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WORLD BASEBALL CLASSIC 2023


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There's probably going to be enough of the old guard Cuban exiles to raise a stink about Cuba playing in Miami, even with current MLB defectors on the squad. 

Either way, the atmosphere in Miami the rest of the way is going to be electric judging by the Puerto Rico/Dominican Republic game.

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I have to say, this is the most entertaining game of baseball I have watched in a long ass time.  This Dominican team is a juggernaut on paper, but they are about to be sent home if they don't rally soon.  

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9 minutes ago, SirFozzie said:

I'd LOL Mets (Diaz got injured in the celebration), but man, that sucks.

 

 

Enjoy the WBC while you can because the risk of something like this is going make the owners reconsider the whole thing. This stupid tournament ended our season before it even began.

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21 minutes ago, sabremike said:

Enjoy the WBC while you can because the risk of something like this is going make the owners reconsider the whole thing. This stupid tournament ended our season before it even began.

It's a legitimately freak injury. He could have gotten it doing just about anything if he did it just lightly jumping up and down on a grass field.

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it's possible that Mark DeRosa is the worst manager on a Mike Trout team ever, and Mike Trout was managed by Brad Ausmus once.

17 minutes ago, SirFozzie said:

It's a legitimately freak injury. He could have gotten it doing just about anything if he did it just lightly jumping up and down on a grass field.

LoanDepot Park isn't a grass field. It's "Sports Turf".

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9 minutes ago, sabremike said:

Enjoy the WBC while you can because the risk of something like this is going make the owners reconsider the whole thing. This stupid tournament ended our season before it even began.

I suppose,  but that is something that could have happened walking down the stairs. He didn't get hurt playing. This rorschach is better than anything Major League Baseball has put on in years. Everybody is playing hard,  having fun and they are taking every precaution not to overuse any players. I know somebody is going to have a problem with it,  but this is everything I want from baseball. 

The fact that the Dominican team is out shows just how great of a tourney this has been. That team had the last Cy Young winner,  the rookie of the year,  and a couple MVP candidates and it just wasn't enough. 

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There is so much energy for this tournament across the board that no spring training game (or most regular season games) can even come close to matching. It was a freak injury to Edwin Diaz. That sucks. But LOLMets is definitely a thing. 

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the lineup for the last 5 tournament games in Miami

Puerto Rico/Mexico on Friday

USA/Venezuela on Saturday

Because this is America, the quarterfinal game order got flipped to put the USA on Saturday because I guess WWE Smackdown has enough power to not get bumped to FS1 so that Fox could air the Friday Night game. The USA/Venezuela winner having to play Cuba a day after playing each other seems like a less than optimal change for them.

Cuba vs USA/Venezuela winner on Sunday

Japan/Italy vs Puerto Rico/Mexico on Monday

The finals on Tuesday night

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I guess Freddie Freeman having a hamstring malady in the Canada games will fly under the radar since (a) he'll be back soonish anyways and (b) nobody was really watching Canadian WBC games aside from the Canada/USA game.

Anyways, baseball, of all sports, should probably be able to occasionally decide "injuries happen in weird ways sometimes". I mean, the NFL didn't start throwing flags on field goal kickers because Bill Gramatica messed his knee up celebrating a field goal. And that's a league that actively tries to police player joy.

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Japan is on to Miami. Ohtani picks up a plaque. He notched two wins and batted .438 through five games as the DH. Munetaka Murakami has finally gotten hits in his last two games after going 0 for whatever in his first three games - the Amazon Prime broadcast would always focus on his average displayed on the scoreboard whenever he came up to bat just to rub it in.

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Considering the pools, a final 6 of Venezuela, USA, Cuba, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Japan is probably as good as one could hope for (once again, when you consider how much stronger pool D was than pool C)

Can’t predict how many fans will show up in Miami to cheer for Mexico but the fans at Mexico/PR can also talk about their favorite boxing matches to make conversation.

Also, if Cuba in Miami goes off smoothly, it’ll show how much things have changed from the late 90s when a group like Buena Vista Social Club would get protested in Florida with the occasional threat called in.

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Per the Mets - Diaz's injury is a torn patella tendon

Though not specifically said - Diaz is basically done for the season (recovery is generally 8 months though there have been some athletes who can make it back in 6)

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4 hours ago, Cobra Commander said:

Also, if Cuba in Miami goes off smoothly, it’ll show how much things have changed from the late 90s when a group like Buena Vista Social Club would get protested in Florida with the occasional threat called in.

My introduct to post-revolution Cuban music icons Los Van Van was the Miami protests to their concert back in 1999. Even as late as last year, Miami Cubans still protests whenever Los Van Van perform in Miami.

 

https://www.local10.com/news/local/2022/05/21/protesters-want-los-van-van-to-know-communists-are-not-welcome-in-south-florida/

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Yeah, perhaps some MLB players on the Cuban team might dilute some of the anger. But yeah, the diehards will probably look at 'defectors' on the Cuban team similar to how union members look at 'strikebreakers'/scabs.

Looking around Twitter and as expected, there is a protest announced

A pretty good portion of this is probably easy to figure out without translation but:

"Call to the free Cuban. It's Time To Participate. We continue to confront the front men, Cuban exiles call to protest against the Cuban team in Miami. This Sunday the 19th at 6:00 PM is the time. They only represent the Castro dictatorship"

followed by hashtags meaning "Exile is respected. Prisoner of Castro. In Cuba There Is A Dictatorship. #bolu. Freedom for political prisoners. Exile United Now"

There's also a protest on March 26th so the whole thing might just be a perpetual series of building up the next protest from the current protest.

Considering the ballpark is surrounded by parking garages on two sides and is in a residential neighborhood. The logistics from the WBC for pulling this off will be interesting because they probably can't just do the political convention free speech zone here.

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for all the complaining from MLB announcers about WBC games being played without a pitch clock, I'll note that the games aren't really all that slow.. aside from games in Taiwan/Japan, and the Great Britain/Canada game where nobody could actually pitch. Sure they're not gonna make the 2:30ish ideal that some want to accomplish in 2023 MLB games, but they're mostly not Red Sox/Yankees.

We're almost to the 8th inning at the 2:30ish mark in PR/Mexico. 

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9 minutes ago, Cobra Commander said:

Mexico taking the lead might have messed up the ETA.

But anyways, there's a difference between one of these games going 3:30 and Reds/Pirates on June 27th going 3:30

I was trying to explain to my coworker how this is the best possible baseball.  Almost every team is loaded, everybody plays like these are the most important games of their lives, and there are stakes.  It's like if the All-Star game was a 7-game series for a trillion dollars.  The Puerto Rican vs. Dominican Republic game had like 4 of the 10 best players in the Major Leagues.  They should just replace Major League Baseball with this.  It's just a better product.

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