Category Archives: International

World Baseball Classic Qualifier Preview: New Taipei City (Taipei, Phillippines, Thailand, New Zealand)

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The “Asian pool” of the World Baseball Classic qualifier takes place in Taipei, and the home team should be able to easily win it, and surely that is what the tournament’s organizers expect, since it has already been announced as a host for the WBC in the round of 16. The other three countries playing, while interesting, have nowhere near the pedigree that the Taiwanese have, nor- with the exception of the individual player here and there- the talent. In fact, the only reason the other three countries will have any chance whatsoever likely will be because of the so-called “passport players” that the lenient WBC eligibility rules will allow them to bolster their rosters with.
Head below the jump for a pool preview:

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The More You Know: What is the Posting System?

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One of the big things in the baseball news today is that the Dodgers are the winning bidder for the rights to negotiate with Ryu Hyun-Jin, one of the best pitchers in Korea.

This is the result of the posting system between MLB and the baseball leagues of Asia, most notably the NPB but also the KBO, where Hyun-Jin is coming from. Essentially, it is a way to compensate Asian teams when their players head to America. It also benefits the player. You see, while a player in Asia can go wherever he wants if he is a free agent, it takes longer there to become a free agent, so the posting system allows them the chance to come to America while they are young and presumably in their prime.

It works like this: the team has to decide to post a player. Whether they do so is up to them, although the player can ask to be posted. There is then a period of blind bidding for the player: every MLB team can theoretically bid for the player, but they have no idea what the other teams are bidding.

When the bidding is over, the MLB team is then able to negotiate with the player. If they reach a deal before the deadline, the money they spent with the bid is sent to the Asian team, and the player comes over to the USA to play with the agreed upon salary. If there is no deal made, then the player goes back to Asia and nobody gets any money.

The posting system is controversial, as it puts a lot of risk to the teams (if they make a mistake, they’ve drained a ton of money into that mistake) and favors the big market teams in America (it’s highly unlikely you will ever see, say, the Kansas City Royals, get the services of a top play through the posting system). However, for now, it is essentially the only way for young Asian players to come to our shores.

And now you know!

My WBC Projections as of Nov. 4, 2012

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One of the most popular parts of the Baseball Continuum have been the WBC roster projections. Therefore, here’s a look at my roster projections so far, with links to the most recent versions of each roster, in descending order of freshness (the higher up they are, the more recent the roster projection):

Dominican Republic (Version 2.0)

United States of America  (Version 2.00001)

The Netherlands

Australia

Canada

Panama

Puerto Rico

Mexico

Venezuela

 

The following countries are in various stages of projection development: Japan, Cuba, Korea, Taipei, revamps of Canada, Mexico, Venezuela and Puerto Rico.

WBC 2013 Projections: Dominican Republic Version 2.0

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My previous projections for the Dominican Republic are now rather out-of-date due to injuries, etc. So, here are new projections, taking into account new developments as well as injuries that might take out certain players. Like the USA projections, this is a ground-up rebuild, and not simply a cut-and-paste with changes.

The usual rules:

  • Any player coming off a major injury or who has a history of injuries is unlikely to participate. This is especially true for the pitchers.
  • Players that will be on new teams are less likely to participate, but shouldn’t be completely ignored, with the exception of pitchers.
  • Teams are made up of 28 players, of which 13 of them must be pitchers and two of them catchers.
  • The pitch count rules make relievers extremely important.

So, after the jump, my projections for the Dominican Republic WBC team:

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2013 WBC Team USA projections Version 2.000001

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(EDITED IN ON DEC. 31: As of this writing, the most recent projection for the United States can be found here.)

AGAIN, THIS IS AN OLD PROJECTION, GO TO THE ABOVE LINK FOR THE MOST RECENT!

With Derek Jeter’s injury last night, I already have to make a modification to yesterday’s projected roster. This roster is exactly the same as yesterdays, with the only difference being Jimmy Rollins replacing Derek Jeter (and changes to the lineup as a result).

A refresher on my selection rules/assumptions:

  • Any player coming off a major injury or who has a history of injuries is unlikely to participate. This is especially true for the pitchers.
  • Players that will be on new teams are less likely to participate, but shouldn’t be completely ignored, with the exception of pitchers.
  • Teams are made up of 28 players, of which 13 of them must be pitchers and two of them catchers.
  • The pitch count rules make relievers extremely important.

So after much research and thought, go after the jump for my latest projections for Team USA.

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2013 WBC Team USA projections Version 2.0

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(EDITED IN ON DEC. 31: As of this writing, the most recent projection for the United States can be found here.)

Since my last projection for the Team USA roster, some guys have said definitively they won’t take part, others have said they would like to, some have gotten injured, and still others haven’t said anything. Therefore, this is a total rebuild of my projections for Team USA, done from near-scratch as if I had never done my previous projections. I still will note the changes at the end of this post, however.

A refresher on my selection rules/assumptions:

  • Any player coming off a major injury or who has a history of injuries is unlikely to participate. This is especially true for the pitchers.
  • Players that will be on new teams are less likely to participate, but shouldn’t be completely ignored, with the exception of pitchers.
  • Teams are made up of 28 players, of which 13 of them must be pitchers and two of them catchers.
  • The pitch count rules make relievers extremely important.

So after much research and thought, go after the jump for my latest projections for Team USA.

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The Strangest Stadiums: Weird Parks Themselves

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One of the reasons why baseball is different is because of how the playing field’s dimensions are different in essentially every ballpark. However, this can also lead to some weird stadiums. I mean, we’re talking utterly bizarre, stadiums or fields that almost certainly didn’t have baseball in mind when they were created, or parks that are extremely different from the usual image we have in our minds of what a baseball stadium should look like. And, of course, there are also ballparks that have really weird stories behind them (those will come later).

Take a look (after the jump, of course):

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Your super-early preview of the 2013 World Baseball Classic Round of 16

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Major League Baseball has released when, who and where the main World Baseball Classic will be. So, as one of the internet’s only sources for WBC news and analysis (based on the large number of hits I get from people searching for World Baseball Classic), I will now give you my early analysis of the pools. Where I have done projections for the teams, I’ll post a link to them.

First off, one thing of note is that the first round will be pool play, but the second round will be double-elimation. After that, it’s single-elimination in the Semis and the Finals.

So… GO AFTER THE JUMP FOR MY EARLY ANALYSIS!

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Random Video of the Undetermined Amount of Time: The Spider-Man Catch

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A few years ago, Masato Akamatsu of the Hiroshima Toyo Carp made one of the greatest catches in baseball history. I recently stumbled across it again, so here it is:

You can see, of course, why it’s been called the “Spider-Man Catch”.

Early Look at the Panama City and Taipei pools of the WBC

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Okay, now the other two qualifying pools for the WBC don’t get started until November (as opposed to the first two, which are coming up THIS VERY WEEK), but I think it’s a good idea to do an early look at them:

The PANAMA CITY pool features Panama, Brazil, Nicaragua and Colombia. This is, by far, the best qualifying group. All four of these countries had at least one MLB player active this season, three of them have professional leagues (although admittedly the Panamanian, Nicaraguan and Colombian leagues are often in a financially fragile position), and the fact the group is in November means MLB players will be able to take part. It is also, in international sports parlance, a “group of death”. A “group of death” is a group that is so talented or evenly-matched that there is almost no margin for error. This is the group that has the best worst team (Brazil, which has produced more minor leaguers than you’d think) and a best team (Panama) that, while the favorite, is definitely beatable. I did projections for Panama earlier this year, so you can look there to get an idea of who they will be sending in. Colombia will likely have the Solano brothers of Donovan (a 2B/Utility with the Marlins this season) and Jhonathan (a catcher with the Nationals, although injuries may sideline him), as well as pitchers like Ernesto Frieri, Jose Quintana, Julio Teheran and perhaps a coming-out-of-retirement-for-his-country Edgar Renteria. Nicaragua could have young Mariners organization pitcher Erasmo Ramirez joined by the Padres’ 25-year-old SS Everth Cabrera and veteran pitchers Wilton Lopez and Vicente Padilla. Even Brazil could have a MLB-experienced player in Yan Gomes, who became the first Brazil-born MLB player earlier this year when he made his debut with the Blue Jays. It should be a highly competitive and entertaining pool, and although I think either Panama or Colombia will emerge from it, there are plenty of question marks around it and I wouldn’t be that surprised if any of the teams involved got through (okay, I would be pretty surprised if Brazil got through, but it wouldn’t be as surprising as, say, France or the Czech Republic getting through).

On the other hand, though, the TAIPEI pool of Taipei, New Zealand, Thailand and the Philippines will be the most lopsided of all of the pool. Chinese Taipei (not called Taiwan in international competition due to political considerations) will win this group. Even if New Zealand, Thailand and the Philippines were to pool their resources and throw out a combined team against Taipei, Taipei would win. The only reason Taipei is even having to qualify is because in 2009 they had a game against China in which they played their worst game and China played it’s best. However, Taipei shouldn’t have that problem against their pool, even if the other three get substantial help from passport players.

More detailed previews will be in the future.