World Baseball Classic thread

[G-Snarls]

Starting this now to separate it from all the Spring Training news, discussion and threads that will be starting.

 

A good preview from MLB.com:

 

https://www.mlb.com/news/2023-world-baseball-classic-rosters

 

It’s nearly here. After a six-year wait, the World Baseball Classic has returned, and it’s bigger than ever. That’s not hyperbole, either: The tournament field has been expanded to 20 teams, with three first-time participants in Great Britain, the Czech Republic and Nicaragua hoping for a Cinderella run. But they’ll need to get past Japan (looking for its third title), the USA (hoping for a repeat), the Dominican Republic (the pre-tournament favorite) and Puerto Rico (trying to win it all following back-to-back second-place finishes).

 

Baseball is more of a global game than ever before, and that’s proven on the rosters: There are 67 MLB All-Stars, 186 players on 40-man rosters and 332 players under contract with big league teams. There are eight Major League MVPs in Paul Goldschmidt, Mike Trout, Shohei Ohtani, Freddie Freeman, Mookie Betts, Clayton Kershaw, Jose Altuve and Miguel Cabrera. In fact, 16 of the top 18 finishers for the 2022 NL MVP and six of the top 10 finishers for the 2022 AL MVP are scheduled to participate in the 2023 World Baseball Classic, with the reigning Nippon Professional Baseball MVP Munetaka Murakami and Korea Baseball Organization MVP Jung-Hoo Lee joining in, too.

 

.........................

[G-Snarls]

Check out every team's announced roster here:

 

https://www.mlb.com/world-baseball-classic/teams

[Laika]

Canada's roster is pretty good. Surprised.

 

The weak spot will again be Ernie Whitt who is a horrendous manager in game.

[G-Snarls]

Canada's roster is pretty good. Surprised.

 

The weak spot will again be Ernie Whitt who is a horrendous manager in game.

 

Not bad at all, I agree

 

Coaching staff is pretty cool actually though you're right about Whitt

 

 

Ernie Whitt

Manager

 

Denis Boucher

Pitching Coach

 

Larry Walker

First Base Coach

 

Tim Leiper

Third Base Coach

 

Paul Quantrill

Bullpen Coach

 

Greg Hamilton

Coach

 

Russell Martin

Coach

[Laika]

Not bad at all, I agree

 

Coaching staff is pretty cool actually though you're right about Whitt

 

 

Ernie Whitt

Manager

 

Denis Boucher

Pitching Coach

 

Larry Walker

First Base Coach

 

Tim Leiper

Third Base Coach

 

Paul Quantrill

Bullpen Coach

 

Greg Hamilton

Coach

 

Russell Martin

Coach

 

Russell!

[Laika]

I think Canada could surprise because a couple of the prospect kids on the team are really interesting. Edouard Julien in particular. But a few others have decent stats.

[G-Snarls]

As expected, the DR has to be the heavy favorite. Tough to beat this team:

 

1B - Vladimir Guerrero Jr.

2B - Jeremy Peña

SS - Wander Franco or Jeremy Peña

3B - Manny Machado or Rafael Devers

LF - Juan Soto

CF - Julio Rodríguez

RF - Eloy Jiménez

C - Gary Sanchez

DH - Probably Devers cause you have to use Machado over him at 3B unless you want to go 2B Franco SS Machado 3B Devers. Also have Nelson Cruz.

 

Bench: Mejia, Segura, Adames, Teoscar Hernandez, Nelson Cruz and a bunch of others

 

SP:

 

Sandy Alcantara

Framber Valdez

Cristian Javier

 

BP:

 

Bryan Abreu

Camilo Doval

Cesar Valdez

Diego Castillo

Emmanuel Clase

Gregory Soto

Hector Neris

Jhoan Duran

Johnny Cueto

Rafael Montero

Yimi Garcia

[G-Snarls]

In all honestly what do you do with all these star SS/3B??? Nice problem to have! LOL

 

Machado, Devers, Pena, Franco like FFS

[Jonn]

Wild to me who they can get Freddie Freeman to play but so many Canadians just flat out refuse.

 

Also had no idea Otto Lopez was Canadian.

[Grant77]

Otto Lopez is Canadian? I learned something new today.

 

No-shows really hurt the Canadian roster, especially on the pitching side. There's some talent, but any of Taillon Soroka, Paxton, Romano, and Pop would have really helped. We're really going to have to lean on Quantrill and Pivetta.

 

On the hitting side, this lineup will crush right handers. Josh Naylor and the presumably injured Joey Votto would have been nice, but it's still solid.

[Krylian]

Is he Canadian or is he Vladdy Canadian?

[Grant77]

Is he Canadian or is he Vladdy Canadian?

 

He was born in the DR and raised in Canada, even playing hockey while he was growing up. That makes him full Canadian haha.

[Stangstag]

He was born in the DR and raised in Canada, even playing hockey while he was growing up. That makes him full Canadian haha.

 

Definitely doesn’t speak like he was raised in Canada lol

[Stangstag]

Super excited for this, makes the offseason feel shorter for sure. Competitive games in March are always welcome

[G-Snarls]

Once the again the USA doesn't line up as well SP wise as they could

 

No Verlander

No deGrom

No Scherzer

 

Betts Mullins Trout OF though is pretty gangster

The IF is also killer

[connorp]

Once the again the USA doesn't line up as well SP wise as they could

 

No Verlander

No deGrom

No Scherzer

 

Betts Mullins Trout OF though is pretty gangster

The IF is also killer

 

As a fan of those teams I wouldnt want to see those guys pitch lol

 

Though I don’t know how they use their SPs

[G-Snarls]

As a fan of those teams I wouldnt want to see those guys pitch lol

 

Though I don’t know how they use their SPs

 

Yeah I can certainly understand why the Rangers and Mets don't want DeGrom and Verlander participating

 

Especially DeGrom

[connorp]

I really wonder how you even handle JD this year.

 

If they’re a playoff team, you’d want him for the post-season obviously, so not sure what the heck you would do regular season.

[jaysblue]

Adam Loewen still pitching. Good to see him suit up for the WBC.

 

Canada's roster isn't that bad. Would have been nice if Josh Naylor could have suited up.

[Stangstag]

Adam Loewen still pitching. Good to see him suit up for the WBC.

 

Canada's roster isn't that bad. Would have been nice if Josh Naylor could have suited up.

 

Yeah im not sure why Naylor is out. He’s saying its because of his knee, but he played all year in 2022…

[Carlos Danger]

Romano playing for Italy if he was playing is BS!

[Deadpool]

Is he Canadian or is he Vladdy Canadian?

 

Both are, but differently

 

Vladdy was born in Canada, raised in the DR, Otto was born in DR, raised in Canada.

[Stangstag]

Both are, but differently

 

Vladdy was born in Canada, raised in the DR, Otto was born in DR, raised in Canada.

 

That makes more sense

[The Iceman]

Nice to see Owen Caissie get a selection on Team Canada. My son grew up playing 7 years with OF Owen Caissie in Burlington, I was one of his coaches for 5 of those seasons.

 

Always very athletic and could hit a ton, best young hitter in Ontario for many years.

Owen went through a massive growth spurt in his late teens growing from an avergae size player to 6'4" and 215 lbs

 

Fun fact 1, Owen was never the team MVP all those youth baseball years. Now the teams were 2 time Provincial Champions with loads of talent with a bunch of the kids still playing ball in the US.

 

Fun fact 2, he was part of the Yu Darvish trade.

 

Fun fact 3, signed a $1.2 million US signing bonus @ 18 years old turning down his full scholorship to Michigan. Tough choices.

 

Fun fact 4, Jays were interested in selecting Owen but chose CJ Van Eyk 3 picks before San Diego selected him in the 2nd round.

Jays were hoping he would be available in the 3rd round but Owen was shooting up the draft board.

[John_Havok]

Nice to see Owen Caissie get a selection on Team Canada. My son grew up playing 7 years with OF Owen Caissie in Burlington, I was one of his coaches for 5 of those seasons.

 

Always very athletic and could hit a ton, best young hitter in Ontario for many years.

Owen went through a massive growth spurt in his late teens growing from an avergae size player to 6'4" and 215 lbs

 

Fun fact 1, Owen was never the team MVP all those youth baseball years. Now the teams were 2 time Provincial Champions with loads of talent with a bunch of the kids still playing ball in the US.

 

Fun fact 2, he was part of the Yu Darvish trade.

 

Fun fact 3, signed a $1.2 million US signing bonus @ 18 years old turning down his full scholorship to Michigan. Tough choices.

 

Fun fact 4, Jays were interested in selecting Owen but chose CJ Van Eyk 3 picks before San Diego selected him in the 2nd round.

Jays were hoping he would be available in the 3rd round but Owen was shooting up the draft board.

 

Yep nice to see but he’s probably out of his depth in this tourney. Advanced A ball last year and though he faired decent, wasn’t a world beater by any stretch. Will get some great experience though

[L54]

No way I could turn down 1.2M to go anywhere even Vandy if I was a pitcher

[L54]

Nice to see Owen Caissie get a selection on Team Canada. My son grew up playing 7 years with OF Owen Caissie in Burlington, I was one of his coaches for 5 of those seasons.

 

Always very athletic and could hit a ton, best young hitter in Ontario for many years.

Owen went through a massive growth spurt in his late teens growing from an avergae size player to 6'4" and 215 lbs

 

Fun fact 1, Owen was never the team MVP all those youth baseball years. Now the teams were 2 time Provincial Champions with loads of talent with a bunch of the kids still playing ball in the US.

 

Fun fact 2, he was part of the Yu Darvish trade.

 

Fun fact 3, signed a $1.2 million US signing bonus @ 18 years old turning down his full scholorship to Michigan. Tough choices.

 

Fun fact 4, Jays were interested in selecting Owen but chose CJ Van Eyk 3 picks before San Diego selected him in the 2nd round.

Jays were hoping he would be available in the 3rd round but Owen was shooting up the draft board.

 

This is cool thanks for sharing

 

Where did the best players on those teams end up going to school?

[Brownie19]

Yep nice to see but he’s probably out of his depth in this tourney. Advanced A ball last year and though he faired decent, wasn’t a world beater by any stretch. Will get some great experience though

 

Agreed, but what an opportunity for Caissie and Palmegiani to play on the big stage. Unlikely they'll have a lot of success, but still an incredible experience.

[The Iceman]

This is cool thanks for sharing

 

Where did the best players on those teams end up going to school?

 

It wasn't so much kids were better, more that they had more versatility.

So much of Youth baseball is pitching, and you need a bunch of them due to pitch counts and not able to pitch back to back days. A real juggling act. Owen did not pitch at all.

So even though owen was the best hitter, he wasn't as valuable as a kid that would pitch a lot or play a premium defensive position.

 

https://www.prepbaseballreport.com/profiles/ON/RJ-Mayor-7180649253-7246138095

https://gogriffs.com/sports/baseball/roster/aaron-duffy/7626

https://www.prepbaseballreport.com/profiles/ON/Jackson-Smith-2537084169

https://www.iowalakesathletics.com/sports/bsb/2021-22/bios/torresan_matt_e129

https://upstatespartans.com/sports/baseball/roster/ben-roberts/4895#:~:text=33%20Ben%20Roberts&text=2022%20(FRESHMAN)%3A%20Appeared%20in,250%20opponent's%20batting%20average%20%E2%80%A6

https://www.prepbaseballreport.com/profiles/ON/Eric-Martyn-7453602819 - Best player...stayed a little too small

[Ryu In My House]

Will Fox Sports be streaming most of the games? Will we need a VPN (set to US) to watch?