2009 World Baseball Classic: Pool B Preview

Here's Pool B: Australia, Cuba, Mexico, South Africa

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Pool B Preface: Pool A is the same in 2009 as 2006, but the other Pools have gotten shuffled around a bit.

Australia

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2006 Performance: Went 0-3 in Round 1 (against Dominican Republic, Venezuela, and Italy)

2009 Outlook: Still not good. I recently read Bill Bryson's In a Sunburned Country, so I'm a big Australia fan, but I don't give them much of a chance. Although they got the silver medal in the 2004 Sydney Olympics (as the host team, they got an automatic berth), they failed to qualify for the 2008 games. Grant Balfour, probably the best MLB player to qualify to play for them, will not be participating – the Rays evidently put pretty strong pressure on him. Ryan Rowland-Smith, who pitched 118 innings for the Mariners last year(starting AND in relief – with a 3.42 ERA), has also chosen to stay home and try to win a starting job. But although Australian baseball leagues are not exactly the cream of the crop, Australia's team does feature a couple guys who have settled in the KBO - like Chris Oxspring who has played in the NPB, and pitched a few relief innings for San Diego in '05. Actually, Oxspring put together a pretty solid half-season in AAA (albeit at age 30) in 2007 when the Brewers traded him to the LG Twins of the KBO. Both Oxspring (as a starter) and pitcher Brad Thomas have seen success in the KBO (Thomas was the closer on its All-Star team in 2008). Of course, this says more about the quality of the KBO – but Australia will have sufficient pitching, Afterall, they only need to win two games to get into the next round. They won't beat Cuba, but they South Africa's a different story, and they could get lucky and eke out a win over Mexico.

2009 Players to Watch: Luke Hughes (Twins)is probably one of the most legitimate MLB prospects on the Australia team. Last year (age 23), he OPSed .923 with AA New Britain before moving up to AAA. He played for the World team in the 2008 Futures game, and, in the minors, has played every single position at least once (including pitcher – 1 IP in 2007 with 1 hit and no runs allowed).

Also, I read in one place that Chris Oxspring occasionally throws a knuckleball – so that could be interesting. (If true – it might be some indication that his more recent success is actual improvement. .. maybe?)

A lot of the other prospects have put nice seasons together here and there, but seem old for their league – so they don't seem quite like legitimate prospects.

Cuba

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2006 Performance: 2nd place; lost to Japan in the finals. Went 2-1 in Round 1 (Lost to Puerto Rico), and 2-1 in Round 2 (Lost to Dominican Republic).

2009 Outlook: I should probably just defer to Justin for this, but I suppose I'll give it a whirl anyway. Cuba is pretty good at baseball, and performs continually well on the international stage – winning gold in Sydney, taking second in the 2006 WBC and the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The Cubans will be without Yadel Marti and Yassir Gomez, two players who made plans to defect and come play ball in the USA. Yadel Marti pitched 12 scoreless innings for Cuba in 2006, so certainly his loss will be felt. As much as I don't know about Cuba's team, I feel pretty confident in sending them to the final. Another sad loss is Alexei Bell, a 25 year old outfielder who set a new league record for HR in the 2007-2008 season, and also led in runs, RBIs, and slugging. (He was also 2nd in stolen bases). Additionally he was stellar in the 2008 Olympics (3 doubles, 4 triples, and 2 HR in 9 games). Evidently he was hit in the face by a pitch in Cuba's 2008 season and hasn't really been the same since.

2009 Players to Watch: There are a lot of Cuban league stars here, so it's honestly a little hard to choose – but Aroldis Chapman is 20 years old and has recently been clocked throwing 102 mph.

Among the batters, Frederich Cepeda is returning, who in 2006 clocked 10 hits in 26 at bats – 5 for extra bases. But I think people consider the real star to be Alfredo Despaigne, a 22 year old center fielder (and sometime designated hitter), who can really mash, wowing viewers at the 2008 Olympics with 3 HR and 12 RBI in 9 games.

Mexico

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2006 Performance: Won Pool B with a 2-1 record (won RA/9 tiebreaker against the US – one loss was to the US), Went 1-2 in Pool 1 (lost to Korea and Japan), did not proceed to semifinals.

2009 Outlook: You know, the first thing I noticed about this team is that is seems pretty old. Their youngest player is 24, and 19 out of 28 are 30 or older. I don't know what the median age of each WBC squad is, but I'm willing to bet Mexico's is the highest. But other than that, Mexico is a good enough team to likely make it out of Pool B. Oliver Perez (Mets) is bringing the pitching, Adrian Gonzalez (Padres) will bring some offense (and his brother Edgar! What a brother-y team). I really do think Mexico will go to Round 2 with Cuba, especially since they will have serious home field advantage at Foro Soil. After that, I'm skeptical, partly just because Mexico lost to South Korea and Japan in Round 2 of the last WBC, and that's who they'll see this year as well.

2009 Players to Watch: Well, of course there's Hairston and Hairston (Imagine this like Thompson and Thomson: speaking of which – have you heard? Tin tin movie. Pegg and Frost as Thompson and Thomson. Win.) Trivia: Cherry Hudson Jr. is sometimes called Jerry Hairston by those not in the know.

Joakim Soria is Kansas City's 24 year old closer, evidently (according to Wiki) called the 'Mexicutioner', who had 42 saves last season with a 1.60 ERA and a 0.861 WHIP. Damn.

Also, I can't really say anything here about Jorge Cantu that hasn't already been said.

Freddy Sandoval (Angels) hit .903 in AAA last year, at age 25, but is the second youngest player on the team

Lastly: Alfredo Amezega (the second Alfredo in this preview, but sadly, the last) was drafted one spot in front of Albert Pujols, so surely he is better than Albert Pujols, right?

South Africa

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2006 Performance: 0-3, including an impressive 17-0 loss to ye olde US of A, called on the mercy rule after 5 innings.

2009 Outlook: So... South Africa. South Africa is also a country without a strong baseball tradition. No player from South Africa has ever cracked the majors. Barry Armitage played at AA and threw an inning in an exhibition game for the Royals and that is as close as any has come. There are six players on the squad who have deals with MLB teams, but realistically, South Africa is quite bad. But go them for fielding a team! Hopefully they can encourage more interest in baseball in their country.

2009 Players to Watch: As opposed to Mexico, South Africa has a really young team (12 out of 28 are 20 or younger) : In particular – Hein Robb, who is signed with the Twins and is 16 years old. 16!! Holy crap! Dylan Lindsay is a Royals prospect who is just a year older.

Additional Sources:

Baseballdecuba

Cubajournal

Question: I've been thinking - maybe a WBC with close to full participation would be a good thing for MLB in the future. Obviously, MLB is the place to go for all elite players now, but leagues in other countries develop that might not always be as much the case. For instance, Yu Darvish has said that he has no interest in playing in the states (Which is probably just player's talk, but...). Might international players be more interested in playing in states if they know they can represent their own country once every four years - be a hero in their own hometown? Is this always going to be completely moot? (i.e. Elite players will never stop wanting to play in MLB above all else.)  Is the WBC just as pointless as all the commenters on yahoo say it is? Discuss.