World Baseball Classic Preview – Seoul/Tokyo Pools

So, what can I say about the World Baseball Classic which hasn’t already been said?

/realizes nobody talks about nor knows (nor cares) what the World Baseball Classic is

What is it?  It’s kinda like the Olympics, but for baseball.

Who plays?  Lotsa major and minor league players.  Also lots of players you’ve never heard of yet, who are representing their country.

Qualifying rounds happened last month.  We’re not gonna talk about those because they’re over and I’m lazy.

Pool Play

Pool play begins EARLY Monday morning (3/6) in Seoul and Tokyo (that’s what I’ll/we’ll be talking about here)

Pool play also begins Thursday afternoon (3/9) in Miami and Jalisco (the lovely and talented SenorWeaselo will be bringing you those later this week)

But basically it works like this….

Each pool holds four teams.  Those four teams play a round robin (ie they all get one shot at each other) and the two teams who shine the brightest from each pool advance to the semis.  Where they do the same thing again….round robin, top two advance.  Eventually, it’s all gonna end up in LA (March 20-22) where the final four play a single elimination bracket.  Which for baseball seems kinda stupid to go thru all those qualifying rounds only to end up with a single elimination bracket.

Totes not cool IMHO.  It’s not that difficult to do a four team double elim.  We do it regularly here in the college game and it wouldn’t take any longer than their fly by night single elim.  Seriously…here’s a sample 4 team double elim bracket….

It’s really not complicated.  Granted, if you end up in the Loser’s bracket you might end up having to play twice in one day, but that’s motivation to not lose.

Single elimination for baseball is stupid….is the takeaway bullet point here…I guess.

But I digress….

Pools

As I type this it is just after 6am on Sunday morning.  Don’t get your hopes up that this is gonna be very thorough.

Seoul:  Pool A: March 6-10, 2017

Venue: Seoul: Gocheok Sky Dome

Teams:  Korea, Chinese Taipei, Netherlands, Israel

And now, a random hottie from each country (my money is on the Netherlands, btw)…

Korea:

Nice start, Korea!!!!!!

 

Chinese Taipei:

But Taipei showing up….errrrr, ummmm….big.

 

Netherlands:

See…Netherlands, like I said. You put that shot, baby….no don’t put it there!!!!!

 

Israel:

And just like that, Israel wins it.

What???  They’re armed and there’s four of ’em.  Whaddya want from me?

But sure, let’s say Israel is gonna win this pool (pssst…Netherlands)

But come on Israelites, let’s party like it’s  1399(BC) anyway….

Totally worth it.

But seriously, the Netherlands.

/tWBS hunted and killed by the Mossad

Schedule:

Gm 1

kor

Mon, Mar 6
4:30 AM EST
Mon, Mar 6
6:30 PM KST
Gm 2

tpe

Mon, Mar 6
10:00 PM EST
Tue, Mar 7
12:00 PM KST
Gm 3

ned

Tue, Mar 7
4:30 AM EST
Tue, Mar 7
6:30 PM KST
Gm 4

ned

Wed, Mar 8
4:30 AM EST
Wed, Mar 8
6:30 PM KST
Gm 5

isr

Wed, Mar 8
10:00 PM EST
Thu, Mar 9
12:00 PM KST
Gm 6

tpe

Thu, Mar 9
4:30 AM EST
Thu, Mar 9
6:30 PM KST
Gm 7 *
tbd

tbd

Fri, Mar 10
4:00 AM EST
Fri, Mar 10
6:00 PM KST

Tokyo:  Pool B: March 7-11, 2017

Venue:  Tokyo: Tokyo Dome

Teams:  Japan, Cuba, China, Australia

And now, a random hottie from…..meh, never mind.  You all know me by now…..

Japan:

School is in.

 

Cuba:

I’m glad my major medical premiums are paid up.

China:

That doesn’t quite fit. No, I’m not complaining.

 

Australia:

My apologies, Love. Yes you look lovely but every time you wear that all I see is swastikas. (semi-inside joke…sorry)…lol…Semi inside….hehehee.

So, who’s it gonna be?

When it’s international baseball and Cuba is involved, they are never a bad bet.  This is no different.

Cuba…?  It’s time.

Me too, Love. Me too. Now maybe go eat a sammich or sumpin.

 

Schedule:

Gm 1

jpn

Tue, Mar 7
5:00 AM EST
Tue, Mar 7
7:00 PM JST
Gm 2

cub

Tue, Mar 7
10:00 PM EST
Wed, Mar 8
12:00 PM JST
Gm 3

aus

Wed, Mar 8
5:00 AM EST
Wed, Mar 8
7:00 PM JST
Gm 4

chn

Thu, Mar 9
5:00 AM EST
Thu, Mar 9
7:00 PM JST
Gm 5

cub

Thu, Mar 9
10:00 PM EST
Fri, Mar 10
12:00 PM JST
Gm 6

jpn

Fri, Mar 10
5:00 AM EST
Fri, Mar 10
7:00 PM JST
Gm 7 *
tbd

tbd

Sat, Mar 11
5:00 AM EST
Sat, Mar 11
7:00 PM JST

My apologies to SenorWeaselo.  Yep, I tanked it dude.  But at least now the bar isn’t set high and anything you do will look really, really good by comparison.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I got a real live baseball game to get to.

Later Taters

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theeWeeBabySeamus
An unapologetic, even if often manic-depressive (it's a requirement given his choices of sports teams), fan of NC State University, the Baltimore Ravens and the Baltimore Orioles. When not parked in front of the computer and/or TV, can often be found on the golf course shouting obscenities to no one in particular.
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Wakezilla

Japan and Cuba are in the same group? Jesus, that doesn’t seem fair. Korea will take the other group.

litre_cola

I am interested now, do you have a newsletter?

JustStopDude

$100 billion USD is spent on illicit drugs in the US which is utterly staggering to me…until i see promos for new tv shows on NBC, CBS, ABC, and Fox.

TV execs just have desks made of cocaine right? It doesn’t make sense otherwise.

herodotus450

comment image

Senor Weaselo

There’s some joke to set up about China and Chinese Taipei not being in the same group, I think.
/I think I’ll be the one not having to get shown up, buddy.

Senor Weaselo

You have better pictures!

ballsofsteelandfury

This was everything i could possibly want in a WBC preview from tWBS.

ballsofsteelandfury

It actually WAS a compliment! Great job!

I’m certainly a LOT more interested in the WBC than i was before. I’ll be rooting for the girls with the best butts.

JustStopDude

comment image

BrettFavresColonoscopy

Are you in Boulder? I pass that sign on my way to work.

JustStopDude

I’m like the wind…I am everywhere…

Big Black Richard

Blowing and blowing……..just like Goodell’s mom.

Moose -The End Is Well Nigh

If it is “Organic! Direct from the source!”

I might try it out.

JustStopDude

I could rant for hours how fucking stupid it was for the Olympic committee to remove baseball and softball as events.

I love how the argument was that the sports are not popular…as if that were even remotely true or that there wasn’t enough of a competition.

herodotus450

That was really the argument? I get that they’re no Powerwalking, but c’mon…

JustStopDude

More insulting, right after, not even an entire week, they announced that softball was going away, the IOC released a study in which they spent millions on, stating they need to find more women’s team events in the Summer Olympics.

Fuck the Olympics.

herodotus450

Indeed. I think people are catching on though, only two cities were in the running for the 20something winter olympics that Beijing won, beating out Almaty, Kazakhstan.

JustStopDude

One day, every single major sporting event will just take place in Pyongyang.

herodotus450

That’s basically the idea I heard somewhere, to give the summer and winter olympics a home city so all that infrastructure actually gets used more than once.

JustStopDude

I don’t see why they don’t have nations bid on various events but not the entire thing.

Except you would see sports that no one wants to touch with a 10 foot pole…which would be kind of funny really.

But potentially, you would see smaller nations become huge fans of weird obscure sports.

sunrisesunrise

My buddy and I got tickets to the games in San Diego. Looking forward to 5 days of, hopefully, good baseball being played in Petco Park. Because as any Padres fan can tell you, the next few years are gonna be tough to watch.

/realizes that just being a Padres fan is tough enough

//Matt Holliday still hasn’t touched home plate

BrettFavresColonoscopy

At least you’ll always have the Char–um, Aztecs?

Senor Weaselo

In fairness, the last few years were also tough to watch.

Moose -The End Is Well Nigh
Moose -The End Is Well Nigh
BrettFavresColonoscopy

I think you found how to make baseball more exciting.

Horatio Cornblower

The World Baseball Classic is neither classic nor baseball.

Discuss.