Betts Trout Lead Team USA In WBC
Photo: Special to the NY Beacon
By Joshua Garcia
As steamers and confetti fell on the infield of the most romantic and picturesque backdrop in all of baseball, the United States celebrated its first World Baseball Classic Championship at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. Whether it was the back-to-back defeats of World Powers Japan and Puerto Rico or rather reclaiming the title as the kings of the game they invented, the Americans finally enjoyed the sweet taste of the morsels of victory in 2017.
But, you know how the motto goes in New York, ‘Can you do it again’? Well, the Americans will have some excellent roster additions to face the tall task of trying to become the First Nation to repeat since Japan captured the first two titles in Tournament history (2006, 2009). If you are curious how important this event is in Japan, the 2006 and 2009 World Baseball Finals both rank in the top 5 watched television events in the nation’s history. This is the type of stage the US team will need to perform on to match those powerful Japanese Champions, as the tournament offers plenty of stiff competition.
Arguably the US is entering the 2023 World Baseball Classic with an upgraded roster, one which won it all with less in 2017. With all due respect to Christian Yelich and Giancarlo Stanton, Mookie Betts and Mike Trout are a large upgrade in the lineup. Mookie and Trout will add speed to the American lineup which should set the base paths ablaze to put pressure on formidable opponents like the Dominican Republic and Japan who are absolutely stacked with talent.
Nothing can be underscored more than the need for the American team to scratch runs across if they are going to repeat as 2023 Champions. Betts and Trout who are often held back from running the base paths due to modern baseball analytics should have much more freedom to create chaos in the running game under USA Manager Mark DeRosa. If the USA can find it’s potential on the scoreboard any way they can, it can go a long way to covering up the Achilles heel of the team, it’s pitching.
For a repeat campaign the vaunted American lineup will have to pick up it’s roster inefficiencies in the rotation and bullpen. It’s not that the American pitching is subpar, it’s when you begin to compare them to the teams they will need to beat to become champions for a second time, they become suspect.
Teams like Japan and the Dominican Republic will front line with Cy Young winners, while the Americans will ask Lance Lynn and Adam Wainwright to win it’s biggest games. Again, Lynn and Wainwright are great talents and are more than formidable on their MLB teams. The rosters in this tournament however, have no holes in the order or easy outs, and as Kyle Schwarber recently described it, “you look around the field there and it’s all all-stars and some future Hall of Famers”.
Out of the bullpen the USA team will be led by closer Devin Williams, while Ryan Pressly and Kendall Graveman will put out fires which will undoubtedly come up with the high level of play in the tournament. American fans may feel some discomfort with important games on the line in the face of lineups like the DR and Japan, but, if Mookie and Mike can push the US team into late leads and insurance runs to give it more wiggle room, nobody would be shocked at the team repeating as champions.
But, it will be nowhere near easy this go round and will take an even greater effort than in 2017 to come out on top. Pool play for the USA begins March 11th at Chase Field in Arizona against Great Britain.
