World Baseball Classic: RECAP

The world baseball classic is down to, actually there's a semi-finalist. Japan is already into the semi-finals because Shohei Itani can throw 102 miles an hour.

He's just a freak. But an incredible scene last night in Miami as the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico played a win or go home, sort of, because they're all going back to their baseball teams, match in Miami Marlins Park, whatever that's called. Puerto Rico won it. And I just watched the highlights. It felt like a World Cup soccer match. It was that kind of an atmosphere. John Manuel, Pro Scout, Minnesota Twins, my friend watched as much of it as he was allowed until, I guess, the internet crashed. And he joins us from spring training where he is working for the Twins. So before I get to the injury, because the injury is a secondary part of this for me, for those people who are pro-world baseball classic, and I know you are, what was that scene?

What did that scene feel like to you? Adam, I've got a co-worker who's like the general manager of the Venezuelan team. And so he's down there in Miami and obviously Venezuela was 4-0.

I mean, he just says that it's just a Caribbean series times 10. And it's just international baseball is an environment where fans actually have a lot more fun at games than they do in the United States, where the idea of fun seems to be getting drunk and screaming at people and yelling at people angrily. I mean, I hope people go watch some condensed highlights from Taiwan where they had cheerleaders on top of the dugouts. And when Yu Chang, who's one of the few big leaguers from Taiwan, when he hit Oppo Taco Grand Slam, and the place went insane.

I mean, how can you not watch that and see how much fun international baseball is? And if you want to talk about serious talent, I will hot take it that Japan has the best four-man rotation ever assembled. They have Shohei Ohtani, who's the best athlete who's played Major League Baseball since Bo Jackson. They have Hugh Darvish, who's just a freak who the Padres just signed through like age 72 or something like that.

I mean, he's just phenomenal. And I would posit that Darvish is the fourth best pitcher Japan has. They have a guy named Sasaki, who's 22, throws 102 miles an hour, and last year just missed going back-to-back perfect game in Japan as a 21-year-old. And their fourth starter is their back-to-back Cy Young Award winner in Japan, the Sarumura Award. So Japan's playing, they take this so seriously. They have Major League caliber talent throughout their lineup. The Dominican takes this seriously.

They lost. Puerto Rico takes this super seriously. Just ask Francisco Lindor. And the smile that Lindor had at a Little League home run last night, which yeah, it was misplayed, but it was misplayed by Julio Rodriguez, one of the best players in the Major Leagues who played center field for the DR last night and just misplayed a ball from a single into a home run. The passion, the talent, the energy, everything's playing with it except for the US, which is just playing with, basically I'm pure talent and has gotten through to the quarterfinals. So I wish the US played with some of the passion they showed in 2017 when they won the whole thing, but it's baseball at a high level, played with passion and tons of energy in the stands.

It's a lot of fun. I don't understand why people, but it's classic American baseball family. They only have fun on their terms.

People like Keith Olbermann can pound it. They aren't enjoying it. I think the problem is that everybody's in this country, everybody is more in tuned with what's best for their favorite team.

And because of that, it's really difficult. People have said, well, they should have this in November. Well, yeah, but by the time we get to November, everybody's gassed and these guys need a rest. This is probably, it's probably the best time for it, but maybe not the best time for all of it.

What if we stopped it at the semifinals here and then picked it up instead of an all-star game and picked it up at the all-star break, where you had the final four teams or even the final eight teams in there to battle it out? Hard to agree. I mean, I wrote that column. I totally agree. In my past life, I wrote that column at Baseball America.

The archives are all very hard to find, but I mean, I agree. I would take the final four and play them during the all-star break on back-to-back days. And if every four years you didn't have an all-star game, I mean, the NBA wishes they could do that. So they had an international competition at the all-star break that people cared about. The only problem with that, of course, is that Japan, Korea, those kinds of countries, especially Japan, their all-star game makes them a lot of money too. So it would be hard to get a Japanese all-star team over to the United States in the middle of the season. Or imagine having the American all-star team have to go to Japan in the middle of the season.

I mean, that's what really should happen. I think I saw the stat that between Japan and Korea, when they played their full game, 63 million people watched the game. That's more than watched any World Series ever in the history of the United States. I think the peak World Series for viewership is 1980 with like 58 million, 60 million people watching in the US. So Japan, Korea, and that was an elimination game for Korea, but not for Japan. So more people watch that game and the high proportion of it is in Japan. So I think the other story of this WBC is that Cuba actually has two major leaguers playing for them, even though they technically defected. And they also made the semi-finals. So it would be amazing if Cuba had one roster for the first two rounds and then in the finals in mid-season, if they played it at the all-star break, if they had an even better roster with more domestic US players playing.

So I think you would open up for more players playing if you played in the middle of the year too. It would be quite a spectacle. I'm right there with you. All right, final thing. And the US did advance to the, I guess, the quarterfinals. Well, so good for us to defend our title whether they care or not.

But we got about a minute or so here. Edwin Diaz for Puerto Rico got hurt in a complete freak. I've seen the injury basically just landed wrong in just little bunny hops as everybody for Puerto Rico was gathering around and just kind of jumping around and celebrating their win over the Dominican Republic.

A total freak. Yet the immediate reaction is, well, there you go. Major League Baseball is not going to do this anymore. Like, he didn't get hurt doing anything baseball related.

Can we just recognize it for a freak? He could have slipped down the dugout stairs. Progressive Presents, adjusting to the suburbs. It never dawned on me how much walking I used to do until I bought a house in the suburbs. Like when I'd say, I'm going for coffee. Of course, I was walking, but now it's like three miles and no latte is worth that. I find myself inviting people on walks with me like it's a scheduled activity.

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Capital One and a member FDIC. And they're just a strong contingent of Major League Baseball fans, as you said, who view things only to the lens of their team. And they'll never like anything that takes away from that, which is, you know, it's people's right. I'm lucky that I was baptized early in international baseball and love it. And I just love the passion that those Puerto Rican players play with.

Because we go talent for talent. They're not open as Venezuela. They're definitely not as good as the Dominicans. And they beat the Dominicans and the rivalry between those two islands is fierce in baseball.

So that win meant something to Edwin Diaz. That's why he was celebrating. And like you said, the injuries, the freak injury, Paul George got hurt for USA basketball. And it didn't stop people from playing in the Olympics, right? I mean, he shattered his leg.

So man, it was gross. I still have a watch that injury on replay. So if it didn't deter basketball, it shouldn't deter baseball. And I really think the WBC grows the game. I agree. I look forward to watching the rest of it.

John Manuel, Pro Scout, Minnesota Twins. Have fun in Florida. Stay put on a lot of sunscreen. I'll see you when you get back. I'm head to toe. I'm bathing in it, Adam. You got it, man.

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