World Baseball Classic

[Cironnu]

The Royals are sending Reuben Gotay to the Puerto Rican team, Justin Huber to the Australian, Elmer Dessens to the Mexico team, Matt Stairs and Aaron Guiel to the Canadian team, and minor leaguer Barry Armitage to the South African team. Something tells me that Gotay has the best shot of seeing the finals, that's for sure.

The Orioles are less than thrilled though. Last I heard they were sending something like fourteen players, including 4/5 of their rotation. Ouch!

I'm really looking forward to this, even though there are countries involved that I'd have never guessed played baseball! South Africa? The friggin' NETHERLANDS?? Still, why not? The more the merrier, IMO.

[lautrec]

Don't forget, the Netherlands has Andruw Jones. He could beat the Royals singlehandedly.

[Cironnu]

Nah, just do the Barry, and walk him every time he's up, even if the bases are loaded. ;)

Matt Stairs had a couple of RBI's for Canada yesterday, and Aaron Guiel chipped in with a double and a walk. Unfortunately, some of that damage (from Stairs) was against Royals prospect Barry Armitage, who got a little roughed up for the South African team. Elmer Dessens pitched two scoreless innings for Mexico against a very strong USA lineup. Huber didn't have a good day though, going 0-3 with two K's for Australia. Overall, I'm pretty happy with the way things are going for the Royals participating in the WBC. I can't wait to see how our guys do today. I know that a lot of people don't like the Classic, but I'm paying a lot more attention to it than I am Royals spring training games, that's for sure. Early spring training games suck under the best of circumstances. 2-3 weeks from now, it'll be a different story, but for now..........

[Cironnu]

Well, today Matt Stairs went 1-4 with a 2 RBI double and a walk, and Aaron Guiel went 1-3 with a triple, a walk, and a run scored, both for the Canadian team, who stunned the US with a 8-6 victory. Reuben Gotay went 0-1 in a pinch hit appearance for Puerto Rico.

The Canadian Royals are contributing pretty well so far!

[lautrec]

It's probably just me, being a Royals fan and all, but I could really see a US collapse coming. I think the biggest problem, is I friggin ordered a Clemens USA jersey last night, after the Mexico win.

I don't know what I was thinking, it probably jinxed them. Also, and I hate to admit this, but I finally turned off the XM braodcast when Canada took a 7-0 lead, and when I turned it back on, it was 8-6, and I shouldn't have, but I listened the rest of the way, and they didn't score again. They probably would have won, had I not turned the game back on, or shut it off immediately when I saw the score.

My bad, fellas.

[Cironnu]

:grouchy Isn't that how it goes? I can't tell you how many times I've had that happen between me and the Royals. The less attention I pay, the better they seem to do. Grr.......

[lautrec]

Cirronnu - I don't know how you are, but during the 1985 series, my uncle and I found out in game 5, if we stood up the whole game and watched, the Royals would win. We stood up for games 5,6 and 7..... and my uncle is a fairly respected dentist...but, unfortunately, a baseball fan.

Yes, it always seems to be that if you don't watch, they do better. weird.

[Cironnu]

In that case, I just hope your legs didn't get too worn out. ;) And that you kept on standing anyway!