World Baseball Classic 2026 GDT

[Stangstag]

30 minutes ago, Brownie19 said:

This is a tough look for DeRosa.

I feel bad for the guy lol. How did nobody explain this to him beforehand 

[Brownie19]

5 minutes ago, Stangstag said:

I feel bad for the guy lol. How did nobody explain this to him beforehand 

I don't know how bad you should feel for him.  It's his job to understand the rules of the tournament.  He f*cked up - but yes, it's bizarre that nobody else confirmed/discussed this with him.

[philly30]

So when Mexico comes up to bat in the first inning do  I root for them to score or not to score, very confusing 

[Stangstag]

9 minutes ago, Brownie19 said:

I don't know how bad you should feel for him.  It's his job to understand the rules of the tournament.  He f*cked up - but yes, it's bizarre that nobody else confirmed/discussed this with him.

I feel like expecting the manager to sit down and understand the math for every potential tie-breaker scenario is unrealistic, IMO.

Now he should have been able to have a quick glance at the standings and notice hey, we could end up with a 3-way tie, and then inquire with someone else.

And to cap this off, I bet you none of the other managers understand any of this s*** either.

Edited March 11 by Stangstag

[Jays24]

If I was able to ask the basic questions here by just looking at the standings then how the hell did people who are actually in the tournament not figure this out? Jesus haha

[Stangstag]

13 minutes ago, Jays24 said:

If I was able to ask the basic questions here by just looking at the standings then how the hell did people who are actually in the tournament not figure this out? Jesus haha

Because they didn’t look lol

[BTS]

It's really pathetic watching USA cosplaying like they're literally at war while every other country is just having a great time playing baseball. I hope these f***ing losers get eliminated tonight. 

 

[Laika]

3 minutes ago, BTS said:

It's really pathetic watching USA cosplaying like they're literally at war while every other country is just having a great time playing baseball. I hope these f***ing losers get eliminated tonight. 

 

I died of cringe when Paul Skenes said his thing about always wanting to join the military but this felt similar and filled his void or whatever 

Meanwhile, the Japanese fans are giving standing ovations to a random Czech pitcher 

And then of course the extra cringe from their being an actual war and none of these morons reading the room properly 

[BTS]

1 minute ago, Laika said:

I died of cringe when Paul Skenes said his thing about always wanting to join the military but this felt similar and filled his void or whatever 

Meanwhile, the Japanese fans are giving standing ovations to a random Czech pitcher 

And then of course the extra cringe from their being an actual war and none of these morons reading the room properly 

Jesus, I somehow missed the Skenes comment in the torrent of cringe coming from these dipshits 

[sliderguy35]

anyone else remember when the mets and braves played a double header on the last day of the season a few years ago? game 1 was one of the most insane baseball games i've ever watched, and then the mets phoned it in in game 2 since they had already clinched and the d-backs got eliminated because of it. 

i know that italy technically hasn't clinched yet, but hoping for a similar performance tonight from their group to get those team usa losers outta here

[BTS]

7 minutes ago, sliderguy35 said:

anyone else remember when the mets and braves played a double header on the last day of the season a few years ago? game 1 was one of the most insane baseball games i've ever watched, and then the mets phoned it in in game 2 since they had already clinched and the d-backs got eliminated because of it. 

i know that italy technically hasn't clinched yet, but hoping for a similar performance tonight from their group to get those team usa losers outta here

Italy is incentivized to lose and Mexico is incentivized to win a low-scoring game. I wonder what we'll see if Mexico is up like 4-0 in the 8th inning. Both teams should basically just stop trying to score 

[Laika]

I am not so sure. Italy and Mexico both seem to have mixed incentives. 

Obviously, collusion towards a Mexico 3-2 win prevents the USA from moving on so both teams benefit from being in the Quarterfinals with one of the WBC favourites out of it. 

However, does that result give Mexico the Pool? Because then they would play the #2 team from the DR/Venezuela pool which will likely be Venezuela which is a way better matchup for anybody than the DR. Venezuela is a good team but they don't have Julio Rodriguez hitting freaking 7th. So assuming DR beats Ven tonight - and you have to assume they are heavy favourites - Italy and Mexico should both want to just play to win this evening. 

[sliderguy35]

7 minutes ago, Laika said:

I am not so sure. Italy and Mexico both seem to have mixed incentives. 

Obviously, collusion towards a Mexico 3-2 win prevents the USA from moving on so both teams benefit from being in the Quarterfinals with one of the WBC favourites out of it. 

However, does that result give Mexico the Pool? Because then they would play the #2 team from the DR/Venezuela pool which will likely be Venezuela which is a way better matchup for anybody than the DR. Venezuela is a good team but they don't have Julio Rodriguez hitting freaking 7th. So assuming DR beats Ven tonight - and you have to assume they are heavy favourites - Italy and Mexico should both want to just play to win this evening. 

1st from pool B would play 2nd from pool A and vice versa. so the winner and loser of Mexico/Italy tonight would play either PR / Canada / Cuba, not exactly a murderer's row. Personally, I don't really see an incentive to finish first or second in their pool unless they really like their matchup vs PR and hate it against canada / cuba for whatever reason

[Stangstag]

6 minutes ago, Laika said:

I am not so sure. Italy and Mexico both seem to have mixed incentives. 

Obviously, collusion towards a Mexico 3-2 win prevents the USA from moving on so both teams benefit from being in the Quarterfinals with one of the WBC favourites out of it. 

However, does that result give Mexico the Pool? Because then they would play the #2 team from the DR/Venezuela pool which will likely be Venezuela which is a way better matchup for anybody than the DR. Venezuela is a good team but they don't have Julio Rodriguez hitting freaking 7th. So assuming DR beats Ven tonight - and you have to assume they are heavy favourites - Italy and Mexico should both want to just play to win this evening. 

Wouldn’t be surprised if Mexico WANTS to play USA again, just to get their revenge.

[BTS]

4 minutes ago, sliderguy35 said:

1st from pool B would play 2nd from pool A and vice versa. so the winner and loser of Mexico/Italy tonight would play either PR / Canada / Cuba, not exactly a murderer's row. Personally, I don't really see an incentive to finish first or second in their pool unless they really like their matchup vs PR and hate it against canada / cuba for whatever reason

Even then, there's no way that a preference for playing one of Canada/Cuba/PR would outweigh the benefit of having USA out of the bracket. 

[John_Havok]

35 minutes ago, BTS said:

Jesus, I somehow missed the Skenes comment in the torrent of cringe coming from these dipshits 

The full quotes for context as im not sure he was intending to compare playing baseball against other countries as the same as being in the military, just that it would have been an honour to serve in the military and it's still a great honour to represent your country in a world baseball tourney. But I can certainly see how it could be taken that way and it's still pretty tone deaf. 

“I went to the Air Force Academy for two years,” Skenes said. “I wanted to serve. I was intending on serving. Ended up transferring out to [Louisiana State University] and won a national championship there and did some cool stuff there."

He continued, “There was a big part of me that was fully intent on serving in the military as a career after college. This isn’t serving, but it’s a pretty close second.”

 

[Laika]

14 minutes ago, sliderguy35 said:

1st from pool B would play 2nd from pool A and vice versa. so the winner and loser of Mexico/Italy tonight would play either PR / Canada / Cuba, not exactly a murderer's row. Personally, I don't really see an incentive to finish first or second in their pool unless they really like their matchup vs PR and hate it against canada / cuba for whatever reason

Ah right. I was looking at an old schedule that for some reason had the QF matchups wrong. 

I guess PR is no better than Canada. On paper Cuba is worse than both, I guess, so if they win this afternoon ITA or MEX could have a preference to face Cuba. 

 

The other weird thing is that I don't think the Pool winners/runners up for A and B even have schedules QF games yet because the WBC will wait to see who advances to even do that. Because they don't want USA to potentially face Japan in the semis. lol. They will put them on the other side regardless of their pool placement. 

[Laika]

 

 

[Laika]

lol f*** so this Cuban pitcher has been the best SP in Japan for two straight years? 

woof. 

literally the SP ERA champ for 2024 and 2025 after transitioning to being a SP

Canada is f***ed? 

[BTS]

Just now, Laika said:

lol f*** so this Cuban pitcher has been the best SP in Japan for two straight years? 

woof. 

literally the SP ERA champ for 2024 and 2025 after transitioning to being a SP

Canada is f***ed? 

Also, Canada's best hitters are lefties. Gonna be tough 

[sliderguy35]

fangraphs has had him as a 55FV guy for the last little while, even though he's probably not going to come over to MLB. from the report, he's not going to overwhelm them stuff wise, but is a ++ command guy. we'll see how it goes

[Laika]

So they've moved Lopez to leadoff and Matt Davidson gets the start. Julien dropped to 9th. 

4 lefties still. 

[Spanky__99]

Go 🇨🇦 Go!
It's one game anything can happen.

[BTS]

This is stupid

[BTS]

lol, Moinelo is shook 

[Angrioter]

O'Neil suxx

[Spanky__99]

Haha... Moncada!

[Angrioter]

Moncada is an idiot 

[Laika]

Tyler O'Neill can move to Alaska 

[Angrioter]

Canadá is horrendous at baseball