Fixing The WBC
In about an hour, the final World Baseball Classic rosters will be announced. Unfortunately, the bigger news is going to be who isn’t playing, rather than who is.
Johan Santana isn’t pitching for Venezuela. Albert Pujols isn’t playing for the Dominican Republic. Josh Hamilton isn’t playing for the U.S.A. Canada has to go forward without Rich Harden or Erik Bedard. Even lesser players, such as Ryan Rowland-Smith (Australia), Jose Mijares (Venezuela), Joel Pineiro (Puerto Rico), and Juan Rincon (Venezuela) have opted to decline invitations as well.
The finalized rosters aren’t going to look much like the provisional ones released earlier this year, as scores of players are opting to train with their teams this spring rather than represent their countries. I’m sure they all feel they are making the correct choice, and I’m not here to pass judgment one way or another. There’s certainly positives and negatives to be gained from participating in the WBC, and that’s heightened by the timing of the event.
I know there’s no perfect time to have this tournament, but the middle of spring training simply doesn’t appear feasible. There are too many conflicts of interest between what is good for the player, their MLB organization, and their country to have the event during March. There has to be a better time to do this.
So, here’s my suggestion. Cancel the All-Star Game, turn the three day break into a seven day break, and have a single elimination tournament that lasts a week. The top two teams would play four games, and everyone else less than that, so you’re simply not adding significant strain to the pitchers selected to compete. It’s a normal turn in the rotation for the four starters selected. They take the hill in mid-season form, because it actually is mid-season.
The whole point of the All-Star game has been to watch the best of the best compete against each other, and recently, MLB has tried to give it some meaning as more than an exhibition game. Just rename the thing the All-Star Tournament, and now, you have the best of the best playing against each for something that actually does matter.
The pointless All-Star game goes away, and the WBC gets to live out the dream of having international competition on a big stage with the best players in the world. We’ll get Johan vs Pujols. We’ll get 15 dramatic winner-take-all contests with all the drama of March Madness and all the talent of the World Series. It would be a ratings bonanza and a pretty huge cash cow.
MLB, WBC, make this happen please. The current situation just isn’t working for anyone.
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Good idea. I’d watch it. You might still have players decline based on injury risk or fatigue (esp pitchers) but I don’t think it would be as bad as the current setup.
For someone that comes up with a lot of good baseball ideas; this might be your best one, Mr. Cameron.
I love this idea!
I’ve heard this idea before and I really like it. I’d certainly find the whole thing a helluva lot more entertaining than the All-Star Game is these days.
I had the same thought. I think the Cubans would object, since for them it currently IS mid-season for them, and July would I think be after their season was completed.
Replace the all-star game? You have got to be kidding. I would much rather have the All-Star game than the WBC. The mid-summer classic is the best all-star game of the major sports in this country. Players would still opt out of the WBC especially if they could get a seven day break.
My idea would be to just drop the WBC all together.
Pretty much all the players who would play in the All-Star game are currently playing in the WBC.
And saying that the mid-summer classic is the best all-star game of the major sports in this country is kinda like saying we have the best pile of useless crap among everyone else’s piles of useless crap.
Also, players opt our of both the WBC and the All-Star game all the time; that doesn’t change anything.
If we were gonna drop one, I’d rather drop the All-Star game. It’s ridiculous that there’s an ‘MVP’ of it based on either 3 at bats or 2 innings pitched. Make it actually mean something.
Its still too much. The best teams play 4 times in 7 days when the players could otherwise be resting. Just take the MLB players out of the equation, it would still be a fun watch. Fix the all-star game by making it an age battle over 30 vs under 30 and if the game goes into extras selig has to pitch until there is a winner.
I agree with those who say too many games. Instead, why not have elimination rounds during the Winter months, like Davis Club matches or similar to World Soccer matches. After all the regions have their representatives, only four will play during the All-Star week long break. A winner take all, single elimination competition would take just three or two games. A v B, C v D. With the winner going on to the Championship game. Two games are doable in one week, no one is overworked, enough time to be rested for the start of the second half of the MLB season.
Two games in one week? This isn’t hockey… Baseball players do six of seven every week. Four of seven WOULD be a break.
And even more, only TWO teams would play four, which means like 20 players play four if it’s the DR vs USA in the final. Otherwise it’s a hell of a lot less.
I agree with Okie Ranger’s sentiments. I think the WBC is just a terrible idea. It’s the red-headed stepchild of baseball games.
One of the best aspects of this idea is that the WBC would not be competing with anything aside from other baseball (Minor/Independent/International Leagues). Whereas the current WBC schedule conflicts with baseball itself, albeit only Spring Training, but also the NBA and NHL. This is not to mention “March Madness” and what is probably the height of the NFL’s free agency.
In other words, there are better times to hold this.
I am now a believer.
Another thing, I think all all star games should enforce participation in AT LEAST the degree hockey does. I would go as far as to say that a player who skips the event must miss (for baseball) the 5 games (two starts for pitchers) proceeding it or immediately following.
Non-participation has never been an issue with MLB’s All Star Game.
The only problem with this idea is that the travel time would wreak havoc on the players. You can’t just have the whole tournament in america, and flying half way around the world to play one game at some ungodly hour of the night just wouldn’t work well for the players. On top of that having a tournament once every three or four years that is only a week long would make most people loose interest. I LOVE THE WBC, and I don’t care if half a dozen players won’t play.
I was completely agreeing with you until I thought about this:
What about the World Cup?
Yeah, you can’t be traveling to different locals for each round, but you could move the location every year.
Right now the WBC is played every four years (three since last time). Play it one year in the US (MLB is the US), one year in Asia (rotate it), one year in Latin America (again, rotate it) and one year in Europe.
You still get it held in the US once every four years, and each country gets it once too.
I’m not really in love with this idea. I love the All-Star game and the Home-run Derby. I also agree that part of the WBC appeal is that it is being held during a relatively “down-time” in regard to American sports. I do think that the intrusion on spring training is bothersome. I think late January/early February would be an ideal time or even late November/early December. Cold weather wouldn’t really be a factor as you could have it in warm weather locations or domed stadiums (just like they are now).
Yeah, except for this thing called football – which is in a lot of ways even more ‘America’s pastime’ than baseball likes to think it is.
I still think November is the best time to do this. A lot of players go and play winter ball anyway, pitchers and hitters are in full season form. If an injury occurs you have the entire winter to heal
Teams would get a week off after the regular season ends, then the teams will meat and workout together for 2-3 weeks and then start the tournament after the world series.
To me a 7 day tournament in the middle of the season is a bad idea, players will be fatigued, it will be rushed, and injury’s mid season would be devastating. I understand the idea, but I think asking players to stop mid season playing for their team, never practice iwth another team, show up have a 1 week tourny and then go right back to playing doesnt make much sense.
The middle of the season is bad timing (esp in elimination tournament style).
I think the most feasible would be in the winter time, replacing (or following) some of the winter leagues.
Also, restricting participation/representation of a country to players who are citizens of this country will go long ways in reducing the amount of major league players who participate (representing their grandparent’s country), thus reducing the risk of injury, plus it would allow for previously unseen talent to be seen by fans world-wide, and will give a great opportunity to minor leaguers to showcase their skills (a thing they do in Venezuela, Puerto Rico and Mexico in the winter anyways).
Except that the US would kill every other team.
In my opinion, Josh wins this argument… There aren’t real off season leagues for major league talent anyway… playing a WBC during a 7 day all star break is just ridiculous.
I agree with Mr. Sobba, that Mr. Cameron thinks of a lot of good ideas, however this is probably his worst.
That’s actually the best alternative I’ve heard to the current WBC schedule. I have very little interest in the event; I’m far more excited for the Twins to start play tomorrow. I could see myself being more interested if I were from a country like Netherlands or Italy where this is their biggest baseball event of the year.
A similar tournament is held in soccer – the African Cup of Nations, scheduled in January every other year. The big difference is that it actually conflicts with the season, but ignoring that, this tournament is widely hated by all domestic club managers. The problem is that even if you can get by without the players for a few weeks, they come back and they’re really tired, jet-lagged, often injured, and sometimes it takes them literally a year to get back to their best form (Arsenal’s Ivorian defender Kolo Toure, one of the best players in Europe, had the worst stretch of his career between about February and December of 2008, due to injuries and fatigue he sustained in the 2008 tournament).
Now what you’re proposing is quite different because it would only last for a week (vs. a month) and it wouldn’t directly conflict with the season. The problems will still happen though, especially considering that your average rate of injury for a major league pitcher is much higher than any position in soccer. All it takes is for one $10 million + starter on a contending team to get injured, and there will be outcry from everyone (except maybe the hitters on his division rivals).
But that could happen no matter when it’s held.
To those opposed to losing the All-Star Game — well, first of all, are you Yankees fans? I kid, I kid. Seriously though, keep in mind, we’re not losing the All-Star game for good. It’s only once every four years that the WBC would take place, after all. 75% of the time we’d have the Midsummer Classic just like always (in all its flawed, fan-voted glory).
This idea simply replaces the ASG once in a while in order to make this international tournament — something that I think is good for the game, when done right — work better.
It’s basically a publicity stunt to have a bunch of one-game series, but what the hell, the ASG is a publicity stunt, too, isn’t it?
The rosters for these games would be interesting, seeing as how each team would have to plan for four starters and a deep bullpen to avoid wearing down any single player too much over the tournament.
As D.C. said in the article, there is no perfect time to do the WBC. But I think it’s something worth doing if you can, and this is, at the very least, a BETTER time.
It’s once every 3 years, actually.
And if you got rid of the WBC, there would be a lot of pissed off Japanese and Koreans. I’m living in Japan currently, and every single day on the news is WBC, WBC, Ichiro, WBC, Ichiro, Ichiro, WBC.
For them it’s absolutely huge. They get their prodigal son back playing for their country, they get to pretend the level of baseball in Japan is equivalent to baseball in the Majors, and they get oodles of revenue from it.
You have to remember that the WBC is largely for developing interest in baseball in other countries. The US has the MLB — the best baseball talent in the world — I’d wager that 99% of US fans would rather watch their home team play. That is certainly not the case in the rest of the world, and we shouldn’t forget that when we discuss how to handle it.
(and the Asian teams would have a huge handicap in a mid-season tournament like this due to jet lag — just read this article)
It is every 4 years. They just wanted to shift it to the year directly after the Olympics, so they cut the time between to 3 years after the first one only.
The NHL has previously tried the concept of cancelling its all star game so that it can send its best players to the Olympics, which has had mixed reviews – national teams complain that they do not have enough preparation time and owners complain that they lose the revenue and exposure of the all star game. And, after 2010 the experiment is unlikely to be repeated.
I think the best model may be that of the NBA and its most recent Olympic commitment. Play the tournament in early January – or a month before Spring Training begins. Most signings are completed by then (in normal offseasons), players have had two plus months to rest up, those who play winter ball will see no real change to their schedules, national teams will have plenty of time to train and practice, the players who do play will be in better shape come spring training and if there are injuries, teams have two plus months to rehab, repair or react. January is also a pretty dud time of year in the sporting calendar as NFL playoff games are only 2 days a week and there is that dead week before the Superbowl.
Personally, I’ve never been a fan of all star games in any form. I remember seeing the Pete Rose/Ray Fosse collision and all I can say, great highlight clip, but a promising career was essentially ended. Fosse was never the same player again.
The WBC has so many rules limiting things like innings pitched, how is this a true representation of how good the teams are. And since many of the players are in pre-season form, how does this reflect on which team is better. The WBC is a bad idea all around. Drop it.
As far a all-star game participation, frankly, if I were a team owner with the money I’ve got invested in my personel, if I had any say at all, none of my players would participate in either the WBC or the All-Star game.
Here’s an idea:
For those who would hate to see the AS game go (I’m one of them), just play the WBC every four years (like the World Cup). Suspend the MLB season for 7-10 days (you can do this by adding a couple of doubleheaders during the season, and perhaps even cutting the schedule by a couple of games (2?) (4?)).
This way, MLB gets to showcase the game on an international stage for at least a week, it doesn’t cut into the ML season too much, most players get a rest, and we keep the AS game.
PS – I’d also suggest something for the World Series – play Game 1 at a neutral site and play it up as a huge event to kick of the World Series. But that’s for another time.
How about this.
After spring training is over, delay the season one week, and have each pool play round robin. Top team or top two teams from each pool will then be reseeded and play the finals during the All Star break. That way its split up to minimize the risk of injury. One start for a pitcher and extra ABs for hitters and with only three games the pitchers can spread more innings between them. Then make the all star break one week, and play the top 4 (or 8) teams in a single elimination format and for the finals either have a 3 game series (if there are 4 teams) or if there are 8 teams then hold a two game series with the highest aggregate score wins. Every inning would be crucial. Ninth inning, a team could be up by 7 runs and still need 2 more to win. Compelling TV at its finest, and lower risk of injury
That’s not baseball. That’s fantasy baseball.
And as cool as that might be, you might also have a final where one team is already ‘up’ by 13 runs.
How much fun would that be?
Will,
The NHL issue has been raised due to the clustered schedule that it does when they shut the league down for two weeks.
I agree wholeheartedly…with one caveat: keep the home run derby as part of the WBC.
I can’t describe to you how incredible it was to watch David Ortiz in the home run derby at a small corner store while I was living in the Dominican Republic. The fact that they made it about national pride during those years – dividing competitors up by country – made it even better, and makes it a perfect sideshow for the WBC.
I know it’s gimmicky, but it’s also really friggin cool.
Maybe make it the off-day before the final game? That’d work.
I agree that it sounds cool. Coaches and other personnel already don’t like the idea of letting their property go play for their country and risk injury, they certainly won’t like it midseason where an injury could mean missing the rest of the season. In its current format, an injury still allows time for the player to rehab and return during the season.
Also, MLB wants it to happen prior to the season to increase excitement for the upcoming season by having the best players in the world compete against one another.
Hmm… can’t it be held after the World Series?
Joel has some excellent ideas, I would add playing the World Classic every other year to create greater interest and less fatigue. Plus play the All-Star game, include representatives from the entire tournament-to create excitement from across the globe, on Sunday. Tuesday or Wednesday two semi-final games, Friday night 3rd place game and Saturday Championship match. Sunday night, MLB All-Star game.
It would be cool to see Darvish in the All-Star game.
Al Yellon says you stole his idea.
http://www.bleedcubbieblue.com/2009/3/3/778803/how-to-fix-the-world-baseb
He doesn’t know how you were able to time travel into the future, steal it from him and then claim it as your own, but he insists that you never do it again.
Also, he has pre-emptively banned you from Bleed Cubbie(sic) Blue.
This just proves the current wbc schedule is fine as is. if you don’t like it to begin with, you’re gonna complain no matter when it’s held. this is about growing the sport, oh and by the way see some REAL baseball being played in march by some of the best. No one can say that Canada/US game was a great game, no exhibition. And the only MLB team that could even get close to the level of talent the US team has could maybe be the yankees, but its not even close.
I like the ASG, keep both.
Would this mean that Carlos Lee would only come in 52 lbs over playing weight? Maybe he is training with Sabathia now? Very suprised how fat he looked for Panama.
I’m pretty late on this, but I’ll comment anyway.
I love the idea, but let’s work out the kinks. Are we going to have this WBC event every year or keep it to once every 3 as it is now? I prefer the every-3-years approach. This also placates those who don’t like losing the All-Star game, as they can play the All-Star game in the intermediary years.
My bigger concern is whether this would really help players accept invitations more than they currently do. If players are moving into the important half of the season, worried about their bodies wearing down – are they more likely to accept invitations at the All-Star break than during Spring Training?
I don’t mean to suggest that the All-Star break wouldn’t be a better time for players to be appearing in this type of event, but if players don’t think so (and it’s not clear to me they would) then this wouldn’t get more players appearing at mid-year.
That being said, I LOVE the March Madness type tournament.