Tickets for the finals sold out right away. There are still seats for the semis, although they’re all partially obstructed seats.
I wouldn’t be able to go to San Diego after work on a Monday night anyway.
Spoilered in case anyone’s taping U.S.-Korea.
How in the living hell did Dontrelle Willis win 20 games last season? He couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn from the inside. I’ve seen beer-league softball pitchers with better mechanics.
Remember it is ‘Spring Training’ for these guys. A lot of pitchers look God awful until the season starts.
I understand that, but this is just horrible. He’s all over the place. I don’t think he could find the strike zone with a map, a flashlight and a two-week head start right now.
Well, for the second round in a row, the United States is dependent on someone else’s game to have a chance at advancing. With the loss tonight, there are two scenarios that get the U.S. in with a win over Mexico on Thursday:
If Mexico wins Tuesday: The United States will control their own fate, as Japan will be 0-2 and therefore the outcome of the Japan-Korea game will have no effect on the standings.
If Japan wins Tuesday: The United States will need a Korea win Wednesday to even be in the hunt for a trip to San Diego. If Japan wins against Korea on Wednesday, there would be a tie at 2-1 going into the Mexico game, and unless Japan allows a lot of runs in the win, the U.S. would be on the losing end of the tiebreaker.
Willis has killed us in two games now. I don’t know if it’s just not being ready to pitch or what, but he has dug a hole twice that the U.S. couldn’t climb out of.
Thanks, brianjedi for the explanation. I’ve been surfing sites for a couple of hours now trying to figure out the implications involved in the US moving on to the next round. So it seems that since Japan whooped up on Mexico, the US teams needs a Korean victory to have any shot to continue. I think blame certainly has to be placed at the feet of Dontrelle Willis for the lousy showing. He’s looked awful in both games hes started.
Its sad that info about this tourney has been so hard to come by, even on the WBC’s own website!
It’s not entirely necessary for Korea to win; if Japan gives up at least 6 runs and wins, the U.S. would have a tiebreaker win.
The WBC website has been pretty good about getting stuff updated, but the standings page isn’t really helpful. I wish the tiebreaker scenarios and the necessary stats were posted, because it’s a pain trying to figure out all the possibilities.
The other thing that really peeves me about this tournament has been tESPN’s coverage (or lack thereof). For instance right now Japan and Korea are playing a game with huge consequences for the US team. Yet instead of showing the game live, ESPN has decided in its eternal wisdom to tape delay it and play it back at one o’clock in the morning. I guess I might understand that if there were some other more important or interesting sporting event that they needed to cover. However right now ESPN is showing an NIT game and ESPN2 is broadcasting a freakin’ college softball game!! WTF? Some stupid womens softball game gets higher ratings and interest than a game in the World Baseball Classic? I think its a vicious cycle - ESPN says they don’t show the games in primetime because no ones watching, but I bet the reason no one is watching is because they can’t… the games aren’t being shown in primetime!
I have Cuba-Puerto Rico on ESPN Deportes, muted, and Korea-Japan on XM (scoreless in the 1st, one on, no outs for Japan.)
Cuba-Puerto Rico is a GOOD game. Cuba’s manager got tossed for arguing a call at second base, and Pudge Rodriguez was thrown out at home trying to score from first on a line drive to center, which would have tied the game at 4.
Poor Mexico…
The tie-breaker system makes it very difficult for them to advance. To do so, they must
- Shut out the US team
- The game must last at least 13 innings
- They must score at least 3 runs
On top of that, they are the home team, which means they must carry a 0-0 tie to the 13th inning, then put at least 2 baserunners on, then hit a walk-off 3 or 4 run home run.
The tiebreakers for Japan are almost as ridiculous.
If the U.S. loses to Mexico AND:
Allows 2 runs before playing 8.2 innings OR allows 3 runs before playing 12.2 innings, the Japanese advance over the U.S.
So the U.S. has to either win or lose 1-0 to advance.
If you ask me, (tie breakers aside), the US team doesn’t deserve to continue into the semi-final round. They only got into the second round by getting help, and the only way they have a chance at the semi’s is because they got help from Korea. Now here you have supposedly the most offensively explosive team in the whole tourney… and they can’t score more than one or two runs to save their lives. I realize that they are in “spring training form” and all, but this is just pathetic. Sheesh can we get a few runs here? You mean we’re gonna lose to Mexico 2 - 1? What a truly awful display of mediocrity. Should they somehow manage to advance you just know they’re going to get knocked out in the very next game.
~NM <------- who is frustrated and horse from shouting at the telly
This is the first time I’ve ever seen Ichiro look so pissed. He’s usually pretty calm and cheerful, but he was answering questions after the game and never once looked at the camera or the interviewer. He just kept his eyes on his feet, scowling.
They showed footage of him in the dugout this morning. There was no audio, but when the last player for Japan struck out, I could swear he spun around with his teeth clenched and shouted “FUCK!!” I guess he’s learned a lot of vocabulary in Seattle.
And it doesn’t seem like they’ll get to go. I think Mexico has this one 2-1. Bad showing by the US, maybe more players will choose to go next time, eh?
Maybe next time we’ll take some guys who can actually HIT WITH GUYS ON BASE.
Though I will say, I don’t mind. Korea v. Japan in the semis will be an all out war! Far more emotion than Korea v. US. It’ll probably be the game of the tournament. Dominican Republic v. Cuba will be great as well.
Great tournament so far and the passion coming from fans of some of these teams (Korea, Japan, the Latin American sides) has just been great! I’d love for this to continue in 2 years or 4 years or whatever.
One thing… next time, REDO the tiebreaker rules! Just make it “(runs scored - runs allowed)/Innings Played” or “head to head” record.
Yeah, the semis and final are gonna be good, but I have to wonder how much it may hurt ticket sales to not have Team USA.
Korea-Japan III has the potential to be even better than the last two, and I’m intrigued to see the reception that Cuba gets. I’m more intrigued to see how many players walk up to security guards on the field after the game and say “asilo.”
The tiebreaker rules are the IBAF’s rules, so I don’t know that they can really be changed. Personally, I think the easiest tiebreakers would be:
- Head to head
- Run differential (runs scored - runs allowed)
- Team ERA
- Team WHIP
- Two-man sack race
The tiebreakers should also be over every game in the pool, not just games involving the tied teams (for the non-head to head ties.) It’s too hard to subtract the results of just one game from the overall stats if you’re not working for the MLB Statistics Bureau.
The next one’s in 2009, by the way, and I cannot wait. I think we’re all gonna miss this thing next spring.
The fiirst thing that needs to be done is to fire that incompetent $#%@ing umpire, Davidson or whatever his name is. His second blown call, Valenzuela’s HR, was even worse than the first.
Now allow me just a little gloating:
First the 2004 Olympics and now the WBC.
¡¡ME-XI-CO!! ¡¡ME-XI-CO!! ¡¡ ME-XI-CO!!
¡¡AJUAAAAAAAAAA!!
I have a feeling that in 2009, we’ll have ML umps from the US, Japan, Korea, at least one Latin nation, Canada and one European nation, plus possibly some Cuban umps if Cuba hosts a pool.
I KNOW I will. Great tourney. I have to give baseball some very high praise for this one.