2023 World Baseball Classic

[DaysOff 7951]

Hate that herky-jerky hooker motion by Japanese pitchers. Seems like it would be harder to pickup the ball. Is that motion taught over there?

[Gourmand 7774]

[Gourmand 7774]

 

[ballrific 215]

Bunt Mookie, bunt

[Gourmand 7774]

 

[ztejas 43454]

19 minutes ago, Fudge Nuggets said:

They played more than one game in the tournament.  Look at the full tourney stats and remember USA didn’t have to pitch against the best lineup in the tournament.

I'm not disagreeing with your assertion. And you're right - they were better throughout and they got it done. 

I thought the timing of your comment was weird. That specific game didn't seem to come down to a pitching deficiency. 

Just talking shit man - fun game. Have a nice night. 

[Helobious 9454]

41 minutes ago, DaysOff said:

Hate that herky-jerky hooker motion by Japanese pitchers. Seems like it would be harder to pickup the ball. Is that motion taught over there?

Yes that’s a distinctly Japanese pitching motion. Really gets their body into the pitch and protects the arm. Worked forever as the Nippon league had incredibly low rates of injury for pitchers. But injuries have gone up recently as they’ve started to add more emphasis on velocity. 

[The Dog 44056]

Kyle Tucker hits a homer off of Ohtani. 

We need more Astros.

[tx 3 putt 76970]

I think we see more stars n 2026

[TornACL 7698]

That last pitch Ohtani threw to Trout was so fucking disgusting.

[tx 3 putt 76970]

 

[TornACL 7698]

2 hours ago, kingkoopa6 said:

3, 2, 1

[shadow_operative2.0 15984]

That 1-1 pitch Trout laid off on was ridiculously dirty too. 

[The Dog 44056]

[cabowabo 4485]

Yep, lot of post season memories with those two studs.

[Helobious 9454]

That Trout/Ohtani AB was a fucking great baseball moment. “Meaningless exhibition” my ass.

[Rockwell Torrey 1288]

Tokyo Tower tonight lit up in the colors of the WBC.

[Seasick Sailor 3747]

 

[Helobious 9454]

 

[Beau Vine 54230]

Trout knew he was out after that second strike.

[closetohumping 17442]

DeRosa - Shohei dominates like 90% of this locker room likely dominated little league, but he's doing it here.

Colin - Imagine if Mahomes played cornerback as good as Sauce Gardner, that's Ohtani.  Dodger bound

[Beau Vine 54230]

JoePos:

Quote

This might be a little too inside baseball for some, but since “inside baseball” is what we do here, I will share it with you: I often write the ending first. I’ve always done it that way. Even when I don’t physically write the ending first, I still tend to have it working over in my mind … and then I work backward, “Memento” style.

For instance, I’ve already written the ending of this essay.

I just don’t know yet how we’re going to get there.

These days, I rarely think about why I write the way I write … but if I had to guess why I’ve always treasured endings more than beginnings, I’d guess it’s because I’m a lifelong fan of jokes. I think in punchlines. Why the long face? Funny, I couldn’t play the piano before. Yes, I’m Polish, but how did you know my name was Walter? You think I should have said “DiMaggio?”

Great endings, I think, do more than take us back through the journey … they make us FEEL the journey. On its own, “Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship,” is not an especially compelling line. But at the end of “Casablanca,” it electrifies all the feelings, all the emotions, because there are so many feelings and emotions that have built up watching Rick and Ilsa and Louis and Victor and Sam try to make their way through.

The World Baseball Classic had the greatest ending imaginable … maybe the greatest ending of any baseball game I’ve seen in my lifetime. That’s not to say the result was especially great … I mean, I’ve just written a book called WHY WE LOVE BASEBALL that counts down the most magical moments in baseball history and so the splashiest and most emotional endings ever — Gibson’s homer, Fisk’s homer, Carter’s homer, Maz’s homer, the ball going through Buckner’s legs, a broken-bat single off Rivera, Yogi jumping into Larsen’s arms, Jeter rounding the bases after midnight with Ground Zero still smoking, Sid Bream rounding third, Kris Bryant smiling before he makes the throw, on and on and on — are very much on my mind. 

This WBC ending might not quite reach the dramatic heights that some of those other endings reached. But because the journey to get here was so impossibly rich, so wonderfully played, I think the emotions surrounding this one were overwhelming. It’s the one moment that made me think — even while it was happening and the result was very much in the air — “I’m never going to forget this.”

Many scouts had their doubts about Mike Trout. I did not begin that sentence with the intention of making it so rhymey … it just came out that way. But it’s true. Sure, he was a first-round pick, so everybody realized that he had talent. But scouts questioned the competition he faced while at Millville High School in New Jersey. They questioned how well his body would age.

And then, well, there was just something about Trout, something ineffable, that made scouts pause. David Forst, now general manager of the Athletics, went to scout Trout in person. He watched Trout hit two home runs and then hit 95 mph as a pitcher. The A’s passed anyway. “We probably didn’t put enough art into that decision,” Forst would say, meaning, perhaps, that he didn’t trust his eyes enough.

That’s the thing about Trout, though — what you see is truly what you get. He’s the most uncomplicated ballplayer of his generation … maybe the most uncomplicated ballplayer since someone like Tony Perez or Stan Musial. It’s all on the surface. He loves to play. He brings it every day. He makes sure to clear his mind for every at-bat. He seems entirely uninterested in fame and doesn’t seem all that concerned about what other people think about him. For fun, he watches the weather.

And he has already, at age 31, secured his place as one of the greatest to ever play this game. The numbers are the numbers: He’s a lifetime .303/.415/.587 hitter with 350 home runs, he has won three MVP awards and finished second four more times, his 82.4 career WAR is the fifth-highest total for anybody through age 30, and that’s true even though he has lost so many games because of injuries and a worldwide pandemic and so on. He was a sure Hall of Famer at 28.

But even the numbers don’t reflect the awe other players feel when watching Trout play. They understand, in ways that the rest of us mere mortals can only suspect, just how good Trout is at the game of baseball. Some of the best hitters in baseball history, like Joey Votto, still find themselves stupefied by Trout at the plate. “He’s just another level,” Votto says. And you add to that his great speed (which he flashed again during Tuesday’s WBC final between the U.S. and Japan, stretching a single into a double), and his defensive value in centerfield and his impeccable eye and the way he represents the game and …

I mean, we’re talking about pretty much the perfect ballplayer.

Shohei Ohtani’s baseball life could have gone very differently. His initial instinct back in high school was to try something that no top-level Japanese player had ever tried — he intended to skip Japanese baseball entirely and go directly to the United States and try to become a major league pitcher. The interest was mutual. The Dodgers wanted him. The Red Sox wanted him. He had thrown 100 mph. He was a surefire first-round pick.

So when the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters selected him in the Japanese draft, it seemed a pointless gesture. But their manager, Hideki Kuriyama, had a plan. When they met, he brought along a black T-shirt with an image of birds in flight and the words 夢が叶う on it … meaning “Dreams come true.”*

*If my Google Translate can be trusted.

Kuriyama had come to Ohtani with something more than an offer; he had come with a life-changing challenge. He asked Ohtani to become a two-way player — a star pitcher and a star batter. “Travel down a path no one else has walked,” he said.

It was the exact right message for the exact right player at the exact right time. There have been others who could have tried to walk the path — Dave Winfield, Ken Brett, Todd Helton, John Olerud, Zack Greinke, to name players over the last half century — but Ohtani was uniquely suited to try it because he was looking for the most impossible thing to try.

You know how it went from there. In 2016, he hit .322/.416/.588 for the Ham Fighters and he went 10-4 with a 1.86 ERA and an 0.957 WHIP as pitcher. When the U.S. teams came calling, he made it very clear that they had to let him do both. The Angels came with the best two-way play. So he signed with the Angels.

And over the last two seasons, he has simply done what nobody in baseball history — not even Babe Ruth — ever did before. As a hitter, he has slugged .554 and averaged 40 home runs per season. As a pitcher he has posted a 156 ERA+ and struck out 11 batters per nine innings. As a runner, he has stolen 37 bases and in 2021, he led the league in triples. He is Superman.

I’m sure you knew most or all of that … but again, to get to the ending, it helps to relive the journey. On Tuesday night, the United States played Japan in the World Baseball Classic final, and it was an interesting game. The incredible U.S. lineup mostly looked off-balance as they faced a barrage of Japanese pitchers with a wide variety of pitches.

Winning looks good on Ohtani, who hasn’t seen a lot of it since coming to the U.S. (Megan Briggs/Getty Images)
Something funny: The one time the U.S. team seemed to find its footing was when Yu Darvish came into the game. Darvish is a terrific pitcher who throws hard and mixes in a seemingly infinite number of pitches all by himself, but he’s familiar. You could almost sense the U.S. hitters, when seeing him, shouting: “Hey, I know you!” Kyle Schwarber had a 10-pitch battle with Darvish that included six straight foul balls, and the whole time you just KNEW that it would end with Schwarbs blasting a long home run. Which is what he did.

But the rest of the time, the U.S. hitters just looked out of sorts. This was probably best typified by Paul Goldschmidt’s at-bat in the seventh against Taisei Ota. There were runners on first and second, one out, and Goldschmidt went chasing after two split-finger fastballs that were probably out of the zone. Then on the third pitch, Ota threw another splitter, this one WAY below the zone, and Goldschmidt topped it into a double-play ground ball. It was a bizarrely terrible at-bat from one of the best in the game. But it was like that a lot on Tuesday night.

The U.S. stayed in it with their pitching, though. It wasn’t ideal that the U.S. was forced to start Merrill Kelly because they couldn’t get any of their superstar pitchers to play (for various reasons), and Kelly did give up two runs in 1 1/3 innings, but then a bunch of relievers named Loup, Freeland, Adam, Bednar and Williams gave up just two hits and one run the rest of the way. So the U.S. went into the final inning down only 3-2.

And we come to the finish. Shohei Ohtani took the mound. Jeff McNeil had the poor dramatic sense to draw a walk, but Mookie Betts cleaned things up by hitting into a double play. So it was, ninth inning, two outs, one run separating the two teams.

Shohei Ohtani pitching.

Mike Trout hitting.

I was reminded — and did I mention that I wrote a book called WHY WE LOVE BASEBALL, because this is in there — of a little story Buck O’Neil used to tell about the 1942 Negro Leagues World Series. In one of the games, Satchel Paige called Buck over to say that he intended to walk the next two batters so he could face Josh Gibson with the bases loaded. Buck was furious. He called out the Monarchs manager, Frank Duncan, and made Paige explain what he wanted to do.

Duncan sighed. There wasn’t anything he could have done about it anyway. But he said this: “Buck, look around. See all those people? Why do you think they’re here? They’re here to see Satchel pitch to Josh.”

All of us were watching to see Shohei Ohtani pitch to Mike Trout.

The first pitch was a sweeping curve below the zone, and Trout watched it go for a ball. He wasn’t there to swing at breaking stuff. He wanted the heat, as hard as Ohtani could throw it, and the next pitch was all of that, 100 mph, right down Main Street, as they say. Trout swung hard. The ball was by him. Strike 1.

The next pitch was also a fastball, but it was outside. Trout let it go.

Then, another fastball, again 100 mph (well, 99.8 mph technically), and it was again right down the middle. Trout swung hard again. The ball was by him again. Strike two.

Ohtani sensed that he had his teammate and friend and great rival beat. He put a little something extra on the next pitch — 102 mph! — but he overthrew it and was outside and in the dirt.

And here it was, 3-2 count, game on the line, the two greatest players of our generation facing off in the final inning of a baseball classic. I was feeling chills before it even happened. I suspect you were, too. Trout was looking fastball, of course. Ohtani was looking taller than ever. The crowd was drunk with anticipation. All their cameras were pointed at home plate. The pitch was thrown.

I told you at the top that I wrote the ending before I even started the piece.

We’re here now. Ohtani threw a slider. Trout was fooled. He swung and missed.

“He won round one,” Trout would say, after the Japanese celebration had settled and the crowd had dissipated. Yes, that’s the ending. Shohei, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

 

[tx 3 putt 76970]

Ohtani will get a $500mil contract

dodgers or giants 

[Don Johnson 4753]

 

[Beau Vine 54230]

 

[n64ra 1084]

The WBC sucked because Altuve (and maybe Tucker) got injured. Can't have a full speed tournament right before a season starts. While it would be tough to have the WBC right after a season ends, that gives more recovery time for injuries sustained during it. Players injured during the MLB season would have to miss the WBC.

[ztejas 43454]

On 3/22/2023 at 12:29 AM, TornACL said:

3, 2, 1

1, 1, 1

[Post Oak 20215]

22 hours ago, Beau Vine said:

JoePos:

 

Imo in sportswriting there is Wright Thompson, Joe Pos then everybody else.  

I went and reread his Baseball 100 again. Brilliant writer.

[Helobious 9454]

14 minutes ago, n64ra said:

The WBC sucked because Altuve (and maybe Tucker) got injured. Can't have a full speed tournament right before a season starts. While it would be tough to have the WBC right after a season ends, that gives more recovery time for injuries sustained during it. Players injured during the MLB season would have to miss the WBC.

No one gives a shit. That Trout/Ohtani at bat was pure magic and did more for the game than any spring training ever could. Altuve could’ve gotten hurt in spring training too, should we cancel that? If he wasn’t such an old, short, weak pussy maybe he could’ve moved his hands out of the way. He was the only notable player to get a major injury (while playing a game) in the whole tourney. It’s once every 4 goddamn years (and it’s actually been 6 years since the last one). But yeah you’re an Astros fan, you have to find a way to view yourself as the victim at all times.

[Beau Vine 54230]

22 minutes ago, Post Oak said:

Imo in sportswriting there is Wright Thompson, Joe Pos then everybody else.  

I went and reread his Baseball 100 again. Brilliant writer.

Not a sportswriter, but I discovered Bill Bryson this year and have read 3-4 of his books so far.  JoePos writes just like he does.

[Surly Bevo 24924]

Anybody pissing and moaning about the WBC and “oh so and so got injured” is a small brained small thinking individual. That goes for any fans, owners, players or media types.

Baseball, most notably in the country that invented it, is suffering from a significant across the board growing disinterest problem, which is only going to continue to grow given how much of the younger generations are completely apathetic to participating in or engaging with the sport. There are other issues in the youth level with respect to travel ball and all that but the single biggest one is they have a ton of other options now and simply don’t give a fuck about baseball to the extent kids did 20,30 years ago.

Does the WBC and the excitement it brings and could bring more of fix all that? No, but it’s a pretty good arrow in the quiver. The game is slowly shriveling and dying and people can sit around and jack off their tiny weens over “oh boohoo the one regional professional team I follow suffered some one season setback due to the WBC” and just let the sport keep going the way of the dodo or they can start taking a longer more strategic view of what needs to be done to help preserve and grow the game.

[n64ra 1084]

1 hour ago, Helobious said:

No one gives a shit. That Trout/Ohtani at bat was pure magic and did more for the game than any spring training ever could. Altuve could’ve gotten hurt in spring training too, should we cancel that? If he wasn’t such an old, short, weak pussy maybe he could’ve moved his hands out of the way. He was the only notable player to get a major injury (while playing a game) in the whole tourney. It’s once every 4 goddamn years (and it’s actually been 6 years since the last one). But yeah you’re an Astros fan, you have to find a way to view yourself as the victim at all times.

If I was a Mets fan, I'd complain too. Aaron Judge really did so much for his country during the WBC like that pussy Altuve did. And you're the only one comparing it to spring training. Everybody else understand the difference.

[WBT 20578]

I like the WBC but baseball has been 'dying' for 100 years.  

$11 billion in revenue says it will be around for awhile.

List of global sports leagues with higher revenue than mlb:

Spoiler

nfl

 

Edited March 23, 2023 by WBT

[Helobious 9454]

Revenue =\= profits

Edited March 23, 2023 by Helobious

[Guadaloopy 10973]

2 hours ago, Helobious said:

 If he wasn’t such an old, short, weak pussy maybe he could’ve moved his hands out of the way.