Todd4State
03-12-2017, 10:15 PM
I've been watching this tournament and it's something I always look forward to. I know a lot of people hate Bud Selig- but this was a great idea. It's really helped baseball internationally and I always enjoy watching players from other countries that I don't get to watch very often but hear about- like from Japan, Korea, and Cuba. It's also neat to see a team like Israel doing so well and what impact that might have on their country.
American haven't really taken this tournament very seriously because baseball is very well developed here. It doesn't help when we are sending players that aren't always our best and then they get beat. I do think the US is treating the tournament more seriously each time and this team that we have now is the best I've seen the US put together since the WBC started. In fact the infield is made up of everyone I said should be on the team minus Brian Dozier at second base. We could and should be even better had Trout and Harper played in it. But the thing that always trips us up is not the position players- it's the fact that we aren't able to get our very best pitchers to participate. Meanwhile, King Felix is pitching for Venezuela, Carlos Martinez is the ace for the Dominican, and even freaking Columbia was able to get Julio Tehran AND Carlos Quintana. It kills me that these pitchers have no problem blowing out their arm in some travel ball tournament at the D'Lo Water Park but representing your country? Oh no....I might get hurt. I don't understand it.
We were in a very tough pool for this tournament- the Dominican's won the tournament the last time, Columbia has some really good starting pitchers and just enough offense to scrap and compete with the big boys. Canada is a rival but I also thought that this was the worst Canadian WBC team I have seen. When Eric Gagne is one of your best relief pitchers right now- that says a lot. I look forward to seeing our own Jacob Robson playing with them in a few years. In fact, even though we didn't win the pool, I thought we had the best team in the pool. We should have won, but we blew our game against the DR where we had a five run lead late in the game.
We won a game against Columbia where we went to extra innings and our staff did a great job of matching Quintana- major kudos to Chris Archer. Pat Neshek also came up big for us. I knew that once we got into their pen, they were in trouble- and sure enough we came back late on them and then Adam Jones got the walk-off hit. Columbia also took the DR to extra innings and the beat Canada.
I was impressed with how we played the DR- we got a five run lead on Cueto and Marcus Stroman outpitched him. But then we made a mistake by bringing in a guy that is primarily a starting pitcher into a game in relief and then Roark gave up the home run and the wheels started to fall off. And then Andrew Miller completed the bed shitting. I would watch Miller if I was Leyland- he pitched a lot in the postseason and he hasn't had quite as much rest as most of the other pitchers plus his stuff looked pretty hittable to say the least. IMO, if we bring in a relief guy instead of Roark, we probably win. Fortunately, we get to move on and I was a little nervous that we were going to get left out when Columbia tied the DR today by tiebreaker.
Today was the most impressive performance we have maybe ever had in the WBC- an 8-0 win over Canada. Danny Duffy pitched very well and Tyler Clippard and Nate Jones were nasty. Nolan Arenado had a shot as did Buster Posey. Brandon Crawford, Adam Jones, and Christian Yelich all have been hitting the ball pretty well and Ian Kinsler has done a good job at the top of the order. Giancarlo Stanton will still swing at anything in the area code.
Up next we get to move on to San Diego. And it's going to get tougher. We are in the same pool with the DR again. Puerto Rico is also there and they are just about as good as the DR- it's just that they don't dance around as much so they don't get the attention that the DR does. In fact, they made the finals last year against the DR. As of now, I'm not sure who we will play- Mexico is ahead of Venezuela 5-0 as I type this and I'm not sure what the tie-breaker will be but I think there would be another play in game tomorrow. Italy is a possibility as well too- and they are a lot like Israel with a lot of Italian American MLB players and they can compete with anyone. We finish in the top two and then we go to the Finals in Los Angeles.
We also get to add Mark Melancon which is going to make our bullpen that much better.
God Bless America and Hail State.
American haven't really taken this tournament very seriously because baseball is very well developed here. It doesn't help when we are sending players that aren't always our best and then they get beat. I do think the US is treating the tournament more seriously each time and this team that we have now is the best I've seen the US put together since the WBC started. In fact the infield is made up of everyone I said should be on the team minus Brian Dozier at second base. We could and should be even better had Trout and Harper played in it. But the thing that always trips us up is not the position players- it's the fact that we aren't able to get our very best pitchers to participate. Meanwhile, King Felix is pitching for Venezuela, Carlos Martinez is the ace for the Dominican, and even freaking Columbia was able to get Julio Tehran AND Carlos Quintana. It kills me that these pitchers have no problem blowing out their arm in some travel ball tournament at the D'Lo Water Park but representing your country? Oh no....I might get hurt. I don't understand it.
We were in a very tough pool for this tournament- the Dominican's won the tournament the last time, Columbia has some really good starting pitchers and just enough offense to scrap and compete with the big boys. Canada is a rival but I also thought that this was the worst Canadian WBC team I have seen. When Eric Gagne is one of your best relief pitchers right now- that says a lot. I look forward to seeing our own Jacob Robson playing with them in a few years. In fact, even though we didn't win the pool, I thought we had the best team in the pool. We should have won, but we blew our game against the DR where we had a five run lead late in the game.
We won a game against Columbia where we went to extra innings and our staff did a great job of matching Quintana- major kudos to Chris Archer. Pat Neshek also came up big for us. I knew that once we got into their pen, they were in trouble- and sure enough we came back late on them and then Adam Jones got the walk-off hit. Columbia also took the DR to extra innings and the beat Canada.
I was impressed with how we played the DR- we got a five run lead on Cueto and Marcus Stroman outpitched him. But then we made a mistake by bringing in a guy that is primarily a starting pitcher into a game in relief and then Roark gave up the home run and the wheels started to fall off. And then Andrew Miller completed the bed shitting. I would watch Miller if I was Leyland- he pitched a lot in the postseason and he hasn't had quite as much rest as most of the other pitchers plus his stuff looked pretty hittable to say the least. IMO, if we bring in a relief guy instead of Roark, we probably win. Fortunately, we get to move on and I was a little nervous that we were going to get left out when Columbia tied the DR today by tiebreaker.
Today was the most impressive performance we have maybe ever had in the WBC- an 8-0 win over Canada. Danny Duffy pitched very well and Tyler Clippard and Nate Jones were nasty. Nolan Arenado had a shot as did Buster Posey. Brandon Crawford, Adam Jones, and Christian Yelich all have been hitting the ball pretty well and Ian Kinsler has done a good job at the top of the order. Giancarlo Stanton will still swing at anything in the area code.
Up next we get to move on to San Diego. And it's going to get tougher. We are in the same pool with the DR again. Puerto Rico is also there and they are just about as good as the DR- it's just that they don't dance around as much so they don't get the attention that the DR does. In fact, they made the finals last year against the DR. As of now, I'm not sure who we will play- Mexico is ahead of Venezuela 5-0 as I type this and I'm not sure what the tie-breaker will be but I think there would be another play in game tomorrow. Italy is a possibility as well too- and they are a lot like Israel with a lot of Italian American MLB players and they can compete with anyone. We finish in the top two and then we go to the Finals in Los Angeles.
We also get to add Mark Melancon which is going to make our bullpen that much better.
God Bless America and Hail State.