East and West. North and South. The five teams that will kick off the World Baseball Classic late Tuesday night are a true potpourri bracket, with entrants from the Caribbean, Central America, Europe and Asia. Within, there is an opening for upsets.
The Netherlands is a WBC mainstay, always a threat. Baseball-mad Cuba has a new look. Panama and Italy are ready to shake up the order. And Chinese Taipei will play host in Taiwan with home-field advantage. Let’s go. Here’s a closer look at the WBC’s Group A.
Chinese Taipei
Team Chinese Taipei roster
Coaching staff: They are managed by Lin Yueh-Ping, once a star closer for the Uni-President Lions in the CPBL, where he helped lead them to six league titles as a player and coach, including in his first year as manager in 2020. He’s also been a fixture of their national team for decades. Ex-Yankees pitcher Chien-Ming Wang serves as bullpen coach.
Player to watch: Yu Chang. The do-it-all infielder, who signed a one-year deal with the Red Sox early in spring training, profiles as above-average defensively, especially at second base. And Chang, 27, is at least reliable at all four spots, even if he’s not a monster hitter.
Previous standout international performances: Winners of the 2019 Asian Baseball Championship.
How they got here: They were ranked fourth in the world in 2017 but fell flat in the WBC, going 0-3 in their pool as Israel and Netherlands advanced instead. This year, the team qualified automatically as a host country. And, like Chang, the rest of this year’s roster is similarly spotted with potential, with current and ex-MLB prospects. Right-hander Kai-Wei Teng, 24, is a Giants prospect who pitched in the title game of the 2019 Asian Baseball Championship as Chinese Taipei toppled Japan. Shortstop Cheng Tsung-che, 21, is a Pirates prospect. And keep an eye on Lin Li, nicknamed the “Nuclear Warhead,” a utilityman slugger who was, by far, the best hitter in the CPBL last season in leading the Rakuten Monkeys to a second consecutive title.
Netherlands
Coaching staff: Hensley “Bam Bam” Meulens, a three-time World Series winner as hitting coach with the Giants, will manage the Dutch team for a third time in the WBC. Bert Blyleven is the pitching coach and Andruw Jones is the bench coach.
Xander Bogaerts. (Matt Thomas / San Diego Padres/Getty Images)
Player to watch: Xander Bogaerts. After signing a startling 11-year, $280 million deal with the Padres in December, the Aruban-born Bogaerts leads a sneaky good team from the Kingdom. Bogaerts has a lot to live up to in San Diego. But his post-Red Sox career will wait while Bogaerts tries to push Team Netherlands into the later rounds.
Previous standout international performances: Winners of 24 European Championships and the 2011 World Cup, they have twice been semifinalists in the WBC.
How they got here: The Netherlands, U.S. and Japan reached the semifinals in the past two WBCs, leading to an automatic berth for the Dutch this year. In the history of the tournament, the Dutch are 2-0 against South Korea, 2-1 against the Dominican Republic and 3-1 against Cuba. In 2017, Netherlands and Puerto Rico played perhaps the best game of the tournament, an 11-inning affair that only ended after Carlos Correa scored on an Eddie Rosario sacrifice fly to push Puerto Rico into the finals with a 4-3 win. “Every time we advance, we’re a ‘Cinderella,’” Meulens told The Athletic earlier this month. “We’re doing something right, right? So why are we a Cinderella?”
Italy
Coaching staff: Mike Piazza is Italy’s manager. The Hall of Fame Mike Piazza. That one. In fact, their entire staff is stacked. Blake Butera is the bench coach; he’s with the Rays and won two Carolina League titles managing the Charleston RiverDogs. Chris Denorfia, manager of the Hartford Yard Goats, is the hitting coach. Michael Borzello, a longtime coach with the Yankees and most recently the Cubs, is the pitching coach. And did you hear Mike Piazza is managing this team?
Player to watch: Matt Harvey. Harvey was something extraordinary for a three-year stretch early in his tenure with the Mets. The right-hander limited home runs like no other just as the game bent toward them, finishing fourth in National League Cy Young Award voting in 2013. Then he underwent Tommy John surgery. Then surgery for thoracic outlet syndrome. He bounced between five teams. Then he was suspended 60 games last year for violating MLB’s Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program by distributing a prohibited drug of abuse. He appeared only in the minors for the Orioles. At 33, this might be his last chance to shine. And Italy will lean on his skill as the veteran of their staff.
Previous standout international performances: Winners of the 2012 European Championship.
How they got here: Along with the Netherlands, Italy sits at the top of the heap among European baseball, since winning the continent’s first national tournament in 1954. And as quarterfinalists in 2017, they earned an automatic bid this year. Team Italia has won 10 Euros, trailing only the Dutch’s 24 titles. And they’re not in it for the fun. After Piazza played with Italy in the 2006 WBC, he was hired on as hitting coach for the next two, in 2009 and ’13. Behind the scenes, he worked as a hitting instructor in Italy, just as they won consecutive Euro titles in 2010 and ’12. Piazza was hired as Italy’s manager in 2019 and he will finally appear in the dugout. Italy’s appearance in this WBC was years in the making.
Cuba
Coaching staff: Armando “Mandy” Johnson, now 64, has been a fixture of Cuban baseball for nearly 40 years. Not only will he manage Cuba in the WBC, but as director of the island’s top international team, he also oversees the ladder of younger players in Cuba’s system across all international competitions.
Player to watch: Yoenis Céspedes. The ex-Mets sensation never had a proper send-off, after a broken ankle scuttled his 2019 season and he backed out of 2020’s pandemic-shortened schedule. Now’s his chance. If it seems like Céspedes has been playing forever, it’s because he has. He became a full-time baseball player when he was 10, then started playing in Cuba’s top league when he was 17, with his hometown Alazanes de Granma. But he’s only 37. He played this winter with Águilas Cibaeñas in the Dominican league. Surely there’s pop left in the bat of the two-time Home Run Derby champ.
Previous standout international performances: WBC runners-up in 2006; three-time Olympic gold medalists.
How they got here: Cuba has dominated international baseball for decades, especially among the amateur ranks. So it’s no surprise they are among the automatic qualifiers coming out of 2017. They’ve won three Summer Olympics, 25 World Cups, 12 Pan American Games, 10 Intercontinental Cups and a parade of younger-division trophies. In Cuba, béisbol es vida. But after reaching the finals in the inaugural WBC in 2006, Cuba fell back some, insisting on playing with a roster of amateurs just as other nations started to allow their top pros to play. Cuba’s been taking it seriously all along. And this year, they will play with Cuban pros for the first time, including Luis Robert and Yoán Moncada of the White Sox.
Panama
Coaching staff: Luis Ortiz, now the Royals’ international scouting supervisor, has managed Panama since before their first appearance in the WBC in 2009. As a scout for the Braves starting in 2010, he signed a string of successful free agents, including Christian Bethancourt. He’s a baseball lifer.
Player to watch: Jose Ramos. The Dodgers’ 22-year-old outfielder out of Chepo, Panama, is an interesting prospect. He hits the ball a ton — when he hits the ball. He smacked 19 homers in just 95 games for the High-A Great Lakes Loons last year, but against 133 strikeouts. Can Panama show him enough patience for primary duty in center field in the WBC? Can they wait long enough for him to hit one out? Will they hope he catches fire at the plate early and often?
Previous standout international performances: Won a silver medal in the 2018 U-15 World Cup.
How they got here: They had to get through Argentina and Brazil to qualify for the WBC. And among teams in Central America, Panama holds court, along with Nicaragua. But they’ve struggled to break through against the heavyweights from the Caribbean and South America. Panama’s roster, though, is stacked in at least one area. They will sport a stout bullpen filled with major leaguers, including the Angels’ Jaime Barria, Brewers’ Javy Guerra, Rockies’ Justin Lawrence and, in reserve, the Nationals’ Paolo Espino.
For more of The Athletic’s World Baseball Classic coverage, visit our WBC hub and live blog.
(Top image: John Bradford / The Athletic; Photos of Livan Moinelo: Kyodo via Associated Press; Yu Cheng courtesy of BROS Sports Marketing)
Source link : https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/4268742/2023/03/07/world-baseball-classic-pool-a/
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Publish date : 2023-03-07 03:00:00
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