About the Venue: Daikin Park has gone through several names and also used to have a hill in center, but regardless of what name or shape it is, it remains the home of the Houston Astros and a capacity of over 41 thousand.
About the Pool: This is Team USA’s pool, and only Mexico is any major threat to beat them for the pool title. Italy also could be interesting. Great Britain and Brazil are likely also-rans, but you never know, can you?
About the Venue: LoanDepot Park will be hosting games in every round this WBC, including the final for the second straight tournament. This is largely because the 36.7K-seat stadium was hopping throughout the last WBC, as Miami’s international population and world-renowned status led to some of the biggest and craziest crowds of the tournament.
About the Pool: The Dominican and Venezuela are the stars of this group, but the Netherlands should also impress, Israel has some notable players, and Nicaragua has also returned.
About the Venue: Named for the first Puerto Rican to play in the big leagues, Hiram Bithorn Stadium holds over 19,000. It’s the go-to place for MLB events in Puerto Rico, and infamously hosted the Montreal Expos during their residencies in San Juan.
About the Pool: This is the hardest pool to predict. Every team here can win the pool, but I can also probably make an argument for every team in this pool save for maybe Puerto Rico and Canada being the one who finishes last and gets bounced to qualifying.
With the 2026 World Baseball Classic about to begin, it’s time for my preview of the tournament. We begin in non-alphabetical order, starting with Pool C, as it begins before the other pools.
About the Venue: The Tokyo Dome is the largest baseball stadium in the largest metropolitan area in the world and the go-to place for MLB events in Japan. Holding over 45 thousand fans for baseball, the air-supported dome is normally home to the Yomiuri Giants, the most successful team in Japanese baseball. The “Big Egg” has symmetrical dimensions (329 to the corners, 375 to the alleys, 400 to center) and has over the years also played host to concerts, boxing (including Mike Tyson‘s infamous defeat at the hands of Buster Douglas), professional wrestling, NFL exhibition games, and mixed martial arts. It is also the location of Japan’s Baseball Hall of Fame.
About The Pool: This is somewhat similar to some of the previous Tokyo pools in the WBC, with Asian powers (Japan, Korea, and “Chinese Taipei”) placed together. Joining them are Australia and the Czech Republic. It would be a shock if the two teams to leave this round robin aren’t two of the three Asian teams, and it’d be especially shocking if one of those teams isn’t Japan, which is one of the overall tournament favorites and . Australia and the Czechs will likely be playing to avoid getting relegated to qualifying.
The qualifiers for the 2026 World Baseball Classic are about to begin, with one starting in Taiwan on Feb. 21 (although the first game will technically be Feb. 20 in North America) and another next month in Arizona.
The qualifiers this time around are a bit smaller than previously. While in past WBCs there were two pools of six or four pools of four, this time there will just be two pools of two. The four teams in each qualifying pool will play three games (one against each other opponent), with the top team at the end of the round robin automatically qualifying for the final tournament. The second and third place teams, meanwhile, will play a play-in game for the other spot in the final tournament. It’s unclear why it’s smaller this year, but it likely has to do with a mix of cost and the fact that the previous tournaments at times had some teams that were such long-shots (Pakistan went 0-4 and was outscored 4-43 in its qualifying history, for example) that perhaps organizers decided to just keep it a bit smaller this time around.
The first qualifier, as mentioned, is in Taipei, Taiwan. Go below the jump for more.
In addition, I briefly wrote for a YouTube channel called East2WestBaseball. While the assignment was ultimately cut short when the station’s runner decided to do other things, it still saw two videos (mostly) written by me go up: one was a video on the tragic tale of Hideki Irabu and the other was a video about the robberies of Shohei Othani.
Hopefully more will come to the Baseball Continuum in the coming weeks, especially with World Baseball Classic Qualifiers coming up!
I have not one, not two, but three articles up on Pickin’ Splinters about last night’s historic game between the Rochester Red Wings and Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders. Gerrit Cole was there on a rehab assignment, the game drew a record crowd, and it came down to the final inning.
First off, there’s the game story focused on Gerrit Cole’s rehab start and the Red Wings’ walk-off win.
Also, there is a story about Denard Span’s return to Rochester, as well as his participation in Negro Leagues celebrations.
Finally, you can read Cole’s comments on the ABS challenge system in this article.
No explanations will be given. Straight and to the point.
AL EAST: New York Yankees AL CENTRAL: Minnesota Twins AL WEST: Houston Astros AL WILD CARDS: Blue Jays, Mariners, Rays AL CHAMPION: Houston Astros
NL EAST: New York Mets NL CENTRAL: St. Louis Cardinals NL WEST: San Diego Padres NL WILD CARDS: Los Angeles Dodgers, Philadelphia Phillies, Atlanta Braves NL CHAMPION: San Diego Padres
WORLD SERIES CHAMPION: San Diego Padres
AL MVP: Shohei Ohtani NL MVP: Juan Soto
AL CY YOUNG: Framber Valdez NL CY YOUNG: Max Scherzer
AL ROOKIE OF THE YEAR: Gunnar Henderson NL ROOKIE OF THE YEAR: Jordan Walker
The Baseball Continuum 