With the 2026 World Baseball Classic now underway, here are all my previews:
2026 World Baseball Classic Preview: Pool B (Houston)
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Here’s the preview for Pool B of the World Baseball Classic…
About the Venue: Daikin Park has gone through several names and also used to have a hill in center, but regardless of what name or shape it is, it remains the home of the Houston Astros and a capacity of over 41 thousand.
About the Pool: This is Team USA’s pool, and only Mexico is any major threat to beat them for the pool title. Italy also could be interesting. Great Britain and Brazil are likely also-rans, but you never know, can you?
Go below the jump for the full preview.
Continue reading2026 World Baseball Classic Preview: Pool D (Miami)
Here’s the preview for Pool D of the World Baseball Classic…
About the Venue: LoanDepot Park will be hosting games in every round this WBC, including the final for the second straight tournament. This is largely because the 36.7K-seat stadium was hopping throughout the last WBC, as Miami’s international population and world-renowned status led to some of the biggest and craziest crowds of the tournament.
About the Pool: The Dominican and Venezuela are the stars of this group, but the Netherlands should also impress, Israel has some notable players, and Nicaragua has also returned.
Go below the jump for the full preview.
Continue reading2026 World Baseball Classic Preview: Pool A (San Juan)
With the 2026 World Baseball Classic about to begin, it’s time for my preview of the tournament. Here’s Pool A.
About the Venue: Named for the first Puerto Rican to play in the big leagues, Hiram Bithorn Stadium holds over 19,000. It’s the go-to place for MLB events in Puerto Rico, and infamously hosted the Montreal Expos during their residencies in San Juan.
About the Pool: This is the hardest pool to predict. Every team here can win the pool, but I can also probably make an argument for every team in this pool save for maybe Puerto Rico and Canada being the one who finishes last and gets bounced to qualifying.
Go below the jump for the full preview.
Continue reading2026 World Baseball Classic Preview: Pool C (Tokyo)
With the 2026 World Baseball Classic about to begin, it’s time for my preview of the tournament. We begin in non-alphabetical order, starting with Pool C, as it begins before the other pools.
About the Venue: The Tokyo Dome is the largest baseball stadium in the largest metropolitan area in the world and the go-to place for MLB events in Japan. Holding over 45 thousand fans for baseball, the air-supported dome is normally home to the Yomiuri Giants, the most successful team in Japanese baseball. The “Big Egg” has symmetrical dimensions (329 to the corners, 375 to the alleys, 400 to center) and has over the years also played host to concerts, boxing (including Mike Tyson‘s infamous defeat at the hands of Buster Douglas), professional wrestling, NFL exhibition games, and mixed martial arts. It is also the location of Japan’s Baseball Hall of Fame.
About The Pool: This is somewhat similar to some of the previous Tokyo pools in the WBC, with Asian powers (Japan, Korea, and “Chinese Taipei”) placed together. Joining them are Australia and the Czech Republic. It would be a shock if the two teams to leave this round robin aren’t two of the three Asian teams, and it’d be especially shocking if one of those teams isn’t Japan, which is one of the overall tournament favorites and . Australia and the Czechs will likely be playing to avoid getting relegated to qualifying.
Go below the jump for the full preview.
Continue readingNext Year on the Baseball Continuum….
With the World Baseball Classic coming up, it’s almost time for the Baseball Continuum to kick back in gear. Here’s what you can expect in the next few months:
- Initial run-down reactions once the rosters are officially announced
- Group-by-group previews
- Round-by-Round updated previews to reflect roster changes, who is hot, etc.
- Potentially other articles and resources on the tournament
So… stay tuned!
2026 World Baseball Classic Qualifier Mini-Preview: Tucson (Colombia, Germany, China, Brazil)
I don’t have time to create a full preview like I did with Taipei, so here is a mini-preview of the Tucson region of the 2026 WBC qualifiers. This is sort of a potpourri group that is unlikely to draw as large of crowds the other qualifier, but should still be entertaining.
- Colombia enters the region as the likely favorite. Although Jose Quintana dropped out late in order to fight for an MLB spot, this is still one of the most experienced teams in the group. It has former MLB pitchers with Luis Escobar, Guillermo Moscoso, Jhon Romero, Reiver Sanmartin, and most notably two-time all-star Julio Teheran. They have MLB-experienced players in the field as well, most notably Gio Urshela, Dilson Herrera, and Harold Ramirez, with Jair Camargo (who had a cup of coffee for the Twins last season) at catcher. They also have a few players playing in high level foreign leagues in places like Mexico and Taiwan. In his preview, friend of the Continuum Michael Clair says to keep an eye on Mariners prospect Michael Arroyo- the infielder is a top 100 project.
- Germany looks to make its first main WBC tournament with a team that includes MLB-experienced players like outfielder Donald Lutz and German-American pitcher Nick Wittgren, as well as longtime pitcher Markus Solbach, who reached as high as AAA in America. The most famous player on the team, however, is probably Jaden Agassi- the son of tennis legends Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf- who has German citizenship through his mother. The pitcher did well in summer ball last season and has pitched for USC.
- China is likely outmatched here, but may be able to pull an upset thanks to help from Chinese-American players like pitcher Alan Carter (going by his Chinese name of Yunlun Zhang this time around), former draft pick Jeremy Wu-Yelland (currently in high-A in the Boston organization), and indy leaguer Samuel Benjamin. Beijing born Tom Sun plays Division II ball at Augustana University.
- Finally, Brazil has a good chance of reaching the main tournament, although they will likely have to win the 2/3 play-in game to do so. In addition to “passport players” like Dante Bichette Jr., the Brazilians will have a AAA veteran in infielder Leonardo Reginatto, NPB-experienced players in pitchers Oscar Nakaoshi, Bo Takahashi, and current minor leaguers like pitcher Eric Pardinho.
Overall, I feel like Colombia is by far the favorite in this group, with Germany and Brazil the top candidates for the second spot. China may be able to surprise but has an uphill battle.
2026 World Baseball Classic Qualifier Preview: Taipei (Chinese Taipei, Nicaragua, South Africa, Spain)
The qualifiers for the 2026 World Baseball Classic are about to begin, with one starting in Taiwan on Feb. 21 (although the first game will technically be Feb. 20 in North America) and another next month in Arizona.
The qualifiers this time around are a bit smaller than previously. While in past WBCs there were two pools of six or four pools of four, this time there will just be two pools of two. The four teams in each qualifying pool will play three games (one against each other opponent), with the top team at the end of the round robin automatically qualifying for the final tournament. The second and third place teams, meanwhile, will play a play-in game for the other spot in the final tournament. It’s unclear why it’s smaller this year, but it likely has to do with a mix of cost and the fact that the previous tournaments at times had some teams that were such long-shots (Pakistan went 0-4 and was outscored 4-43 in its qualifying history, for example) that perhaps organizers decided to just keep it a bit smaller this time around.
The first qualifier, as mentioned, is in Taipei, Taiwan. Go below the jump for more.
Continue readingWhat’s been up the last few months
I’ll admit, I have been neglectful over the last few months in sharing some of my work. So here’s a bit of a catch-up.
I, of course, wrote plenty of Rochester Red Wings articles for Pickin’ Splinters and the Nats Report. They included a look at the career of Wings play-by-play man Josh Whetzel, the team’s off-season planning, and an off-season visit by Rochester-area professional players Ernie Clement and Casey Saucke.
In addition, I briefly wrote for a YouTube channel called East2WestBaseball. While the assignment was ultimately cut short when the station’s runner decided to do other things, it still saw two videos (mostly) written by me go up: one was a video on the tragic tale of Hideki Irabu and the other was a video about the robberies of Shohei Othani.
Hopefully more will come to the Baseball Continuum in the coming weeks, especially with World Baseball Classic Qualifiers coming up!
Over at The Nats Report: Memories of Dylan Crews
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Over at The Nats Report, I have a look at some memorable moments in Dylan Crews’ Rochester Red Wings career ahead of his MLB debut.
The Baseball Continuum 