Not much news today, merely one late pull-out due to injury as well as a replacement of somebody who had been injured. In fact, both of today’s news item is in the form of an embedded tweet:

Canada adds free agent LHP RJ Swindle of Vancouver to WBC roster in place of the injured Jesse Crain.

— Shi Davidi (@ShiDavidi) March 5, 2013

Jeff Bianchi (left groin) is off Team Italy. #Brewers down to a paltry 12 players in the World Baseball Classic.

— Adam McCalvy (@AdamMcCalvy) March 5, 2013

There you go. More WBC news later today, as well as a preview tomorrow of Pool 1 of the Second Round and an article as to why the doomsaying about the WBC is (probably) overblown. Spoiler alert: The numbers show that the WBC is more popular than many people perceive it to be.

Not much news due to the fact the Western players are arriving and having initial workouts, but there is some:

Jesse Crain of the White Sox has had to pull out of Team Canada due to a shoulder injury (apparently some type of strain). But, have no fear Canada, because Joey Votto will be playing for you.

And, also, here are the possibilities for the Asian Pools as to how tiebreakers will work. I won’t go into super detail, but it’s like this:

Japan and Cuba have already advanced. Remaining games in Pool A are just for seeding and pride, and, for Brazil and China, likely a chance to avoid getting relegated back to qualifiers.

In Pool B, it’s more complicated. But, in essence, it’s like this:

If Taipei wins against Korea, and the Netherlands beats Australia, then CT and the Dutch advance.

If Korea wins and the Netherlands lose, then CT and Korea advance.

Basically, if CT wins, they’re in.

If the Netherlands beats Australia by 8 or more runs, then they advance basically no matter what.

If Korea beats Taipei by 4 or more runs, they advance basically no matter what.

But what if there’s a 3-way tie at the top and one of the above things doesn’t happen? Then it gets complicated… quoting Pat Lackey from The Outside Corner:

That means that — deep breath — Chinese Taipei will advance with a win, with a loss to South Korea by four runs or less, or a loss to South Korea by four runs or more coupled with a Netherlands loss to Australia or a Netherlands victory over Australia that doesn’t make up the run differential between the two sides. South Korea will advance with a win over Chinese Taipei by four runs or more or a win over Chinese Taipei by three runs or less, so long as Netherlands doesn’t beat Australia by one run more than they (meaning South Korea) beat Chinese Taipei by. Netherlands advances by beating Australia by at least eight runs or by beating Australia by at least one more run than by which South Korea beats Chinese Taipei. This holds true even if Korea beats Chinese Taipei by four runs, because in that case a five-run win by Netherlands will give them a better differential by Chinese Taipei by one run. There is a caveat here: if Korea beats Chinese Taipei by nine runs or more,  all Netherlands has to do is win. Got it?

 

It is also technically possible for Australia to advance if they beat Netherlands and Chinese Taipei beats South Korea because that would result in Netherlands, Korea, and Australia all sitting at 1-2. Unfortunately for  Australia, their run differential is currently -9, so either they’d have to crush Netherlands or they’d have to narrowly beat Netherlands while Chinese Taipei crushes South Korea. Neither of those results seems terribly likely.

Got all of that? Okay, come back later for more WBC news.

In case you didn’t notice, there wasn’t any early World Baseball Classic news today. There are two reasons for this:

A) Catching up on sleep deprivation from watching some of the Asian WBC games

B) There really wasn’t much news, as most of the western players were traveling to their camps.

So, really, the only news is this: Yovani Gallardo will be able to (probably) play in the WBC, although there is a question as to if he will have to throw another inning as a warmup, which could mess up his pitching schedule.

So, yeah, see you tomorrow.

Just a few bits of WBC news before tonight:

The replacement for Chris Perez is David Hernandez of the Diamondbacks. Earlier reports had him switching from Mexico to Team USA (bringing the hackles from the WBC’s critics), but it turns out he had already had to drop out from Team Mexico due to a lack of documentation to prove he fit the eligibility criteria for them. Brad Ziegler, a Diamondbacks teammate and member of the 2009 WBC team, was the one who broke this story, of all people.

A groin strain has put Yovani Gallardo in doubt for the WBC. This could be huge, as Gallardo was would likely be starting against Team USA for Mexico. If he doesn’t play- or if he plays with a decreased capacity- then Team USA will have caught a break and Mexico dealt a blow.

Melky Mesa sees an opportunity in Yankees camp and is skipping the WBC to try and win the starting job that has come open with Granderson’s injury.

Efrain Nieves will replace the injured Javier Vazquez for Puerto Rico.

And, hey, remember that Mexican NASCAR vehicle that was going to be in a WBC get-up? Well, it won.

Okay, you can see the early news here, or go below the jump for the most recent news.

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Miss this morning’s WBC news? Go here. For today’s WBC news, go below the jump.

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