Men's Baseball WBSC Premier12 2019

[intoronto 5,645]

If were to qualify, one of or would miss out guaranteed, then we have Pan Am Champs as well. I wish 8 spots were available here oh well.

[phelps 7,680]

Samurai Japan beat South Korea and climb on top of the World

 

The Home Team made a crowd of 44,960 ecstatic as they overcame an early deficit to defeat South Korea 5-3 in the Final and became the Champions of the 2019 WBSC Premier 12.

Japan's starter Shun Yamaguchi didn't go beyond the first inning, as Korea wasted no time getting to him.

The Yomiuri Giants 15-game winner walked lead off hitter Lee Jung-Hoo on 6 pitches and then allowed a 2-run homer to shortstop Kim Ha-Seon.

Left fielder Kim Hyun-Soo followed with a solo shot that gave superstar starter Yang Hyeon Jong a three-run lead to work with.

But those 3 runs proved to be a too slim margin for him and his team.

In the bottom of the 1st inning the Korean starter walked Hayato Sakamoto and a few seconds later he scored on a double by Seiya Suzuki.

In the bottom of the 2nd inning, history repeated: Yang walked Tsubasa Aizawa, then Ryosuke Kikuchi singled and finally, with 2 men on 1st and 2nd, first baseman Tetsuto Yamada launched a 3-run blast that turned the score around.

Japan also added 1 more insurance run in the bottom of the 7th inning when Hayato Sakamoto first hit a double and then scored on a single by Hideto Asamura.

Meanwhile, after Yamaguchi shaky start that cost him an early exit after only 1 inning pitched, the following 6 Japanese relievers limited Korea to 3 hits, 1 base-on-balls and no score for the rest of the night.

 

 

Gold Medal match Boxscore

https://premier12.wbsc.org/en/2019/schedule-and-results/box-score/3971

 

Gold Medal match Highlights

Edited November 17, 2019 by phelps

[phelps 7,680]

Just now, intoronto said:

If were to qualify, one of or would miss out guaranteed, then we have Pan Am Champs as well. I wish 8 spots were available here oh well.

 

considering the fact that there were no chance to see the MLB stars from the beginning, WBSC could have even pushed for a "normal" 12 team-tournament (and a 10-team competition for Softball, too), as the IOC is already going beyond the 10.500 athletes limits after adding the most improbable disciplines to the schedule and in Tokyo the Baseball stadiums are not a problem for sure (there are 4 NPB teams + Yokohama, which incidentally is the venue going to be used for the Games, in the Tokyo Metropolitan area let alone)...

 

 

[JoshMartini007 2,538]

7 minutes ago, intoronto said:

If were to qualify, one of or would miss out guaranteed, then we have Pan Am Champs as well. I wish 8 spots were available here oh well.

 

Yeah, there's easily enough quality for a 12 team tournament. One or both of Australia and Chinese Taipei will miss out, while they don't have a chance of winning Italy and the Netherlands have enough quality to be competitive and then you can throw half a dozen or so more Pan American nations into the mix.

 

Sadly, I feel the United States will miss out, without MLB players at their next qualifiers the gap between them and the rest of the continent is a lot smaller.

[phelps 7,680]

32 minutes ago, JoshMartini007 said:

 

Yeah, there's easily enough quality for a 12 team tournament. One or both of Australia and Chinese Taipei will miss out, while they don't have a chance of winning Italy and the Netherlands have enough quality to be competitive and then you can throw half a dozen or so more Pan American nations into the mix.

 

Sadly, I feel the United States will miss out, without MLB players at their next qualifiers the gap between them and the rest of the continent is a lot smaller.

 

moreover, the next tournaments will be during the Spring Training period, so many players we saw in this Premier 12, being fully committed to make the Big League teams, probably won't show up, leaving the US team to be built only with mid/low level triple A players (if not Double A and or College guys only)...

 

even if the same could be for PUR, DOM and CAN at least...

 

the team that most likely would benefit from the schedule is Cuba, but the team I saw in the preliminary stage of the Premier 12 is so poor (especially the pitching staff is depressing -and probably they won't have the NPB players, too...in any case) that I fear they won't be able to take advantage of that...

[JoshMartini007 2,538]

16 minutes ago, phelps said:

 

moreover, the next tournaments will be during the Spring Training period, so many players we saw in this Premier 12, being fully committed to make the Big League teams, probably won't show up, leaving the US team to be built only with mid/low level triple A players (if not Double A and or College guys only)...

 

even if the same could be for PUR, DOM and CAN at least...

 

the team that most likely would benefit from the schedule is Cuba, but the team I saw in the preliminary stage of the Premier 12 is so poor (especially the pitching staff is depressing -and probably they won't have the NPB players, too...in any case) that I fear they won't be able to take advantage of that...

 

Besides the United States, I imagine the Dominican Republic and Venezuela would be hurt the most while Cuba and Nicaragua would be hurt the least. As much as I would love to see a Nicaragua surprise, it'll be unlikely.

[Olympian1010 7,977]

1 hour ago, intoronto said:

If were to qualify, one of or would miss out guaranteed, then we have Pan Am Champs as well. I wish 8 spots were available here oh well.

One team would still miss out. Africa and Europe would both be guaranteed spots in that case. 

[intoronto 5,645]

48 minutes ago, Olympian1010 said:

One team would still miss out. Africa and Europe would both be guaranteed spots in that case. 

Possibly, but I'd imagine instead of one spot at the final qualifier, it would have been 3. 

[Olympian1010 7,977]

37 minutes ago, intoronto said:

Possibly, but I'd imagine instead of one spot at the final qualifier, it would have been 3. 

For 8 teams: 1 team from each of the 5 continental regions, winner of Primer 12, 2 at final qualification tournament

[mrv86 3,138]

8 hours ago, Cobi said:

¡Felicidades @mrv86!

 

I was rooting for Mexico here, so I'm glad you won against the US. I hope next year Cuba could also qualify, although I'm not very optimistic.

 

Thanks for the congratulatory comment and your support for the team.