Wbc

Just How Good Is Japan's Unbeaten Wbc Team

... Japan beat the Netherlands, Israel and Cuba. That isn't exactly murderers' row. It took Japan 11 innings, with help from the extra-inning rule, to beat the Netherlands, the one team with some legit major league talent on the roster, and Cuba scored 11 runs in its two losses to Japan. This team simply hasn't faced a team that comes close to the depth of the U. S. lineup and pitching staff. Major League translations. (*courtesy of Dan Szymborski). OK, enough with the negativity. Here are a few reasons Japan can win this thing. Tomoyuki Sugano: Regarded as the second-best pitcher in Japan (behind Shohei Otani) after posting a 2.01 ERA for Yomiuri and striking out 189 batters in 183 1/3 innings, Sugano will start against the U. S. Although he struggled against Cuba in the second round, allowing seven hits and four runs in four innings, his track record in Japan is strong. The 27-year-old right-hander once clocked in the mid-90 s, but he now sits at 91 with his fastball and reportedly throws seven pitches, including the proverbial forkball/splitter that so many Japanese pitchers possess. Bullpen depth: The pen ...

Betances Returns To Yankees From Wbc

... email address. A link has been posted to your Facebook feed. Join the Conversation. To find out more about Facebook commenting please read the Conversation Guidelines and FAQs. Betances returns to Yankees from WBC. PETE CALDERA , Staff Writer, @pcaldera Published 3:29 p.m. ET March 21, 2017 | Updated 3 hours ago. Dellin Betances. CONNECT TWEET LINKEDIN COMMENTEMAILMORE. TAMPA, Fla. – Dellin Betances returned to the Yankees’ clubhouse Tuesday and pronounced himself “ready for the season to start’ following his stint in the World Baseball Classic. “I’m ready to go,’ said the right-handed setup man, who thoroughly enjoyed his WBC experience with Team Dominican Republic. Notes: Holliday paces Yankees in win vs. Nationals. “It was more than I expected. The crowd was definitely on our side in Miami, a very intense crowd from the first inning to the ninth,’ Betances said. “We came up short, but I thought overall it was a fun experience.’. Betances appeared in five games for the Dominican Republic, tossing five scoreless innings with three hits, three walks and five strikeouts. “The love I got from the Dominican fans was unbelievable,’ said Betances, who honored his ...

Odubel Herrera Returns To Phillies From Wbc With Goals In Mind For 2017 Season

... Franco wearing the sunglasses on top of his hat. Herrera struggled to get his bat going in the WBC and was out of Venezuela’s starting lineup in two of its last three games. He had just one at-bat during that three-game span. Herrera’s 11 at-bats in five games were a fraction of what fellow outfielders Carlos Gonzalez (26 at-bats in seven games) and Ender Inciarte (24 AB in 7 G) received in the tournament. “I think I took enough at-bats, obviously I could have taken more,” said Herrera, who said his home country eliminated by Puerto Rico on Saturday. “But I feel like I took enough to get ready for the season.”. The good news for Herrera and the Phillies: the team’s lone 2016 All-Star still has plenty of time to get his swing in midseason form. Beginning with Tuesday’s game in Fort Myers, the Phillies still have 11 more games left on their exhibition season schedule. Herrera's bat sure didn't look stale in the first of those 11 games: he went 2-for-5 with a double on Tuesday and drove in two of the eight runs ...

The Catch' Brings New Fans To World Baseball Classic

... for what the United States will see Tuesday are about style more than name recognition. “What I know about them is that they play a very clean game - fundamentally sound,” Jones said. “They move runners over. They hit behind the runners. They bunt. They don't make many errors fielding. They are a very, very fundamentally sound team.”. Team USA first baseman Eric Hosmer was teammates with Aoki in Kansas City, but that’s about where the familiarity with Team Japan ends. “I think it's a team that's going to capitalize on another team making mistakes,” Hosmer said. “So we just want to stick to playing our game. We know the type of game that we can play, and we feel good when we play those games, and we feel that we'll be successful on most nights if we can execute the things we're going to try to execute. So that's basically what we're going to try to stick to.”. U. S. manager Jim Leyland will send Washington Nationals pitcher Tanner Roark to the mound in Tuesday’s win-or-go-home game. Roark has just one appearance in the WBC so far, and it was not ...

Oakland Athletics Vs. Seattle Mariners & Wbc Semi-final Open Game Thread

... lineup. Go Mariners. Game Time: 7:10 PM PDT. Radio: 710 __link__. TV: __link__. Before that game starts, the WBC semifinal kicks off at 6 PM PDT with Team USA taking on Samurai Japan for the right to move on to the final versus Edwin Diaz (One inning only!) and Team Puerto Rico. Should be an awesome game seeing as Japan has basically owned the WBC since it started and is looking to get back on top after losing to the DR last time around. Team USA has finally gotten its shit together this fourth time around and actually put together a pretty good team. Hey nice job, America. Nice of you to show up for once. No no, it’s cool you skipped out, Mike Trout. Adam Jones covered for your ass. much has already been said about this photo, but i still cannot get over curly haired Belle & Sebastian fan on the left. he didn’t react to the catch because he was consumed with ennui. — Justin Ware (@justinware) March 21, 2017. Game Time: 6:00 ...

Santana Tells Many Stories About His Wbc Appearances

... family charter. From the moment he headed out to the bullpen for pregame warm-ups, Santana could tell this would be a memorable assignment. He figured it would be that way from how the first round went at Marlins Park. "It was like a playoff," said the veteran of eight postseason appearances and one all-star outing. "I watched every single game leading up to that, and I saw the energy. It was intense.". A raucous crowd waved U. S. and Dominican flags in the stands, pushing the decibel levels higher as the evening progressed and the Dominican team staked Santana to an early 2-0 lead. "It felt like it was in the Dominican," he said. "All the fans were real loud. I mean, it was loud. I liked it.". Infielders had to shout at the top of their lungs just to get Santana's attention on the mound. "You could not hear anybody," he said. "There was music and everybody was loud and they had the horns blowing.". Here he imitated the sound coming from all those noisemakers. Suddenly, it was New Year's Eve in his corner of the ...

Secret Behind Puerto Rico's Wbc Success? Blonds Having Fun

... dyeing their hair, believe it or not. One of my mom's good friend's sister went to the pharmacy to dye her hair but there was no hair color or bleach to be found in the pharmacy. That tells you how much everybody is believing in this. "For us, it started as a joke to show how much we are committed to each other. Now, the whole island doing it means a lot. And we can definitely feel the spirit they're showing.". Puerto Rico infielders Javier Baez and Francisco Lindor had dyed their hair blond before the WBC. After catcher Yadier Molina saw their hair when the team gathered in Arizona to train for the tournament, he encouraged everyone to dye theirs as well. Pretty soon, just about everyone did. Yadier Molina's blond 'do seems to be working for him. Gregory Bull/AP Photo. "I think it's awesome. It shows the unity we have as a team," infielder Mike Aviles said. "It wasn't something we did just to do, it was like, 'We're going to do something together for brotherhood.'. When you have a team like that, it shows the solidarity with everybody. It shows that unity, that brotherhood, and ...

Yankees Lose Didi Thanks To Wbc, But Playing It Smart With Torres

... the 27-year-old shortstop out about six weeks. Options the Yankees will look at to replace Gregorius, who won't participate in baseball activities for the next two weeks before beginning a light throwing program, include Ronald Torreyes, Tyler Wade, Ruben Tejada and Pete Kozma. The possibility of shifting Starlin Castro, Torres' mentor, from second base to short also exists. Wade, 22, who projects as the starter at Triple-A Scranton, is the most intriguing of that bunch. He's hit.394 in the spring while also learning how to play the outfield with the Yankees wanting to turn him into the next Ben Zobrist or Brock Holt. Talent evaluators wonder if he'll be able to hit enough at the big-league level. Now - at least until Gregorius returns, anyway - seems like a good time to find out. Torres is one of ...

U.s. Trip To Wbc Championship Likely To Stir Sleepy Interest

... or the backfields in the Grapefruit League in Kissimmee (Fla.)? It’s an easy answer for a guy who wants to play at the top of his game.”. Vasgersian, admittedly a blush biased because of his paycheck, argued that to play in this tournament is to know this tournament. “Hearing (Mets pitcher) Noah Syndergaard talk about nobody ever getting the World Series or Hall of Fame playing the WBC, is pretty much a (baloney) thing to say,” Vasgersian said. “He doesn’t get it.”. Real hurdles remain, though. Running head-to-head against the early rounds of the juggernaut NCAA Tournament without network TV coverage is the equivalent of waltzing into a gunfight with a screwdriver. The average NCAA game brings in 9.3 million viewers, while Sunday’s matchups neared 12 million. Baseball’s interest remains sleepy in March as the nation adjusts to the rhythms of its annual return. Then again, anyone who felt the rumble when Japanese cleanup hitter Yoshitomo Tsutsugoh flew out to right with the tying run on second in the eighth might argue otherwise. Is the U. S. ready to lock the WBC in a full blown bro-hug? No, not yet. But with highlights oozing from every tournament pore — and the U. S. ...

Wbc Injuries, Tim Tebow, And Kelsey Plum Again

... missing some time due to an injured shoulder suffered during the World Baseball Classic. I’m sure there have been a number of think-pieces on the subject of WBC injuries, and Gregorious isn’t the first player to injure himself during the international competition. Salvador Perez hurt his knee earlier — although the catcher is set to return to action soon. Jim Caple recently wrote on this subject and was unable to come to a conclusion about whether the WBC is a bigger injury risk. In theory, it shouldn’t be because players who aren’t in the WBC are playing games too — in spring training. Whether the intensity of the competition has an impact on the risk of injuries is up for debate. However, I think it’s safe to say that the benefits of competing far outweigh the risks. Players get a chance to play for their country on a national stage, promote the sport, and prepare for the fierce level of competition they’ll see in the regular season. If I was an MLB general manager, I would be encouraging my players to participate. The WBC only comes up every four years, but I’m sure we’ll be talking about this again the next time it ...

Usa Beats Japan, Reaches World Baseball Classic Final For The First Time

... game open in USA’s 6-3 victory over the Dominican Republic to vault them into the championship game, delivered once again on this night. He hit a two-out, run-scoring single in the fourth inning that accounted for USA’s lone run, and the only blemish against Japan starter Tomoyuki Sugano. And he caught the crucial third out of the eighth inning when Yoshitomo Tsutsugoh just missed hitting a home run. Needing a mulligan: Team Japan second baseman Ryosuke Kikuchi. Kikuchi cost his team the first run of the game, and nearly another, with blunders in back-to-back innings. It was in the fourth inning when USA outfielder Christian Yelich hit a sharp grounder towards Kikuchi, who was playing almost in shallow right fielder. The ball went right through him, Yelich kept hustling, and wound up on second. The error proved costly when Andrew Mc Cutchen capitalized with a two-out, run-scoring single. Kikuchi almost cost ...

The Netherlands And Puerto Rico Played A Really Fun Wbc Semifinal While You Slept

... a really fun WBC semifinal while you slept. If you missed it, here's why you missed baseball at its most fun. 12 h ago. • 2 min read. On Monday night, the Netherlands and Puerto Rico played the first semifinal game of this World Baseball Classic. It was a wild, thrilling, four-hour affair that required 11 innings before Puerto Rico won on a walk-off sacrifice fly. Because the game didn’t start until 9 p.m. ET on a Monday night, many fans had to prioritize sleeping over watching the game to completion. Late start times have been a tournament staple, and both Tuesday night’s United States-Japan semifinal and the championship game Wednesday will begin at 9 p.m. During the pool play, games were regularly starting at 10 p.m. Consider that a less-than-ideal way to hook the younger generation on the WBC - or, heck, baseball in general. We figured we would help out anyone who had to hit the sack by chronicling some of the game’s highlights. Or, if you saw the game, we figured we would put it all together for you to share that wild and crazy game with as ...