BBTF.org/m/wbc : WBC Day 10 OMNICHATTER

Saturday, March 23, 2013

Freeman was set to play for Canada

(www.torontosun.com)

posted on March 23, 2013 at 10:24 AM by The Mighty Quinn to wbc | 3 comment(s)

But does he know the lyrics to ” Let’s Go to the Mall” or the “Beaver Song”?

“LAKE BUENA VISTA, FLA. - How many national teams can boast having a suitable replacement for an MVP winner?

Had Joey Votto’s knee prevented him from playing in this month’s World Baseball Classic, Atlanta Braves first baseman Freddie Freeman was ready and willing to wear the maple leaf.

“I told the players association to make sure they let the WBC know that both my parents were born in Canada,” Freeman ...

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151. Bitter Calculus Instructor posted on March 10, 2013 at 07:34 PM # hit 0 | hit 0

[149] That is correct. I have a feeling that Mexico will be put in essentially a rigged bracket, like Canada and Taipei were this year. Something like France, South Africa and the Czech Republic. A WBC without Mexico would just feel wrong.

152. Weekly Journalist_ posted on March 10, 2013 at 07:41 PM # hit 0 | hit 0

Now this is atmosphere!

153. Weekly Journalist_ posted on March 10, 2013 at 07:44 PM # hit 0 | hit 0

No Beltran for PR?

154. Der_K posted on March 10, 2013 at 07:45 PM # hit 0 | hit 0

Beltran is the DH, I think

155. Weekly Journalist_ posted on March 10, 2013 at 07:46 PM # hit 0 | hit 0

Who is pitching?

156. Weekly Journalist_ posted on March 10, 2013 at 07:48 PM # hit 0 | hit 0

Uh....he was out by a mile at first.

157. Greg (U)K posted on March 10, 2013 at 07:48 PM # hit 0 | hit 0

Thanks for the great game you American chaps. That was the most fun I've had watching baseball in several years, hopefully the Jays manage to top it for me this coming year though.

Chris Robinson impressed yet again.

I'd like to have held it against the Americans, but Zobrist, Mauer, Lucroy, Wright, and Braun are just so damn likable.

158. Weekly Journalist_ posted on March 10, 2013 at 07:48 PM # hit 0 | hit 0

This could be over quick.

159. Posada Posse posted on March 10, 2013 at 07:49 PM # hit 0 | hit 0

The pitcher is Orlando Roman, who pitched last year for the Yakult Swallows.

160. Weekly Journalist_ posted on March 10, 2013 at 07:54 PM # hit 0 | hit 0

Big pitch early...

161. Weekly Journalist_ posted on March 10, 2013 at 08:02 PM # hit 0 | hit 0

Is Falu a bug leaguer. Doesn't ring a bell..

162. Greg (U)K posted on March 10, 2013 at 08:03 PM # hit 0 | hit 0

Is Falu a bug leaguer. Doesn't ring a bell..

29 year old rookie with the Royals in 2012.

163. Posada Posse posted on March 10, 2013 at 08:03 PM # hit 0 | hit 0

Debuted with Kansas City in 2012. 29 years old.

164. Weekly Journalist_ posted on March 10, 2013 at 08:04 PM # hit 0 | hit 0

Wow, he's a 29 year old rookie. Cool!

165. Greg (U)K posted on March 10, 2013 at 08:05 PM # hit 0 | hit 0

I didn't quite catch that, how old is he?

166. Weekly Journalist_ posted on March 10, 2013 at 08:05 PM # hit 0 | hit 0

Come on Carlos...bomb.

167. Weekly Journalist_ posted on March 10, 2013 at 08:08 PM # hit 0 | hit 0

Dudes...Miami is gonna be ####### ROCKIN with these teams in the pool.

168. Der_K posted on March 10, 2013 at 08:11 PM # hit 0 | hit 0

Iirc, falu and roman went to the same juco in Iowa (Indian hills) - it has had a number of guys from pr

169. Weekly Journalist_ posted on March 10, 2013 at 08:19 PM # hit 0 | hit 0

How come sports is the only place you still hear the term JuCo....

170. Weekly Journalist_ posted on March 10, 2013 at 08:23 PM # hit 0 | hit 0

Giving the crappy Molina a start...

171. Crispix Attacks 2: Swag Airlines posted on March 10, 2013 at 08:25 PM # hit 0 | hit 0

Weekly Journalist makes a good point. Is it the same thing as a community college? Are any community colleges actually called "junior colleges"? Maybe it's a thing that exists in regions of the country where I've never been.

Or is it like a fake college that does nothing but prepare athletes, like some of those basketball prep schools (Oak Hill Academy).

172. Harvey Berkman posted on March 10, 2013 at 08:25 PM # hit 0 | hit 0

Yeah, why isn't Yadier playing?

173. Tschingsch posted on March 10, 2013 at 08:32 PM # hit 0 | hit 0

Dear MLB Network: Please find more advertisers for your network, so we don't have to watch the same 5 commercials every break. After seeing the heartwarming story of a man and the horse he felt wasn't as important to him as money about 2,000 times in the last 2 weeks, my desire to drink Budweiser is still at 0%.

174. Jarrod HypnerotomachiaPoliphili(Teddy F. Ballgame) posted on March 10, 2013 at 08:35 PM # hit 0 | hit 0

"Junior college" was once the preferred term, but fell out of favor as the institutions tried to puff up their reputation. I should know, having attended one. They're real schools that grant the all-important two-year Associates degree.

175. Weekly Journalist_ posted on March 10, 2013 at 08:35 PM # hit 0 | hit 0

Junior College is an outdated term for Community College...the term comes from the fact that you graduated with Junior standing at the four year college you moved on to.

I am a community college professor and haven't heard anyone in academia use the term ever. Lots o football recruiting sites though...

176. Gamingboy posted on March 10, 2013 at 08:36 PM # hit 0 | hit 0

Okay, go figure that Hosmer and Victorino would get RBIs- and Hosmer would have the hit that finally put the game totally out of reach....

177. Gamingboy posted on March 10, 2013 at 08:51 PM # hit 0 | hit 0

Also, here's what I think the qualifiers will be... problem is that, unlike last time where one of the qualifiers (South Africa) definitely didn't have either a stadium or a country nearby that did, two- possibly three- definitely have the stadium to play in, and all four slot pretty well into a region, making it hard to figure out where to put outliers like South Africa and Israel...

Monterrey or a similar Mexican City: Mexico, South Africa, UK, France (Mexico should walk)
Regensburg, Germany (probably the best stadium complex in Europe outside of Italy and Holland): Germany, Spain, Israel, Czech Republic (only the Czechs have no shot)
Panama City, Panama: Brazil, Panama, Colombia, Nicaragua (wide open pool)
Sydney, Australia: Australia, New Zealand, Philippines, Thailand (Australia should walk but New Zealand is improving quickly so could give them some trouble)

178. Greg (U)K posted on March 10, 2013 at 08:52 PM # hit 0 | hit 0

Dear MLB Network: Please find more advertisers for your network, so we don't have to watch the same 5 commercials every break. After seeing the heartwarming story of a man and the horse he felt wasn't as important to him as money about 2,000 times in the last 2 weeks, my desire to drink Budweiser is still at 0%.

Watching it on ESPN America in the UK was even worse. No commercials at all, just the same NCAA highlights every single break in play. Surely something other than TCU beating Duke has happened in the past 6 months!

179. Weekly Journalist_ posted on March 10, 2013 at 08:53 PM # hit 0 | hit 0

I was enjoying the Taiwanese commercials on Justin TV.

180. Weekly Journalist_ posted on March 10, 2013 at 08:55 PM # hit 0 | hit 0

Can Melito Perez pitch for Nicaragua?

181. JJ1986 posted on March 10, 2013 at 08:57 PM # hit 0 | hit 0

How are Spain's facilities? Bad enough that they can't host?

182. Weekly Journalist_ posted on March 10, 2013 at 08:57 PM # hit 0 | hit 0

Another JuCo reference.

183. Weekly Journalist_ posted on March 10, 2013 at 08:58 PM # hit 0 | hit 0

Spain just takes facilities from Latin America and declares them Spanish territory.

184. Greg (U)K posted on March 10, 2013 at 08:59 PM # hit 0 | hit 0

Regensburg, Germany (probably the best stadium complex in Europe outside of Italy and Holland): Germany, Spain, Israel, Czech Republic (only the Czechs have no shot)

I'd like to say "agreed" but Regensburg is the only European stadium I've been to. I'd probably be forced to agree on the Czechs as well, but I will say they put up a valiant fight against the Germans last autumn. Their 3B and SS even pulled off the classic Manny Machado-fake-throw-to-first-get-the-runner-rounding-third trick. (Unless it was Germany nabbing them on that play...which now that I think about it, it probably was). Either way, for a few innings it looked like they had a chance!

They also had a catcher named Peter Cech (I think), who was hitting baseballs with a hockey goalie stick before the game.

185. Weekly Journalist_ posted on March 10, 2013 at 09:13 PM # hit 0 | hit 0

Boricuas!!

186. Weekly Journalist_ posted on March 10, 2013 at 09:20 PM # hit 0 | hit 0

Robbie!

not really sure what else you could want from a ballgame.

187. Weekly Journalist_ posted on March 10, 2013 at 09:22 PM # hit 0 | hit 0

Holy ####, Ricky Bones!!

188. Tschingsch posted on March 10, 2013 at 09:23 PM # hit 0 | hit 0

With 4 years between tournaments, I'd like to think MLB/WBC would pretty much make this open to any country who wanted to field a team and have multi-tiered tournaments, or work out something with the IBAF. If the point of the WBC is to grow the sport internationally, then you want to get as many places involved as possible. Sure, you'll have some really bad teams in the lower tiers, but if you want the sport to grow internationally, then you have to start somewhere. And, following the same qualifiers as this year, a team technically could go from the lowest tier all the way to qualifying, which would be pretty cool.

189. RollingWave posted on March 10, 2013 at 09:36 PM # hit 0 | hit 0

@188 yeah that would be awesome, the problem is that most country probably can't even field a team . unlike Soccer

190. Gamingboy posted on March 10, 2013 at 09:47 PM # hit 0 | hit 0

How are Spain's facilities? Bad enough that they can't host?

I believe they still have a secondary (maybe 3,000 seats) facility left over from the Barcelona games, but I don't think it's aged very well, if I remember correctly.

191. Yardape posted on March 10, 2013 at 09:49 PM # hit 0 | hit 0

Monterrey or a similar Mexican City: Mexico, South Africa, UK, France (Mexico should walk)
Regensburg, Germany (probably the best stadium complex in Europe outside of Italy and Holland): Germany, Spain, Israel, Czech Republic (only the Czechs have no shot)
Panama City, Panama: Brazil, Panama, Colombia, Nicaragua (wide open pool)
Sydney, Australia: Australia, New Zealand, Philippines, Thailand (Australia should walk but New Zealand is improving quickly so could give them some trouble)

Pakistan and Argentina are each ranked higher than New Zealand and France in the current IBAF rankings, so presumably they would be in the qualifiers. I would go something like:

Perth pool: Australia, Colombia, Philippines, Thailand
Rio pool: Brazil, Panama, Argentina, Israel
Monterrey pool: Mexico, Nicaragua, Pakistan, South Africa
Regensburg pool: Spain, Germany, UK, Czech Republic

192. Der_K posted on March 10, 2013 at 09:53 PM # hit 0 | hit 0

So, I looked up Indian Hills CC - Ramon Vasquez, Rafael Carmona, Ruben Gotay, and Jose Rodriguez (actually drafted from Fla Int'l) are other Puerto Ricans who reached the bigs from there - their current roster has nine from the island (also guys from VZ, the DR, Canada - over 40% of their roster is from another country). Longest careers: Duane Kuiper and Shane Rawley. Most famous alum: Tom Arnold, for whom the softball field is named.

Some schools have retained the name "junior college", but that does seem to be going away outside of athletics, afaict.

193. Gamingboy posted on March 10, 2013 at 10:02 PM # hit 0 | hit 0

@188

Assuming that the relegation was done in a way similar to how the WBC relegation to qualifiers worked, the "C-level" qualifier would look something like this (taking the other countries from IBAF rankings):

France (no clue): France, Sweden, Belgium, Switzerland

Czech Republic (I do remember seeing the Czech Republic has a pretty good baseball facility that, while not WBC quality, could probably hold a qualifier): Czech Repubic, Croatia, Greece, Russia

Nicaragua (Estadio Dennis Martinez): Nicaragua, Argentina, Ecuador, Honduras

Thailand (no idea): Thailand, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Indonesia

Some of those qualifiers would be very, very ugly, and it'd get even uglier after that in a hypothetical D-level:

Switzerland: Switzerland, Austria, Ireland, Finland

Russia: Russia, Ukraine, Lithuania, Bulgaria

Honduras: Honduras, Peru, Chile, Guatemala

Indonesia: Indonesia, Hong Kong, Afghanistan, Guam (if you want to meld Hong Kong with China, then add in Palau)

And it'd get even worse from there...

194. Der_K posted on March 10, 2013 at 10:12 PM # hit 0 | hit 0

Keep going...

195. Weekly Journalist_ posted on March 10, 2013 at 10:31 PM # hit 0 | hit 0

Are there any white Dominicans? I know that Carlos Delgado is an example of a rare black Puerto Rican.

196. Gamingboy posted on March 10, 2013 at 10:32 PM # hit 0 | hit 0

Seriously, Der K? Okay, fine, here's the E-level although I won't be able to stay with the rough regions I've been having:

Finland: Finland, Romania, Hungary, Georgia
Bulgaria: Bulgaria, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia
Guatemala: Guatemala, Iran (doesn't really fit anywhere else), Fiji (like Iran), Bahamas
Guam: Guam (actually, whatever happened to Hattig?), Palau, New Caledonia, Nepal

...

197. Weekly Journalist_ posted on March 10, 2013 at 10:33 PM # hit 0 | hit 0

Pakistan can just convert some bowlers....like the Pirates.

198. Gamingboy posted on March 10, 2013 at 10:37 PM # hit 0 | hit 0

Pakistan can just convert some bowlers....like the Pirates.

Yeah, I wonder why MLB isn't pushing India, even though Rinku and Dinesh would be the only two guys...

199. Weekly Journalist_ posted on March 10, 2013 at 10:37 PM # hit 0 | hit 0

I doubt there are 25 people in Nepal who even know the rules of baseball.

200. JJ1986 posted on March 10, 2013 at 10:37 PM # hit 0 | hit 0

Are there any white Dominicans?

At least one.

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Saturday, March 23, 2013

Freeman was set to play for Canada

Reader Comments and Retorts

Wbc Think Factory