Tag Archives: WBC Qualifiers

World Baseball Classic Update 7/15/22: USA GM and other news

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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.

World Baseball Classic Update (July 9, 2022): Korea prepares for Japan (and vice-versa)

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The ultimate rivalry of the World Baseball Classic is likely that of Japan and Korea. Fueled by historic grievance, geography, a similar style of play, and the way that international tournaments often end up being scheduled, any match-up of the two is must-see TV.

So it’s not surprising, then, that people involved with baseball in the two countries are already talking. At least, that’s what the Google translated articles I’ve found say.

In a talk with Korea’s Yonhap News Agency (translated to English by Google here), the KBO President agreed that the match-up with Japan is extremely important and that they will have to “prepare thoroughly” for it. The KBO has seen bumps in domestic popularity after previous success by Korea in the WBC, but the team has had a rough patch lately. That’s especially true when it comes to the Japan rivalry: Korea hasn’t beaten Japan in a major tournament since the 2015 Premier 12. The Koreans will be forming a committee shortly to begin the process of building the WBC team. The article says that while Hyun-Jin Ryu won’t take part due to his Tommy John surgery, it is possible that the Korean team may include players like Tommy Edman and Dane Dunning, who both have mothers from Korea.

Meanwhile, Japanese manager Hideki Kuriyama has been quoted as saying that the Japan-Korea games have always been fierce battles. That’s caught the attention of various Korean outlets, like this one.

Sticking with Japan for a second, some there are already speculating on what MLB players may play for Samurai Japan in 2023. A reporter for the Sanspo newspaper, for example, feels like Shohei Ohtani may be in an iffy position due to his two-way nature and the fact that 2023 will be the last year of his contract. However, he does believe that Seiya Suzuki of the Cubs would likely be able to participate if he wants to, and that Yu Darvish will likely have a big role in the rotation.

Finally, in other WBC news: Taiwan reportedly will be putting together a selection and training committee soon to pick a coach and begin selecting players for the tournament.

Stay tuned to the Baseball Continuum for more World Baseball Classic news as I find it.

WORLD BASEBALL CLASSIC UPDATE (July 8, 2022): Stuff I missed

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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:

OTHER NOTES:

I’ll have more WBC news as it becomes available and as I find it.

WORLD BASEBALL CLASSIC UPDATE: Pools and venues announced

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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!

With new CBA, speculation on the next World Baseball Classic

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With Spring Training in full swing and Opening Day fast approaching, it’s time to look to the future. To be specific, the future of the World Baseball Classic. The new collective bargaining agreement included some stuff about the WBC, and while some of it has been revealed, other parts are left to speculation.

Here, I do a bit of both after the jump.

Continue reading →

World Baseball Classic Update (9-30-16)

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It’s time for a WBC Update!

First off, as you probably saw, Israel won it’s qualifying pool and is headed to the main WBC tournament.

Secondly, White Sox instructor Luis Sierra, who was a first-base coach for Colombia in the WBC Qualifiers, will again coach for Colombia in the main tournament next year.

Adam Jones says he will play for Team USA again if asked. Also in Team USA news, they are said to be looking at Brian Dozier of the Twins as a possible member.

The Seattle Times ran an article on Mariners who may be playing in the WBC. Robinson Cano is all-in for the Dominican, of course, and so is Nelson Cruz. Dae-Ho Lee says he’ll play for Korea is he’s asked, and Felix Hernandez wants to play for Venezuela again (he wasn’t able to in 2013 due to contract stuff). Reliever Edwin Diaz wants to play for his native Puerto Rico. As for Americans, Kyle Seager said he’d love to play, although he admits the depth of American baseball means he could end up staying in Spring Training or sitting on the bench.

While not “news”, per se, you should still read Lindsey Adler’s awesome article on Pakistani baseball.

Until next time, this has been Dan Glickman with your WBC update.

 

World Baseball Classic Update (September 14, 2016): A Minor Update

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A small WBC update today, with just two pieces of news:

First off, David Peralta of the Diamondbacks is unlikely to play for Venezuela next year due to wrist surgery.

Secondly, according to the the excellent “Pinceladas del CMB” Twitter feed and Twitter’s translation feature, there is the news that tickets for the Guadalajara pool will go on sale in November.

…And that’s it for this installment. If you have any WBC news, let me know! Thanks!

 

World Baseball Classic Update (Sept. 6, 2016)

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Due to my trip and other responsibilities, I’ve been slacking on WBC updates. So, here is one.

The Pools for the 2017 WBC have been revealed:

The biggest piece of WBC news in the past few weeks is probably the reveal of the actual pools and locations for the tournament. They are:

Pool A (Tokyo Dome): Australia, China, Cuba, Japan

Pool B (Geocheok Dome in Seoul, South Korea): Taipei, Korea, Netherlands, winner of Brooklyn Qualifying pool (more on that later)

Pool C (Marlins Park in Miami): Canada, Colombia, Dominican Republic, USA

Pool D (Estadio Charros de Jalisco in Guadalajara, Mexico): Italy, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Venezuela

Pool E (Tokyo Dome): Top two of Pool A and Pool B

Pool F (Petco Park in San Diego): Top two of Pool C and Pool D

Semi-Finals and Finals are in Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.

Rosters for the Brooklyn Qualifier have been revealed:

Late in August, the rosters for the final qualifying pool were revealed. Baseball America has a good rundown of them, and I’ll go more in-depth on them when I do my preview of the group later in the month. But my early impressions say that Brazil and Israel will be the main teams to beat in the pool, although the UK could surprise.

Other WBC News:

Kim In-Sik, the manager for Team Korea, is pessimistic about the team’s chances due to a lack of pitching, especially right-handers. He hopes to get Seung-Hwan Oh, but problems with a gambling situation in Macau that led to his suspension from KBO and NPB (it’s complicated and I’m not entirely sure if I fully understand it, but it has to do with rules in Korea and Japan that frown upon gambling even if it’s in a place where it’s legal) make that less than a slam-dunk. On the position player side, Dae-Ho Lee and Byung-Ho Park have been supportive, although Park’s injury makes it unlikely he will take part. Among the KBO players Kim is looking at is Jae-Kuk Ryu, who had some time in the majors from 2006 to 2008. Another article suggests that Hyun-Soo Kim of the Orioles is a certainty to be on the team, but that other MLB players besides him and Dae-Ho Lee are iffy due to the fact they all have had injury problems throughout the year.

Ervin Santana is eager to represent the Dominican at the next WBC, and hopes that Miguel Sano can join him. However, based on conversations that Sano has had with Latin American scouting sources for the Twins, it’s possible he’ll be the odd man and might be better served staying with the Twins, since the DR likely will have players like Adrian Beltre and Edwin Encarnacion filling the roles that Sano would likely would be most fit for.

Noah Syndergaard is likely to receive an invitation from Team USA, although it’s unknown if he would accept.

21-year-old Tyler O’Neill, named the Mariners’ best Minor League player this season by the Seattle Times, is a candidate for Team Canada.

Ken Rosenthal speculates that Clayton Kershaw and A.J. Ellis may have a reunion on Team USA next spring. However, he notes that there are plenty of “ifs” connected to that, especially related to Kershaw’s health and whether Ellis would even be considered for Team USA given America’s depth at the position.

Russell Martin has said he intends to play for Canada if he is healthy. John Axford is also excited to participate.

Omar Vizquel will be scouting the Venezuelan League to keep an eye on people who are on Team Venezuela’s shortlist.

 

WBC Update (May 18, 2016)

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It’s time for a WBC update!

Taiwan has abandoned plans to bid for a WBC pool, likely ensuring that Korea will host something.

Aroldis Chapman is now a US Citizen and says he’d play for Team USA if asked.

And if he is going to take part in the WBC, it’s going to have to be on Team USA, since Cuba has announced that, despite some negotiations to make it happen, defectors will not be allowed on the Cuban national team.

Bryce Harper is in so long as some of the other top US players are going to be playing.

Manny Machado is now on record as being on Team Dominican Republic next year.

And, finally, in what I believe is the first appearance of the WBC in a English-language fictional work, Japanese-American author Naomi Hirahara’s latest book involves a amateur detective trying to solve a murder that takes place at the 2009 WBC finals between Japan and Korea.

WBC Update for 4-25-16: Rule changes, Team USA, Puerto Rico, and what Asian Countries will get WBC Pools?

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It’s been awhile, but it’s time for a World Baseball Classic update!

General News:

A possible change in the WBC rules will be introduced in order to entice more pitchers to play. It would allow teams to add extra players the further they advance, so it could be possible, for example, for Clayton Kershaw or David Price (who both have passed on the tournament in the past because they didn’t want to rush their throwing schedule) to join later in the tournament.

At least two pools will take place in Asia during the 2017 Classic, with one in Japan and one in either Korea or Taiwan.

Connected to that: earlier this year, Twins broadcaster, Hall of Famer, and occasional Netherlands pitching coach Bert Blyleven said that the Dutch were expected to start their WBC campaign in Korea. Apparently that isn’t official yet, but definitely possible. This is mainly because Korea has a domed stadium and Taiwan does not.

While I can’t find the exact tweet/article about it, apparently the locations of the first round of the “main” World Baseball Classic will be revealed on May 10, so presumably all these questions will be put to rest then.

Pakistani coaches have attended a clinic in China in preparation for their qualifying pool.

Players on possibility of WBC play:

Mike Trout says it’s too early to say whether he’ll play in the WBC, although it sounds like he does want to do it, it’ll depend on how he feels.

Staying on Team USA, the dream of a Team USA Madison Bumgarner–Buster Posey battery apparently isn’t a pipe-dream. Although neither of them have said definitively, both of them said they were open to it.

Sonny Gray, meanwhile, thinks it’d be “awesome” to be on Team USA.

Francisco Lindor is excited to play for the Puerto Rican national team.

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Look later this week as I make another projection for Team USA! And if you see any WBC news I missed, let me know by tweeting me at @DanJGlickman or e-mailing me at Djgwriter@yahoo.com!