Wbc

[Lofaw]

Piss poor showing by the United States against Mexico. Still an inning to go, but they're down 5-1 and really haven't done much. Thoughts on some players:

RA Dickey - I know he won the Cy Young Award last season, but he shouldn't be the Ace of the staff. All these international teams see mostly junk balls and giving them a knuckleballer plays right into these teams hands.

Buster Posey - 1 of 3 hitters, along with Rollins & Wright, on the US that had multiple hits. Unfortunately no one was getting hits when people were on base and Posey had 2 horrible ABs with runners on base and having the ability to get the US back into the game. Both times he watched as a fastball went right over the middle of the plate for Strike 3.

Giancarlo Stanton - Another player who had 2 chances to really get the US back in the game. Only difference between him and Posey was Stanton hit 2 long fly balls that were both caught on the warning track and just missed going out. Of course he also didn't have any hits like Posey did.

Just a very disappointing showing IMO and now they have to go up against an Italy team that is 2-0 and has outscored those 2 teams 20 to 9. The United States better come to play because if they lose they're out.

[Canada]

Canada lost to Italy 14-4....wtf???

[Lofaw]

Well all the United States has to do i beat Canada on Sunday after tonight's win. I'll tell you Detweiler gave them 3 strong innings to end the game and what it really did was save all the US pitchers for the game against Canada. With the restrictions on pitch counts and pitching on back to back games anytime you can save pitchers like tonight it really helps. Also the United States should have an advantage with the starting pitchers in that game.

[trev]

Well all the United States has to do i beat Canada on Sunday after tonight's win. I'll tell you Detweiler gave them 3 strong innings to end the game and what it really did was save all the US pitchers for the game against Canada. With the restrictions on pitch counts and pitching on back to back games anytime you can save pitchers like tonight it really helps. Also the United States should have an advantage with the starting pitchers in that game.

This tourney really pisses me off. Canada could have a much stronger team but for whatever reason guys blow it off.

[Canada]

gotta love watching Canada punch a few Mexican players in the head.....and they deserved it.


Lets Go Canada!!!

[Lofaw]

This tourney really pisses me off. Canada could have a much stronger team but for whatever reason guys blow it off.

That goes for he United States too. If both the US and Canada brought the players they wanted they'd be a heck of a lot tougher. Imagine a pitching staff of Verlander, Kershaw, Strasburg, Hamels, & Price instead of Dickey, who like it or not is a junk ball pitcher that these teams in the DR and PR see all the time, Gonzalez, Vogelsong, & Holland. The U.S. did have a lot of very good hitters, but they didn't produce. Still they could have had Mike Trout, Prince Fielder, Pedrioa, McCutchen, Heyward, Hamilton, Harper, J. Upton. All those hitters along with those SP would have made for a much tougher out. Even the bullpen asn't great. Sure they had the best Closer, but they could have done a hell of a lot better with the middle relief. I mean Heath Bell? This isn't 2007 anymore. It's just very disappointing.

Obviously it didn't help that the players that were here didn't produce. Stanton hit a lot of long fly outs, but does it matter if he fly's out to 2B or to the warning track? Not really they are both still out. Even when these guys did get hits they were singles with no one on base. We can't leave the RPs out because when they did bring Kimbrel in he imploded and it ended up being a disaster. Let's face it the US and Canada's MLBs don't take the WBC serious like these other country's do. Let me also add this. These other countries sometimes play year round and our guys are just in the middle of spring training. I understand some of the MLB players play for the other countries and they're in the same boat, but still all these other teams have many many players who have been playing together for months and that's a huge advantage alone.