WBC17 Rosters: Finalists

Brandon Crawford steps to bat in the WBC finals!

I am pro-WBC, as evidenced by my previous posts on (mostly) the 2013 tournament, and I was lucky enough to be able to attend the final game of the 2017 classic with some friends at Dodger Stadium, and let me tell you, I found it to be a tremendous baseball experience all around. We had positive interactions with fans of both teams, the atmosphere was overwhelming, and the actual game, while not exactly of the nail-biting variety, was still exciting and interesting and well-played. The only negative vibe I witnessed was an aggressive Dodger fan who illogically took vocal issue at a fellow Team USA supporter's Giants hat. I had been following the lineups and rosters of each team in the WBC leading up to the finals, and so before we get into whatever might have happened after the game, let's do some analysis of who played in this game.

Alex Bregman is the only player on Team USA spent the majority of his time in the minor leagues in 2016.

As can be seen by comparing this lineup to the last tournament's Team USA, there are actually only four holdover players. Adam Jones was of course at the center of both highlight reel plays and highlight reel controversies. Giancarlo Stanton played last year before signing his mega-extension with the Marlins, and also before the StatCast revolution named him tops in the exit velocity department. Jonathan Lucroy has played second fiddle behind the plate twice now, first to Joe Mauer and then to Buster Posey. Eric Hosmer only made that 2013 team as a replacement for Mark Teixeira and ended up replacing USA starting first baseman Paul Goldschmidt in the field after one game. I was somewhat confused by the prolonged use of a player with a less impressive track record - maybe it's that he's left handed, maybe it's his prior WBC experience - but it seemed to work out in the end.

Both Eddie Rosario and T.J. Rivera raked at the highest level of the minors while putting up average numbers in MLB.

On the other side, Puerto Rico had one more holdover from last time around. Angel Pagan and Carlos Beltran reprised their roles as leadoff man and cleanup hitter, respectively. 2013 bench bat Eddie Rosario was promoted to everyday left fielder, but Mike Aviles remained on the bench, garnering only two starts throughout pool play. Meanwhile, PR team captain Yadier Molina reprised his roles behind the plate and in front of the microphones, when he fired back at Jones's comments. Apparently Team USA didn't appreciate that their opponents prearranged a celebratory parade prior to the final game, while Molina takes issue with how the Americans celebrate victory. My sense is that this public spat is just a residue of the competitive juices that were flowing all throughout this tournament, and hopefully it won't bleed into the regular season.

Pretty impressive rotation, even without Clayton Kershaw, Madison Bumgarner, Noah Syndergaard, etc.

Team USA totally overhauled their pitching staff following the last go round of this tournament, with late-inning-high-leverage reliever Luke Gregerson being the only returning pitcher. His inclusion points to a pitching strategy that prioritizes top flight relief talent, including 2016 post-season hero Andrew Miller and the recipient of the richest free agent contract ever bestowed on a US-born player, Mark Melancon. Even though Max Scherzer had to bow out of the WBC due to injury and while Marcus Stroman pitched a gem in the finals, a lot has been made of the lack of the United States sending their top starting pitchers to the tournament. However, I'd say that the 2017 victory proves that USA doesn't necessarily need their best performing talent to field a winning team in these proceedings, although now that this team has transitioned from the hunting to the hunted (to borrow a phrase), I'm sure the pressure to repeat will be ever-mounting heading into 2021.

Jose De Leon checks in as MLB's #33 prospect pre-2017, while Jose Berrios was ranked #19 last year.

To evaluate Puerto Rico's pitching staff, we have to go over an additional level of color coding for my charts. On my database, I use the Bats/Throws column to denote roster status - while the majority of these players are on MLB rosters (no fill, and expanded to 40 players during the time of the tournament), light blue represents a non-roster invitee to big league camp (i.e. minor league starter Hiram Burgos, one of five holdovers from PR's 2013 team), while magenta denotes a current free agent (e.g. the aforementioned Angel Pagan, who is still looking for work at the time of this writing). The new color, gray, shows a player who wasn't on my database to begin with, due to inexperience or inactivity. This just goes to show that some teams in this tournament have to be more creative than others in finding players to fill their rosters.

The team's finals starter Seth Lugo is clearly the staff ace, even though he might start the 2017 season in the Mets bullpen, while superprospects Jose Berrios (another holdover, which means he pitched in the 2013 tournament at the tender age of 19) and Jose De Leon hold down the other two full-time starter spots. Manager Edwin Rodriguez used Hector Santiago, the Puerto Rican pitcher with the most accomplished MLB record, in an interesting and unique manner: as the designated long reliever for both Milwaukee Brewers youngster Jorge Lopez and seasoned veteran of both the Mets' farm system and the Japanese Nippon Professional Baseball league Orlando Roman. Edwin Diaz has the chops to be a top closer next year, Joe Jimenez has a bright future as a potential closer himself, and lefty specialist J.C. Romero will apparently never stop pitching.

CONFETTI MACHINE!

At left is a photo taken either before or after the victory comments that fueled a news cycle's worth of items - it's hard to tell since they were continuously spouting that confetti all during the festivities, much, I'm sure, to the chagrin of the Dodger Stadium grounds crew. As I've said, I like the WBC, regardless of what I feel about the 11th inning rule, which I do firmly believe led to a significant interruption to team Puerto Rico's karmic flow, when they had to use Rob Manfred's twisted brainchild of a rule to remain unbeaten in the semifinals against the Netherlands. And I sincerely hope that the words that were exchanged after the tournament don't lead to any bad blood. I'm nowhere near the level of the professional athletes who took the field for the WBC in the past weeks, but even I've had some heated interactions on a competitive sports field, then went on to have a perfectly healthy relationship with the other participants after the game was over, and felt stronger for the experience. Let's hope that each side of this argument learns something from the other and that each can benefit as a result of everything that's happened. I'm looking forward to 2021, and I know many baseball fans in all parts of the world are too.