Barry Jive wrote:#1 reason i hate the WBC: as hard as it is to blow someone out like that in baseball, there's no freaking way Australia is that much better than Mexico. if they played a 7-game series, it'd be 4-3.

Now that you're sober, what does this mean?

The Dutch are beating Puerto Rico 1-0 after two. I wouldn't exactly bet the farm on this to hold up, but if it does, the DR-Puerto Rico elimination game would be a hell of a thing to see, and the Dutch making it to the second round would be an insane upset.

I think there is a really easy way to "fix" the World Baseball Classic to make it interesting and actually mean something. Right now, it starts on March 5th and ends on March 23rd, so that's 18 days. You've got all these groups, its double elimination, etc etc. So here's what I'd do.

1. Have the International Baseball Federation create a world rankings, similar to the FIFA rankings. The top 5 seeded teams plus the defending champion would automatically qualify for "Round B" as I'm going to call it. If the defending champ is one of the top 5 seeds, then the #6 seeded team would make it.

2. "Round A" as I'm going to call it, would take place during the winter leading up to the competition, so in the case of 2009, it would have happened in December 2008. The teams not in the 5+ champion group would be placed in 2 equal groups and would play a round robin style tournament. So you'd have 10 teams in 2 groups, and you'd play each team once, a total of 4 games. The best record in each group would advance to Round B.

3. So that means you'd have 8 teams remaining, and this would be decided by the end of December. Spring training starts in mid Feb, games start the beginning of March. So instead of having the WBC at the beginning of the month, you have it at the end of the month. That means guys came in to camp, they were able to spend times with their teams, their coaches could manage their workload early and get them in shape, and then they'd leave for a week at the end.

You have 8 teams left, teams seeded 1-6 and then the 2 winners of the play in groups. Then you set it up as a single elimination tournament with the 8 teams left.

1 v 8
2 v 7
3 v 6
4 v 5

But the final would be a best of 3 game series.

Day 1 = 4 games
Day 2 = 2 games
Day 3 = Off day
Day 4 = Champ Game 1
Day 5 = Champ Game 2
Day 6 = Champ Game 3 if necessary

You could play the entire thing in a week. I think this would be awesome for a number of reasons.

a.) Teams would take the games more seriously instead of just assuming you're going to cruise through the group games to get to the real competition. The Dominican Republic, for instance, might not have taken the Netherlands so lightly had they known it was 1 and done.

b.) Players who might be bailing out of the competition for fear of getting hurt, or not getting their reps in, or not having a shot at a roster spot, now have almost an entire spring to get ready before the contest. Players get hurt because they tend to overexert when they aren't physically ready. By the last week of March, you're ready.

c.) Knowing its 1 and done, it will add more significance to each game, which should create a better environment for everyone involved.

d.) You play the games the last week of March, then have 3-4 days off before the start of the regular season, and everyone has a chance to travel and get ready for Opening Day.

FTN wrote:...

d.) You play the games the last week of March, then have 3-4 days off before the start of the regular season, and everyone has a chance to travel and get ready for Opening Day.

all in all, a very nice plan. you are a smart guy.

so, your solution to countries taking games too lightly is to not make them play the games?


it's not perfect, but the joy of this event should be in seeing the different styles of baseball go head to head against each other with a tinge of nationalistic pride at stake.

they bollixed it up by quarantining the pacific league teams off in tokyo, but the next round should be a whole lot more interesting as the contact hitting and hesitation pitching of japan and korea goes up against the free swinging islanders, and the patient hitting and power pitching of the americans.


there's always room for improvement, but the best is yet to come (and also, probably the worst, since some of these coaches are running their pitchers into the ground, roy oswalt and rick vandenhurk, in particular.

steagles wrote:so, your solution to countries taking games too lightly is to not make them play the games?

My solution is, if you want to take the game seriously and win the competition, you better put your best team on the field from Day 1

It may not be perfect, but this WBC is pretty damn fun


Italy beating the Canucks

The Dutch beating the Ricans...

better than watching a grapefruit league game IMO

I will selfishly state I wish they just scrapped this thing altogether.

Juan Carlos Sulburan is a stud.

as I say that he gives up a rope to Alives

what in the world

i can't imagine them not scoring 4 or 5 here

Following the Netherlands/Puerto Rico game on MLB Gameday... looked like that 10-pitch at-bat to Vasquez was epic. And epic fail for PR.

oh, beltran's up. forget it.

PR fails again. Still 1-0 Netherlands going into the 8th inning.

romeroids in.

hes all over the place

Netherlandz meltdown in progress

8 of the 9 pitches thrown (5 by one pitcher, 4 by another) by the Netherlands in the 8th inning have been balls.

Bases loaded all on walks with one out in the bottom of the 8th. Still 1-0. Yadier Molina up and Alex Cora on deck.

Yadier Molina sucks. Good double play candidate.