MLB and the MLBPA have let it slip that they’ve reached all the necessary agreements for the “World Baseball Classic” to be played next March during Spring Training.
16 teams in 4 pools, with one pool being played in Asia. Baseball America is projecting the pools as:
Pool A: Japan, S. Korea, Taiwan, China
Pool B: Puerto Rico, Cuba, Panama, Italy
Pool C: United States, Canada, Mexico, S. Africa
Pool D: Australia, Venezuela, Netherlands, Dominican Republic
I’m so freakin’ psyched. This is gonna be awesome, and you know that a bunch of the stars are gonna jump at the chance to play for their country (especially the Latino players.) The obvious favorites are the U.S., Japan and the Dominican Republic, with Mexico, S. Korea and Venezuela close behind.
I love that owners won’t be able to keep guys from playing if they want to. The arguments about “what if Joe Superstar gets hurt?” are crap anyway, since they’d be just as likely to get hurt playing a spring training game.
I would NOT want to be U.S. Baseball when it comes time to issue invitations, since you only get 27 guys (the international limit.) It’s like a fantasy draft for real.
I’ll use my one bump, because I know we’ve got some baseball fans here.
Isn’t this exciting? The lineups for the U.S. and the Dominican Republic would dominate in a fantasy league (although the D.R.'s rotation is gonna be thin behind Pedro.)
I hope Cuba gets to participate, because we can finally find out just how good they are when they face the best of the best.
Here’s my U.S. lineup:
C: Jason Varitek
1B: Todd Helton
2B: Brian Roberts (or Jeff Kent)
3B: Scott Rolen
SS: Alex Rodriguez
LF: Garret Anderson (Bonds won’t play)
CF: Jim Edmonds
RF: Lance Berkman (Sheffield won’t play, and shouldn’t)
SP: Roger Clemens, Mark Prior, Ben Sheets, Mark Mulder
Closer: Brad Lidge
That’s a lights-out lineup. The Dominicans will have a close one, with Manny, Pujols, Ortiz, Vlad and Sosa.
That’s kind of what I’m worried about. Was the USA basketball dream tean really that much fun to watch, for sport? Then again, I suspect the competition in baseball will be much better than basketball, worldwide.
I’m sorry, but I don’t know how you can count the Venezuelans as on par with Mexico or South Korea. Or even Japan, frankly. They have to be considered strong favorites on their pitching alone.
These are their pitchers: Reigning Cy Young winner Johan Santana, Kelvim Escobar, Carlos Zambrano, Francisco Rodriguez, Carlos Silva, Ugueth Urbina.
And they’d have Miguel Cabrera, Bobby Abreu, Melvin Mora, Carlos Guillen, Victor Martinez, Juan Rivera, Cesar Izturis all playing the field.
I’m telling you, Venezuela has to be considered a favorite.
Well, think about it. Half the field will have significant major league experience. The U.S., Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, the Dominican, Japan and Panama have good talent, Australia won the Olympic tournament, Cuba… well, Cuba’s Cuba and South Korea can definitely get out of the pool stage.
The Netherlands, despite having Randall Simon, Andruw Jones and Sidney Ponson, will not go anywhere. Neither will South Africa, Italy, China or Taiwan.
The potential sites for the semis and final are interesting. PETCO Park in San Diego is the frontrunner, but they’re also looking at Dodger Stadium and Minute Maid Park. I think Dodger Stadium would be the best choice, just because PETCO has that huge outfield where it’s hard to hit homers and Minute Maid is too much of a quirky bandbox (plus it has that stupid slope.)
Venezuela definitely has a shot, don’t get me wrong. They’ll finish second to the DR in their pool (if they get split that way) and can beat get to the semis if they get a favorable matchup. It all depends on which pool winner they draw. If it’s the Cuba/Puerto Rico winner, they probably win that matchup.
Fair enough. I have to say though, I feel bad for Australia and the Netherlands to get stuck with two absolute beasts like Venezuela and the Dominican. What’s it like being roadkill?
I don’t think Cuba is going to be as competitive as people think. Is Bruce Chen qualified to be on the Panama team? Because if he is and he’s their pitcher, they have a shot to come out of that pool. It’s a pretty weak one.
Not to be a buzz kill to this glorious topic, but I wonder what the odds are, after the first star gets hurt in this competition, that contracts start being rewritten with clauses to keep big names out of it in future years.
The owners may not be able to interfere directly, but I think they’ll have a hand in it one way or another.
I’m wondering about the Cuban team - will it mix both defectors and current Cuban citizens? Who gets to choose?
I see Pool B as the only one where there’d be real questions on who would win - Cuba and P.R. should both have decent teams. Venezuela will be good, but I don’t think they can take D.R.
The owners are getting a GENEROUS insurance plan for this deal. Most likely, MLB foots 100% of the contract for the length of the injury.
If Cuba gets invited (and I have a feeling the State Department is gonna get pressure from the White House to allow it) it’ll be the Cuban national team.
Australia and the Netherlands don’t realistically have a chance. The Netherlands will only get invited because Olympic rules allow citizens of a protectorate to play for the bigger country (which is how they get Andruw Jones, Sidney Ponson and Randall Simon.)
I freely predict that both the Japanese and Cuban teams will be embarassed by their respective competition. For all the great talk about their baseball traditions I’m just not seeing it.
The last analysis I saw of Cuban comparatives placed them somewhere between short-season and A-ball. And the same analysis for the Japanese League placed them at AA.
Sure, they produce some good players (Ichiro, for example, is world class) but those are the vast exception in those leagues.
Venezuela, DR, and the USA. Those are the teams to beat.
Jonathan Chance, looking at those pools, wouldn’t you say MLB has taken the relative strength of Cuba and Japan into account already?
Japan’s in a pool with S. Korea (roughly as much ML talent, if not as good), Taiwan (huge baseball country, but not enough talent) and China (hadn’t heard of baseball before 2000.)
Cuba’s in a pool with Italy (barely A ball on a good day), Panama (Chen, Mendoza, Rivera, Carlos Lee and not much else) and Puerto Rico (good.) Cuba’s got a tough row to hoe against Puerto Rico, for sure, but Panama is short on power and quality starters.
I think the final 8 will be the U.S., Mexico, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Japan, S. Korea, Venezuela and the DR. From there, it’s basically a crapshoot, especially since they’re apparently going to round-robin the quarters rather than match 1 vs. 2 in a bracket.
I saw that and that King Bud was shooting for sometime close to the All-Star Game®. But how will any American players play then? Any REAL players… They’ll all be with their respective teams… not interested in some fantasy of Bud’s…
The official announcement is the day before this year’s All-Star Game. The actual tournament will be played next March during Spring Training, then again in 2009 before it goes to a 4 year schedule. That way it doesn’t conflict with the Olympics or the soccer World Cup.
As all that may be. I understand your point but all it’s going to be doing is displaying that fact that there’s few countries that can effectively compete on this stage.
This is also the first time that a competition on this scale’s been attempted, too. The current Baseball World Cup is not exactly a barnburner. I’ve never seen it mentioned in the U.S. media, and when Great Britain is competitive in a baseball competition, there’s a problem.
I wouldn’t expect more than five or six countries to be really competitive at this point. The idea is to grow the sport so that in 20 years, there’s 12 or 13 teams who could win it all. Do Italy, South Africa and the Netherlands have any business being in this thing? Hell no. But eventually, they’ll improve (or create) their domestic leagues so they can produce major leaguers and compete on the world stage. If inviting 27 scrub A-leaguers to play for Italy gets a few more Italian kids to pick up a bat and ball, I’m all for it. Same for any of these countries.
C - a large, sturdy piece of softwood lumber
1B - Justin Morneau
2B - Stubby Clapp
SS - Danny Klassen
3B - Corey Koskie
LF - Jason Bay
CF - Larry Walker
RF - Matt Stairs
SP - Rich Harden
SP - Erik Bedard
SP - Ryan Dempster
SP - Jeff Francis
RP - Rheal Cormier
RP - Paul Quantrill
RP - Eric Gagne
Treviathan, you might want to rethink part of that lineup. Specifically the part where Larry Walker plays center. I love the guy (Go Cards!) but he hasn’t had the range to play center since the mid-90s. Luckily, Canada has Aaron Guiel. And you’re right about not having a catcher.
And if the South Africans somehow manage to win a game (I’m looking at you, Mexico) I’ll be amazed. Canada’s got a real shot to finish second in the pool.