WBC # 2

[BearSox]

so, Venezuela is next.... this, at least to me, is a mini version of the Olympics during the cold war with the USA vs. the Soviets. Man oh man, how sweet would it be to sock it to Hugo Chavez...

[Cubano]

Korea has beaten Japan 5 out of the last 8 times they had faced each other in major tournaments such as WBC, Olympics and Asian Cups.

[Kalapse]

I find it hard to take any team USA game seriously, Davey Johnson plays it more like an All-Star game than a legitimate international tournament. I was actually hoping for a USA loss after watching Thornton pitch tonight, it'd be nice to have him back in Sox camp.

[BearSox]

Davey Johnson's managing is awful... I'm still trying to figure out why Jeter gets all the majority of starts at short.

[Cubano]

I do not like the fact that this tournament is solely controlled by MLB. The finals rounds are in the USA for the second time. The games are played with the Rawlings. Only MLB umpire are allowed behind the plate. The rules were made thinking about MLB players first.

 

Japan, Korea and Cuba should say Hell with MLB.

[MurcieOne]

USA USA USA

:usa :usa :usa

[BearSox]

I do not like the fact that this tournament is solely controlled by MLB. The finals rounds are in the USA for the second time. The games are played with the Rawlings. Only MLB umpire are allowed behind the plate. The rules were made thinking about MLB players first.

 

Japan, Korea and Cuba should say Hell with MLB.

None of the other leagues are at the same level of the MLB. Add to the fact a good majority of the players are from the MLB, it only makes sense to use MLB balls with an MLB umpire behind home plate.

[Kyyle23]

I do not like the fact that this tournament is solely controlled by MLB. The finals rounds are in the USA for the second time. The games are played with the Rawlings. Only MLB umpire are allowed behind the plate. The rules were made thinking about MLB players first.

 

Japan, Korea and Cuba should say Hell with MLB.

 

Its an MLB creation,what do you expect

[LittleHurt05]

I do not like the fact that this tournament is solely controlled by MLB. The finals rounds are in the USA for the second time. The games are played with the Rawlings. Only MLB umpire are allowed behind the plate. The rules were made thinking about MLB players first.

 

Japan, Korea and Cuba should say Hell with MLB.

 

Good luck with that. If you think that a lot of the best players from North/South America are missing the WBC now, imagine if its not sponsored by MLB. You would have all-star teams from Japan, Korea, & Cuba facing teams of minor leaguers/scrubs from USA, Canada, Dom., Venezuela, Puerto Rico. Might as well make a four-team tourney with Japan, Korea, Cuba, & Taiwan or someone like that.

[SoxFan562004]

I find it hard to take any team USA game seriously, Davey Johnson plays it more like an All-Star game than a legitimate international tournament. I was actually hoping for a USA loss after watching Thornton pitch tonight, it'd be nice to have him back in Sox camp.

The deeper the U.S. goes the more thankful I am that Danks turned it down

[SoxFan562004]

Davey Johnson's managing is awful... I'm still trying to figure out why Jeter gets all the majority of starts at short.

Because he's Captain America and Captain Clutch!!!! He plays for the Yankees!!! He's the most awesomest awesome who ever awesomed! He's won gold gloves, just ignore that he's probably the worst fielding everyday SS in baseball!!!

[Cubano]

None of the other leagues are at the same level of the MLB. Add to the fact a good majority of the players are from the MLB, it only makes sense to use MLB balls with an MLB umpire behind home plate.

 

 

But there are good umpires in other leagues as well. I would say that Cubans, Japaneses, Koreans, Dutch, big China, little China, Panama combined make more players than MLB players.

[Cubano]

Good luck with that. If you think that a lot of the best players from North/South America are missing the WBC now, imagine if its not sponsored by MLB. You would have all-star teams from Japan, Korea, & Cuba facing teams of minor leaguers/scrubs from USA, Canada, Dom., Venezuela, Puerto Rico. Might as well make a four-team tourney with Japan, Korea, Cuba, & Taiwan or someone like that.

 

 

If the big three outside MLB says we won't send a team, MLB cries. They made the impossible for Cuba to come. They know there is no legitimacy w/o these teams. Next time, other countries should challenge MLB and asked for the finals to take place outside the USA. I like to see what MLB based players will do.

[SoxFan562004]

If the big three outside MLB says we won't send a team, MLB cries. They made the impossible for Cuba to come. They know there is no legitimacy w/o these teams. Next time, other countries should challenge MLB and asked for the finals to take place outside the USA. I like to see what MLB based players will do.

You have to follow the dollars. If they can make money and get quality sponsors outside of the U.S. it will probably happen, if not, it won't

[ThunderBolt]

I'm hoping Cuba can forge a better effort against Japan this time/. I like their contrasting styles and want to see some competition

[Kalapse]

Kevin Youkilis is done for the WBC with an ankle injury. It's supposedly a mild sprain with some inflammation in the Achilles. This is getting f***ing ridiculous, Terry Francona is going to strangle Bud Selig to death. He didn't want any of his players participating in this sham in the first place now his 2 MVP candidates from last year are banged up. This is what he had to say even before the Youkilis injury and remember, employees of Major League Baseball are not allowed to speak ill of the WBC so he had to do a little tip toeing around the subject:

 

"Oh, sure, guys get hurt here," he said. "[Julio] Lugo got hurt here. The only thing is that we have 60 [players] here, and [if someone is hurting] we can pull a guy out in the third inning. We can not play a guy. There's not 45,000 people screaming [and] they have a ton of adrenalin, maybe before they're ready to do it. That's the thing that probably worries us."

 

I wonder how Frank Wren felt watching Brian McCann, his star catcher who's never played a single professional inning anywhere but catcher, play left field the other night. I'm sure he was overwhelmed with pride for his country.

 

It's funny how everyone agrees it's a great idea but at the same time they also agree that there's no good time for it to be held. Well then, since they are holding it at the beginning of March which is an awful time for this thing, it would have to be constituted as a BAD IDEA.

[LittleHurt05]

With the Youkilis injury, not many options left for the Americans.

 

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/base....out/index.html

 

 

Kevin Youkilis is out of the WBC because of a sprained left ankle.

 

Youkilis returned to Red Sox camp in Fort Myers, Fla., to get an MRI. He injured it two days ago and it grew worse last night.

 

Derrek Lee is the only other first baseman eligible to be added, but he is hurt (knee) and has been ruled out by the Cubs. Adam Dunn is playing first base in Wednesday night's game against Venezuela, against the preferences of the Nationals. He appears to be their only option for the semifinals, which will be played in Los Angeles this weekend.

 

 

[Pants Rowland]

Kevin Youkilis is done for the WBC with an ankle injury. It's supposedly a mild sprain with some inflammation in the Achilles. This is getting f***ing ridiculous, Terry Francona is going to strangle Bud Selig to death. He didn't want any of his players participating in this sham in the first place now his 2 MVP candidates from last year are banged up. This is what he had to say even before the Youkilis injury and remember, employees of Major League Baseball are not allowed to speak ill of the WBC so he had to do a little tip toeing around the subject:

 

 

 

I wonder how Frank Wren felt watching Brian McCann, his star catcher who's never played a single professional inning anywhere but catcher, play left field the other night. I'm sure he was overwhelmed with pride for his country.

 

It's funny how everyone agrees it's a great idea but at the same time they also agree that there's no good time for it to be held. Well then, since they are holding it at the beginning of March which is an awful time for this thing, it would have to be constituted as a BAD IDEA.

 

I would love to see MLB mix it up a little and have the WBC replace the All-Star Game every four years. Start the season (and spring training) a week earlier and have the All-Star break feature a tournament similar to the WBC over the course of a week to 10 days. In fact, if necessary, they could even shorten the season to 154 games those years with some type of revenue sharing for the tournament to make up for the loss. This should also still allow for the playoffs and WS to take place as usual.

[BearSox]

Lol, USA's pitching staff is beyond terrible. Is Jermey Guthrie seriously the best we can do? Honestly, what the hell is he even doing on the team?

[santo=dorf]

So how wouldn't Youk have suffered the injury if he was playing regular spring training ball?

 

The only injuries I can see coming out of the WBC are overworking pitchers (they have pitch count rules,) and some hard nosed baseball with high slides into second or diving in the stands for a foul ball. Now I haven't seen much of the WBC this year, but I don't recall seeing much of the previous two mentioned during the last WBC, and there was only one major injury.

[BearSox]

Kevin Youkilis is done for the WBC with an ankle injury. It's supposedly a mild sprain with some inflammation in the Achilles. This is getting f***ing ridiculous, Terry Francona is going to strangle Bud Selig to death. He didn't want any of his players participating in this sham in the first place now his 2 MVP candidates from last year are banged up. This is what he had to say even before the Youkilis injury and remember, employees of Major League Baseball are not allowed to speak ill of the WBC so he had to do a little tip toeing around the subject:

 

 

 

I wonder how Frank Wren felt watching Brian McCann, his star catcher who's never played a single professional inning anywhere but catcher, play left field the other night. I'm sure he was overwhelmed with pride for his country.

 

It's funny how everyone agrees it's a great idea but at the same time they also agree that there's no good time for it to be held. Well then, since they are holding it at the beginning of March which is an awful time for this thing, it would have to be constituted as a BAD IDEA.

 

I think it just has more to do with god not liking the red sox.

[Cubano]

Stop crying about injuries and such. The Soccer World Cup is the best thing in the planet. The best players compete and nobody cries like MLB teams. Maybe there is a reason baseball has faling behind others sports in popularity.

[ThunderBolt]

This fog is great. The japanease pitcher looks like a ghost.

[Soxpranos]

Stop crying about injuries and such. The Soccer World Cup is the best thing in the planet. The best players compete and nobody cries like MLB teams. Maybe there is a reason baseball has faling behind others sports in popularity.

That is true regarding the Word cup and you have many players playing with 100 million dollar contracts. To call it a sham is a little bit overboard, yes the USA does have better players that can be playing but so do the other countries involved.

Edited March 19, 2009 by Soxpranos

[ThunderBolt]

Bad turn of events for Cuba. CF makes a great play to get to the ball, drops it when he does.