myworldofbaseball

The Women’s Baseball World Cup will be held at Space Coast Stadium in Vierra, Florida from August 22 -31. The following teams have qualified to compete in this tournament. Japan is the class of the group (rankings in parenthesis).

Asia - Japan (1), Taiwan (6), South Korea (7), Hong Kong (10)

Americas - Canada (2), United States (3), Venezuela (5), Cuba (9), Dominican Republic (NR), Puerto Rico (NR)

Europe - Netherlands (8)

Oceania - Australia (4)

Taiwan allows their four professional teams to use three import players. They do not have a rule that limits the number of pitchers or hitters in that three import player rule. Because AAA and AA pitchers are more talented than the Taiwan arms the import players have all been pitchers for the last four or five years. This stunts the development of the Taiwan arms. Myworld would like to see a break out of two to one like Korea if they want to develop future pitchers for international play.

Below are the foreign players for Taiwan:

LaMigo Monkeys

LHP - Darin Downs
RHP - Bruce Kern
RHP - Michael Nix

Darin Downs pitched for the Monkeys last year and the Lions the previous year. He got some major league time with the Tigers and Astros but once he found himself pitching in the Independent Leagues the CPBL did not seem so bad. Bruce got as high as AA but like Darin pitched for the Long Island Ducks. The Monkeys were familiar with him because of his two year stint with the China Trust Brothers in 2016 and 2017 where he never survived a complete season, despite a mid-90s fastball. Michael got as high as AAA in 2008 but has spent the rest of his career pitching in the Mexican Leagues or the Independent Leagues. The Monkeys found him pitching at Sugarland in the Atlantic League last year and signed him. He has also pitched for the Uni Lions.

Chinatrust Brothers

RHP Zack Segovia
RHP Mitch Lively
LHP Nick Additon

Nick pitched for the Brothers for two years but impressed the Korean team the Lotte Giants where he was sold for the remainder of the 2017 season. He did not impress enough for the Giants to keep him and the Brothers signed him for a return engagement. Nick got as high as AAA in his 11 minor league seasons. Mitch was pitching in the Mexican League the last two years, getting as high as AAA in his minor league career when the Brothers signed him. There was also a brief stint in the NPB Japanese League in 2015 with the Nippon Ham Fighters. ZacK had two years with the major leagues pitching for the Phillies (2007) and the Nationals (2009). He pitched for the LaMiga Monkeys the last two years and now finds himself with the Brothers for his third season in the CPBL.

Uni President Lions

RHP David Jose Martinez
RHP Josh Roenicke
LHP Ryan Verdugo

Josh is the son of major leaguer Gary. He pitched for four major league teams from 2008 to 2013. After that his time was spent in AAA and in 2017 he pitched in the Mexican League. Martinez pitched two seasons for the Astros in 2013-2014 but after the 2014 season spent the remainder of his career in AAA. Ryan pitched for the Royals in 2012 but his last two years have been spent in the Mexican League. All three pitchers are new to the CPBL.

Fubon Guardians

RHP Bryan Woodall
RHP Bruce Billings
RHP Mike Loree

Bryan got as far AAA in his seven year minor league career. The Brothers found him pitching in the Atlantic League for Lancaster in 2015 where he was in his second year. Last year Bryan made the CPBL All Star team for the Chinatrust Brothers but they chose not to resign him, opening the door for the Guardians. This is his fourth year in the CPBL. Bruce pitched a couple years in the major leagues with the Rockies (2011), Athletics (2011) and Yankees (2014), only making five bullpen appearances. He last pitched in AAA in 2015 where the Lions discovered him. He pitched the last two years (2016 and 2017) for the Lions. Mike never got past AA in the minor leagues and was discovered at Long Island by the Monkeys. He began his Taiwan career in 2012, winning the Triple Crown in 2015 and 2017. This would be his sixth season pitching in Taiwan, his second with the Guardians after pitching for them last year.

The six teams have been selected for Honkball. It will be played July 13-22 at Pim Mulier Stadium in Haarlem. Haarlem is one of those quiet, pleasant cities that have more bikes on the roads than automobiles. It also has canals, windmills, a town square and a baseball stadium. The stadium is just a couple miles from the town square. Myworld could not pick a better spot to relax in a tranquil setting and then spend your time at the ballpark.

The six teams participating in the tournament are:

Netherlands, Curacao, Italy, Taiwan, Cuba and Japan

After the last Honkball tournament there was some discussion to end the tournament. The crowds are loyal with fans waiting two hours inside the stadium waiting for the second game to be played. When you buy a ticket it is for the day, with the first game scheduled for 2 PM and the evening affair for 7 PM. There is a tented area and a stage for a band, so if the crowd is large enough a band could be made available to entertain those who wait the couple hours inside the stadium for the second game to start.

Despite the decent crowds the organizers were not able to collect enough revenue to continue the tournament. Lack of advertisers and sponsors are the large revenue generators for most tournaments. Another group has stepped in to hold the tournament. Hopefully they will be more successful in continuing the tournament every two years.

With their win in the World Baseball Classic the United States has ended the three year reign of Japan and taken over the number one spot in baseball, according to the World Baseball and Softball Confederation (WBSC). With the top 12 teams qualifying for the Premier 12 in 2019 myworld will list the top 13 teams as ranked by the WBSC. Mexico sitting at number five has never been ranked higher.

1. United States (5025 points)
2. Japan (4609 points)
3. South Korea (4158 points)
4. Cuba (3152 points)
5. Mexico (2613 points)
6. Taiwan (2520 points)
7. Canada (2142 points)
8. Australia (2095 points)
9. Netherlands (2002 points)
10. Puerto Rico (1796 points)
11. Venezuela (1765 points)
12. Dominican Republic (1227 points)
13. Nicaragua (1155 points)

You can see the complete list at wbsc.org/rankings/

The Bandits have completed a trifecta. After winning their first of three straight championships, beating the Adelaide Bite in 2015/2016, they followed that up by beating the Melbourne Aces. This year they defeated the Canberra Cavalry in a best of three series. Next on their agenda to beat in the finals would be the Perth Heat and/or the Sydney Blue Sox. That would give them five in a row against each ABL team. The Blue Sox may be tough since they are the only ABL team not to appear in the finals since the new format was started back in 2010.

Canberra won the opener 5-1 led by the 6.2 shutout innings from Brian Grening. He got offensive support from Robbie Perkins and David Kandilas, who each hit two run homers. The only run scored by Brisbane was in the ninth on a solo shot by T.J. Bennett. Little did Canberra know this would be the beginning of a trend in the second game.

Game two was not very competitive with Brisbane rolling over Canberra 12-2. Canberra scored both their runs on solo shots by Travis Witherspoon and Boss Moanaroa. Brisbane out muscled them with seven homeruns, Andrew Campbell and Chih-Shih Leng each hitting two homeruns, and Donald Lutz, Mitch Nilsson and David Sutherland each going deep. That is homeruns hit by players from four different countries, United States, Australia, Taiwan and Germany.

Tim Atherton pitched seven innings, allowing just one run on three hits while striking out 11 to get the win. Lake Bachar had a rough outing for Canberra. He lasted just two outs into the fourth inning, but five of the seven hits he gave up carried over the fence.

The final game was a bit more competitive. Brisbane scored three early runs on a three run shot from Adam Weisenburger in the second inning to take an early 3-0 lead. They made it 4-0 on a solo shot by Mitch Nilsson in the sixth. The fireworks would begin after that.

The veteran Travis Blackley pitched six innings of one hit ball for Brisbane. When he was removed in the seventh the Cavalry charged. As did the benches, with two bench clearing incidents happening in the sixth. Manager Dave Nilsson and his coach were removed after a caught stealing at second base led to a second benches clearing brawl. The first bench clearing occurred after a hit by pitch immediately following the Nilsson homer in the top of the sixth. The umpire ejecting them was Takahito Matsuda.

Sam Holland only faced one hitter before he was removed, giving up a single to Jay Baum. Ryan Bollinger got Boss Moanaroa to ground out to second. Baum was allowed to advance to second and scored on a throwing error by first baseman David Sutherland when he broke for third. That gave the Cavalry their first run.

In the eighth Kyle Perkins led off the inning with a homerun. Travis Witherspoon added a one out double but he was left stranded at third.

Steven Kent kept Canberra in the game by striking out all six hitters he faced. He also got credit for an out in the bottom of the sixth on a caught stealing attempt that led to the two ejections.

After going through four pitchers to get four outs Brisbane turned to Ryan Searle to finish the game. He retired five of the last six hitters he faced, giving up a two out single in the ninth to Robbie Perkins, but retiring the last hitter (Cameron Warner) to secure the Brisbane Bandits third straight championship.

CPBL Baseball Commissioner Chin-Yang Wu threw out the first pitch in the second game of the ABL championship. The CPBL is looking to expand and there are discussions of putting a team of Australian players in the CPBL as a fifth team.

The United States earned more points than any other country in 2017 but it was not enough to surpass Japan for the number one ranking. For the third year in a row Japan is the number one ranked country in baseball. They earned the second most points in baseball last year and now lead the United States by 244 points. The 2018 season will be difficult for the United States to surpass Japan since they are not participating in the Under 23 Baseball World Cup in Nicaragua in October, one of the two tournaments that hand out the most points for the 2018 season. In a couple weeks the rankings could shuffle as points from 2014 expire, but if the United States should surpass Japan because of subtracted points their reign will be short.

Below are the top 12 teams in baseball, plus number 13 waiting to crack into the top 12. The top 12 teams will qualify for the Premier 12, which is the third most prestigious baseball tournament after the Olympics and the World Baseball Classic.

1. Japan (5658 points)
2. United States (5414 points)
3. Korea (4950 points)
4. Taiwan (3808 points)
5. Cuba (3677 points)
6. Mexico (3012 points)
7. Australia (2634 points)
8. Netherlands (2377 points)
9. Venezuela (2363 points)
10. Canada (2142 points)
11. Puerto Rico (1827 points)
12. Italy (1686 points)

13. Nicaragua (1636 points)

The NPB East Japanese prospect team defeated their Korean KBO counterparts 4-1 in the Taiwan winter league championship game. The KBO team battled the host Taiwan team in the semifinals. The KBO team beat the CPBL 6-2 to advance to the championship game. The NPB East team upset the Division winner Japan Amateur Baseball Association (JABA) 2-0 to advance to the championship game. JABA went on to beat the CPBL team 4-3 to capture third place.

The final standings to determine seeding:

JABA (11-4-2), CPBL (11-5-1), KBO (8-7-2), NPB East (8-9), NPB West (8-9-1), WBSC Team (4-11-2)

Nicaragua will host the Under 23 WBSC championship in 2018, playing the games at the newly constructed 15,000 seat Dennis Martinez stadium at a date yet to be determined. Despite all the points awarded for this event the No 2 United States and No 5 Cuba will not be playing in the tournament. The United States did not play in the qualifying round, while Cuba did not qualify. Below are the teams who have qualified for the games:

Africa (1) - to be determined
Americas (4) - No. 9 Venezuela, No. 6 Mexico, No. 11 Puerto Rico, No. 16 Dominican Republic
Asia (3) - No1. Japan, No.4 Taiwan and No. 3 South Korea
Europe (2) - No. 8 Netherlands, No. 14 Czech Republic
Oceania (1) - to be determined
Wildcard (1) - No 13 Nicaragua

The Under 15 Hosts will be Panama. The teams competing in that tournament are:

Africa (1) - to be determined
Americas (5) - No. 2 United States, No. 16 Dominican Republic, No. 5 Cuba, No. 15 Panama, No. 18 Brazil
Asia (2) - No. 1 Japan and No. 4 Taiwan
Europe (2) - No. 20 Germany and No. 8 Netherlands
Oceania (1) - to be determined

In the first ever Asian championship from the three professional Asian Leagues featuring players 23 and under Japan continued their domination, blanking Korea 7-0 in the final and finishing undefeated in the three games. Kazuto Taguchi pitched seven innings of shutout ball, allowing just three hits to lead Japan to the victory. Tsuyoshi Ishizaki and Yasuaki Yamasaki each worked a perfect inning of shutout ball to complete the shutout. The attendance figure was listed at 30,498, a little less than the crowd that would attend Yomiuri Giants games, but a good crowd for this series.

The first two runs of the ball game were driven in by series MVP Shuta Tonosaki. He contributed RBI singles in the fourth and fifth innings to give Japan an early 2-0 lead. Ryoma Nishikawa drove in two more runs in the fifth inning with a double.

Nishikawa also slammed a solo homerun in the seventh to finish the game with three RBIs. Hotaka Yamakawa drove in two runs with a single in the sixth inning.

Korea strung together back to back two out singles in the fifth inning to place two runners on base for the first and only time in the game. Min-Woo Park grounded out to end the threat. The Japanese pitchers retired the next 12 hitters to sweep through the series.

The MVP of the tourney was Shuta Tonosaki, who finished the series driving in four runs. The All Asian Series team was:

Catcher - Ju-Suk Ha (Korea), First Base - Yu-Hsien Chu (Taiwan), Second Base - Min-Woo Park (Korea), Third Base - Ryoma Nishikawa (Japan), Shortstop - Ha-Seong Kim (Korea), Outfield - Shuta Tonosaki (Japan), Go Matsumoto (Japan) and Po-Jung Wang (Taiwan), designated hitter - Kensuke Kondo (Japan), Pitcher - Kazuto Taguchi (Japan)

The championship of the Asia Series will see powerhouse Japan duke it out with Korea. This after they had clobbered Taiwan 8-2. Japan will have a rematch with Korea who they had beaten earlier this year 1-0.

Yota Kyoda led the Japanese offense with a two run single in the fifth and an RBI single in the eighth. Shuta Tonosaki got the scoring started for Japan with a solo shot in the second inning. He added an RBI double in the ninth to close out the scoring.

Shoto Imanaga went six innings to shut out Taiwan, giving up just three hits and striking out 12. Taiwan scored their first runs in the ninth inning after the game was pretty much decided. Yu-Hsien Chu started the inning with a solo homerun. Chieh-Hsien Chen was hit by a pitch to force in a run. With the bases loaded Pin-Chieh Chen grounded into a double play to end the game.