I have actually enjoyed some of the WBC games. Team USA was supposed to be a dream team, and yet they scored 6 runs against the team that Canada scored 18 against, and got pummeled by Team Mexico in Game 2. Team USA plays Team Canada on Monday at 7:00 PM PDT, and Team Columbia on Wednesday at 7:00 PM PDT.
Pool A – All five teams ended with a 2-2 record. The tie breaker is:
The tied teams shall be ranked in the standings according to the lowest quotient of fewest runs allowed divided by the number of defensive outs recorded in the games in that round between the teams tied
Pool A – Cuba (1) and Italy (2) advance based on the tie breaker.
Pool B – Japan advances after going 4-0 in their 4 games. Australia went 3-1 and advanced.
Pool C – Saturday:
Colombia 5 – Mexico 4 (10 innings)
Dodgers participating were Julio Urías and Austin Barnes. Urías pitched 5.0 innings. He retired the first 12 batters, but ran into trouble in the 5th. First two batters, Jorge Alfaro and Elias Díaz, doubled for a run. Reynaldo Rodriguez followed with a 2-run HR. Urías then retired the next three batters in order. Urías registered 6 Ks and 0 walks.
Rodriguez was the hitting star for Colombia going 3-4. Rodriguez played 9 seasons in MiLB, never reaching MLB. He has been toiling in the Venezuelan, Mexican, and Colombian Leagues (Regular Season and Winter) since September 2016. For his 9 MiLB seasons, Rodriguez slashed .264/.335/.483/.818 with 116 HRs. You would think he would have had a shot with some4 MLB team.
The other Dodger on Team Mexico is Austin Barnes, Barnes went 2-4 with a double. Former Dodger Alex Verdugo went 1-5. Another former Dodger, Guillermo Zuniga pitched the final 2.0 innings for Colombia for the win. In his 2.0 IP, he gave up 1 hit, 1 BB, and 4 K.
USA 6 – Great Britain 2
Trayce Thompson hit a HR off Adam Wainwright in the top of the 1st to give GB a 1 run lead.
Mookie Betts led off the bottom half of the 1st with a long fly to LF. Paul Goldschmidt reached on a fielding error, moved to 2nd on a wild pitch, and scored on a Nolan Arenado double. Arenado scored on a 2 out single by Kyle Tucker.
Kyle Schwarber slugged a 3-run HR in the 4th. A pair of Cardinals joined again to score a run on the 6th. Goldschmidt singled and came home on Arenado’s 2nd double.
Adam Wainwright went the 1st 4.0 IP. Kyle Freeland pitched 3.0 innings. David Bednar closed out the 9th with 3 Ks.
Mookie went 1-5. Nolan Arenado went 3-5 with 2 doubles, 1 run, and 2 RBI’s.
Trayce Thompson went 2-4 for GB with a HR and a double.
Pool D (Saturday):
Venezuela 5 – Dominican Republic 1
A peek at the two lineups and you see very quickly that these two teams are stacked with super talent.
Venezuela:
- José Altuve
- Ronald Acuña Jr.
- Luis Arráez
- Salvador Perez
- Gleyber Torres
- Andrés Giménez
- Anthony Santander
- Eugenio Suárez
- David Peralta
Dominican Republic
- Julio Rodríguez
- Juan Soto
- Manny Machado
- Teoscar Hernández
- Rafael Devers
- Wander Franco
- Jeremy Peña
- Jeimer Candelario
- Gary Sánchez
- Francisco Mejía
The star of this game was the Dodger’s very own David Peralta.
In the bottom of the 4th, Venezuela loaded the bases with nobody out. After an infield pop-up and a strike out, David Peralta stroked a 2-out, 2-run single into RF.
In the bottom of the 6th, Eugenio Suarez drew a 2-out walk. David Peralta crushed a long double to CF to score Suarez. Run scoring double
For the game, Peralta was 2-3 with a BB and 3 RBI’s.
Pool C (Sunday):
Canada 18 – Great Britain 8 – 6 ½ innings (mercy rule)
- Canada – Freddie Freeman was 2-5, 3 runs scored, 1 BB, 1 RBI
- Great Britain – Trayce Thompson – 1-3, 1 BB, 1 run. 1 RBI
Mexico 11 – USA 5
This was a train wreck for the USA. Padres pitcher Nick Martinez and Royals pitcher Brady Singer surrendered a 2-run HR and a 3-run HR to Washington Nationals 1B Joey Meneses respectively.
Team Mexico jumped out to an 11-2 lead after 7 ½ . Team USA scored one after Kyle Tucker tripled and Tim Anderson singled him home in the 2nd. They had three hits until the bottom of the 7th when Will Smith clubbed a solo HR. In the 8th, Bobby Witt doubled home a run, and Tim Anderson doubled home two more.
Hitting star for Team USA was Tim Anderson. Anderson went 2-4 with a double and 3 RBIs.
Team USA pitching was very generous. In particular:
- Nick Martinez – 2.2 IP, 3 Runs, 5 Hits, 1 BB, 2 K, 1 HR
- Brady Singer – 2.0 IP, 4 Runs, 4 Hits, 1 BB, 2 K, 1 HR
- Daniel Bard – 0.2 IP, 4 Runs, 4 Hits, 1 BB, 1 K
LAD players offense:
- Mookie Betts – 0-5
- Will Smith – 1-4 HR
Pool D (Sunday):
Venezuela 9 – Puerto Rico 6
David Peralta had a run scoring single in the 4th, scoring the star of the game, Salvador Perez. For the game, Peralta was 1-3, 2 BB, 1 RBI. Salvador Perez was 4-4 with 2 doubles and a HR, 3 runs, and 5 RBIs.
Former Dodger Kiké Hernández played CF for Puerto Rico. Kiké was 1-4 2 runs, and 1 RBI.
Venezuela now leads Pool D with a 2-0 record.
Israel 3 – Nicaragua 1
Former Dodger Joc Pederson played CF for Israel. He was 1-3 and a HBP. Former Dodger prospect pitcher Dean Kremer started for Israel. He pitched 4.0 scoreless innings, 3 hits, 1 BB, 4 K. And for Bums, Zack Gelof was 0-5.
Team USA pitching is not very good. And the offense is very reminiscent of the 2022 Playoff Dodgers. A lot of bark, no bite. Thus far. Stay tuned.
Some of these games are more exciting than ST games with MiLB players.
Haven’t watched a single inning. I am just not interested in this. Although it gives some rookies a lot of playing time, I would rather have the players in their own camp.
I’m with you, Bear. I don’t find these games interesting at all.
I loved the Venezuela – Dominican Republic game. Some serious All Stars in that game. And yet it was David Peralta who was the star.
It was fun to watch Julio Urías mow down Colombia with 4 perfect innings including 6 Ks. He then gives up 3 only to come back to retire the side in order again. Maybe this is something he does not get to do with the Dodgers. Get in trouble…go to the pen, instead of letting your best pitcher get out of trouble.
I do watch the Dodgers ST games. But it is far more interesting to watch WBC games than other teams’ AAAA/AAA/AA/A players.
The way Venezuela is playing, the Dodgers may lose Miguel Rojas for a week. He is only playing 4-5 innings every other day. We have all been told that CT3 will be the backup SS, instead yesterday it was Yonny Hernandez playing SS and CT3 playing 3B. Hernandez is a better 3B and CT3 is a better SS. Would it not have been better if CT3 was working with Miguel Vargas?
The teams do not take the outcome of the games seriously, so we are just watching an advanced scrimmage. I watch a lot of Tulsa and OKC games during the season so I am going to see a lot of Michael Busch, Andy Pages, the deep MiLB pitching and others. I am going to be watching a lot of Tulsa games to get to watch not only Diego Cartaya, but also the DP combo of Eddys Leonard and Jorbit Vivas. Those two have been outstanding this Spring.
I watch a lot of College games. I went to the California JC championship tournament last summer. I have a friend whose grandson is playing High School ball this year, so I will be going to a lot of High School games. I watch baseball where ever it is played. I love the Dodgers, but I really love the game of baseball. So for me to give up watching AAAA/AAA/AA/A players for two weeks during ST to watch veritable All Star teams compete to WIN, I can live with that.
definitely feels like a scrimmage with artificially inflated importance attached to it
You had two of the same thoughts I did Jeff. USA pitching is not very good (of course losing CK and Nestor hasn’t helped) and the hitting is in a short term, maybe fatal, slump similar to our series against SD in the playoffs.
With regard to my interest, I’m more interested than I thought I’d be and especially interested in seeing some of the Japanese and Korean stars who may be posted this winter.
The fans of many of the world teams are having a lot of fun. Mexico fans were dominate at Chase Field against the USA team. I’m not watching any Spring games mostly because I haven’t signed up but I think the games are great for baseball.
So did anybody see that instant replay in the WBC game [GBR/CAN] where the guy slid into 3b and got his hand in before the tag?
And then they upheld the call and called him out.
I did. I wanted to watch Trayce and Freddie. Some of the umpiring is bad.
Trayce looks a little thicker around the middle to me. I like his skill set but still think he can be exposed with velocity inside. For an athletic dude he doesn’t have that quick twitch you’d like to see.
He absolutely can be beat with up and in fastballs. So can a lot of players. But agree that Trayce’s swing is too long to catch up to that pitch. Ever. I think the Dodgers recognize this, but accept it because of what he can do with pitches that miss. Just like the one thrown by Adam Wainwright.
I would much prefer James Outman in CF on a regular basis, but I do not get a vote. Last week it was a foregone conclusion that Jason Heyward and Trayce Thompson would be on the roster coming out of Spring. Apparently they were both told they would be. But give James Outman credit (A LOT OF CREDIT) for now making the decision a lot harder. I still think Outman’s options are his downfall, and that he will start the season in OKC.
The Dodgers cannot help themselves. It looks to be a platoon in LF with Peralta and CT3, and in CF with Heyward and Trayce. Yonny Hernandez will be the utility infielder.
Bear with me for a minute. Think about Cody Bellinger. He was good until he wasn’t. Why not use Outman right now while he is good and worry about later later? We shouldn’t be saving him for anything. Save Gavin Stone, save Bobby Miller . . . but play Outman right now when he could be a ROY candidate.
Yep!!
I’m hoping the Dodgers always had an open mind about Outman making the team to start the season and instead of saying anything close to CF being his to lose chose to keep the pressure off as much as possible, hoping he would do just what he has been doing.
Heyward only has a minor league contract. Might he be willing to play there through April?
Looks to me like they are hoping all 3 of them play well this Spring so they can platoon Heyward and Thompson, and give Outman top of the order at bats in OKC til something goes wrong with the plan. Zimmer and Duggar? Beats me. Avans and DeLuca? Vaunted depth.
It looks like the Dodgers will not have to face Trevor Bauer while paying him $22MM. He is going to take his game to Japan.
do we get that 4mil credited back to us?
I do not know the rules with that. Also is there different rules for signing a non MLB contract vs an MLB contract?
I get it. For some country’s this is their big stage. Czeck Republic, China, Israel and a few others. I just do not like the teams stars away from camp. I would rather watch baseball as an Olympic sport but the Olympics are always in August.
Jordan Yamamoto has retired from MLB. He is on his way home to Hawaii.
Around baseball. Former Yankee 1st baseman, Joe Pepitone passed away today at age 82. RIP. Adrian Morejon of the Padres will have an MRI. He was shut down due to arm issues. Brandon Crawford shut down by the Giants for a knee issue. Mets starter, Jose Quintana might be down for up to three months. He has a stress fracture in his ribs. Dodgers hammer Guardians, 11-4. Busch had three hits in three at bats. Muncy hit his first spring homer. Locker room fodder. In the USA-Mexico game last night, Austin Barnes gunned down fellow catcher Will Smith trying to steal. That will be locker room fodder for months.
Leonard made an impression in camp. Ticketed for AA with some momentum. In play for MLB debut some time in 2024.