Reigning AL MVP Dustin Pedroia and fellow infielder Kevin Youkilis will play for the United States. Joining them in the tournament will be pitchers Daisuke Matsuzaka (Japan) and Javier Lopez (Puerto Rico), as well as position players David Ortiz (Dominican Republic) and Jason Bay (Canada). They will also be sending eight prospects to the classic bringing their total to 14. The only team with more players participating is the New York Mets with 15, including nine major leaguers.
The Red Sox will be keeping a close eye on all of their players in the tournament, but will monitor Ortiz and Matsuzaka the closest. Ortiz will be facing live game pitching for the first time since last season when he was bothered by a wrist injury and his performance will help determine how it will affect him, if at all.
On the other side, Matsuzaka is currently training with the Japanese team and hasn’t reported to Red Sox camp yet. Both Matsuzaka and the Red Sox decided it would be easier if he would stay in Japan until the conclusion of the tournament. Matsuzaka was the MVP of the inaugural World Baseball Classic back in 2006 when he helped lead Japan to the championship.
The primary concern with Matsuzaka’s participation is the extra innings he will be expected to pitch. The ideal situation for the Red Sox would be for Matsuzaka to skip the tournament, but that is not a realistic scenario. It will most likely cause little problems, if any, later in the season since the innings thrown during the classic won’t be a significant jump from a normal spring schedule. However, any additional innings will make a pitcher’s team uncomfortable.
The double elimination tournament begins on March 5, and will conclude on March 23. Youkilis, Pedroia, and the rest of Team U.S.A. will begin play on March 7 against Jason Bay and Team Canada.
0 comments:
Post a Comment