Category Archives: Baseball

2026 World Baseball Classic Qualifier Mini-Preview: Tucson (Colombia, Germany, China, Brazil)

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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)

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Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

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.

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What’s been up the last few months

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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.

Over at The Nats Report: Red Wings All-Star Break Awards

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Over at The Nats Report, I have a look at some mid-summer awards for the Rochester Red Wings.

Over at the Nats Report: A New Rochester Red Wings Report

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Over at The Nats Report, my latest update on the Rochester Red Wings.

Over at Pickin’ Splinters: Baker walks off Buffalo

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Over at Pickin’ Splinters, my story on how Darren Baker walked off the Buffalo Bisons to give the Red Wings their fifth straight win…. on a day where he wasn’t even supposed to be playing!

Over at The Nats Report: Rochester Red Wings Report

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Head over to The Nats Report for a look at my first Rochester Red Wings Report of the season.

Three Pickin’ Splinters Articles from a Big Night in Rochester

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I have not one, not two, but three articles up on Pickin’ Splinters about last night’s historic game between the Rochester Red Wings and Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders. Gerrit Cole was there on a rehab assignment, the game drew a record crowd, and it came down to the final inning.

First off, there’s the game story focused on Gerrit Cole’s rehab start and the Red Wings’ walk-off win.

Also, there is a story about Denard Span’s return to Rochester, as well as his participation in Negro Leagues celebrations.

Finally, you can read Cole’s comments on the ABS challenge system in this article.

Over at Pickin’ Splinters: Gerrit Cole rehabbing in Rochester?

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Over at Pickin’ Splinters, I look at whether Gerrit Cole could have a rehab start in Rochester. The answer? Maybe!