World Baseball Classic
 

I have little interest in baseball overall, but I like the idea of this. A true international competition. I'll be giving it a whirl and will watch a few of the marquee games.

Thoughts?

Ah, I see there is already a thread (though the title was not apparent). Maybe they can be merged or something?

Ah, now I see why the US is not interested on a spectator basis - Ken Griffey Jr, A-Rod, Roger Clemens and all the rest can't beat a team of Canadian minor leaguers!

Canada 8, US 6

A happy, yet unexpected, result.

Baseball is such a funny game, in that the worst team in the league is going to win about 1/3 of its games every year (yes, I know, there are some glaring exceptions) and the best team is going to lose about 1/3 (again, some go over that mark, but not many). And even the best teams can lose a short series to one of the worst.

All that said, I was only slighly surprised that the US lost to Canada. I can't imagine the US megastars are in top playing shape yet, especially the pitching staff. I have to wonder how seriously these guys can be taking this--sort of like the USA in basketball at the Olympics a couple of years back.

At first I was excited about the competition. Now, I could care less. The whole thing has no meaning whatsoever. The majority of the athletes are not in mid-season form and as a result, we have to put strict pitch counts. It's not the best players, its the best players that agreed to go.

$100 says Griffey Jr. gets hurt before it's over.

The US players aren't even close to season form yet. Hell most of them probably left straight from the golf course to go play. The only consolation I would have is if Jeter had a career ending injury while he was playing in this silly tournament.

What makes you think the US players are at more of a disadvantage than the Canadian players? Or indeed, than many of the teams in the tournament?

While I agree the SA countries like Venezuala may be in better game shape, their stars are all playing in the MLB and so are in the same position as the US team.

Eh, I just have a hunch that the American players have slacked off alot more than the rest. I could be wrong, I could be right. I'm not trying to take anything away from the other athletes.. I'm just saying what I think. I would be nice to have something like this when all the players are in top form but that will never happen.

Careful now, Adam Loewen will very soon be the best pitcher in baseball :D

(Yeah, I'm an Orioles' fan, why do you ask...)

I just can't get over the fact that the USA lost to Canada in a sport other then hockey or curling. That's what they get for having too many damn Yankees on that team.

I gotta say, I'm loving this tournament.

The USA v. South Africa came was a friggin joke. I listened to it off of MLB's site ($10 for audio/video of the whole tournament, good deal), and it was base hit after base hit after homerun after base hit.... I'm really looking forward to the USA v. Japan game on Sunday though, that should be great fun.

Watch it from the safety of your home. I made the mistake of going down there and it's VIOLENT. It reminds me of my first football (soccer) game in Europe. Otherwise, it's been quite entertaining.

That was a tough call on Japan's tag-up attempt... the replay was pretty conclusive. i guess we'll just have to see if Japan advances, and if they do, then that play won't matter.

I actually went to the Korea vs. Mexico game in Anaheim last night. I must say I was pleasantly surprised. The game was a near sellout, despite unseasonably cold temps in the 40's. There were about 80% Mexican fans and 20% Korean fans. Both factions were very vocal and enthusiastic. They were also very well behaved.

As for the game, Korea is for real. They are fundamentally sound and that Seung-Yeop Lee guy should be playing here in MLB. In fact, they are smoking us Americans right now 7-1. Go figure.

I love how into it the Latin countries are. The days when Dominican and Cuba and Venezuala are playing, I don't think there is much work being done in those countries!

Buck made a mistake by only going with 3 starting pitchers. Willis has gotten owned each time he's gone out there. He needs to keep him on a VERY short leash in his next outing.

The US's next game is against Mexico, Clemens will start. If they win, the next game is probably going to be against Korea (possibly Japan, but unlikely). Peavy will start that. If they win that game, they will play in the finals, Willis will start (ugh). The only way around that is for the US to get a HUGE lead on Mexico in the next game and take Clemens out before he reaches 30 pitches.

Another thing, wha the hell is Leiter doing on the roster?

What's the deal now - if either Mexico beats the US or Japan beats Korea, the US is out?

If Mexico beats the US, we are out. Period. If the US beats Mexico and Korea beats Japan, we are in. Beyond that, it gets more complicated. We would have three teams that went 2-1 in round 2.

• The team that defeated the other tied team head-to-head in a given round shall be ranked higher in the pool standings for such round.
Result:
Korea over US
US over Japan
Japan over Korea
It's still a tie.

• The tied teams shall be ranked in the standings for that round according to fewest runs allowed divided by the number of innings (including partial innings) played in defense in the games in that round between the teams tied.
After 2 games in this round, here are the runs allowed:
Korea: 4
Japan: 5
US: 10
Chances are, if Japan beats Korea, Japan and Korea advance, but it really depends on the score of that game. Say Japan beats Korea by a score of 7-6 and the US shuts Mexico out. Then the runs allowed are:
US: 10
Japan: 11
Korea: 11
US advances, Japan and Korea go on to the next tie breaker.

In a nutshell, if Japan beats Korea, they will have to score at least 7 runs against them for us to advance without looking at the next tie breaker. If they score 6, then we look at earned runs, and I don't know how many unearned runs have been allowed by either team.


• The tied teams shall be ranked in the standings according to fewest earned runs allowed divided by the number of innings (including partial innings) played in defense in the games in that round between the teams tied.


• The tied teams shall be ranked in the standings according to highest batting average in games in that round between the teams tied.

• Standings shall be determined by the drawing of lots, conducted by WBCI.

There is quite the possibility of a US Basketball 2004 situation that will happen (Thanks Dontrelle).

Actually, it would be possible for the US (or even Mexico) to advance if Korea beats Japan and Mexico beats the US. Here are the runs allowed for Mex, Jap, and US in the first two games:

Mex: 8
Jap: 5
US: 10

Japan would have allow 4 runs plus however many the US scores to advance. The amount of runs allowed needed could be less if there is a long extra inning game, but that's even more unlikely.

Overall, the tiebreaker system sucks. It should really be a combination of RS and RA, since that takes it all into account. Under the current system a 1-0 victory means more than a 16-3 victory that is called after 5 innings. Pure BS.

And the US is out, beaten by Mexico despite umpire Bob Davidson blowing (deliberately?) yet another big call. He jobbed Japan out of a win, and he almost did the same to Mexico.

So it's Cuba (I bet Fidel is laughing), the Dominican, South Korea and Japan in the semis. I'll stick with my original thought and figure the Dominican is the team to beat.

gah, stupid USA team. Get some basehits, goddammit!

man... living in baltimore, i thought i finally had a team to root for who might do well. Guess not. Sucky teams I root for: Team USA, Terps, Orioles, Ravens. A very harsh year.

highthief: what call was that? i didn't see the whole game.

mexico hit what should have been a homer. it was pretty obvious. davidson ruled it a double.

The WBC claimed it's first victim, Luis Ayala. He came out of the game after walking ARod. He needs reconstructive surgery on his elbow, out for the season. The Nats must be thrilled. Hopefully, he won't be the next Mantei.

Cuba versus Japan coming up in the finals! Cuba has really taken this thing seriously. They've now won just about every significant international baseball competition in the last few years - Olympics, Pan-Am Games, etc. If they win this, they probably will be regarded as the best baseball nation in the world.

yeah the stupid idiot couldnt tell that it hit the foul pole like 8 feet above the wall, he was also the guy that took japan's 4th run away when playing usa the other week.