WBC 2023--We'll Be Seeing You Later

[bmfc1]

It's a World Baseball Classic season:
https://www.mlb.com/world-baseball-classic
and lots of Mets are participating. Up to 15 players per team can leave to play in the WBC and the Mets might be close to that number. For how that impacts the Mets, this is an interesting article:
https://nypost.com/2023/01/14/inside-bu ... nges/?s=03

The rosters aren't finalized yet but we might see the entire Mets starting infield away from camp for two weeks:
USA: Alonso, McNeil, Ottavino
DR: Marte
Italy: Nimmo
Columbia: Quintana
Venezuela: Carrasco, Escobar, Narvaez
Puerto Rico: Lindor, Diaz
Nicaragua: Vientos

There could be more. This means two weeks away from camp not learning the new rules and not learning from Buck. I hope that Marte declines so he can rehab and that Quintana and Narvarez decline so they can work with their new coaches and teammates (this seems especially important for a catcher).

Positive view: the Mets are so good that many of their players will play in the WBC which will make it more exciting to watch.
Negative view: these players are risking injury by playing intense games in March (games that will quickly be forgotten) when they should be ramping up for the season.

[Fman99]

I like it - that much earlier that there will be actual baseball to watch on TV.

[Fman99]

Negative view: these players are risking injury by playing intense games in March (games that will quickly be forgotten) when they should be ramping up for the season.

I'm sure half of these guys played winter ball at a pretty competitive level.

[metirish]

I wish Ireland had a qualified, looks like they have a team at least

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/WBSC_World_Rankings

[Edgy MD]

Calvin Ziegler is also expected to play for Team Canada.

Not concerning Ziegler, but I've never been keen on players representing nations they have only a coincidental connection to by way of heritage. A least in the World Cup, once a player commits to play for the nation of his forefathers, that's his international squad. If his status improves or declines, he can't suddenly declare his loyalty to a nu flag.

[batmagadanleadoff]

WBC might be the thing for which I have the least shits to give about anything involving MLB players. I don't think I saw more than half an inning of WBC, cumulatively, in my entire lifetime. Single elimnination finals and semis? Really? In a sport already reeking with luck and randomness. And I though MLB playoffs were a degraded and compromised tournament.

[Fman99]

WBC might be the thing for which I have the least shits to give about anything involving MLB players. I don't think I saw more than half an inning of WBC, cumulatively, in my entire lifetime. Single elimnination finals and semis? Really? In a sport already reeking with luck and randomness. And I though MLB playoffs were a degraded and compromised tournament.

It's a pretty subpar product, I agree, but it comes at a time in the calendar when I personally am thirsty for anything resembling baseball activity that I will give it some attention. I think they're playing to that by scheduling it when they do, to an extent, also.

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

I kinda wish it was outside of mlb's grips.

[metirish]

I think there can be some great matchups like in past WBC , Puerto Rico V Dominican Republic, Japan V Korea , grudge games , USA V any of those teams would make for good viewing I would think.

[Edgy MD]

I kinda wish it was outside of mlb's grips.

Absolutely.

[Edgy MD]

Looking at the rosters, there is going to be Mets DNA all over this thing, especially if you are generous in how you regard trace elements of Mets DNA.

Early favorite has to be Puerto Rico, as they and Japan usually go hardest after this thing, but new Mets pitcher Kodai Senga is sitting out. I wouldn't sleep on Netherlands though, as they are stacked with players from the Dutch Caribbean. Their infield alone includes Xander Bogaerts, Didi Gregorius, Jonathan Schoop, and Andrelton Simmons. Jurickson Profar is absent, but his Frontier League-playing brother Juremi is, perhaps as an incentive to get Jurickson on board.

Also absent is Brandon Nimmo, who pulled a hammy playing for his beloved Italy in 2017, and now that his profile is high enough for him to play for the US (you're allowed to switch flags, unlike the football World Cup), he's sitting out. Michael Conforto has also been a non-Italian Italian in the past, but alas.

The politics of the whole thing seem to be all over the place. Some nations collect talent from their colonies and/or protectorates, but others such entities field their own team. (I would imagine that Curaçao alone could field a better squad than The Netherlands if they limited the rosters to natives.) The ringeriest team continues to be Israel, for whom 33 of 35 players are US-born, including the returning Ty Kelly.

Taiwan is competing as "Chinese Taipei," because nobody wants to piss of the Chinese, but South Korea is listed as "Korea," or "Republic of Korea," because I guess, folks aren't as sensitive about pissing off North Korea.

They seem to have the "pools" divided into something resembling global regions. One group is mostly Pacific Asian countries, but not quite. One group is mostly North American, but not quite. This leaves the team composed of South American and Caribbean nations (Pool D) utterly stacked with Puerto Rico, Venezuela, and the Dominican Republic left to tear up each other in the first round when they should be considered to be three of the top five seeds.

Korea and China also share the shameful distinction of bringing no personnel with Mets pedigree.

Metly participants are below, although I'm sure I've missed some. The largest group will be found in Group of Death Pool D.

Pool A		Mets	Mets Minor Leaguers	Ex-Mets	Ex-Mets Minor Leaguers
Chinese Taipei					Tzu-Wei Lin
Netherlands				Hensley Muelens (manager)	Roger Bernadina
Cuba				Yoenis Céspedes(!)
Italy			Claudio Scotti	Matt Harvey(!!) Mike Piazza (manager)
Panama			Jonathan Arauz Humberto Mejia	Alberto Baldonado

Pool B		Mets	Mets Minor Leaguers	Ex-Mets	Ex-Mets Minor Leaguers
Japan				Masato Yoshii (pitching coach)
Korea
Australia				Graeme Lloyd (bullpen coach)
China
Czech Republic					Martin Cervenka

Pool C		Mets	Mets Minor Leaguers	Ex-Mets	Ex-Mets Minor Leaguers
United States of America		Pete Alonso Jeff McNeil Adam Ottavino Brooks Raley		Jerry Manuel (bench coach)	Lou Collier (first base coach)
Mexico				Luis Cessa Oliver Perez (!!!) Taijuan Walker Elmer Dessens (bullpen coach)
Colombia		José Quintana			Nabil Crismatt Carlos Ocampo Ezequiel Zabaleta
Canada				Rob Zastryzny	Adam Loewen
United Kingdom			Cam Opp	Akeel Morris	Vance Worley

Pool D		Mets	Mets Minor Leaguers	Ex-Mets	Ex-Mets Minor Leaguers
Puerto Rico		Edwin Diaz Francisco Lindor	Dominc Hamel	Alex Claudio Marcus Stroman Javier Baez Hector Santiago Ricky Bones (pitching coach)	Luis Rivera (third base coach)
Venezuela		Eduardo Escobar Omar Narvaez	Elieser Hernandez	Robinson Chirinos Andrés Giménez	Anthony Vizcaya
Dominican Republic				Rafael Montero Robinson Canó
Israel				Ty Kelly	Josh Zeid (pitching coach)
Nicaragua				Erasmo Ramirez	Cheslor Cuthbert Kevin Gadea

[nymr83]

The ringeriest team continues to be Israel, for whom 33 of 35 players are US-born, including the returning Ty Kelly.

The Israeli professional baseball league went out of business in about 5 minutes, and before they could send me the hat I ordered.

[bmfc1]

"The ringeriest team continues to be Israel, for whom 33 of 35 players are US-born, including the returning Ty Kelly." Dude. Seriously? Eligibility is "anyone that is eligible for citizenship" (or words to that effect). Kelly's mother is Jewish. He has Israeli citizenship. Have you gone through every team's eligibility requirements? Lars Nootbar, of STL, is playing for Team Japan. He was born in California "... to an American father of Dutch, English and German descent Charlie Nootbaar and a Japanese mother Kumi Enokida. Nootbaar grew up in El Segundo, California, and attended El Segundo High School...." [Wikipedia.] These aren't "ringers". This is the rule that was created to allow for so many countries to participate and perhaps compete.

[metirish]

What is Matt Harvey doing with Italy ? Coaching staff ?

[Edgy MD]

Throwing baseballs.

He's ethnically Irish on the side of his athair, but ethnically Italian on the side of his madre.

[G-Fafif]

Jay Horwitz is press officer for Team Israel.

https://metsinsider.mlblogs.com/team-is ... 246f6f3267

[batmagadanleadoff]

What is Matt Harvey doing with Italy ? Coaching staff ?

He's their cocaine supplier.

[nymr83]

What is Matt Harvey doing with Italy ? Coaching staff ?

He's their cocaine supplier.

You'd think with an entire mafia at their disposal they wouldn't need him for that

[nymr83]

Jay Horwitz is press officer for Team Israel.

https://metsinsider.mlblogs.com/team-is ... 246f6f3267

When Israel had a baseball league for a year (it actually lasted ONE year) Art Shamsky was a manager and his team's colors were blue an orange while playing for a city (Modi'in) that is pretty well known as as being an American ex-pat community. Annecodotally, I know at least one Mets fan there!

[bmfc1]

The second documentary about Team Israel, the group described herein as the "ringeriest team":
https://youtu.be/h3tm7PLvwa8

[kcmets]

This thing doesn't start for another week? What are they waiting for?

[nymr83]

This thing doesn't start for another week? What are they waiting for?

maximum disruption to spring training, obviously

[bmfc1]

So the players can learn the new rules, then play games without those new rules and then return so they have to relearn them right before the regular season.

[A Boy Named Seo]

I'm going next weekend to shitty Phoenix to see USA/Great Britain and help check off a line item on a friend's bucket list. Mexico was a tough ticket to get so we're (sadly) hitting a spring training game as the other end of the double-header.

While I'm not "bucket list" hyped on the WBC, I'm into it. The World Cup Lite™ aspect brings a level of fun and passion that's just different from MLB. Through the more celebratory crowds and different styles of play, you really get micro-doses of different cultures through sport and I think it's a pretty cool thing.

[Edgy MD]

Agreed. It's beisbol played at a top level but delivered through a different cultural filter or filters with a different motivational stake for the players.

My US Cup™ tournament with teams representing each of the 50 states and US territories would be bigger than manbuns.