Breaking Down the WBC: Pool B

The “World Series” is a misnomer — the final round of the MLB playoffs only determines the best team in America/Canada. The true “World Series” is the World Baseball Classic, where the top baseball teams from all across the globe compete.The WBC isn’t like Olympic Baseball, where only the best amateurs compete — instead, countries draw on the best professional talent tied to the nation and assemble powerhouses of teams to compete with one another.The first round of the WBC consists of four pools of four teams who compete in a round robin tournament. The top two teams from each pool move onto the next round. For the next week, I’ll be ranking each WBC team, pool by pool, to see who might be best poised to make it to the next round. Teams are sorted from 1st to 4th by their ability to contend in the WBC. I reviewed Pool A last week, and now I’ll look at one of the strongest pools in the WBC: Pool B.

1. Japan

Japan is the closest thing to a dynasty the WBC has ever seen. In three Classics to date, Japan has finished 1st, 1st, and 3rd (in that order). Drawing from the best players in the Nippon Professional Baseball league, Japan has dominated the WBC and other international baseball competitions for much of recent memory. The loss of SP/OF Shohei Otani, who is the Japanese equivalent of Anthony Rizzo and Clayton Kershaw in one, to injury is a crushing blow to Japan — but the rest of the team is still fairly well built. 2B/SS Tetsuto Yamada is an offensive powerhouse and 5-tool player, who consistently flirts with the first 40/40 season in NPB history — and he’s younger than Mike Trout. SP Shintaro Fujinami has dominated the NPB as well, and looks to anchor the Japanese staff. This team of youngsters is aiming high, and has all the tools and talent to take home the title.

2. Cuba

The Cuban national team has advanced to at least round two in every WBC to date, and there’s little reason to believe that they won’t do the same in 2017. LF Alfredo Despaigne has excelled at every level he’s played at, and SP Freddy Alvarez has been nothing short of dominant in the Cuban National Series, holding a career 2.90 ERA over 11 seasons. The Cuban team would be much stronger if they allowed defectors to play, letting the likes of OF Yoenis Cespedes and OF Yasiel Puig to join them, but Cuba still has a strong team regardless. And they’re not missing Cespedes’ presence: they have their own Cespedes, in the form of Yoenis’ younger brother Yoelkis, who does an excellent job of carrying on the family name.

3. Australia

Australia has historically floundered in the WBC — they’ve only ever won a single game across all tournaments. However, Australian baseball has grown tremendously since the 2013 WBC — especially with the coming-of-age of the ABL, Australia’s own professional baseball league. The national team fought its way to a qualification in 2016 and eeked out a slot in this year’s tourney. This might finally be the year for Australia’s next win (although they face stiff competition from the rest of the pool). The only MLB talent on the team are two relief pitchers: Liam Hendricks (Athletics) and Warwick Saupold. But there’s a plethora of ABL talent in there too: OF Tim Kennelly posted a .964 OPS to lead the ABL and OF Mitch Denning posted a .340 average. Don’t sleep on the thunder from down under.

4. China

China appears to be in a bit of a spot for the WBC — there’s only a single confirmed player for the roster, IF Ray Chang, a career minor-leaguer. The actual roster is likely under wraps for the time being. China will certainly field a team, but this emphasizes the difficulty China has had in putting together competitive teams for the WBC, having only won two games in the history of the tourney. The above article mentions SP Bruce Chen and 2B Kolten Wong as potential picks, but it appears as though the Chinese national team will be heading to the tourney without much MLB talent. In a pool with both Japan and Cuba, the Chinese national team looks to be in for a rough ride this WBC.