International Musings
Some thoughts that I’ve been meaning to put together but they are not extensive enough to make a separate blog:
It appears that Italy has settled on its 69 man roster for the World Baseball Clasic. The roster will be trimmed by natural selection as players commit or don’t to the tournament. You can view the roster here: http://www.mister-baseball.com/hargrove-trebelhorn-piazza-added-italian-coaching-staff-69-players-consideration/. The Italian team should be well coached, with Mike Hargrove, Tom Trebelhorn and Mike Piazza agreeing to coach. A number of major league players appear on the roster, not the type of players who are committing for Venezuela, the Dominican Republic or the United States, but quality utility guys, fourth outfielders and mid level relievers.
Alex Rodriguez announced that he will play for the Dominican Republic in the World Baseball Classic. Is that because he feared not making the United States squad if David Wright is on the team? At this point in their careers, David Wright would start for me at third base before Alex Rodriguez. This is a face saving move by A-rod not to be upstaged by a couple of the young third baseman coming up in the league.
Most teams participating in the World Baseball Classic have put together preliminary rosters and announced their coaches, except the United States. They are going to wait for the winter meetings to announce their coaches. Many of the teams in the professional leagues are not allowing their players to participate, leaving one to think of what importance is this tournament if certain leagues can not send their best.
In the Cuban league, Ian Rendon did not give up a hit, but one out shy of getting to the fifth inning his manager pulled him. It could be that Ian had walked 11 batters and struck out 8. So 26 Cuban batters came up to face Ian and only seven put the ball in play. The Industriales defeated the defending champion Santiago 4-0. The walk total was three short of the record that is held by Ariel Prieto, who had a brief major league career.
While the league in Taiwan, the CPBL is shrinking to four, the professional league in China is talking about expanding to eight. True, China is a much larger country than Taiwan and can probably expand easier, but after the gambling scandals in Taiwan it won’t be long before China surpasses Taiwan if Taiwan doesn’t clean house.