World Baseball Classic: Round 2 Recap

Following the format of my previous WBC recaps would only have left me with two eliminated teams per pool to analyze. So I decided to wait until all four teams were eliminated from both Round 2 pools and lump them all together. And although the last game of Round 2 is happening as I type between the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, this game is just to determine seeding purposes. I have to say, in a tournament format such as this, the anticlimactic final game is the only drawback of the modified double elimination format. The positives are that every game is meaningful and that it's clear when and why a team is eliminated, without resorting to a flawed, convoluted, fight-causing tie-breaker system. Not that it's not fun to enjoy some fireworks on the international stage every now and then.

The first team to be eliminated from Round 2 was Chinese Taipei, the only team from the Qualifying Round to advance past Round 1. The highest profile major leaguer on this team has to be Wang Chien-Ming, the former Yankees ace who is currently a free agent after racking up negative points in 10 games with the Nationals last year. As the only Taiwanese pitcher to start more than one game in the tournament proper, Wang had a nice chance to put together a little audition for major league clubs. The next most recognizable face on this roster is former Dodgers reliever Kuo Hung-Chih (nee Hong-Chih Kuo) - a personal favorite of mine, since I have his bobblehead from 2011 (the last year in which he pitched for the majors) sitting on my shelf. Then the only other player on this team who has had a taste of the majors is Boston AAA shortstop Lin Che-Hsuan, who got his first cup of coffee in 2012. Only a handful of other players had non-Taiwanese baseball experience: Wang Yao-Lin pitched for the Cubs single-A affiliate, and in the Japanese League, Yang Dai-Kang played center field for the Nippon Ham Fighters, Wang Yao-Hsun started games started games for the Fukuoka-Softbank Hawks, and Wang I-Cheng started (disastrously) for the Yokohama Bay Stars. (Are you sensing a pattern here in terms of family names? In addition to four Wang's, this team also sported seven Lin's and three Chen's. Whatever happened to variety?)

With the exception of Lo Ching-Lung, who pitched for Lancaster in the independent Atlantic League, the rest of this team played in the Chinese Professional Baseball League, the top-tier baseball organization in Taiwan. There are only four teams in the CPBL (one of which, the EDA Rhinos, will soon be welcoming Manny Ramirez) so it wasn't hard to determine who played for which teams by a cursory glance at their Wikipedia rosters. But forget about finding statistical information for individual players. There is no Taiwanese equivalent of baseball-reference.com or even mlb.com - each team's website is hosted individually with massive differences in layouts for each one. And trying to use Google Translate to navigate the Chinese sites just yields hilariously ineffective results. I just hope that by the next WBC, in four years' time, that we can complete the globalization of baseball stats around the world.

The next team to see its WBC journey come to an end was surprisingly Cuba, the 2006 runner-up and the country that had five players represented in the past two All-WBC teams (surpassed only by 2009 runner-up Korea and two-time winner Japan). Their team certainly wasn't short on talent: Cuba had three starters in that ESPN.com article profiling the best non-major leaguers in the tournament, two of whom also represented their country in 2009. Infielder Yulieski Gurriel (formerly Gourriel) is the consensus most talented overall player in the Cuban Serie Nacional (who I saw play live in the Olympics) and outfielder Alfredo Despaigne (who in the years leading up to both tournaments scored more than 20 fantasy points per game) join newcomer to team Cuba Erisbel Arruebarruena, who has made a name for himself with his glove and his surplus of syllables in his name. Six more players returned to team Cuba from 2009: including cleanup hitter Frederich Cepeda (who launched some monster home runs in Round 1 in Japan), all three starting pitchers from Round 2 -- Ismel Jimenez, the only pitcher to break 2,000 points in the 2011-12 Cuban season, Vladimir Garcia, who led the staff with more than 90 points per game last year, and Danny Betancourt, who appears to have had a lost season with less than 900 total points under his belt -- reliever Norberto Gonzalez, and backup catcher Yosbany Peraza.

Notable newcomers to the Cuban team are first baseman Jose Abreu, who along with Despaigne make the only two batters to surpass 2,000 points, Raciel Iglesias, who relieved in a team-high five WBC contests, Alexi Bell, one of Cuba's all-time great outfielders, and Jose Fernandez, the second baseman who must have had a lost season, since he consistently batted third in the order despite only 1,100 fantasy points all year. The only player on this team to have any kind of affiliation with a major league club is pitcher Freddy Alvarez who pitched for Tampa Bay's Venezuelan Summer League affiliate. Notable members of Cuba's 2009 team who have since made the jump to the majors are Reds reliever-turning-back-to-starter Aroldis Chapman, who back then went by Albertin, Athletics outfielder Yoennis Cespedes, and pitcher Yunesky Maya, who has had a couple cups of coffee with the Nationals.

Moving on to Pool 2, to see the next team fall was a big blow to my personal family heritage. Italy advanced farther than they ever had before, squeaking past Mexico and trouncing Canada before losing to USA in the first round. But two blown-save losses in a row to the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico in Round 2 sent the Italians packing. I was frankly surprised at how many major league affiliated players represented for this team, prompting a friend of mine to joke that you could be eligible to play for Team Italy if you've so much as eaten at the Olive Garden. But seriously, folks, this team was so stacked that they only needed to devote two spots on its starting lineup to players from the Italian Baseball League (whose logo, while artfully drawn, looks like it depicts a batter who's about to get both his hands shattered with a pitch). First the returning players from 2009: journeyman infielder Nick Punto led off both years, outfielder Chris Denorfia returned to play center field, Alex Liddi rode the bench in '09 but was promoted to the cleanup spot this year (30 AAA home runs in 2011 give you quite a reputation), Mike Costanzo has been with three different teams (not counting Italy) since the last WBC, and Mario Chiarini has spent his entire career (save for one year with Seattle's Arizona Fall League affiliate) playing with Rimini in the IBL. But the most significant member of Italy's offense has to be Cubs first baseman and savior Anthony Rizzo -- another friend of mine attended the game when he hit his first home run at Wrigley Field and couldn't even begin to describe the deafening roar sent up by the bleacher bums. A couple of Twins fringe players also played into this team's success: AA first baseman Chris Colabello (who could take on added significance with Canadian representative Justin Morneau entering a walk year) and backup catcher Drew Butera.

On the pitching side, only two starters pitched outside of Italy last year: Alex Maestri, returning from 2009 and the only pitcher to start a game in both rounds, pitched very well in limited time for the Orix Buffaloes in the Japanese League, and John Mariotti likewise pitched well for Quebec in the independent Canadian-American Association. Remaining starters Luca Panerati and Tiago Da Silva (who both also represented in 2009) pitched for Bologna and San Marino respectively last year. The only pitcher to play in the majors in 2012 is prospective new Pirates closer Jason Grilli, but a total of four others were affiliated with major league clubs. The world's first "switch-pitcher" Pat Venditte had his AAA season with the Yankees cut short due to injury, former major leaguer Brian Sweeney has returned to his original team and is now toiling in the Mariners' farm system, Matt Torra started for the Rays' AAA affiliate and Tim Crabbe started primarily for Cincinnati's AA team.

As is evident by the fact that they are not playing in the final game of Round 2, the last team to be eliminated was, actually not so surprisingly given their history in the event, Team USA. But seeing as I'm actually a United States citizen and this team is where my loyalties should lie (and since they have the most impressive roster of major league talent in the tournament, I think they deserve their own post. Until then, here's hoping for an exciting finale of the tournament.