Ortiz and Pujols are sitting out to rehab, not enough people know Adrian Beltre, and nobody knows if Bartolo Colon is even still alive. Pedro Martinez doesn’t even have a team right now, so he couldn’t mention which team he plays for. Tejada and A-Rod are both juicers, but more people know A-Rod, and he’s a Yankee, so there you have it, your DR representative

I also liked how they managed to sneak in a minor leaguer from the River Dogs (Yankees-AA) in the commercial as well.

Their replacements: Joel Hanrahan and LaTroy Hawkins.

Pretty happy to see that.

Surprised you didn’t switch Pedroia and Youk

You forgot to add Heath Bell, though I agree with your point. Not sure why we’re adding all these RHP’s, I thought we needed more LHP’s outta the pen to combat the large majority of LHB’s. Having said that Grabow and Bell are no slouches and I would guess guys like Hanrahan and Hawkins would serve more in middle relief roles – at least I HOPE!

the WBC doesn’t have the overall talent pool of MLB.

Korea and Cuba, and to some degree Japan, would probably disagree, considering they have had their way with US, Dominican, and Venezuelan baseball since 2006, regardless of it were Major Leaguers in the 2006 WBC, or younger players in the Olympics. The best players don’t always make the best team.

I like Yu Darvish, Johnny Cueto, Min-Han Son, and even Ian Snell and Oliver Perez (I’m presuming the #2s on their respective countries’ rosters) over the US’s (presumed) #3 in Ted Lilly.

I don’t think it’s fair to give other countries an advantage, based on unfamiliarity with MLB players, because any team serious about scouting, should be able to find video, or at least a scouting report on any player. Japan and Korea televise their leagues, and MLB teams have their scouts scattered all throughout wherever baseball is played in South America. It is by no means impossible for the US team to make themselves less unfamiliar with the names they’ll be potentially pitted against in the tournament.

Byung-Hyun Kim is also the worst possible name to throw out when trying to justify significant advantages due to unfamiliarity. Aside from his years of MLB experience, Byung-Hyun Kim couldn’t deal with air pressure, let alone the pressures of a close-game save situation. I still remember face-palming when Kim faced Fukudome in the 2006 semi’s, and Fukudome crushing one out of PETCO.

My theory of the US’s inability to win in 2006 was simply a lack of cohesion, and an arrogance at thinking a mish-mash of stars would get the job done. They may be on the right track at trying to acquire more role-oriented players, and a few utility guys, but there is still that lack of cohesion, and the whole “still warming up” phase. On SportsCenter, they showed a play with Wright throwing to Youk, and if not for Youk’s stellar defense, would have resulted in a terrible defensive play. I bet the teams that have been preparing for the WBC a bit longer won’t be making such horrible plays.

I want the US to run the table, don’t get me wrong. But I think it’s a little questionable to assume that because they have a hell of a line-up, that they’re any better than any other country’s teams. Today was a good example, the Blue Jays beating the US squad. The 2006 US baseball squad was as much of an embarrassment as the 2004 Olympic ball-into-metal-hoop “Dream Team” was, and I hope this baseball squad takes redemption as seriously as the basketball squad did, and come out on top.