To call Team USA a disappointment in the inaugural World Baseball Classic three years ago would be a severe understatement. They weren’t just disappointing, they were an embarrassment.
The team might have slightly overlooked their opponents as Todd Jones duly noted following their exit: “We thought we’d crush everybody.” Whoops. As it turned out, they didn’t crush anyone (outside of South Africa, but who couldn’t do that?) while stumbling to a 3-3 finish that ended with a loss to Mexico to knock them out of contention of even the semifinals.
The team might have slightly overlooked their opponents as Todd Jones duly noted following their exit: “We thought we’d crush everybody.” Whoops. As it turned out, they didn’t crush anyone (outside of South Africa, but who couldn’t do that?) while stumbling to a 3-3 finish that ended with a loss to Mexico to knock them out of contention of even the semifinals.
Expect Team USA to come out more prepared and focused this time around when they kick off the second WBC this Saturday against Canada in Toronto. That won’t be the problem, but I don’t believe the USA has enough on its roster to compete for the WBC title. Don’t get me wrong, their roster is loaded with hitters by featuring a 20-home run player at every position. My concern is their pitching. Just like it goes in the MLB postseason, you can’t rely on hitting to come through in a tournament as short as this one. Instead, you need your pitching to be great.
Team USA has Roy Oswalt and Jake Peavy at the top of their rotation, which doesn’t look so bad on paper until you remember Oswalt’s horrendous April-May last year before he turned his season around. Will he be shaky and revert back to the struggling pitcher he was at the beginning of last season? If that answer ends up being yes then Team USA is in trouble. But even after Peavy and Oswalt, the next best starter on the team is Ted Lilly and then its fourth starter is Orioles young pitcher Jeremy Guthrie. Lilly is actually coming off one of his seasons in recent memory, but the guy is still a middle of the road, 4.50 ERA career pitcher. The bullpen should be just fine with arms like J.J. Putz, Scot Shields, Jonathan Broxton, John Grabow, J.P. Howell, Matt Lindstrom and Brad Zeigler available in late innings.
If the hitting gets hot, it won’t matter if I’m on the mound pitching, but three years ago the hitting was MIA as they scored 2, 4, 3 and 1 runs in four of the games. Team USA will show up better prepared than three years ago, but I think it’ll be starting pitching that will eventually do them in again.
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