say, ‘Hey, do what you want to do, we’re going to go with it.’”
He continued to show promise and moved on to Triple A Scranton Wilkes-Barre. In 8 starts, Aceves had a 4.12 ERA and earned himself a late-season promotion to the majors. Aceves immediately made history by being the first Yankee player to ever wear the number 91. It turns out that he was a huge Dennis Rodman fan growing up. Aceves admired his work ethic and the way “he made other players get frustrated.”
Aceves had a memorable first stint in the big leagues with a 2.40 ERA in 30 innings pitched. The experience culminated with rookie hazing after the final game of the season. The Yankees have a history of making rookies dress up like ridiculous characters — Wang was a cheerleader and Joba was the Lion from The Wizard of Oz. In 2008, the merciless veterans chose the Village People as the costume theme. Ace had the honor of being the “Indian” and commented on his hazing (very roughly translated by Google):
“The hazing was wonderful, I dressed as an Indian in the dugout in the final game of the regular season, as were the clothes in the locker. I left the dugout, we were six rookies, we walked along the stage in Boston, laughed at us, took us on a bus and three blocks before we came down, took us to a bar, then dinner, back to see another lobby bar, but that was only at about one AM, it was something unforgettable.”
BECOMING THE ACE
2008 was a year of accomplishment for Aceves. While playing for Trenton, Ace hatched out a scheme to propose to his girlfriend during a game. Phil Coke was warming up between innings when Aceves sought out his bride-to-be in the stands. He got down on one knee and gave Arley, his fiance, a ring while the videoboard displayed the happy couple to the crowd. Here’s Coke’s account of the proposal:
“He asks her in Spanish, and she wells up with tears,” Coke said. “She says yes in Spanish, and he turns to the camera, gives the thumbs up and goes, in English, ‘She said yes!’ ”
After the 2008 season, Aceves returned to Mexico and married Arley in November. Around the same time, Aceves spoke to the young players currently attending the El Carmen Academy and told the kids that they had to “work hard every day” and to do “what the coaches tell you.” Aceves could relate to the youngsters as he’d spent three months honing his craft at the El Carmen Academy in Nuevo Leon, Mexico before joining the Leones. He told the kids that his goal was to stay in the majors for at least 10 years — something that he would repeat to the New York press. The Ace was loaded with confidence for a man that had a mere 30 major league innings under his belt.
In 2009, Aceves had a mediocre spring training pitching 15.2 innings while allowing 8 earned runs. He started two games and was a candidate for long relief until he was sent to Triple-A Scranton Wilkes-Barre. It wasn’t long until Aceves was back in the big leagues. After starting 4 games in the minors, he was called up on May 4th. Aceves immediately became a versatile relief option for the Yankees. When asked about his role after nearly a month in the big leagues, the Mexican pitcher told reporters, “It doesn’t matter, I’ll do whatever job they give me.” On July 8th, River Avenue Blues posted a tribute to Aceves including these interesting tidbits:
Aceves has allowed just 30 hits and issued 8 free passes in 40 innings of work. He’s holding opposing hitters to a .208-.256-.354 batting line, which is slightly worse than Jeff Francoeur’s output this season. He’s entered games in the 1st, 2nd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th and 11th innings. He came in to face a lone righty batter in one outing before picking up a four inning save four days later. His ERA at home is lower than his ERA on the road despite the New Stadium’s … ahem … fondness for hitters. Only 16 of the 156 batters he’s faced have worked the count full.
Ace has one save that came in a four inning effort against the Blue Jays on July 5th. Yankees pitching coach Dave Eiland asked Aceves if he wanted to finish the game and he replied, “Sure, I mean, it’s an honor. With Mo, he’s got 501 [actually 503 saves] and I got zero.” Aceves isn’t a closer but he certainly is a winner. He currently has 10 wins which is the most out of all of the relievers in baseball. That’s the highest total by a reliever since Jesse Crain notched 12 victories in 2005. He also leads the team in relief innings with 69.1.
Two years ago, Alfredo Aceves was an ace in the Mexican League. He was playing with kids in Single-A just a year ago. In 2009, Ace started off as a Triple-A starter. Today, Aceves is arguably the most valuable member of the Yankees bullpen. If you met the guy in 2006, I’m sure he had no idea he’d be playing “Message in a Bottle” with Brian Cashman at Yankee Stadium in just a few years. And judging by his ability and attitude, we may very well see Aceves make good on his prediction of a 10 year major league career. Alfredo Aceves truly is The Most Interesting Man In The Bronx.
Tags: alfredo aceves, arley aceves, baseball, brian cashman, hazing, jonathan aceves, leones de yucatan, mexican league, MLB, new york yankees, sultanes de monterrrey, tomatero
