Well, it's early, but so far there's been a
lot to like about the WBC:
- Huge underdogs (South Africa, Netherlands) have been providing real competition;
- Underdogs have beaten favorites (Canada over USA, Korea over Japan);
- The MLB.tv feed doesn't cut to commercials, so you get to hear the ESPN announcers talking, not knowing they're on the air;
- David Ortiz is 2-for-3 with 2 HR, 3R, and 3 RBI; Adam Stern is 5-for-7 with 3R, 5 RBI, a double, a triple, and an inside-the-park HR; Jason Varitek is 2-for-3 with 1R, 4 RBI, and a GS;
- And George Steinbrenner hates it.
Also, while they're not long for this tournament, I have a new favorite team: the Netherlands.
Early media reports had them lumped together with Italy, with the roster being full of Americans of Dutch descent, like Mark Mulder. A look at their
roster shows it's nothing like that. Yes, they have a couple major leaguers (Andruw Jones, Randall Simon) but they're from Curacao so are legit. As far as I can tell, no one on the Dutch roster was born in the USA (compare this to Team Italy: 17 of the 30 are Americans). Instead, they have one of most awesome collection of names ever assembled on a single baseball team: Robin van Doornspeek, Dirk van Klooster, Jair Jurrjens, Nick Stuifbergen, Sharnol Adriana, Ivanon Coffie, Yurendell DeCaster, Mark Duursma, and Raylinoe Legito, to name a few. And one of their pitchers, Shairon Martis, is 18 years old.
Go Dutch!
One thing about the US loss is that it sure has gotten a lot of people's attention. It went from ho-hum to "ohmygodtheusmightbeoutinthefirstround" pretty quickly.
ReplyDeleteMy math might be wrong, but all of this, Mexico must score less than 3 runs and win and it will knock the US out, (I think) assumes that the US will shut out South Africa. A pretty big assumption. And Clemens is on the hill tomorrow. Last we saw him, he was spitting the bit in the WS. I wonder if he his Hammies will act up. Imagine if the US does not advance becase Clemens gives up a 3 run bomb to some guy like Duane Feldtman or Brett Willemburg.
One thing I find interesting is the runs tie breaker is Earned Runs allowed. Not total runs. Seeing as how this is a team game. And earned versus unearned is a subjective matter (sometimes). Wouldn't it make more sense to be total runs allowed?
You obviously know much more than I do about this. What are the rules for advancing when three teams go 2-1?
ReplyDeleteOkay, I was wrong on the earned runs
ReplyDeleteThe team that defeated the other tied team head-to-head in a given Round shall be ranked higher in the pool standings for such Round.
The tied teams shall be ranked in the standings for that Round according to fewest runs allowed divided by the number of innings (including partial innings) played in defense in the games in that Round between the teams tied.
The tied teams shall be ranked in the standings according to fewest earned runs allowed divided by the number of innings (including partial innings) played in defense in the games in that Round between the teams tied.
The tied teams shall be ranked in the standings according to highest batting average in games in that Round between the teams tied.
Standings shall be determined by the drawing of lots, conducted by WBCI
I am dying for the one of the ESPN announcers to say something totally outrageous in the breaks between innings, but all I seem to have heard so far are Rick Sutcliffe's cellphone conversations with members of his family and various announcers desperately trying to find info and stats on some of the lesser-known players.
ReplyDeleteOther than that, I fully agree that the WBC is shaping up pretty good so far. I hope that it continues through Round 2 and the finals.