Comments on: Fixing The WBC

By: Mike

Mike — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 07:49:07 +0000

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.

By: sleepy in seattle

sleepy in seattle — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 21:14:53 +0000

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.

By: EL

EL — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 19:18:30 +0000

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.

By: E Greenlaw

E Greenlaw — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 07:42:46 +0000

It would be cool to see Darvish in the All-Star game.

By: E Greenlaw

E Greenlaw — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 07:41:28 +0000

Maybe make it the off-day before the final game? That’d work.

By: E Greenlaw

E Greenlaw — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 07:40:29 +0000

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?

By: E Greenlaw

E Greenlaw — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 07:34:43 +0000

But that could happen no matter when it’s held.

By: E Greenlaw

E Greenlaw — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 07:33:06 +0000

Except that the US would kill every other team.

By: E Greenlaw

E Greenlaw — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 07:31:40 +0000

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.

By: E Greenlaw

E Greenlaw — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 07:29:49 +0000

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.