2017 World Baseball Classic

Recreation Sports
1

It’s coming…

Team Netherlands is playing exhibition games at Tokyo dome. The famous Japanese pitcher/batter Otani Shohei (大谷翔平) had incredible performances in both games. The most amazing probably is this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9ocMfIhd5U
Otani hit the ball so high it got logged in Tokyo dome’s ceiling. Using Tokyo dome rules, it is a standing double. The plate umpire is from Taiwan.

Otani is a starting pitcher for the Sapporo Nippon Ham Fighters, who just won the NPB championship this year. He can pitch around 160kph, and at the same time is an amazing hitter who hit 22 homeruns this season. Many MLB teams are interested in Otani.

After the qualifiers, Australia advances to play in Tokyo against Japan, China, and Cuba in Pool A.

Israel advances to play in Seoul against Korea, Taiwan, and the Netherlands in Pool B.

Columbia advances to play in Miami against the USA, the Dominican Republic, and Canada in Pool C.

Mexico advances to play in Guadalajara against Puerto Rico, Venezuela, and Italy in Pool D.

Pool C and Pool D look like hell.

We already see many MLB players on the Netherlands’ roster. Team Israel, which will play against Taiwan in Taiwan’s first game, is rumored to have 9 MLB players, including Kevin Pillar and Scott Feldman of the Blue Jays, Joc Pederson of the Dodgers, Ryan Braun of the Brewers, Ian Kinsler of the Tigers, Danny Valencia of the A’s, Alex Bregman of the Astro’s, and Richard Bleier and Ike Davis of the Yankees. It’s like another Team USA.

For Australia, there are a couple familiar faces, Peter Moylan, Ryan Rowland-Smith, and Ryan Searle.

2

The reaction from Team Japan is priceless! Haha!

What’s even more astonishing is zero complaints from Otani and Team Japan of the ruling.

3

So is Lamigo boycotting or not? This video seems to indicate that Fatty will be playing catcher.

https://youtu.be/RfkWqEiN7P8

4

Taiwans in a tough group this year. Anyone know the final roster. I heard Wang and Hu will both be on the team as the only 2 big leaguers

5

If by Wang you mean Chien-Ming Wang, he’s not playing.

Ni and Hu have mlb experience.

6

I’m curious just how well Israel would do this time, since they are like a second team USA.

7

I just saw that Wei yin chen isn’t pitching due to the the marlins asking him not to? anyone know more about that? And the Lamigo monkeys roster won’t be able to play as well. Things don’t look good, I was really looking forward to the WBC this year, but seems like it’s been made a mess.

8

Chen hasn’t pitched for a national team since… the 2008 Olympics. That’s a good 8 years ago.

Fans in Taiwan expect him to refuse to put on the Team Taiwan uniform at this point. It attributes to his low popularity in Taiwan, compares to Wang and other Taiwanese major leaguers.

I don’t know if he didn’t play this time around because the Marlins asked him not to. Though when his previous teams said it’s ok for him to play, he didn’t exactly volunteer.

9

Really, why isn’t chen popular in Taiwan?

10

Hardcore baseball fans who aren’t only interested in international tournaments for national pride are rare in Taiwan. I’d say real baseball fans make up about less than 14% of the population.

To be really popular as a baseball players in Taiwan, to the point where advertisers really sees the value of having a player’s endorsement, the player has to inspire a sense of national pride for the majority of the people.

The really popular players, like Chen Chin-feng, Wang Chien-ming, Tsao Chin-hui before his fall from grace, local pro-ballers like Lin- Chih-Sheng, even NPB players such as Yoh Daikan, all had memorable performances while donning national uniform because a lot of people watched those games.

Wang’s performance in his Yankees days also incited a lot of national pride. That’s why no athlete will likely to ever top his popularity in the near future.

Chen Wei-yin on the other hand was a part of the 2008 Beijing Olympics which most Taiwanese wants to forget. His role in the 2004 Athens Olympics was minor, only pitched as relief in one game. Most Taiwanese people just aren’t that familiar with him, even if he is currently the only still successful Taiwanese major leaguer.

1 Like
11

Thanks for the analysis.

The fans on Facebook seem to be all hardcore. Heck, I keep them hearing tell Wang and Chen not to play, to just “focus on your career” and avoid injury. Appalling. Those are fans who follow Liberty Times Sports or Yahoo Sports.

12

I haven’t seen any news outlets that deliberately portray the players as avoiding participation on purpose. It’s mostly just the fans themselves. Also, real baseball fans would rather see the players do well during the regular season. If a player has a chance to get into the majors or needs to perform to get their next contract, then true baseball fans I know would be rooting for the players.

Those who get really worked up about Wang and Chen not playing are only pissed because this is the only time they watch baseball.

13

I’m just speculating but I think if Chen had a better season last year and with the death of Jose Fernandez, he really needs to step up in their rotation so that might be why he’s not playing.

14

By the way, Taiwan’s professional league had two exhibition games with Samurai Japan, Japan’s WBC team.

The first game featured many Lamigo Monkeys’ players who would have been representing Taiwan if CPBL was put in charge. Japanese media nicknamed the team “the underground Team Taiwan.” In a surprising turn, this team won the first game 8 to 5.

Wang Po-jung’s had 3 hits, including a home run.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04Msutti6ZM

When the ball cleared the center field fence, the Japanese announcers uttered “he’s the real deal.”

This marks the first time a team from Taiwan takes a win from a Japanese professional all star team, even if it’s only an exhibition game. Although, the CPBL team did utilize American players such as Zack Segovia to hold Samurai Japan back.

The next game the Japanese team won, 9:1. Wang Po-jung had one hit, and got two consecutive walks after that.

15

Anyone know a place to watch it? Is it on MOD?

16

If you just want to watch Team Taiwan games, then PTS (channel 13) will show all of them. If you want to watch other games, then it’s on a channel called Eleven (but not channel 11) which is slowly being adapted by cable distributors.

1 Like
17

News about the Eleven Sports channel:

Cable Company	Channel  	Local Cable Service Provider
CNS  		84 	 	吉隆、長德、萬象、麗冠、新視波、家和、北健、三冠王、慶聯、港都、數位天空
TBC 	  	98 	 	南桃園、北視、信和、吉元、群健
TOPMSO 	 	220 	 	台灣佳光電訊、大屯、中投、佳聯、北港
 	 	310 	 	新永安、大揚
Dafeng 	 	126 	 	大豐、台灣數位寬頻、新高雄
CYCCATV 	101/102 	世新、國聲
NCDTV 	 	82/314 	 	新彰
Kbro 	 	98 	 	陽明山、大安文山、金頻道、新台北、新唐城、北桃園、新竹振道、屏東觀昇
 	 	99 	 	三重全聯
 	 	107 	 	台中豐盟、彰化新頻道
 	 	108 	 	台南南天
twmbroadband 	97 	 	宜蘭聯禾、新莊永佳樂、汐止觀天下、淡水紅樹林
 	 	99 	 	phoenixcatv
PNCATV 	 	98 	 	屏南
Cable-giant 	98 	 	大新店
VeeTime 	81/97 	 	大台中

It is already viewable on my Kbro in Hsinchu. So far the feed is not in HD, but people say it will be when the games starts tomorrow.

If Israel overpowers Korea tomorrow, Pool A is going to be interesting. Team Israel has a couple major leaguers, including Ike Davis, Ty Kelly , and Craig Breslow.

18

it’s on at 930 correct? It says 1030 ET.

19

Kaku is gonna start vs Israel. Can’t help but think: coach’s pet. Kid named Kaku who pitches for Seibu? Chen Guanyu pitched better during the season.

1 Like
20

Betting markets have Israel as the weakest team. They’re usually the best predictors.