The Official World Baseball Classic Thread

[A.Zajac]

Figured since the tournament is starting up, I'd devote a thread to it. Not sure how much interest any of you have in it. I'll be following it.

[A.Zajac]

USA Roster

Pitching Staff

Jeremy Affeldt 41
Heath Bell 21
Mitchell Boggs 33
Steve Cishek 40
Tim Collins 55
Ross Detwiler 48
R.A. Dickey 43
Gio Gonzalez 47
Luke Gregerson 57
David Hernandez 26
Derek Holland 45
Craig Kimbrel 46
Glen Perkins 15
Vinnie Pestano 52
Ryan Vogelsong 32

Catchers

J.P. Arencibia 9
Jonathan Lucroy 22
Joe Mauer 7

Infielders

Willie Bloomquist 18
Brandon Phillips 4
Jimmy Rollins 11
David Wright 5
Ben Zobrist 12
JUST ADDED: Eric Hosmer

Outfielders

Ryan Braun 8
Adam Jones 10
Giancarlo Stanton 27
Shane Victorino 50

Coaching Staff

Joe Torre Manager
Gerald Perry Batting Coach
Greg Maddux Pitching Coach
Dale Murphy First Base Coach
Willie Randolph Third Base Coach
Larry Bowa Bench Coach
Marcel Lachemann Coach

[TheWord]

Really looking forward to seeing the Cuban team.

Will be my second look at Jose Abreu, who is probably the best player in the country who will absolutely figure into the Major Leagues at some point. Kid is a flat out stud.

Yulieski Gourriel is getting up there in age, but he's a very good player.

Guillermo Heredia is an exceptional defensive outfielder and is especially young, just now getting an offensive game to go along with it.

Don't know much about their pitching, but Vladimir Garcia is a power arm who tops out around 95.

Going to be some really good action this year.

[MadThinker88]

Watching USA vs Domican Republic or Puerto Rico makes me wonder how a best of seven set would go. There would be some great battles.....

[GeronimoSon]

Mike Aviles.. amazing how well he's playing. Only Angel Pagan is hitting better than him.. It will be nice to see the end of the WBC (and a PR/DR final?) and the coming together of the entire Indians roster...

[A.Zajac]

Santana has looked pretty good in the WBC himself.

[GeronimoSon]

Bruce Drennan: Nobody cares about the WBC... While Gravel-Voice isn't being paid to be a promoter.. there are a few Indians players that might be worth watching... and talking about..but, as we all know, that takes away the time needed to discuss the possibility of the Browns acquiring a 17 year veteran corner back from the Dolphins.. He'd be exactly what that failed and miserably run NFL franchise needs to turn the corner and get all the way up to six wins...

smh...

[A.Zajac]

IMO, WBC has been a huge hit this year. Attendance is up. Viewing is up. Need more participation from players... but it's on the right track.

[daingean]

IMO, WBC has been a huge hit this year. Attendance is up. Viewing is up. Need more participation from players... but it's on the right track.

Nice to have some meaningful baseball but maybe move it to November or something like that when they can really put on a nice show. The pitch counts and everything just makes it miss the mark a bit. Also expanding it to more pool play games would be nice too as baseball isn't soccer or basketball. The other thing is some guys aren't really identified by the country they represent but that will correct itself.

[Hermie13]

IMO, WBC has been a huge hit this year. Attendance is up. Viewing is up. Need more participation from players... but it's on the right track.

Nice to have some meaningful baseball but maybe move it to November or something like that when they can really put on a nice show. The pitch counts and everything just makes it miss the mark a bit. Also expanding it to more pool play games would be nice too as baseball isn't soccer or basketball. The other thing is some guys aren't really identified by the country they represent but that will correct itself.

Agree 100% on it being moved to November. At least then if a player does get inured, he's got a couple months to get healthy. Lots of guys go play winter ball anyways so not like they'd be put out. Sure you have to compete with Football but play the games during the week and you're really only competing against MAC football.

Also think they need to get the games off the MLB Network. Sure you can have some on there still but far too many people don't have cable and have no access to these games. Need to get a network like Fox on board with the WBC and reach more homes.

I also think they need to have the championship in other countries. Sure made sense to have the first one in the US but they keep saying they want the WBC to become like the World Cup...well, the World Cup is played in a different country each time, not always finishing with a championship game in the US. Want to make the sport global...then play elsewhere.

[daingean]

IMO, WBC has been a huge hit this year. Attendance is up. Viewing is up. Need more participation from players... but it's on the right track.

Nice to have some meaningful baseball but maybe move it to November or something like that when they can really put on a nice show. The pitch counts and everything just makes it miss the mark a bit. Also expanding it to more pool play games would be nice too as baseball isn't soccer or basketball. The other thing is some guys aren't really identified by the country they represent but that will correct itself.

Agree 100% on it being moved to November. At least then if a player does get inured, he's got a couple months to get healthy. Lots of guys go play winter ball anyways so not like they'd be put out. Sure you have to compete with Football but play the games during the week and you're really only competing against MAC football.

Also think they need to get the games off the MLB Network. Sure you can have some on there still but far too many people don't have cable and have no access to these games. Need to get a network like Fox on board with the WBC and reach more homes.

I also think they need to have the championship in other countries. Sure made sense to have the first one in the US but they keep saying they want the WBC to become like the World Cup...well, the World Cup is played in a different country each time, not always finishing with a championship game in the US. Want to make the sport global...then play elsewhere.

I'd also be for a mid-season club tournament like the English FA Cup or something like that. That would have been how i'd have tackled the Inter-League concept. Let teams expand their rosters for the tourny....or use a separate roster (i.e. non-25 or 40 ML roster). With pools of 4-5 teams playing 1 weekend in each MLB city in the pool then with the winners battling it out for the MLB Cup or whatever you want to call it. Baseball is more suitable for a Cup style tournament than Soccer and for Soccer the cup tourneys are huge.