Come anticipate the World Baseball Classic with me

Haha it was 6-1 top of the fifth when I posted that! I wish I was watching this game!

8-5 now, thanks to Ortiz. Looking at Carlos Hernandez' reaction on the replay, it's nice to see that the Derek Lowe Face is truly the international language.

ORTIZ HITS 2 RUN HOMER #2! ZOINKS!

I'm going to have to agree with you dan, in that Ortiz is seeing lefties pretty well.

REGGAETRON: A NEW LEVEL

This game is over!

Mexico vs. USA just started:
Peavy cruised through the first on 7 pitches.
Rodrigo Lopez is pitching for Mexico, if he's only pitching 3 innings, he should be solid.

Jeter sure is playing some intangible defense today.

Save some of that sass for the blogosphere, DC!

KARIM GARCIA SIGHTING! WHO IS KARIM GARCIA?

If he ain't pissing in a pizza joint parking lot, I don't care.

btw...adrian beltre also played like a man possessed for the dr. two homers, as well, right?

I am glad to see Beltre doing well. Hoping he puts a nice season together for my M's!

Too bad that Dominican v. Venezuela game isn't going to be shown until like 2:30 in the morning, I'd kind of like to watch a bit of it. From the article at Yahoo MLB, it sounds like the crowd really got into the game.

He hit a HR today, but Chipper Jones is really looking old in his face.

I've never heard of Stubby Clapp, but that is one hell of a name.

Yeah, I was impressed at the crowd enthusiasm in the DR vs Venezuela game, Earl. Give this event a few years and some tweaks, and I think it could be great.

Stubby inherited his nickname from his granddad, who invaded Italy back in '43 or some such shit.

I like to get to know my fantasy players, even the ones picked up solely based on the humorous name factor.

Doesn't the USA jersey logo look like it was designed for the cable network?

SUCH an awful logo, just piss-poor.

I saw the SA pitcher fool Kanadian Korey Koskie real real bad on a couple pitches last night and started to despair for the Brewers' season this year. Then, this morning, I saw that he hit a two-run homer later in the game. So yay, I guess. Still, though.

That 11-8 win against arguably the worst team in the tournament doesn't give me much confidence that Kanada can beat a proper team.

The Cuban game 1 starter only lasted 1 1/3 innings:

1 double (ground rule), 3 singles, 1 walk and a HBP

The ground rule double saved his ass, it would have been 2-0 Panama.

And uh... the Cubans are not moneyball advocates:

bloop single followed by sac bunt followed by sac bunt

Followed by a ground rule double heh.

I saw plenty of 'smallball' in Cuba. Japan was like that til the '60s or '70s, I think?

When did Cecil Fielder show up?

About 27 years after Oh did?

WWW.LAUNCH.COM

(for those not watching, cuba up 6-4 over panama after an 0-2 fastball up the pike got skull-fucked out of the park)

Stubby Clapp just scored!

Apparently Canadians hit a lot of triples.

Someone less enlightened would probably call the triple the Canada of hits, but that sort of nonsense is clearly beneath me.

Yeah see I'm not sure bringing in Al Leiter is a good idea. . .

Meanwhile the Cuba/Panama game is still going!

Where is Steve Shasta to rip on Dontrelle Willis? Since the season hasn't technically started yet, should 5ER in 2.2IP count toward his pre or post-All Star Game record?

Okay now it is finished.

The US is getting killed right now.

(xpost) hahaha!

Ha, Dontrelle's got some work to do in the next few weeks.

Will we see the mercy-rule invoked today?

boomer sounds off:

"Bud Selig needs to resign. That's what he needs to do," Wells said. "He needs to resign and bring someone in who's capable of communicating with the players association and the owners, as well as the players, because there's so much hatred against Bud right now. It's a joke. Nobody likes him."

Wells, who estimated 95 percent of the players dislike Selig, was set off by a New York Times story where the commissioner ordered the Yankees to remove sign at Legends Field in Tampa that apologized to fans because players such as Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez and Johnny Damon are not playing in exhibition games. All three, along with Bernie Williams and Al Leiter, are participating in the World Baseball Classic.

Steinbrenner has criticized the international tournament, fearing that some Yankees could get injured or become fatigued down the stretch.

"And he's entitled to that [opinion]. He pays a lot of money to these guys," Wells said. "If he needs to apologize to the fans, so be it. They get a lot of traffic down there in Tampa to see the Yankees. People want to see Derek Jeter. So if he wants to post a sign that says I apologize for [him] not being here, he owns the place. If Bud has a problem with it, tell him to go take it down himself. And then I'd re-post it again."

inside-the-park homer by adam stern.

What's worse: Team USA's defense or pitching? Tough call...

Games will be called if a team trails by 15 runs or more after it has batted in five innings or 10 runs or more after batting in seven innings.

Steven Goldman on his Pinstriped Blog:

I am not all that enamored of events that emphasize a parochial nationalism as a basis for competition, particularly when the rules allow for each team to have ringers, like Mike Piazza playing for the Italian team. Piazza was born in Pennsylvania. If he qualifies for the Italian team, than every player in baseball should be eligible to play for the Olduvai Gorges of Tanzania. I understand the rationale behind this, but for me it detracts from the legitimacy of the event.

Jr. just broke up the shutout.

btw, adam loewen looked pretty good for canada as did bruce chen for panama. it's kind of ridiculous how many starters the o's have competing in this thing.

8-6!

Woah!!!

I'm now hoping for an eight-spot so that this game can end with the mercy rule in the next inning.

revenge is sweet, eh?

I don't recognize some of the US players. Brian Fuentes? Gary Majewski? Matt Holliday?

that's it.

Hello NL West fan Alex:

Without googling:

Brian Fuentes is the closer for the Rockies (serious upside!)
Matt Holliday is the RF (upside? he could be the next Dustan Mohr... uh)
Gary Majewski plays in the midwest or in Canada

That's the thing about Fantasy Baseball, you can keep track of all this fairly easily!

;-\

Majewski is a short reliever for the Nats.

That's the thing about Fantasy Baseball, you can keep track of all this fairly easily!

OTM, that's the only reason why I would know something like this.