Vladimir Guerrero of the Blue Jays is part of a power-packed WBC lineup fielded by the Dominican Republic.

March 1, 2023

By Mark Whicker

Canadian Baseball Network

The World Baseball Classic hasn’t really caught on with fans in the United States, and we should greet that revelation with a heaping helping of so-what.

The World Baseball Classic isn’t designed for American fans, most of whom are worried that their favorite Fantasy Leaguers will get hurt. It is there for everyone else.

When the Dominican Republic won the 2013 WBC, its players climbed upon floats and rode down the streets of Santo Domingo for three hours, and had lunch with president Danilo Molina.

Is that so unusual? Well, this is: it happened eight months after the Dominicans won. Such was the staying power.

When the Japanese defeated South Korea in the finals of the 2009 WBC, fans in Tokyo and Seoul gathered to watch giant TVs at 10:30 a.m. They saw Ichiro Suzuki win it with a single in the 10th.

Those three nations prize baseball over almost every other sport. Over 31 percent of players on 2022 rosters were Latin. In Baseball America’s lists of top 10 prospects for each team in 2023, Latin make up 26.3 percent.

The best athletes in those Caribbean nations are playing ball, for the most part. One cannot say the same about the U.S, despite the history. The WBC doesn’t inspire anything close to the national tension that surrounds U.S. soccer teams, for example, or even what the Dream and Redeem Teams did for men’s basketball in the 1992 and 2008 Olympics. That’s because it’s a new and rarely-played event. This will only be the fifth in 17 years.

It comes sprouting up incongruously before spring training even starts, an outlier in our rigid watching habits.

The WBC is not just there for the baseball-playing nations. The Czech Republic, Great Britain, Italy and Israel also have teams. Granted, they have more than their share of American players, some of whom have legitimate ties and some of whom might have had relatives who worked in an Italian restaurant or watched “The Unbearable Lightness Of Being.”

But if a WBC game inspires just a few, it will serve a purpose. No one thought Germany would give us a Dirk Nowitzki or a Leon Draisaitl either.

The willingness of major league players to wear the flag is reassuring, at least if you’re not a big-league general manager. The Americans, who won the previous WBC in 2019, have an unusual amount of marquee players. Given health, this is a possible batting order;

SS Tim Anderson

CF Mookie Betts

LF Mike Trout

1B Paul Goldschmidt

RF Kyle Tucker

3B Nolan Arenado

DH Kyle Schwarber

C J.T. Realmuto

2B Jeff McNeil.

Off the bench: 1B Pete Alonso, SS Trea Turner, 3B Bobby Witt, OF Cedric Mullins, C Will Smith, C Kyle Higashioka.

This is an even better lineup if Freddie Freeman isn’t playing first base for the Canadians, but Team USA will have to make do with the current NL MVP and the three-time Home Run Derby winner there.

On the mound, the Americans have loaded up on relief pitchers. This is by necessity, thanks to strict rules on pitch counts, but it’s also smart. Ryan Pressly has the most closing experience, and he’ll be at the end of the gas-tanker line behind Daniel Bard, Kendall Graveman, Devin Williams, Adam Ottavino, David Bednar and Jason Adam.

The rotation at the moment, with the exception of former Gashouse Gang ace Adam Wainwright and Lance Lynn, is young and fearless, especially: Brady Singer and Merrill Kelly.

Again, you wouldn’t mind having Max Scherzer, Gerrit Cole, Justin Verlander, Joe Musgrove, Max Fried, Spencer Strider, Aaron Nola, Zack Wheeler, etc. but they must be preserved for a long, punishing season of 80-pitch outings.

Still, the Americans are not at all favored to win this thing, because the Dominicans have a roster that could probably beat anybody in a seven-game World Series. Here’s the wrecking crew they could squeeze onto a lineup card:

CF Julio Rodriguez

SS Wander Franco

1B Vladimir Guerrero

3B Manny Machado

RF Juan Soto

DH Rafael Devers

SS Jeremy Pena

LF Teoscar Hernandez

2B Ketel Marte

C Francisco Meija

Off the bench: OF Eloy Jimenez, 2B-SS Jean Segura, DH Nelson Cruz, SS Willy Adames, 2B Robinson Cano, C Gary Sanchez

That’s a former AL home run leader (Guerrero), the reigning A.L. Rookie of the Year (Rodriguez) and the 2022 World Series MVP (Pena). Overall, seven players in that lineup hit 22 or more homers last season.

The pitching leads off with NL Cy Young winner Sandy Alcantara, goes to veteran Johnny Cueto and Astros’ World Series hero Cristian Javier and into a bullpen that features Gregory Soto, Rafael Montero, Luis Garcia and Genesis Cabrera.

Team USA vs. the Dominican would be a breathtaking series, but the WBC’s world is far broader than that.

Puerto Rico will have Marcus Stroman in its rotation who, pitching for the Americans in 2017, won the tournament MVP award. Jose Berrios joins him up front, and Edwin Diaz will be as formidable as any closer.

Japan can surpass that with Shohei Ohtani and Yu Darvish leading the rotation. Japan won two WBCs with similar pitching, plus unerring fundamentals and execution that aren’t a staple of big-league parks.

A trophy for Venezuela, with Ronald Acuna, Jose Altuve, Luis Arraez, Miguel Cabrera and Gleyber Torrres at the plate and Martin Perez and Ranger Suarez on the mound, would not surprise anyone, and Mexico will be a factor at least on the nights Julio Arias is pitching.

In 2006, Japan played Korea during the pool portion of the WBC. The game was at Angel Stadium and it’s safe to say it was one of the cleanest and most passionate games ever played there.

Korea won, 2-1, and when it was over Jae Sao found a Korean flag and planted it on the Anaheim mound. A crowd of 39,679, most of them rooting for Korea, savored every pitch, on a chilly night on the Ides of March.

Maybe the presence of such frontline Americans will win over some eyeballs and hearts when the competition begins early next month. If not, it’s okay.

Whicker: WBC winner? Venezuela, USA, Puerto Rico or the Dominicans with Guerrero?