Comments on: 2013 World Baseball Classic rosters are here

By: pandorasdadca

pandorasdadca — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 17:40:41 +0000

That isn’t uncommon. England plays Wales and Scotland in several sports and each fields separate Olympic teams even though they’re all in the United Kingdom.

By: blacksables

blacksables — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 13:01:54 +0000

Fair enough, but I wasn’t trying to be that specific. We refer to the “Dakotas” and the “Carolinas”, but neither are a country.

My point was, what is commonly known as Holland is no longer a country, but part of a bigger Netherlands.

My grandmother, who is Frisian, would slap me for saying that out loud if she heard me.

By: cktai

cktai — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 11:22:52 +0000

I’m incredible excited to see the Netherlands in action. With Profar, Simmons, Bogaerts and Schoop we have a very young but talented infield, although I wonder which of these four will be benched.

The outfield is decent, but not great, with Roger Bernadina and the Japan based Andruw Jones and Wladimir Balentien. The catchers are very raw indeed. In 2009 it was Kenley Jansen, but this time around it will probably be 24yo Shawn Zarraga (Brewers A+), or the even younger Spencer Kiebook (Nationals A-).

As for the pitching staff, we have to rely on AAAA players such as Shairon Martis and Jair Jurrjens. The bullpen is decent through with Kenley Jansen and Dutch league legends David Bergman and Rob Cordemans. The latter has 64-13 record with a 1.01 ERA as a starter from the stats that I could gather, but in the previous WBC he was used as a reliever with quite a bit of success.

By: cktai

cktai — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 11:14:44 +0000

There is no province called Holland anymore. Not since 1840 when the provinces were split up in Noord-Holland and Zuid-Holland.

Regardless, almost all the baseball played in the Netherlands is played in Holland, and the finals of the Hoofdklasse are called the Holland Series.

By: cktai

cktai — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 11:11:22 +0000

Chinese Taipei was never part of the USA!

In all seriousness though, Taiwan has been a de facto independent nation for over 60 years now. The situation between the People’s Republic and the Republic of China (Taiwan, or Chinese Taipei) is incomparable to the situation around Puerto Rico and USA.

What does make you wonder is why Puerto Rico participates independently while Curacao, Aruba, and St Maarten don’t. They are independent nations within the Kingdom of the Netherlands. In football (soccer) they compete independently. Heck even in the Baseball World Cup, the Netherlands Antilles used to be an independent team until they broke up into 3 nations and 3 municipalities within the Netherlands.

By: blacksables

blacksables — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 10:08:17 +0000

Holland isn’t a country. It’s a province of the Netherlands, which is a country.

By: ahuophfe

ahuophfe — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 08:49:16 +0000

Reblogged this on bnfblogs.

By: edmata

edmata — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 05:53:37 +0000

Damn DR is in the toughest pool. All they need to do is beat PR and we’re good, spain is in the bag.
And the US is in the easiest pool….hmmmm.

By: historiophiliac

historiophiliac — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 04:37:55 +0000

Venezuela!!!!!

By: phipfwe76

phipfwe76 — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 03:20:01 +0000

Meh. There’s all kinds of non-countries that compete in the Olympics and others as part of FIFA, so it’s not unheard of.

By: Drew Silva

Drew Silva — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 03:01:16 +0000

Good point. Changed it to “baseball federations.”

By: goskinsvt

goskinsvt — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 02:57:14 +0000

Puerto Rico isn’t a country. Always confused me why they weren’t part of the USA. Same with Chinese Taipei.

By: beefytrout

beefytrout — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 02:22:39 +0000

Here’s the link where you can find the full rosters:

http://mlb.mlb.com/wbc/2013/