As I have previously mentioned, the World Baseball Classic’s qualifying rounds are about to start. I have, of course, done extensive projections for many of the already-qualified teams, but I am also doing overviews for each qualifying pool as rosters are released. This time: the pool in Regensburg, Germany.
Go after the jump. All rosters are from Baseball America.
The World Baseball Classic starts soon! Well, the qualifiers do, anyway. For the first time ever, there are four qualification pools to decide who reaches the Round of 16. Two of those pools- in Panama and Taipei- will be in November. But first there are two pools that start in about a week. One of them is in Jupiter, Florida (mainly because the teams in it don’t exactly have baseball fields in their countries) and the other is in Regensburg, Germany. The Jupiter pool starts slightly before the Germany pool, so I’ll be covering that one first, covering the baseball heritage (or, in some cases, lack thereof) of the the countries and looking at their teams and chances.
So, go after the jump for my preview of the 2012 WBC Qualifier in Jupiter, Florida. All rosters are from Baseball America.
The Netherlands was the biggest surprise of the 2009 WBC, defeating the Dominican Republic twice and advancing to the second round. Then, in the 2011 World Cup, they actually won the whole tournament, beating out the mighty Cubans in the finals. Clearly, the Dutch are the class of European baseball, and have taken their place as one of the finest baseball nations in the world… sort of.
I say “sort of” because the Netherlands is something of a misnomer. When you first hear of a Dutch baseball team, you might think that they are all from Holland, perhaps playing Honkbal (as baseball is called in Dutch) by windmills or dykes. However, that isn’t exactly true. You see, the Kingdom of the Netherlands is a far larger state than simply Holland. Several Caribbean countries, such as Curacao and Aruba, are part of the Netherlands. This isn’t to say that there aren’t baseball players from the European Netherlands- there are, and in fact one of the two professional baseball leagues in Europe is based there.
The Dutch figure to bring the majority of their previous international teams to the 2013 WBC, featuring players from the US Minors, the Dutch Hoofdklasse and perhaps a few Major Leaguers. They certainly won’t be favored to make noise in the tournament, but it’s unlikely that they will go quietly, and it’s possible that the Oranje just may again shock the world.
So, after much research, the Dutch national team can be found under the jump. The usual rules apply:
If there is one continent out there that can truly be said to be untouched by baseball, it is likely Africa. Baseball is, of course, popular in North America, Asia, and parts of South America. There are small professional leagues in Europe (mainly the Netherlands and Italy) and Australia. But Africa, birthplace of humanity, is in some ways the final frontier of baseball. Only South Africa has any sort of baseball tradition, playing in the first two World Baseball Classics and producing several minor leaguers over the years, most notably Gift Ngoepe, the first black South African to play professionally, who was featured in a Sports Illustrated article a few years ago. South Africa, however, is one of the most advanced nations in Africa, and has, since the end of Apartheid, been more-or-less a country that has avoided much of the strife and war that has plagued several African countries.
The same cannot be said for Uganda, which makes the accomplishment of the Ugandan Little League team all the more special.
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For those of you who want to see all of my projections for team rosters in the 2013 World Baseball Classic, here’s a list of those I’ve done so far, in order of when I did them, as well as what teams are coming up and I have begun researching and assembling (in a order that is subject to change):
?. Japan and Korea (will be up shortly after it becomes official that they will take part- the Japanese union is in a money dispute with the WBC, Korea is undergoing labor strife over the fact that the Korean League is going to expand by only one team instead of the two expected)
Australia is sort of a weird country when it comes to baseball. Plenty of people play it, but it’s an afterthought on the national level. They have lots of professional players and even a professional league of their own, but haven’t really produced any full-fledged stars. Internationally, they play well but rarely great, although sometimes they shock the world and do better than anybody was expecting them to. I think it’d be safe to say that baseball in Australia is vaguely like men’s soccer in America, especially when it isn’t a World Cup year. Maybe a bit lower. It exists, there is a league, and there certainly are some good players and a devoted fan-base, but it’s an after-thought unless somebody does something really good.
Anyway, the Australian roster is filled with professionals or former professionals, mostly from the minors and overseas but with a some MLB players here and there.The Australians have a lot of guys who can play anywhere, and as a result, you’ll see some positions where there are no dedicated players of that position.
Keep in mind that this set of projections was made over a long period of time, and while I have tried to keep it up to date, there still may be a stray out-of-date stat or piece of information here and there.
So, after much research, the Australian national team can be found under the jump. The usual rules apply:
Opening Ceremonies are Friday, but already the Games of the XXX Olympiad (which are really going to mess up some internet content filters with those Roman numerals) have begun with some early-round soccer games. While you can find Olympic previews everywhere, only here will you get the unique Continuum perspective. So strike up the John Williams music and go below the jump for the (rather tongue-in-cheek) inaugural installment of Olympics Continuum:
According to a December 22, 1977 article from the AP in the Youngstown Vindicator, there were discussions of a series between an MLB All-Star Team and the Cuban National Team:
It, of course, never happened. It wasn’t until the late 90s that MLB players (the Baltimore Orioles) played the Cuban National Team. The two teams split a home-and-home series.
For those wondering, Cuba’s record against teams in the World Baseball Classic that have had large numbers of MLB players is mixed: they had a 3-2 record in 2006 against teams with large numbers of MLB players (Puerto Rico, Venezuela and the Dominican Republic) and had a 2-0 record against Mexico in the 2009 WBC (the rest of their games were against teams that were either made up of predominantly foreign league players, or against mainly minor leaguers).
I’ve been working on making WBC projections for Australia, and while doing so I came across this Australian documentary clip of when baseball was played as a demonstration sport at the Melbourne Olympics in 1956 at Melbourne Cricket Ground. For years, it was the most attended baseball contest ever, with over 114,000 spectators (a few years ago the Dodgers had an exhibition game at the LA Coliseum which broke this record).
Interestingly, there is talk of having the 2014 MLB season start in Australia, albeit in Sydney, not Melbourne.
(EDITED IN ON DEC. 31: As of this writing, the most recent projection for the United States can be found here.)
I previously did a projection of a possible Team USA for the 2013 WBC, but with injuries and other developments occurring, I’m revisiting it to make some small changes. Where there haven’t been major changes, I haven’t really changed what was said in my original projection. Where I have made changes, I will note it with a section marked CHANGES.
A refresher on my selection rules/assumptions:
So, with this in mind, and after much looking over of statistics and histories (as well as injury reports), here are my latest round of projections (after the jump):
The Baseball Continuum 