Tag Archives: World Baseball Classic

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.

Who’s In/Out/In-Between as of 7:22 PM of Dec. 9, 2012

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Today’s movers and shakers:

Alfredo Aceves has apparently volunteered to play for Team Mexico… as a catcher. He’s a pitcher usually. So either there was some sort of joke he made that got lost in translation in Nick Cafardo’s baseball column at the Boston Globe, or he’s considering a position change. What the heck, I’ll put him in as possibly/likely.

Go below the jump for the whole list:

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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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2013 WBC Provisional Roster Analysis: Japan

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While most of the western WBC teams aren’t going to reveal their full rosters until January, Japan has already come up with a provisional roster of 34 players. Eventually, they will cut it down to 28 players, but for now, here’s an analysis of their provisional roster. As expected, they have no MLB players, due to the fact they all bailed out. Ichiro, for example, may be with a new team and apparently said after the ’09 Classic that he was unlikely to play in it again because he wants to have gone out on top. Yu Darvish is worried about how his body will be after throwing so much last season. Hiroki Kuroda is old.

So, instead, Japan will be sending an NPB all-star team. Many of these guys could play in MLB if they wanted to and some of them still may. One of them- Kazuo Matsui– was once an MLB player. And, of course, they will have been preparing for a month or more for the tournament, as opposed to the week or so that most of the western teams will.

Don’t underestimate them. Instead, go after the jump for my analysis.

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At 8 PM of December 3rd, 2012, here’s who is IN the WBC and who is OUT of the WBC

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Surprisingly, the provisional rosters for the WBC will be released in January this time around, at least for Team USA. I saw some rumors about this earlier, and it mainly has to do with the fact that the teams that had to go through qualifiers and some logistics dealing with the Asian bracket are what delayed it.

Expect the beginnings of more projections in the next few days, but here’s a list of players we KNOW have committed to the World Baseball Classic, as well as who we KNOW to be out. Go after the jump for it.

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WBC News from the Winter Meetings (WILL BE CONSTANTLY UPDATED THROUGHOUT THE DAY)

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This is the Winter Meetings World Baseball Classic update post. I’ll post links and news that I find on Twitter or other online sources about WBC news from the Winter Meetings here. Come back later as more stuff is added.

2:10 PM, Monday: The earliest schedule is up on the WBC website, although not quite complete (some games in the Asian pools are missing), it gives a good idea of what will be going on. Needless to say, there will be early mornings for me in March.

Next off, Chien-Ming Wang will be playing for Taipei in the WBC as a way to showcase himself for teams.

And finally, we have confirmation that Andruw Jones will play for the Netherlands.

3:24 PM, Monday: The schedule for the WBC on the website is no longer there, suggesting to me that somebody put it up before it was supposed to. Joe Torre will apparently be speaking later today, and although it likely will include lots of stuff about his role in the MLB front office, he will surely talk about his role as the manager of Team USA as well.

4:06 PM, Monday: WBC has released an early sheet of some of the notable players who will be playing for each country, although they seem to limit it to a maximum of two per country, presumably to save space on the list.

MLB players on the list include Liam Hendriks and Grant Balfour (for Australia- Balfour is a surprise since he hasn’t pitched for them in past WBCs), Yan Gomes (Brazil), Justin Morneau (Canada), Robinson Cano and Jose Reyes for the DR, Alex Liddi and Italian-American Jason Grilli for Italy, Adrian Gonzalez and Sergio Romo for Mexico, Andruw Jones and Roger Bernadina for the Netherlands, Yadier Molina and Carlos Beltran for PR, David Wright and Joe Mauer for the USA, and Miguel Cabrera and Pablo Sandoval for Venezuela.

4:26 PM, Monday: This is weird. The previous list has been replaced with this one, which has some differences. For example, it replaces Hendriks and Balfour with Ryan Rowland-Smith and Luke Hughes, it adds Brett Lawrie to Canada, it confirms Chien-Ming Wang for Taipei and replaces Sergio Romo with Jaime Garcia. I’m not sure why this is. Perhaps the first one they put up was a first draft or something.

More news if it comes out.

Coming soon: All-New WBC projections

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Next week, at the Winter Meetings, the provisional rosters of the World Baseball Classic will be announced. Essentially, these are lists of players who have indicated they will take part if asked. This does not necessarily mean they will ultimately take part (as there is always the risk of a late injury or change of heart), nor that those who aren’t on them won’t (as, again, there could always be a change of heart if it comes early enough).

Once these are released, I will be going through them and creating another round of predicted rosters for the World Baseball Classic, working entirely from the provisional rosters. This will mean Team USA projections version 3.0, Dominican Republic 3.0, Venezuela 2.0, Canada 2.0 and plenty of other projections.

So stay tuned next week!

2013 WBC Team USA projections Version 2.011

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(EDITED IN ON DEC. 31: As of this writing, the most recent projection for the United States can be found here.)

With more stuff coming out about what players might or might not be taking part in the WBC, here’s another update of how Team USA looks. As we get closer to the tournament and some players start to drop out (Chris Sale, for example, has said he will probably won’t take part), it becomes clear that America’s best strength is it’s depth. Other countries have a line of superstars, but not much below that, but Team USA has a player pool that lets it take a licking but keep on ticking. Sale is out, you say? Well, there’s still plenty of good lefty starters like Gio Gonzalez, Wade Miley, Matt Harrison, C.J. Wilson, Madison Bumgarner, Cliff Lee, Derek Holland….

You get the idea.

This version, VERSION 2.011, includes the official coaching staff of Team USA, as confirmed by MLB’s official website.

A refresher on my selection rules/assumptions:

  • Any player coming off a major injury or who has a history of injuries is unlikely to participate. This is especially true for the pitchers.
  • Players that will be on new teams are less likely to participate, but shouldn’t be completely ignored, with the exception of pitchers.
  • Teams are made up of 28 players, of which 13 of them must be pitchers and two of them catchers.
  • The pitch count rules make relievers extremely important.

Now, go after the jump for the full look:

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With Brazil in, a capsule look at the 16 countries in the WBC

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The Brazilians did it. Somehow, much like they had done earlier in the tournament, they slayed Goliath, defeating Panama for the second time in front of over 10,000 screaming Panamanians, surviving one final rally by the Panamanians to win it 1-0. With that, they have not only qualified for the World Baseball Classic, they have also done what many probably thought impossible…. they brought baseball to the top of Brazil’s Twitterverse:

It is stuff like that why the World Baseball Classic is going on. One day, perhaps, it will be a big World Cup style deal… but even if it remains simply a relatively-small thing, it is doing it’s job if it is causing countries where baseball is an afterthought to pay attention to the diamond.

Anyway, Brazil’s win solidifies the field for the 2013 WBC. I will, of course, continue to do more in-depth projections, but for now, here are some short capsules previews of all 16 countries in the World Baseball Classic, by group. Note that the qualifier teams, marked with a (Q) next to them, have not officially been assigned to a group yet, so there placement is merely my prediction of what group they will be in.
Pool A (Fukuoka, Japan)

Japan: The two-time defending champions may be in a pickle, as almost all of their MLB players (most of whom are free agents or who are coming off injuries) have either said or hinted that they won’t be taking part this time around. Therefore, it’s entirely possible that Samurai Japan will be sending out an All-NPB team. They still will remain among the favorites in the tournament, but it’ll be a tougher road.

China: Having avoided qualification only because of an upset win against Taipei in 2009, China’s players are almost entirely engimas, with little to no information about them. Their star players will likely not be Chinese, but instead “passport players” of Chinese descent, most notably minor leaguer Ray Chang, who played a major role in the upset of Taipei in 2009.

Cuba: The Forbidden Isle will bring it’s stars and must, as usual, be considered a favorite in the tournament. Yulieski Gourriel, perhaps the best Cuban player who hasn’t defected, will almost certainly be returning for his third WBC, joined by other MLB-caliber players like outfielder Alfredo Despaigne and pitchers like Yadier Pedroso, who pitched for Cuba in a friendly game against Japan earlier this month.

Spain (Q): The Spaniards will be an interesting addition, thanks to the fact that many Cuban defectors take up residence there (at least on paper) after they defect, as do some Latin Americans who want to play internationally but who haven’t made their national team. One of the players on Spain in the qualifiers included former MLB cup-of-coffee player Barbaro Canizares, for example, and he is a Cuban defector. It’s highly unlikely that they will be able to advance out of this group, although they should be able to beat China.

Pool B (Taichung, Taipei)

Korea: Like Japan, Korea has the problem that some of their best players (most notably Shin-Soo Choo and newcomer Hyun-Jin Ryu) in MLB are free agents, coming off injuries, or will be with new teams, making them far less likely to take part in the WBC. However, they will still be a highly competitive team, likely led by Dae-Ho Lee, who led the league in RBIs last season in his first year in Japan.

The Netherlands: The big story of the 2009 WBC- where they upset the Dominican twice- will be more dangerous this time around, as more players of honkbal come into professional baseball, whether they be from Curacao, Aruba or Holland itself. Among the players with MLB experience who could be with the Dutch this time around include Jurickson Profar, Didi Gregorius, Roger Bernadina, Andruw Jones, Wladimir Balentien and Rick Vanden Hurk. Hardly a murderer’s row, but they have great upset potential and nobody should be surprised if they escape this first round, perhaps taking team like Korea or Taipei down.

Australia: Like the Netherlands, the Australians aren’t a team that should be taken lightly. They will have plenty of professionals and many of their players will be fresh from the Australian League. One area where the Australians will be particularly dangerous will be pitching. Although it’s unlikely that Grant Balfour will take part (he hasn’t either of the past two times), the Baseballroos (rule of thumb for naming Australian National Teams: put the name of the sport, and then “-roos”) could have a starting rotation anchored by two MLB starters: Travis Blackley and Liam Hendriks. While hardly aces, they can get the job done if they have enough run support.

Taipei (Q): With their games in front of their home fans, the Taiwanese will be putting together a far better team than the one that lost to China in 2009, although Wei-Yin Chen won’t take part because of the birth of his son. Chien-Ming Wang has said he’s interested in playing for them, and the rest of the team will be made up of a mixture of players from both the domestic CPBL and other leagues around the world, including some of the Minor Leagues in North America. They should be a favorite to advance, but it won’t be easy.

Pool C (San Juan, Puerto Rico)

Venezuela: A threat to win it all, the Venezuelans will probably have Miguel Cabrera, Felix Hernandez, Miguel Montero, Pablo Sandoval, Carlos Gonzalez and many others- it’s a team that could well be made up 100% of MLB players, or close to it.

Dominican Republic: Like Venezuela, a favorite in this tournament. Although David Ortiz has said he might not play due to his injury and Jose Reyes might skip now that he’s with a new team, they still should have most of their best players, such as Albert Pujols, Robinson Cano, Adrian Beltre, Johnny Cueto and Fernando Rodney.

Puerto Rico: The home team. Puerto Rico’s baseball tradition has taken a beating over the last decade or two, but they still should be able to go out there with several MLB players, most notably Carlos Beltran and Yadier Molina. They might not be the favorites to escape this pool, but they certainly are talented enough to if they catch the DR or Venezuela on an off-day.

Brazil (Q): One of these teams is not like the other. The Cinderella Brazilians may have gotten through Latin America’s three second-tier baseball countries (and perhaps lifted themselves into that tier in the process), but the challenges they face in Group C may be more than they can handle. If Barry Larkin’s squad (which only has Yan Gomes as a MLB-experienced player)  can somehow get out of this pool, it could be the most shocking event in international sports since the Miracle on Ice.

Pool D (Arizona):

The USA: As I have mentioned before, the United States will probably be hit by the most drop-outs in the WBC, but the depth of American baseball will be able to take the hit. The first string would definitely be the outright favorite to win the Classic, the second string would also probably be a favorite to win, and the third, fourth and fifth strings would all be extremely competitive. And, despite the dire predictions amongst some in the media, it’s highly unlikely that a “third-tier” Team USA will end up participating. Sure, Derek Jeter will be hurt and Chris Sale has said he’s leaning against taking part, but those are but two of many possible members of Team USA.

Mexico: A dangerous team that could easily upset Team USA and perhaps even win the whole thing if they were to catch a few breaks, although their pitching is a bit suspect. Adrian Gonzalez will likely be the biggest name for Mexico.

Italy: Italy shocked the Canadians in 2009, and are a constant power in Europe thanks to a professional league and the use of Italian-Americans as “Passport Players”. For the first time ever, they will have a Italian born-and-raised player with MLB experience: Alex Liddi, who has spent some time with the Mariners. Although they should go 0-3, they could probably pull an upset on a good day, much like they did in 2009.

Canada (Q): Of the four teams that come in through qualifiers, Canada is the best. The Canadians will include established MLB players (Votto, Morneau and John Axford are the most notable), young guns, prospects, and international veterans. They upset Team USA in 2006, and a repeat of that is a distinct possibility. Even if they don’t, they likely have an edge over Mexico as far as getting out of the pool.

 

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Tomorrow: A belated Off-Topic Tuesday… on a Wednesday.