Todd4State
03-23-2017, 01:18 AM
I didn't really see the game last night against Japan because I was watching us play USM. That game worried me going in though- Tanner Roark had gotten shelled by the Dominican and Japan has some darn good players who most of our guys haven't seen. All I'll say based on the highlights is great call and baserunning by Team USA to score the winning run on the contact play. How many times did we see that get screwed up when Cohen was coaching us? Too many to count. Roark and the pitching staff really stepped up and got it done.
Now the game I actually watched...
Marcus Stroman was a beast tonight. That was one of the best performances I have ever seen. Dyson was outstanding and preserved the shutout and had to get their best hitters out to do it. Pat Neshek is one of my favorites and he did his usual thing tonight. David Robertson is a former SEC guy that used to pitch for Alabama- and he closed it out.
Lucroy called a great game and didn't really have to worry about their running game since we had a big lead. He got a hit that started brought Kinsler up who then homered.
Hosmer is an absolute beast. He does so many little things well like run the bases. Ian Kinsler made some comments about Puerto Rico dancing around and stuff like that and how he said he hoped that kids play baseball like Team USA and not Puerto Rico. He got ripped for it, but I can respect his opinion on that. People that are pro dancing around and all of that should at least respect others that have an opinion that they don't agree with. Kinsler hit a home run that gave us the lead. Nolan Arenado didn't play as well as he can during the tournament but he had a better game his last two at bats including a solid single in his fourth at bat and he made the last out. Brandon Crawford is the best SS in the game right now IMO. He had some huge hits and made MLB plays all night and made them look easy. He only had one hit tonight- but it drove in a couple of runs and gave the US and I think broke Puerto Rico's will.
Christian Yelich struck out on a couple of tough pitches, but he had a nice opposite field double in the first inning. Adam Jones had a tough night- but he came up HUGE for Team USA so many times throughout the WBC that I thought he would win the MVP. He had a walk-off against Columbia had a key home run against the Dominican's and the catch of the WBC when he stole a home run from Manny Machado. McCutcheon had a tough time with Lugo in first two AB's but he came up huge with a couple of singles and a couple of RBI's against their pen. Giancarlo Stanton struck out on a ball that almost hit him in the shoulder and 3 K's but he also had a double that almost went out a single.
FINAL THOUGHTS
This was HUGE for USA baseball and the WBC. Like I said today- I think for the WBC to succeed, the US needs to be good in this tournament. We've been the best in baseball for awhile and when we can win this without guys like Trout, Kershaw, and Bumgarner not to mention some of the Americans playing for and playing well for some of the other countries like Manny Machado for the Dominican and Francisco Lindor for Puerto Rico- heck Seth Lugo the starting pitcher for Puerto Rico is from freaking Louisiana that speaks volumes. My hope is that by doing well and winning the WBC some of the other stars will follow for Team USA in the future. Team USA followed my formula for winning this thing- and it worked. You have to have an elite lights out bullpen to win this thing. It would have worked even better if we had Kershaw, Bumgarner, and others. We won anyway. I think this is a fun baseball tournament and I have always enjoyed it ever since it started even though I had to watch the US embarrass themselves some. I sincerely hope it grows. It's great to see that it's really popular in Latin America and Asia already. The games were entertaining and I enjoyed seeing Israel making noise in this tournament. Puerto Rico is a really good team- however they apparently had a parade planned, championship t-shirts printed, and some guys had plane tickets to go celebrate with the locals...and as Adam Jones said "that didn't sit well with us." Oh well- we're going to be that much better once they become the 51st state.
GOD BLESS AMERICA!
Now the game I actually watched...
Marcus Stroman was a beast tonight. That was one of the best performances I have ever seen. Dyson was outstanding and preserved the shutout and had to get their best hitters out to do it. Pat Neshek is one of my favorites and he did his usual thing tonight. David Robertson is a former SEC guy that used to pitch for Alabama- and he closed it out.
Lucroy called a great game and didn't really have to worry about their running game since we had a big lead. He got a hit that started brought Kinsler up who then homered.
Hosmer is an absolute beast. He does so many little things well like run the bases. Ian Kinsler made some comments about Puerto Rico dancing around and stuff like that and how he said he hoped that kids play baseball like Team USA and not Puerto Rico. He got ripped for it, but I can respect his opinion on that. People that are pro dancing around and all of that should at least respect others that have an opinion that they don't agree with. Kinsler hit a home run that gave us the lead. Nolan Arenado didn't play as well as he can during the tournament but he had a better game his last two at bats including a solid single in his fourth at bat and he made the last out. Brandon Crawford is the best SS in the game right now IMO. He had some huge hits and made MLB plays all night and made them look easy. He only had one hit tonight- but it drove in a couple of runs and gave the US and I think broke Puerto Rico's will.
Christian Yelich struck out on a couple of tough pitches, but he had a nice opposite field double in the first inning. Adam Jones had a tough night- but he came up HUGE for Team USA so many times throughout the WBC that I thought he would win the MVP. He had a walk-off against Columbia had a key home run against the Dominican's and the catch of the WBC when he stole a home run from Manny Machado. McCutcheon had a tough time with Lugo in first two AB's but he came up huge with a couple of singles and a couple of RBI's against their pen. Giancarlo Stanton struck out on a ball that almost hit him in the shoulder and 3 K's but he also had a double that almost went out a single.
FINAL THOUGHTS
This was HUGE for USA baseball and the WBC. Like I said today- I think for the WBC to succeed, the US needs to be good in this tournament. We've been the best in baseball for awhile and when we can win this without guys like Trout, Kershaw, and Bumgarner not to mention some of the Americans playing for and playing well for some of the other countries like Manny Machado for the Dominican and Francisco Lindor for Puerto Rico- heck Seth Lugo the starting pitcher for Puerto Rico is from freaking Louisiana that speaks volumes. My hope is that by doing well and winning the WBC some of the other stars will follow for Team USA in the future. Team USA followed my formula for winning this thing- and it worked. You have to have an elite lights out bullpen to win this thing. It would have worked even better if we had Kershaw, Bumgarner, and others. We won anyway. I think this is a fun baseball tournament and I have always enjoyed it ever since it started even though I had to watch the US embarrass themselves some. I sincerely hope it grows. It's great to see that it's really popular in Latin America and Asia already. The games were entertaining and I enjoyed seeing Israel making noise in this tournament. Puerto Rico is a really good team- however they apparently had a parade planned, championship t-shirts printed, and some guys had plane tickets to go celebrate with the locals...and as Adam Jones said "that didn't sit well with us." Oh well- we're going to be that much better once they become the 51st state.
GOD BLESS AMERICA!