Category Archives: International

2013 WBC Projections: Canada (if they qualify)

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It’s a little late for Canada Day, but here are some projections for the Canucks. Well, projections for what they’ll be if they qualify, because they have to: they lost both of their games in 2009, falling to Team USA and then being upset by Italy… on home turf. What’s worse, Canada won’t be able to call upon the major leaguers, as their qualifying pool is this September in Germany, when Joey Votto, Brett Lawrie and friends will be busy. Now, admittedly, a team of minor leaguers and semi-pros from Canada should be able to handle the best that Czech Republic, Germany and the UK will send, but you’d have thought that Canada could handle Italy (even with a few Italian-American ringers), and look how that went.

Still, let’s just assume that Canada qualifies and make the tournament proper, allowing them to get a hold of the rapidly-growing amount of Canadians in MLB. Then they become dangerous, a dark horse that could, conceivably, win the tournament if they got a few breaks here and there. They have lots of guys who can play in lots of places, and

So, as usual, a rundown of the rules, and then the roster after the jump:

  • 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.

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Sunday Links and a preview of the next week

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Some links that caught my eye and a preview of what will be on the Baseball Continuum in the week ahead.

On Friday, Miguel Gonzalez of the Orioles defeated the Angels for the first win of his MLB career. He did it while wearing a glove bearing name of his old friend and teammate, the late Nick Adenhart.

The bad news is that Giancarlo Stanton is out of the All-Star Game and Home Run Derby due to knee surgery, but the good news is that Bryce Harper will be the one replacing him in the game…

…and Andrew McCutchen, possibly the most underrated player in baseball, will be replacing him in the Derby. He’s no Stanton, but he can still drill the ball.

The United States National College Team and Cuba’s National Team have renewed a series that had been dormant since the 1990s.

The All-Star Game has been held in Kansas City twice before: 1960 and 1973.

Coming this week on the Baseball Continuum:

  • Projections for Team Canada in the World Baseball Classic
  • An argument that Moneyball is a book that has shaped modern America
  • Thoughts on the Home Run Derby and All-Star Game
  • The first episode of this season of The Franchise airs (including the debut of the Continuum’s Ozzie Guillen swear-word scorecard)
  • A review of The Amazing Spider-Man
  • And who knows what else?

2012-2013 WBC Projections: Panama

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Of all the teams that have failed to win any games over the first two WBCs, the Panamanians probably are the best of the bunch. So it isn’t really a surprise that they will be hosting a qualifying pool in November. That pool is going to be brutal: Panama will be joined by Nicaragua, Colombia and Brazil. All four teams have at least one player active in MLB this season. Thankfully for Panama, their qualifying tournament will be in November and not September, meaning they will be able to call upon some of their major leaguers (as opposed to Canada, which will have to try to qualify without the aid of Joey Votto, Brett Lawrie and friends).

So, anyway, with all of this in mind and after much research, I’ve put together a possible roster for the Panamanians after the jump:

  • 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.

Continue reading →

My 2013 WBC Projections so far (as of July 2nd, 2012)

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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):

  1. United States of America
  2. Dominican Republic
  3. Venezuela
  4. Mexico
  5. Puerto Rico
  6. Panama (coming soon)
  7. Canada (coming soon)
  8. Australia (coming soon)
  9. The Netherlands (coming soon)
  10. Nicaragua (coming soon)
  11. Colombia (coming soon)
  12. Taiwan/Chinese Taipei (coming soon)
  13. Cuba (coming soon)

?. 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)

 

Projecting the Puerto Rican 2013 WBC Team

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Puerto Rico isn’t the baseball factory it once was. Once Puerto Rico was included as part of the draft, it ceased to produce as many prospects and as a result the entire culture of baseball on the island has suffered. Thankfully, this might be changing as MLB has helped set up baseball academies on the island, and it appears to be working: Carlos Correa was the top pick of this year’s draft, and he was an alum of the Puerto Rico Baseball Academy.

However, despite this, Puerto Rico still has some advantages in the tournament. For one, many of the players will have also played winter ball, so will be more fresh and ready than some of the other teams. For another, it’s possible that the Puerto Ricans will be hosting a part of the tournament- they have the past two times- and if so they will no doubt have a rabid fan base behind them. And, finally, they will have Carlos Beltran, who is still a good enough player to be able to turn a game around single-handedly.

So, anyway, with all of this in mind and after much research, I’ve put together a possible roster for the Puerto Ricans:

  • 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.

More after the jump.

Continue reading →

2013 WBC Projections: Mexico

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Mexico is a bit of an engima. They play lots of baseball in Mexico, but it’s still far from the passion they have for futbol. They have a big professional league of their own that is regarded by MLB as being about AAA level, yet they don’t have that many Major Leaguers, although they are bolstered by some players who were born in the USA but spent much of their childhood in Mexico.

Therefore, Mexico is a bit harder to project, as they have very few MLB players but plenty of ballplayers overall. Thus this involved far more research and statistical searching to compile than, say, the previous WBC projections. That said, I have come up with a roster that fits the criteria I have been following so far:

As always, these are the rules of how I pick this roster, a combination of the official WBC rules on rosters and some unwritten rules that emerged during the first two tournaments:

  • 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.

Therefore, without further ado, my projections for the 2013 Mexican National Team (after the jump)

Continue reading →

2013 WBC Projections: Venezuela

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Venezuela. After the USA and Dominican, it provides the most players to the big leagues. But, much like the USA and DR, it hasn’t really played up to the number of big leaguers they have. Their best finish has been third in the 2009 Classic (and that was only because they were ahead of Team USA because of more wins during the primaries). However, they cannot be counted out. Venezuela is a country that often has divided and fluid politics that makes Washington look like a elementary school, but one thing binds them all together: baseball.

As always, these are the rules of how I pick this roster, a combination of the official WBC rules on rosters and some unwritten rules that emerged during the first two tournaments:

  • 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, here are my projections for the 2013 Venezuelan National Team (after the jump):

Continue reading →

Random Video of the Undetermined Amount of Time: Ichiro Pitches

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In 1996, Ichiro Suzuki pitched during a NPB All-Star Game.

This is video of that event. Sadly, Hideki Matsui was pinch-hit for.

WBC 2013 Projections: Dominican Republic

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As I stated at the end of my 2013 Team USA projections, I’ll also do some projections on possible players for the other teams as well. Here, for example, is the Dominican Republic.

The Dominican, in some ways, has been even more disappointing in the WBC than the USA has. They only managed fourth in the inaugural tournament, and they weren’t even able to make it out of the first round in 2009, losing twice to the Cinderella team from the Netherlands. Given how much pride the Dominicans have in their ballplayers, these could only be seen as large disappointments.

In 2013, like in the previous tournaments, the Dominican Republic will almost certainly bring a team made up of MLBers, with perhaps a few top prospects and overseas players if needed.

The same rules apply for this as I used with the Team USA projections, although in some cases they might not be as stringent, due to the fact the Dominicans generally are more into the WBC than American MLBers are.

  • 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.

And so, after much research and thought, I have my projections, which can be found under the jump:

Continue reading →

Projecting a possible 2013 USA WBC team

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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.)

Joe Torre will be managing the 2013 WBC team. As I mentioned during my musings on what a baseball dream team in 1992 would have been like, I guess now is as good a time as any to try to predict who will be on the 2013 WBC team. Unlike my pie-in-the-sky 1992 team though, these predictions will be based more in the cold reality about WBC teams that emerges due to the fact that the tournament takes place during Spring Training:

  • 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, with this in mind, and after much looking over of statistics and histories, here are my projections (after the jump):

Continue reading →