The World Baseball Classic is a little over a month away (March 8), and the US team has just released their roster for the series. The roster has several big position players names, but not so much for the pitchers, take a look:
A very impressive line-up as far as the position players are concerned. With names like Braun, Stanton, and Teixeira who combined for 102 hr’s and 282 RBI’s last season, the US Team has no lack of power hitting. Or speed. Speedsters like Phillips, Victorino, and Jones will add a welcome advantage on the base paths. The US Team should have no trouble offensively.
The US Team’s pitching is not as impressive. Don’t get me wrong, R.A. Dickey and Kris Medlen are a great 1-2 punch. R.A. Dickey will be the teams ace, but they will need great performances from the rest of the starters, who are just not that spectacular. Kris Medlen who was lights in the 2nd half last year, is still relatively untested having not pitched a full MLB season yet. Vogelsong has had two good seasons in a row and was lights out in the postseason, but before that he was basically on his way out of MLB. Derek Holland is meh. I would feel much better about the US Team’s pitching if they had names like Verlander, Kershaw, and Price on it but they decided to not participate this year.
The saving grace of the US Team will be their bullpen. With relievers like Kimbrel, Affeldt, Perez, and Boggs the US will have good depth. They don’t need to wear these guys out either, so again they are going to rely on solid performances from the starting pitchers.
Overall the US Team has potential to go farther in the WBC this time than in any previous year. It should be exciting to watch and, the US Team squares off against Mexico on March 8. USA! USA!
