1) The US beat everyone by 800 in the 92 Olympics and they don't play the Olympics during the NBA preseason 2) The WBC loss won't cause anything, we've lost it like 5 out of 6 times or whatever. The best players will always want routine in Spring Training and they're not going to get that sitting on the bench or pitching for the United States
I get why you’re trying to draw the comparison, but it doesn’t really work. Everyone is into the Olympics. And the dream team had Michael Jordan, perhaps the most famous man on the planet. It kind of set a precedent/ legacy for the olympic teams. WBC has had 5 events. No one outside of baseball fans care about it in this country. It’s apples and oranges
I think you mean a different Olympics, ‘92 was the first Dream Team. I think what you’re referring to won’t happen for several reasons; 1. The political atmosphere is much different than what it was at the time; there’s not a cultural rivalry with Japan that would lead to this being considered some kind of humiliation that needs to be rectified. 2. Baseball is much more of a long-view game; one unfortunate outcome in a single-elimination tournament isn’t going to lead to a crisis of faith in the US’s ability to produce talent or “have control” of the game. 3. While this was great from the perspective of boosting the image of the WBC, it still doesn’t compare to the Olympics in terms of competitiveness among nations. It’s a fun exhibition that adds a little juice to the warmup for the MLB season.
Thanks to all three of you. You all made valid points, and that was the point of my original comment that started this. Sparking a conversation, and educating me in the process in an area I wasn't sure of.
I'm hopeful that more American talent will get on board in the next WBC. Getting the big names in early was the key this time around, and everyone except Diaz, Altuve, and the entire Dominican Republic seemed to have a lot of fun.
I think the month is irrelevant, most pitchers have it in their contract as I understand it. Can only imagine more will have it after Diaz.
Not really. The only squad that had elite pitching was Japan and only 2 are in the majors. DR had Alcantara that was it.
Going 0-7 with RISP was the problem, not anything with roster construction or available pitching. We cash in on two of those and it’s a totally different game. Just one of the fortunes of playing a single-elimination tourney.
BA and ESPN both posted their top 100 MLB player rankings today Freeman 5th at ESPN and 18th at BA. Personally I'd like a lot more power out of a 1B if I'm ranking them top 5. Like Altuve had a higher ISO last year come on he's not a top 5 player in baseball Buxton 78 at BA and 64 at ESPN. Please can we get some luck with injuries this season?
I don't understand how Darvish can get insured but our guys can't. He's a veteran guy with some injury history on a bug contract.
Sure, but they can non tender him at any point. My point is that the larger expensive contracts probably have so many protections in them. Ohtani being the outlier
because it won’t have all of the protections against playing in stuff like this from the teams insurance
especially given that the Angels don’t exactly have a ton of pitching and probably need Sandoval to have a good year
Do you think all big name pitchers turned down playing for their home countries? Or maybe just maybe the angels let ohtani in hopes of making him happy as my original post stated?
The thought of LAA non-tendering Sandoval is fucking hilarious given their need for pitching and the strides he made last year
It’s either a) pitchers don’t give a fuck about the wbc but positions players do or b) the teams didn’t let them pitch and ohtani and darvish for some reason are outliers
I think most big name pitchers turned down playing for their home countries as they routinely have for this event, but probably especially so this year once they realized they’d have to get used to the pitch clock. Clearly, not all did, which means there aren’t insurance or contractual bars for most.
It’s a bunch of different reasons. Some a, some b, some guys would love to do it but don’t want to risk it, some would do it if it were at a different point in the season, some guys are on new teams and wanting to get established, etc etc etc.
I think pitchers are much more set in a routine to get themselves stretched out and ready for the season than hitters are, and the WBC brought no guarantee of a certain number of innings the way spring training does.
they should have kept him home to try to make Ohtani happy, he almost knocked them out by throwing 4.1 scoreless in the semis
i read something when kershaw couldn’t play that most on long term deals or pitchers with injury history like kershaw had them in his contract
obviously I agree but the way I read it is teams don’t have leverage to work that in their contract the way they can with the larger deals. That was my main point. I just feel a lot of it is contractual issues but I’m sure quite a few opted out too.
I'm not saying you are wrong at all but how hard could it be to maintain a schedule? They have limits, it's not like some high school coach is having them take the mound and pump out 150 pitches. I could also understand if you had a select few guys on contract years who just would want to play it safe.
missing a fourth of the game to get a beer and take a leak in a sport with no halftime is not ideal it will be great for families with kids though