2009-03-22 World Baseball Classic: United States vs. Japan

[1992casey]

United States vs. Japan (Los Angeles) -- 7:00 PM CDT -- ESPN, ESPN Deportes, MLB.TV (Gameday)

 

At the time of this posting, nothing appears on the Gameday link. It'll display information around game time.

[BrewCrewForever]

U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A!

 

Lets do this boys. Baseball is America's past time, lets show that to the rest of the world.

 

I hope Braun plays, but only if he is 100% healthy. Otherwise sit him, as important as I think this game is as a WBC fan, Braun is more important to me as a Brewers fan.

[raven2479]

MLB Radio yesterday was saying Braun was gonna play left today. I agree, hope he's 100%.

[ShinyaSS]

It is a difficult game for me as a Japanese Brewers-fan. Go Braun and Japan!

[pitchleague]

and just like that Japan erupts and, conceivably, puts the game away. Although, it is still fairly early. But that's quite a deficit to come back from.

[ShinyaSS]

Sorry for the game...

The RHP Tanaka,Number 15, is another monster who will come to the States in the near future.

His age is not 28 as shown in ESPN, but only 20.

[Schlitz001]

That botched throw from Jeter cost the USA 3 runs. He's leading off the 9th, let's hope he can get a rally going.

[Invader3K]

So the USA is done. I guess at least they showed some improvement over 3 years ago.

[GormanHarvey]

Seriously, the US really needs to decide if they are in the WBC to actually win it - as has been mentioned before. If not, why bother? I mean Jeter playing SS over Rollins when J RO is DH'ing. Come on! If Rollins is at short he makes that play on Ichiro easy and the US is still only down 2. And Longoria getting the PH AB against a RHP over Victorino? Joke

[endaround]

The fact that Jeter was playing short and hitting up in the order when he's by far the worst hitter in the line up (Jeter isn't a bad hitter, but if your choice was Rollins at short and Longoria at DH or Jeter at Short and Rollins at DH and you chose the 2nd maybe you are out of MLB for a reason)

[BrewCrewForever]

Davey Johnson made some very poor decisions throughout the tourney that is for sure. I know he is in a hard place but you have to be more in to win this thing then "get everyone work". The Jeter playing SS over J Roll and batting 2nd or 3rd most games was just plain wrong. Jeter is still a good player but not when you have this team of guys he should be batting 7, 8 or 9. I hope the next time around Johnson or whoever manages, makes moves based on trying to win and matchups then make everyone happy.

[JJHardy7]

The fact that Jeter was playing short and hitting up in the order when he's by far the worst hitter in the line up (Jeter isn't a bad hitter, but if your choice was Rollins at short and Longoria at DH or Jeter at Short and Rollins at DH and you chose the 2nd maybe you are out of MLB for a reason)

 

Agreed. I also think it might be the whole way this thing is setup. If Jeter was on the bench, maybe he just skips it. I think they should get a legit starting lineup and some legit backups (i.e. they are ok sitting on the pine and there are no requirements for playing time). They should also have a better 'insurance plan' for if/when a starter goes down. Say the SS gets hurt they should be able to bring in a guy the next round as long as said SS is out the rest of the tournament. Waiting between rounds is a joke and forces guys to play hurt. I know taking true backups might hurt the team's chances to win, but in my opinion it may give the team a better chance to win since they don't have to shuffle the lineup/worry about a team's wants or needs. A backup type could be a guy like the Muscle or Counsell. They really don't need all that much playing time, but should an injury happen or a PH be needed they could step up and not whine about not playing.