It’s been a fairly quiet week in WBC news, as we await the official release of the rosters for the next round of qualifiers. Still, there has been some news:

Jon Morosi on the Czech Republic’s WBC team and how the country’s hockey heritage has led to a lot of left-handed hitters.

The Japanese National Team swept Taiwan in a 3-game early warm-up for next year’s WBC.

Nicaragua leads Panama 2-1 in a warm-up series.

Alex Rodriguez, who famously has hemmed and hawed between playing for the USA (the land of his birth) and the Dominican (the land where he spent significant parts of his childhood), has said if he takes part in 2017 it’ll be for the Dominican.

Alex Cora will be the General Manager of Team Puerto Rico for the 2017 WBC.

ESPN Deportes will be showing the Mexicali qualifying round this month for any Spanish-speaking fans in the USA.

As expected, Max Kepler will not be playing for Germany in the qualifiers, as he will be staying in camp. It was thought that it was unlikely anyway given how he has an outside chance at making the opening day roster, but this is further confirmation.

…And that’s it for now. More soon, hopefully.