(WBC) U...... S.... (SPLAT) [Archive] - Front Office Football Central

Franklinnoble

03-08-2006, 05:13 PM

You know, the whole point of this tournament is to drum up international interest in MLB, since domestically, nobody really gives a damn anymore.

So, with that being the case, they're probably happy to see the USA lose. That will make the international target audience happy, and more likely to tune in during the regular season.

TazFTW

03-08-2006, 05:14 PM

i think its 60 for starters and 30 for relievers or something like that.
65 for starters. If a pitcher starts an at bat under 65, he can continue to pitch until that at bat is complete. For instance, if a pitcher has thrown 63 pitches when an at bat begins, he can throw as many pitches to get that guy out. Once that at bat is over, he'll have to leave.

Neuqua

03-08-2006, 05:18 PM

USA making a little comeback. Still down 8-6.

SirFozzie

03-08-2006, 05:20 PM

VTek with the Grand Slam to spark the six run inning. Wow.

ISiddiqui

03-08-2006, 05:22 PM

It would have been funny to see the US get spanked though. $10 says that most of the people who were saying it was meaningless would have been up in arms :D.

Vince

03-08-2006, 05:24 PM

Nice catch by the Canadian CF.

McSweeny

03-08-2006, 05:28 PM

Nice catch by the Canadian CF.is that my boy adam stern?

Vince

03-08-2006, 05:35 PM

Yeah, he's having one hell of a day. 3/4 with a Triple, Inside the Park HR and a Single, and then that diving catch.

Vince

03-08-2006, 05:36 PM

Dola -- his only out was a questionable call at first base on an infield hit. Utley made a great play going to his right, leaped in the air and threw, and it looked like it might be a 'tie goes to runner' situation.

kcchief19

03-08-2006, 05:38 PM

U.S. would be up if we had decided to sacrifice some offense for defense. Holliday made has of that inside the park homer long before he slipped, and Wells looked equally lost on the ground rule double.

I know they also want to spread at bats around for everbody, but are Damon and Griffey too vain to play in the same outfield? And now with Griffey out of the game, I'm going to cringe on any ball hit to the outfield.

Vince

03-08-2006, 05:45 PM

Good timing :) A hell of a relay on a ball hit into the corner stops an inside-the-park homerun and ends the inning for the US.

st.cronin

03-08-2006, 05:46 PM

I'm not watching the game, but I remember reading somewhere that all of Canada's players batted left-handed. Is this true?

kingfc22

03-08-2006, 05:47 PM

Good timing :) A hell of a relay on a ball hit into the corner stops an inside-the-park homerun and ends the inning for the US.Stopped a guy going from 1st to home.

Vince

03-08-2006, 05:51 PM

I'm glad I'm paying attention.

MikeVic

03-08-2006, 05:54 PM

Were the announcers saying Damon is a better leadoff guy than Ichiro? I can't agree with that...

MikeVic

03-08-2006, 05:54 PM

I'm not watching the game, but I remember reading somewhere that all of Canada's players batted left-handed. Is this true?

I don't think Bay does? Other than that... no idea. lol.

MikeVic

03-08-2006, 05:55 PM

err double dola I guess... nice catch by the CF again. ;)

Vince

03-08-2006, 05:56 PM

Crap. Stern's best day ever.

EDIT -- And did you see Utley's reaction when he hit the ball? He thought he just won the game :)

CraigSca

03-08-2006, 06:04 PM

Decent day for the Oriole, Adam Loewen, even though he walked 3.
Woohoo!

kcchief19

03-08-2006, 06:11 PM

Man, if Stern had held onto that diving catch he would have capped one of the most amazing performances I've ever seen. What a day for that kid.

kcchief19

03-08-2006, 06:12 PM

Let the finger pointing begin.

And say goodbye to the World Baseball Classic.

MikeVic

03-08-2006, 06:12 PM

I like seeing people I've never heard about do something good. Before today, I had no idea who Stern was... now I do. :D

kingfc22

03-08-2006, 06:13 PM

And the US loses in another international competition...

mooreadamc

03-08-2006, 06:13 PM

Sweet :cool:

VPI97

03-08-2006, 06:17 PM

And the US loses in another international competition...Are they out? I thought the top two from each pool advanced.

ISiddiqui

03-08-2006, 06:18 PM

Yeah, they aren't out yet. They have a chance to be one of the top 2.

lungs

03-08-2006, 06:32 PM

If only Mexico had a little offense yesterday.

Johnny93g

03-08-2006, 06:33 PM

:D :D :D :D

GMO

03-08-2006, 06:38 PM

I'm not a big baseball fan, but I have difficulty understanding how Canada beat the USA in baseball.
It's like Kazakhstan beating Canada in hockey.

lungs

03-08-2006, 06:41 PM

I'm not a big baseball fan, but I have difficulty understanding how Canada beat the USA in baseball.
It's like Kazakhstan beating Canada in hockey.

Canada is not horrible. It's not like they are China.

Although they did almost lose to South Africa. But at least Canada has some big leaguers.

PineTar

03-08-2006, 06:43 PM

It's closer to the US beating Canada in the Canada Cup hockey tournament.

gstelmack

03-08-2006, 08:10 PM

Man, if Stern had held onto that diving catch he would have capped one of the most amazing performances I've ever seen. What a day for that kid.
Wish he'd develop like that in the DKBL...

Honolulu_Blue

03-08-2006, 08:15 PM

I just saw some pictures of Jeter and some other Team USA guys standing around. Man, those are freakin' horrible uniforms. What's up with that silly looking "S"? Awful.

sterlingice

03-08-2006, 08:51 PM

I'm not a big baseball fan, but I have difficulty understanding how Canada beat the USA in baseball.
It's like Kazakhstan beating Canada in hockey.Hey, Canada has two Royals on it! Oh... :(
(Matt Stairs and Aaron Guiel, for the curious)

SI

Young Drachma

03-08-2006, 08:59 PM

I'm not a big baseball fan, but I have difficulty understanding how Canada beat the USA in baseball.
It's like Kazakhstan beating Canada in hockey.

Canada is a baseball playing country. The parallel is us playing hockey with them and winning sometimes.

They're clearly better...and while they're no Japan, it's baseball and on any given day..anybody can win.

Hence what South Africa did yesterday..well, almost. The announcers were jerks. They kept giving that team no respect and it annoyed me.

kcchief19

03-08-2006, 09:28 PM

Canada is a baseball playing country. The parallel is us playing hockey with them and winning sometimes.
Yes and no. Yes, Canada plays baseball and they're not bad, but they shouldn't be playing on the U.S. level. I mean, their starting left fielder can't even crack the Royals roster, for crying out loud.

Canada has some nice players, but the clearly the U.S. team is going through motions -- I don't think they are playing particularly hard, and their lineups are using a spring training approach -- instead of putting the best nine guys on the field and maybe making decisions based on matchups, they are rotating through to give everybody their at-bats like it's a spring training game. And whereas in the other games I've seen the other teams are playing good baseball, I think I saw the U.S. maybe once or twice do a smart bit of hitting, like moving runners forward. It's just like our other Olympic teams made up of pros -- everybody plays for themselves, not the team.

Between the last Olympic basketball team, this year's Olympic hockey team and this baseball team, I'd be fine going back and using amateurs and let the rest of the world use their pros. At least our amateurs give a damn.

Maple Leafs

03-08-2006, 09:58 PM

Who the hell is Matt Holliday and why is he on the US team?

sterlingice

03-08-2006, 10:08 PM

Who the hell is Matt Holliday and why is he on the US team?http://www.baseball-reference.com/h/hollima01.shtml

2005 25 COL (http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/COL/2005.shtml) NL (http://www.baseball-reference.com/leagues/NL_2005.shtml) 125 479 68 147 24 7 19 87 14 3 36 79 .307 .361 .505 242 0 4 1 7 11</pre>SI

MIJB#19

03-09-2006, 06:59 AM

Blech, lost 8-3 to Puerto Rico... No wonder with all those new players. Andruw Jones, who is this newb? :rolleyes: More seriously, why the *beep* didn't the WBC website people try to figure out the correct spelling of names and personal info for some of the selected Dutch baseball stars of the past ten years? Like Dirk van 't Klooster, Percy Isenia, Johnny Balentina, Reily Legito (http://www.operationsports.com/fofc/showpost.php?p=525840&postcount=74), who were part of the first team ever to beat Cuba during the Olympic Games?

Fouts

03-09-2006, 07:14 AM

I don't think this loss is a big deal. If Mexico beats Canada, and USA beats S.Africa, how do they handle 3 teams tied at 2-1? Nevermind, I just looked it up.

The winner of head-to-head games between the tied teams;
The team allowing the fewest runs per nine innings (RA/9) in head-to-head games between the tied teams;
The team allowing the fewest earned runs per nine innings (ERA) in head-to-head games between the tied teams;
The team with the highest highest batting average (AVG) in head-to-head games between the tied teams;
Drawing of lots, conducted by WBCI

So the Mexico/Canada game needs to have a lot of runs and the USA should be in the next round. BTW, Al Leiter is done, how did he make this roster? 7-12, 6.13 era last year gets you on the squad???

Maple Leafs

03-09-2006, 07:44 AM

You guys make it sound like Team Canada is a bunch of nobodies. Don't forget, Canada has produced a recent Cy Young winner (Gagne) and MVP (Larry Walker), not to mention some of the league's best young pitchers with guys like Rich Harden.

What? None of them are on the team. Oh.

Well, Stubby Clapp is good too.

lungs

03-09-2006, 07:52 AM

How can a team with Derek Jeter on it possibly lose?

JonInMiddleGA

03-09-2006, 08:20 AM

BTW, Al Leiter is done, how did he make this roster? 7-12, 6.13 era last year gets you on the squad???

I heard Buck Martinez talking about that over the weekend, basically said that "the Yankees sent him down here & said he'd been looking real good" and they wanted/needed another LHP.

lungs

03-09-2006, 08:31 AM

I heard Buck Martinez talking about that over the weekend, basically said that "the Yankees sent him down here & said he'd been looking real good" and they wanted/needed another LHP.

You'd think there would be a better option than Al Leiter though, wouldn't you? He's got name recognition but I thought he sufficiently had proven he is done for by his performance last year.

Roster decisions like carrying Al Leiter and Matt Holliday coupled with options better than those two players skipping the tournament have caused me to ultimately hope the USA gets their ass handed to them in the tournament.

Not because I hate my country but because I am loving this tournament. Other countries are loving this tournament and a lot of American players are acting like it's a pain in the ass (not any players actually on the team though).

I do respect players like Jake Peavey for their enthusiasm for this thing.

ISiddiqui

03-09-2006, 09:49 AM

Seeing Steinbrenner's hatred for the WBC, wouldn't him sending a player "down here" be a clue not to take him?

gstelmack

03-09-2006, 10:33 AM

65 for starters. If a pitcher starts an at bat under 65, he can continue to pitch until that at bat is complete. For instance, if a pitcher has thrown 63 pitches when an at bat begins, he can throw as many pitches to get that guy out. Once that at bat is over, he'll have to leave.So much for any interest I had. I thought they were playing professional baseball. Heck, even the Little League world series doesn't have a pitch count limit...

watravaler

03-09-2006, 10:36 AM

Hey Buck, give Derrick Lee and Alex Rodriguez at least 3 at bats per game. That is all.

JonInMiddleGA

03-09-2006, 10:38 AM

You'd think there would be a better option than Al Leiter though, wouldn't you? He's got name recognition but I thought he sufficiently had proven he is done for by his performance last year.

I don't think Leiter is there for any reason other than he's about all that was available on short notice (from the conversation I caught over the weekend, I gathered he was added to the team to replace ... someone. Might be wrong, but that's the impression I got).

lungs

03-09-2006, 12:01 PM

I don't think Leiter is there for any reason other than he's about all that was available on short notice (from the conversation I caught over the weekend, I gathered he was added to the team to replace ... someone. Might be wrong, but that's the impression I got).

I do remember Leiter earlier this spring and vouching for a spot on the team, and you are probably correct that he replaced somebody else.

Actually, I'd like to take a step back and say that I actually don't have a problem with Leiter being on the team. Yes, there are probably better options.

What I do have a problem with is Buck Martinez putting him in yesterday at a point where Canada had a chance to build what eventually proved to be an insurmountable lead.

If I was the manager, I'd save a guy like Leiter for a matchup against South Africa. I was probably a little harsh on him, when it should have been directed at Martinez. Leiter should be commended for being enthusiastic about this tournament but the manager should know better than to put him in a situation he was put in yesterday. Canada's lefthanded lineup be damned, there had to have been a better option in that situation.