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Late World Baseball Classic news for January 14, 2013 (Part 1 of ?)

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News on the World Baseball Classic front since my post this morning:

  • Anthony Rizzo IS going to be playing for Italy.
  • According to Troy Renck, The question of Troy Tulowitzki, much like that of Joey Votto, is based on that of insurance. However, Tulowitzki is probably less likely than Votto. Also, Wilin Rosario, also of the Rockies, is also passing on the WBC, where he would have been a catcher for the Dominican Republic. Although his Twitter feed also has a post from him saying there is still a chance.
  • Enrique Rojas writes that the two catchers for the Dominican as of now are Carlos Santana and Miguel Olivo, but that there is a chance there will be a third emergency catcher (it’s possible that Rosario is that, and that he will play if Santana or Olivo become injured).
  • Evan Grant writes that Matt Harrison of the Rangers received an invite for Team USA but declined. It’s probable that had he signed up, Andy Pettitte might not have been approached, since they both are lefties.
  • One last Rockies/WBC note: Nolan Arenado is on the Puerto Rican preliminary roster but is unlikely to take part due to the fact he is fighting for the starting 3B spot in Colorado.

 

More WBC news throughout the day…

Late World Baseball Classic news for January 13, 2013 (Part 3 of probably 3)

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Okay, last update for the night… I hope.

    • In his article on the latest round of players to commit to Team USA, Jon Heyman mentions that Troy Tulowitzki will be held back from Team USA do to injury concerns. I had read elsewhere that Tulowitzki wanted to play in the WBC almost specifically to show how healthy he was, but maybe the Rockies are stopping him.
    • Adam Wainwright won’t be pitching in the WBC… but then again, he wasn’t even invited.
    • Barry M. Boom’s list of players who have committed to Team USA includes Jimmy Rollins, the first confirmation in recent days that he’ll be on the roster.
    • And, perhaps the biggest news:

Okay, so there you go: Justin Verlander will take part if he feels up to it. And there is still room for one more catcher on the roster (Posey? Wieters? Ellis?).

More WBC news as we get closer to roster day on Thursday.

Late World Baseball Classic news for January 13, 2013 (Part 1 of an undetermined number)

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Okay, late news on the World Baseball Classic:

  • As a patriotic song once said, “The Yanks are coming, The Yanks are coming!” In this case (according to Barry M. Bloom of MLB.com), it’s Mark Teixeira (who played for the USA in the ’06 classic) and Andy Pettitte (the first starting pitcher to be firmly said to probably be in the WBC). Given the fact that usually very few Yankees play in the WBC, this could be a credit to the pull of Joe Torre.
  • Miguel Tejada hasn’t received a invitation to play for the Dominican Republic yet, apparently, so some of his fans are starting to campaign for him on Twitter.

More news as it happens

Rosters (and possibilities/non-possibilities) of the World Baseball Classic as of 2:44 PM of Jan. 13, 2013

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The list is a bit different this time, set up by COUNTRY, not IN/OUT/IN-BETWEEN. This is being done because more players are joining or turning down invites by the day.

Today’s news:

Go below the jump for the WBC rosters as they look now, along with possibilities and non-possibilities (impossibilities?) for each team.  The teams are in alphabetical order:

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Late World Baseball Classic news for January 12 (Part 1 of who-knows-how-many, 6:00 PM)

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World Baseball Classic news that I didn’t have during my “Who’s In/Out/In-Between” and my other posts earlier today. They will be edited in to tomorrow’s edition of my listings for the WBC:

Also, the probably-final roster for the Korean National Team at the WBC

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Dan from MyKBO sent this along to me, although I may have tweeted it earlier this week: what is expected to be the final roster for the Korean national team for the World Baseball Classic, complete with uniform numbers, uniform names (because of the commonality of names like Kim and Lee, initials are common in Korea) and the team they play for usually:

Barring injuries or last-minute dropouts, this will almost certainly be the team that Korea puts out in March. As expected, it is almost entirely made up of KBO players, with two exceptions: Dae-Ho Lee, who now is with the Orix Buffalo of the NPB, and pitcher Won-Jun Jang, who plays for the Police team of the Korean Futures League. The Police team is made up of players who are doing their required two years of national service (all able-bodied Korean males need to do military service), and it’s likely that Jang would likely be in the KBO if he wasn’t doing his service.

I’ll have a more in-depth look at this roster sometime in the future.

Who’s in/out/in-between of the World Baseball Classic as of 11:18 AM of Jan. 12, 2013

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NOTE: SINCE THIS WAS PUT UP THIS MORNING MORE NEWS HAS COME OUT. GO TO THE FRONT PAGE FOR THE LATEST.

 

Lots more news on the World Baseball Classic:

  • The bullpen of Team USA is starting to shape up. Middle-reliever Glen Perkins, one of the few bright spots for the Minnesota Twins last season, has confirmed he’s been called by Joe Torre and accepted an invite. So, into possibly/likely he goes. Joe Nathan of the Rangers, meanwhile, has said he’s considering an invite that Joe Torre has given him.
  • Adam Ottavino, an Italian-American who pitched for Italia in the past, will be passing this year.
  • Miguel Gonzalez, part of the Oriole pitching staff last season, has been invited to play for Mexico. He’s checking with the Orioles first, though. Therefore, I’m putting him in possibly/likely for now, mainly because I don’t have a “checking with the club” sub-list.
  • By the way, apparently a large amount of the Canadian team will be revealed later today, as I mentioned a few days ago.

The full list is below the jump:

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Off-Topic: Short NFL predictions for the weekend

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Okay, here we go:

Ravens at Broncos: It will be cold, yes, and Peyton Manning doesn’t do well in cold. However, I still think he’ll do well enough, barring the Ravens defense taking the ball away multiple times. In other words, Broncos win.

Packers at 49ers: This is a tough one, but I think the Packers have the advantage of momentum (they haven’t been sitting around for as long), and I’d rather have Aaron Rodgers playing at QB than Colin Kaepernick. Packers win.

Seattle at Atlanta: Okay, Seattle’s sleep cycles will be messed up, and Marshawn Lynch missed much of practice this week with an injury, but the Falcons have done about as well in the playoffs as the Braves did most of their years during their grand run of NL East title: losing early. Seattle wins.

Texans at Patriots: The Patriots will slaughter them. They are clearly the better team, by leaps and bounds. New England wins.

Review: The Living Baseball Card

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The baseball card. Is there anything so low-tech and yet interesting as it? And remember how, when you were young, you’d look over those statistics, look at the cool photos, and maybe see a line or two about the player off the field? You know, stuff like:

“Player X enjoys hunting and fishing during the off-season.”

Or…

“Player Y lettered in baseball, football and track in high school.”

Well, the Living Baseball Card project is sort of like that, only with a documentary instead of a line at the end. While it has the picture of the player and lines of stats, what sets the Living Baseball Card (which is larger than the average baseball card) apart is that it comes with a DVD that holds a documentary on the card’s player (the one I watched was about 23 minutes), in which the player talks about his childhood, upbringing, time in the minors, and MLB career.

Take the documentary I watched (I received two cards, but I’m holding one of them back as a possible giveaway in the future), which was on Royals outfielder Willie Wilson. The only person who speaks in the video is Wilson himself, as he discusses his childhood, his baseball days, as well as other topics related to his life. Having known very little about Wilson, it was interesting and seemed a good primer on him: about how he got into baseball, his experiences in the minors, etc. They ranged from the funny- he once left before the second game of a doubleheader in the minors, only to come back and have to grab his uniform out of the wash so that he could pinch-hit late in the game- to the sad- he stopped doing autographs for a time because a man had knocked down Wilson’s wife and young child trying to get it. A well-made and good paced DVD.

It will be interesting to see how the Living Baseball Card moves forward- I can definitely see it as being a possible giveaway at ballparks, for example, as the format could easily be changed around to showcase a current player, or an all-time legend that is getting his number retired.

Time will tell, but it definitely has potential.

Who’s in/out/in-between of the World Baseball Classic as of 2:30 PM of Jan. 11, 2013

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Today’s World Baseball Classic news as of about 2:30 PM and a reminder that, as more WBC news continues to trickle in, keep an eye out later for any later updates:

As usual, the entirety of the list is after the jump:

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