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Tomorrow on this blog: A World Baseball Classic update!
Category Archives: MLB
World Baseball Classic Update 7/22/22: Dominican and Korea get managers
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The big news since our last update is that Rodney Linares will manage the Dominican Republic team in the WBC. Currently the third base coach for the Tampa Bay Rays, Linares had a brief minor league career and has been coaching ever since. He managed for several years in the Astros system before joining the Rays.
Speaking of the Dominican Republic, don’t expect to see Albert Pujols suiting up to play for them next year. With him retiring after this year and the Dominican talent pool so deep, he says he wouldn’t want to take the spot of a more worthy player. Instead, he’s planning on getting some traveling and spending time off with his kids. It’s similar to what I noted Miguel Cabrera said a few days ago, although Cabrera didn’t completely close the door to some sort of involvement.
Meanwhile, over in Asia, it’s been announced that Lee Kang-Chul will manage the South Korean squad in the WBC next year. A longtime pitcher in the KBO, he was the league’s strikeout champ back in 1992 and who remains one of the leaders in the league’s history in strikeouts and win. Lee has been the skipper of the KT Wiz since 2019, including a Korean Series title last season.
Finally: As has been noted before here and elsewhere, an effort is being made by Cuban players in North America to be part of the WBC. Major League Baseball again has noted that it isn’t up to the league, though, since rules for international competition put such decisions with national federations.
World Baseball Classic Update 7/19/2022: Ohtani interested, Cabrera doesn’t want to take the spot of a younger player, and a note about some upcoming WBC stuff
Some more WBC news that emerged from yesterday’s All-Star Game media availability:
- Shohei Ohtani hopes to play in the WBC next year, although he does admit that his unique situation as a two-way player may make it a bit complicated.
- Miguel Cabrera, who has previously said he wants to play for his native Venezuela next year, has hedged it a bit. In essence, while he wants to play a role, he also doesn’t want to take the spot of a more worthy younger player.
- Finally, a programming note: Over the next ten days, I’ll have new versions of roster projections for Team USA and the Dominican. I might also have the long-gestating Venezuela projections.
Over at The Nats Report: A look at the Red Wings first half
Aside
My work on the Red Wings here and at Pickin’ Splinters has caught some people’s attention, and so I’m proud to announce that I’ll be doing a (mostly) weekly Red Wings update for the folks over at The Nats Report. Click the link to read my first installment.
Who is the greatest Mr. Irrelevant in baseball history?
You may know about Mr. Irrelevant, the last pick of the NFL Draft. The idea being that he is the equivalent of the last person picked on the playground, doomed to be an afterthought. Of course, even the last person picked in a professional draft is still far more talented than you, me, or almost anyone else on the planet. And, indeed, some Mr. Irrelevant picks have gone on to have good careers.
But what of baseball? After all, until very recently the MLB Draft was hilariously long. In fact, at one point there was no set ending. Even once more structure was added, it could still last 40 rounds. Only recently has it truly been downsized, going all the way down to five rounds in 2020 for COVID/labor reasoning before being increased again somewhat to 20 in 2021.
That, as well as the fact that all but the very best of prospects must spend at least some time in the minors, mean many baseball Mr. Irrelevants never even played professionally. But of those who did, who did the best? Given that this year’s draft is currently in full swing, I have a rundown under the jump:
Continue readingWorld Baseball Classic Update 7/15/22: USA GM and other news
Tony Reagins has been named the General Manager for Team USA in the 2023 World Baseball Classic. Reagins is perhaps best known for his stint with the the Angels from late 2007 until Sept. 2011, where he oversaw a team that made two playoff appearances. In 2009, he was among those who made the decision to take a chance on a somewhat-iffy prospect from the northeast named Mike Trout. He also was the GM for Team USA in the last Olympics, which may suggest we’ll see a similar coaching staff to that (for example, Mike Scioscia).
As I mentioned in a translated-from-Korean article a few days ago, Team Korea is open to potentially having Americans of Korean descent on the team. Meanwhile, KBO pitcher Chang Mo Koo, who has a 0.99 ERA this season, wants to take part and wants a start against Japan.
In the Dominican Republic, meanwhile, Tony Pena isn’t impressed with the slow pace that the Dominican federation has taken to the tournament thus far. Although they have yet to announce a manager, the head of the federation has said Moises Alou is a possibility.
In Puerto Rico, Carlos Beltran is voicing his interest in managing the WBC.
Enrique Reyes, a longtime skipper in the Mexican League who has managed several Mexican teams at the international level as well, is being called the “natural candidate” for the WBC job. Other possibilities are Benji Gil (who managed the Olympic team) and Juan Castro (who managed the team in the 2019 Premier12 tournament).
Argentina’s addition to WBC qualification has gotten some minor press attention there.
Tickets are now on sale for the qualification pool in Germany.
The CompO’St Declaration
On June 22, I made the following post on Twitter:
At the time, it seemed absurd, but as we enter Wednesday, the Baltimore Orioles are now at .500 and are just two games back of a wild card spot. While still considered quite unlikely, it is now not out of the realm of possibility that they will, indeed, make the playoffs.
When I made the declaration above, I did not believe the Orioles would even come remotely close at any point in the season. This is not because I dislike the Orioles. In fact, I quite like the Orioles. I have family in Maryland, watched their minor leaguers when they were the Red Wings’ parent club, and Cal Ripken Jr. was my favorite player growing up. In fact, I even attended one of their playoff games against the Yankees in 2012 and have the “BUCKle Up” rally towel to prove it.
However, I didn’t think they’d possibly be this good. I wouldn’t have been surprised if they continued to do a lot better than myself and many others thought they would, but I didn’t think they’d get to .500, much less be in the conversation for a wild card at any point. That’s especially true since I figured they’d trade away every player not on a long-term contract, which now looks unlikely save for perhaps Trey Mancini (since his contract ends after this season and they’ll want something for him). So, when I wrote that I’d get into composting if they made the playoffs, I meant it.
So, since I’m a man of my word, I’m going to stick with it: If the 2022 Baltimore Orioles make the postseason, I will get into composting. I will buy a compost bin, I will put biodegradable waste like dead leaves, rotten fruits/vegetables, and cut grass into it. I will turn it every week or two to ensure it gets all mixed up. Maybe I’ll even put some worms in it. Eventually, assuming it actually works, I’ll probably give the resulting compost to family to use for gardening, or something.
Now, you’re probably wondering: why composting? It stems from a stupid inside joke where somebody said I must have been a farmer since I was helping with something outside. I quipped that I was doing composting, and it ran far too long from there. For another, composting doesn’t hurt anything and is good environmentally, so it’s not like I’m going to do some dangerous stunt
So, yeah, if the Orioles make the playoffs, I’m going to do composting.
Seriously.
World Baseball Classic Update 7/11/22: Puerto Rico, Miguel Cabrera, Arizona
In an interview with Venezuelan press, Miguel Cabrera said that he’d be delighted to play for Venezuela next spring in the World Baseball Classic.
The Puerto Rican press has picked up on how tough their group will be. With perennial powers the Dominican Republic and Veneuzela as well as the dangerous Team Israel and a final team to be determined, at least one traditional baseball power will be eliminated. Edwin Rodriguez, who managed the team in 2013 and 2017, would like to note that this isn’t anything new. The Puerto Ricans were in the same pool as the DR and Venezuela in 2013, for example. For what it’s worth, Rodriguez (now a AAA manager) thinks that the Dominican Republic should be considered the overall favorites for the 2023 tournament.
Finally, the CEO of the Arizona Diamondbacks told a Phoenix radio station that hosting a pool of the WBC will bring over $30 million to the economy there. The question of whether that is actually true or is just public relations spin I’ll leave to the economists.
WORLD BASEBALL CLASSIC UPDATE (July 8, 2022): Stuff I missed
Yesterday in my World Baseball Classic update, I mentioned that there had been some WBC news over the past few weeks that I had neglected to share. Consider this a catch-up post on those things.
MANAGER ANNOUNCEMENTS:
- It has been announced that Ian Kinsler will manage Team Israel at the 2023 WBC. Kinsler, of course, was one of the best second-basemen of the late 2000s and the 2010s, making four All-Star Games and winning two Gold Gloves. He played for Team Israel at the Tokyo Olympics.
- Speaking of Tokyo, it was announced there back in June that the new Samurai Japan manager will be Hideki Kuriyama. Kuriyama managed the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters from 2012-2021, including a Japan Series title in 2016.
- During a press conference announcing that Eduardo Perez would be the Team Puerto Rico General Manager, some names were put out as candidates for the squad’s manager. Among them: Ramon Vazquez, Carlos Beltran, Josue Espada, Joey Cora, Juan Gonzalez, Sandy Alomar Jr., and perhaps even Yadier Molina (unless, of course, he is playing).
- Henry Blanco is reportedly one of the finalists for the Team Venezuela job, but says he hasn’t heard anything recently.
OTHER NOTES:
- Efforts by Cubans who have left the island to either have their own team or be able to play on the national team are unlikely to happen, but reportedly there is some discussion of having a team of Cubans-in-exile play some exhibition games together.
- Humberto Castellanos of the Diamondbacks hopes to suit up for Mexico next spring.
- There have been some articles written about a possible Team Canada over the last few months. Among those who definitely sound interested in playing: Abraham Toro, Josh Naylor, and Cal Quantrill. Joey Votto is still unsure and hasn’t thought that far in advance, while pitchers like Nick Pivetta and Jameson Taillon admit that that while they aren’t ruling it out they aren’t sure yet either given how far it is in the future. Sadly for Canada, two players definitely won’t be playing for them: Jordan Romano is planning on playing for Italy, and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. will suit up for the place he grew up (the Dominican), not the place he was born.
I’ll have more WBC news as it becomes available and as I find it.
WORLD BASEBALL CLASSIC UPDATE: Pools and venues announced
It’s official, the World Baseball Classic is back. It was announced around 1 p.m. today on various social media platforms as well as official websites.
So, here’s what we know, as well as my thoughts…
QUALIFIERS:
It’s a bit sandwiched within the rest of the news, but the powers that be have announced the qualifiers schedule for the tournament. While no official game-by-game schedule is out yet, they’ve announced the following pools:
Pool A will be held from Sept. 16 through Sept. 21 at Armin-Wolf-Arena in Regensburg, Germany. Arguably the nicest ballpark in Europe outside of the Netherlands and Italy, it also hosted WBC qualifiers back in 2013. The teams in this group will be Germany, the Czech Republic, Spain, France, Great Britain, and South Africa.
Pool B will be held from Sept. 30 through Oct. 5 at Panama City’s Rod Carew National Stadium. This will be the third time they’ve held qualifiers there. The teams in that pool are Panama, Nicaragua, Brazil, Argentina, Pakistan, and New Zealand.
The top two of each pool (they haven’t said officially whether this will be double-elimination or round-robin, but it feels like round-robin is the likely choice since that is what the main tournament is) will head to the main tournament.
This, by the way, is quite different from what I was projecting. For one thing, I thought they’d have the qualifiers in the USA, which was what the original plan was pre-COVID. For another, I figured that there wouldn’t be any changes in the list of teams invited. However, there is one change: the Philippines has been replaced by Argentina. It’s not entirely clear why this is. Perhaps it is because Argentina is higher-ranked. Perhaps there is some sort of drama with the Filipino baseball federation. Regardless, Argentina will be making its WBC debut, and the Philippines will have the ignoble distinction of joining Thailand as the only countries to be dropped from one WBC qualification invite to the next.
An important thing to note is that the September and October dates for the tournaments make it likely that many more minor leaguers will be available than what would be the case if this was being held in mid-summer. While many minor leagues now go through September, it’s unlikely (but not impossible) that MLB teams will keep as many prospects out of it as they may have, since by that point in the season anyone who may be a call-up likely would already have been called up. Sadly, it’s unlikely that any MLB players will be able to take part, as the regular season will be ending on the same day that Pool B will finish.
THE MAIN TOURNAMENT:
As expected, the main tournament will have four pools of five. Also as expected, one half of the bracket will be in Asia until the semifinals.
The pools are:
Pool A held from March 8 through March 13 at the Intercontinental Baseball Stadium in Taichung. It’s been used before in the WBC. The teams in this pool are Chinese Taipei (AKA Taiwan), Cuba, Italy, the Kingdom of the Netherlands, and one of the qualifying teams.
Pool B will be held from March 9 through March 13 at the Tokyo Dome, which (as I’ve ragged on a bit about previously) is seemingly the only stadium in Japan that MLB wants to play games at. The teams there are Japan, Korea, China, Australia, and a qualifier team.
Pool C is at Chase Field in Phoenix from March 11 through March 15. The teams there are USA, Mexico, Canada, Colombia, and a qualifier. Chase Field is another WBC mainstay thanks to its retractable roof, location close to spring training sites, and Arizona’s diverse population.
Pool D is happening at the same time as Pool C. It’ll be the first of three rounds at Miami’s loanDepot Park (and, yes, the lowercase l is correct there). The teams there will be Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Israel, the Dominican, and another qualifier.
After those first rounds, the second round will be a bit different from previous years (where the second rounds were again pool play) and instead go straight to knock-out play. The winners of Pool A will play the runner-ups of Pool B and vice-versa in games at the Tokyo Dome, while the same is true for Pool C and Pool D, who will have quarterfinals in Miami. After that, the final four teams will have semifinals and finals in Miami. Here’s a nifty chart showing it all, if you’re confused.
There aren’t any major surprises in the tournament here. In fact, the pools are fairly similar to what I projected them to be back in April, with only a few teams moved around here and there (Italy being in A instead of B, for example).
It will be interesting to see how and where they sort out the qualifying teams. It likely will depend on who gets out of the qualifiers. For example, if Nicaragua or Panama get out of their qualifiers, one would assume they’d be in C or D, but if Brazil (which has a large Japanese population) or New Zealand were to shock the world they’d likely end up playing in Asia. Time will tell.
NEW LOGO:
As you may have seen, the WBC has a new logo! Nifty.
COMING UP:
With the WBC now officially announced, it’s probably only a matter of time before players start saying whether they will or will not be willing to take part. There will be other news coming up as well. In fact, over the past few weeks there has been some WBC news that I neglected to write about.
In the coming days and weeks, I’ll get to all of that, as well as update my Team USA and Dominican Republic rosters.
So… stay tuned!
The Baseball Continuum 