Tag Archives: WBC

Who’s in/out/in-between of the World Baseball Classic as of 2:51 PM of Dec. 27, 2012

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The latest news on the WBC:

  • Jim Johnson has now been fully confirmed not to be playing in the Classic.
  • The latest update on the Korean roster looks like this.
  • Also, there are some reports I’ve found here and there that due to a feud between the Mexican Baseball Federation and the summer Mexican League (the LMB), the participation of some Mexican Leaguers is now in doubt- either they won’t have their contracts honored, or they won’t be covered in case of injury, or something. I’ll let you know more once I figure it out.

Go after the jump for the full list:

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Coming Soon: WBC Simulations on Out of the Park Baseball

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I’m a big fan of a game called Out Of The Park Baseball. It’s a baseball simulator, which can let you do almost anything. If you want to, you can replay baseball history just as it was, or you could play a whole new history with fictional characters, or even do a bit of both, perhaps using fictional teams but real players. It’s the spiritual descendant of APBA and Strat-O-Matic.

I’m, however, going to use it to do some simulations of World Baseball Classic baseball. Essentially, I downloaded a roster set that has the rosters of Major League Baseball and the minors at the end of the 2012 season. I then deleted all of the leagues, making everybody free agents. I then created a league of National teams: the USA Americans, the Dominican Republic Dominicans, the Italy Italians, etc.

And now I am putting players on the teams, as well as updating the attributes of some of the players (you can enter what their stats in a major league environment was and it’ll give you what their most recent power, contact, etc. abilities would be- otherwise it’d be going off of 2011 numbers, making Mike Trout merely a prospect instead of the most exciting player in baseball).

So far, I’ve created the USA, the Dominican, Australia, Italy (which has a heavy number of Italian-Americans) and I’m working on Venezuela, Puerto Rico, Mexico and Canada. So, for example, I could play a game with a lineup like this:

Screen Shot 2012-12-23 at 12.14.28 PM

It isn’t a perfect simulation: the simulation lacks pitch-count rules (thus allowing Justin Verlander to complete-game shutout the Italians and Australians almost any time he faces them) and sometimes the decisions made by the AI are a bit wonky (it made Joe Mauer the starting 1B originally, and had Ben Zobrist the starting 2B instead of the super-utility guy off the bench.. and I’m still trying to figure out why they have Clayton Tanner as the ace of the Australians and not Travis Blackley)… but it’s neat. So I’ll be sharing some of the stuff from it in the next few days.

For example, I think it’s safe to say, based on this simulation of 1000 games between Team USA and Italy, that the Americans should easily win the Pool D game against Italia:

Screen Shot 2012-12-23 at 12.30.45 PM

Who’s in/out/in-between of the World Baseball Classic as of 11:45 AM of Dec. 22, 2012

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I didn’t get the list of changes to World Baseball Classic participants last night, but here it is now:

  • Bad news for Team Canada: After having arm surgery to remove bone chips, Scott Diamond will be out of the WBC. Diamond would likely have been near the top of the Canadian rotation, especially if Scott Dempster doesn’t take part.
  • However, Regina’s Leader-Post confirms a few pitchers who are on the list for Canada, although they are all minor leaguers: Dustin Molleken, Andrew Albers (who was named COPABE’s best pitcher in international competition for 2011) and James Avery. I’m putting them in as possibly/likely, since they haven’t officially been confirmed yet.
  • Finally, @AntonioBargas sent to me a link to a Spanish-language article on players who are on possibilities for Team Mexico that were mentioned by the head of Mexico’s baseball federation. It heavily features some players of Mexican descent, and who knows if guys like Michael Young would play, but it’s an interesting look. I’ll have a bigger look at the Mexican possibilities later.

Go below the jump for the full list:

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Who’s in/out/in-between of the World Baseball Classic as of 10:15 PM of Dec. 20, 2012

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Today’s news regarding players and the World Baseball Classic:

Go below the jump for the full list:

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Who’s in/out/in-between of the World Baseball Classic as of 5:00 PM of Dec. 19, 2012

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Today’s news on World Baseball Classic participation:

  • Alessandro Maestri, AKA Alex Mestri, an Italian who spent some time in the Cubs system and now pitches for Orix in the NPB, has received an invite from Team Italy, according to Yakyu Baka. Therefore, I’m putting him in the possibly/likely category.
  • In an article about his trade to Arizona, Grand Slam Stats & News, a site on Dutch baseball, mentioned that Didi Gregorius is eligible for Team Netherlands next March. Therefore, I guess it’s safe to say he probably is under consideration.
  • Although it happened a few days ago, Ryu Hyun-Jin (Hyun-Jin Ryu?) has opted out of the WBC.
  • In addition, an article in Mexico from a few days ago mentions Yovani Gallardo and Miguel Gonzalez as possible pitchers. So I’m putting them as under consideration.

Go below the jump for the entire list of statuses for players in the WBC.

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Who’s in/out/in-between of the World Baseball Classic as of 7:30 PM of Dec. 18, 2012

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Today’s changes:

  • According to a Venezuelan news article that I translated with Google, 1B/DH Luis Jimenez would like to play for Venezuela in the World Baseball Classic. Jimenez had a cup of coffee with Seattle last season. Therefore, I am putting Luis Jimenez in the probably/likely category.

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Who’s in/out/in-between of the World Baseball Classic as of 8:48 PM of Dec. 17, 2012

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The latest ins and outs for the WBC:

  • As expected of a player with a new team, a history of injury and a love of routine, Josh Hamilton does not expect to play in the World Baseball Classic. Perhaps not an official “no”, but basically everything but an official “no”.
  • Minor League journeyman Gabriel Suarez, of Spanish descent, is “looking forward” to the World Baseball Classic. I’m putting him in the possibly/likely category.
  • According to an article a few days ago in a Venezuelan website, Melvin Mora wants to participate in the WBC for Venezuela, at least if the Google Translation means what I think it does. Mora last played in 2011, and I don’t know if he’d make the team, but for now I’ll place him in the possibly/likely category.

Go below the jump for the full look at who’s in, out and somewhere in-between for the World Baseball Classic.

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Australian All-Star Game: A possible look at Team Australia’s WBC Roster

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The Australian Baseball League’s All-Star Game is coming up, and it pits the league’s best Australian players against the league’s best foreign players. This allows, interestingly, for something of a glimpse of what Australia’s World Baseball Classic team could look like.

The Australian roster for the ABL ASG, which can be found here, has seven players with MLB experience: pitchers Shane Lindsay, Chris Oxspring and Ryan Rowland-Smith, infielders Brad Harman, Luke Hughes and Justin Huber, and outfielder Chris Snelling, who was born in Florida but grew up in Australia. The WBC roster could add Grant Balfour, Rich Thompson and Travis Blackley, but they aren’t playing in the ABL, so they aren’t on this roster.

Some other notable names on the rest of the roster:

Allan De San Miguel, who has been confirmed to be playing in the WBC, is, as I noted back during my August projections for the Aussies, a light-hitting but good-fielding catcher who spent the past year in the Orioles organization.

Stefan Welch, who was in the Pittsburgh system last year, is a utility guy who can player first and third, although he played mainly third last season.

Elliot Biddle and Mitch Dening were also on my projections. Biddle was one of the best hitters in the ABL in 2011, while Dening was a Indy Leaguer in 2012.

Brendan Wise had a tough year in AAA, but he’s done well in the ABL this season so far, and well-deserves the spot he has on the team. He also will likely be on the WBC team.

One of the players who I did not have on my projections who is on the ABL Australian roster is Paul Mildren. Mildren, a lefty, spent eight season in the minors, reaching as high as AAA. However, he eventually washed-out, but is now pitching professionally down under. While he’s only 1-3 with a 5.40 ERA so far this season, there can never be enough lefties, so it’ll be interesting to see if he make the WBC roster.

Another player who wasn’t on my earlier projections? Corey Adamson. The San Diego prospect has been blazing his way in the ABL this season, one of the league’s leaders in batting average.

Overall, the Australians would do okay if they went to the WBC with this all-star-game team, but they’d probably have trouble advancing, since they are in a tough pool with Korea, Taipei and the Netherlands. Of course, in baseball anything can happen, and if enough MLB players take part for the Aussies, they could be a Cinderella team.

You can expect a full new projection for the Baseballroos sometime in the coming days.

In/Out/In-Between of the WBC as of 9:34 PM on December 7, 2012

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To better show the changes to the list, I’ll list the ins/outs and in-between that are new and then, below the jump, there is a list of all of the players who are in or out (or somewhere in between).

Today’s notes:

Angel Pagan will play in the WBC, according to Henry Schulman. As he has not officially been said by the WBC to be in it, I’ve placed him in the possibly/likely.

Brandon Phillips has been asked and is considering it. I’ve placed him in the possibly/likely side.

Johnny Cueto has said he “probably” will pitch for the DR. I’m putting him in possibly/likely.

Marco Scutaro, probably won’t take part, as the 37-year old wants to “save his bullets“.

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As of 10:03 PM of December 4, 2012, here’s who is IN and OUT of the 2013 WBC

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Here’s an update of yesterday’s post. To save space, go after the jump to see the list.

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