Braves in the WBC.

Davey Johnson said it wouldn’t be the the AS game, meaning only one player from each position would get the majority of playing time. I would start Chipper over Wright, and the competition for McCann isn’t even close.

Did you see the Dominican lineup? F-ing sick! And this is without Man-Ram.

3. Hanley Ramirez
4. Pujols
5. A-Rod

I was just looking over the rosters a little more and they must have made some changes to the eligibility. Donovan Hendricks, who played for the Braves in the minors, is from Australia, but is on the South African roster, as is Paul Rutgers, who actually played for Australia in the 06 WBC. No idea what’s going on there, how they suddenly decided these guys were South African and not Australian.

Also love the rules that let anyone with a vaguely Italian name play for the Italian team, like former Brave minor leaguer Sal Fasano (The Mustachioed One), and some guys who maybe look a little Italian, like former Brave Robert Fick.

I’m not particularly enthralled with the idea of Jurrjens being the best pitcher on the Netherlands’ staff. While the innings totals for these WBC pitchers are low, they are higher leverage innings than a pitcher would typically throw at the spring training stage of the year. Especially considering Jurrjens’ increased vulnerability to injury following a large hike in innings pitched from 2007 to 2008. I don’t think its a disaster for him to pitch in the WBC and he certainly has the right to decide for himself, but I think it might be in the best interest of the Braves for Jurrjens to not pitch in the WBC. An injury to Jurrjens would essentially null the improvements made to our starting rotation over the offseason and Jurrjens is more likely to be injured while playing in the WBC than in a typical eased spring training situation.

Promoted to the front page. I was just reading about the rosters this morning and was going to put up a post.

It’s kind of a shame that one of Evan Longoria, David Wright, and Chipper Jones will have to sit, unless maybe they slide one of them to first base, which probably won’t happen

I’d be fine with NO Braves playing in the WBC. Too worried about injuries, especially to pitchers and of course Chipper.

I expect the USA to put forth a better showing this year than in ‘06. That was an embarrassment. I’d imagine Chipper to be taking more of a DH role than actual 3B, which is fine by me, and I hope that McCann does not have to take the brunt of the catching duties.

I am all for the WBC, but seeing such an extensive list of Braves players vying for spots is admirable, but I am apprehensive of the post-WBC hangover that has been pretty well documented by many of us here. It will no doubt open up the door in spring training for a lot of the prospects, but nobody wants to see anyone get hurt.

I’m not too terribly concerned about squads like Italy, and the Netherlands, so Jurrjens may really only get to pitch once or twice, and likely not even see close to the pitch counts, especially if they get blown out.

Darkhorses to me, remain Cuba and South Korea. Let’s face it, neither of these teams should be of any surprise to anyone this time, considering their ’06 performance, and their Olympic successes. But the lack of MLB players for these squads seems to be all the reason in the world why people dismiss them. I imagine Japan also has a large target on their back, being the defending champions, and other teams need to prepare for their small ball and aggressive running tactics.

spring training is gonna suck this year if i don’t show up to games that tommy hanson is starting.

This team needs Jeff Francoeur if they wanna win anything.

Its good to see Robodouche is not on the USA roster. They need someone who actually hits in the Spring.

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