Men's Baseball WBSC World Baseball Classic 2023

owenp_23 · March 9, 2023

Why not some extra baseball on a Thursday morning.

owenp_23 · March 9, 2023

Pool B Scores

8 - 7

1- 8

Pool B Standings

:JPN Japan 1-0 (+7 RD)

:AUS Australia 1-0 (+1)

:CZE Czechia 0-0

:KOR Korea 0-1 (-1)

:CHN China 0-1 (-7)

Topicmaster1010 · March 9, 2023

Italy does it! They win 6-2. Cuba in major trouble now

owenp_23 · March 9, 2023

Pool A Scores

1 - 3

6 - 3

(10)

Pool A Standings

:NED Netherlands 2-0 (+4 RD)

:ITA Italy 1-0 (+3)

:PAN Panama 1-1 (+5)

:TPE Chinese Taipei 0-1 (-7)

:CUB Cuba 0-2 (-5)

hckošice · March 9, 2023

I turned on my TV right at the start of the :CUB - :ITA tiebreaker. Watched my first baseball since my Tokyo 2020 medal matches replays. and it was fun, I liked it, obviously not so entertaining and fun as hockey (the right one I mean obviously) but still fun. Pretty sure I will watch more during this tourney. Thanks to Czech TV, they broadcast 2 games per day, probably for the first time ever :yes

bmo · March 9, 2023

I'm shocked how bad Cuba has been on offense

phelps · March 9, 2023

dreams sometimes come true! :cheer:

wonderful start of the tournament for the Blue Team, with the great Mike Piazza managing to perfection and taking some brave and unexpected decisions about our pitching staff that helped to keep the Cuban hitters at bay for almost the entire match.

on offense, still too many aggressive swings early in the count...we shouldn't have left Elias to pitch that long, wasting so many at bats.

on the other hand, the great Iginio Velez is still turning over in his grave on how the Caribbean team played and also on how the game was managed by their coaches.

they blew their pitchers out when they were still trailing/the game was still tied and called on the mound the same Garcia that yesterday blew their game vs :NED in the 10th.

don't they really have anybody better than him?

and if the answer is "yes", why exposing him to the pressure of late innings once again instead of lettimng him pitch earlier, when any mistake wouldn't be so decisive on paper?

not to mention the absolute disaster of their supposed MLB superstars (Moncada and Robert) with their bats in both yesterday and today's matches.

moreover, why leaving a man like Gracial on the bench, using him just as a pich hitter when the game was already dead and gone?

meh...

however, the hype is getting higher and higher...can't wait for tomorrow's clash vs the Home team :TPE

Topicmaster1010 · March 9, 2023

:CZE The Czech team will make their long awaited WBC debut in just over 5 hours. They are the very definition of an underdog true. For those who don't know, the team is made up entirely of homegrown players (except for 2) and most of these guys only play baseball part time. They work their day jobs on weekdays and then play baseball on the weekends. And despite this they still beat a strong Spanish team composed of Dominican and Venezuelan rejects to qualify for this tournament.

That game against China tonight will be huge for them as it could determine the last place finisher which is the team that will have to go through qualification again for the next tournament. Before yesterday, I would have said the Czechs were better but after China's performance against Japan, I'm not so sure now.

Elsewhere, the biggest rivalry in baseball rewrites another chapter as Japan and Korea face off again. This will be their first WBC matchup since the 2009 championship game and Korea likely needs to win this in order to keep their tournament hopes alive.

Meanwhile, in Pool A, Panama and Taiwan need to win today if they want to keep their tournament alive. Italy looks to go to 2-0 and put themselves in a great position.