Here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world throughout the day:
1. WBC Semifinals:
After Team USA’s exciting win over the Dominican Republic yesterday, this evening’s game will decide who they face in the finals of this year’s World Baseball Classic. Despite coming in as a clear underdog, Team Italy has yet to lose a game, going 4-0 (including a win over Team USA) in pool play and taking down Puerto Rico in the quarterfinals. They’ll send veteran right-hander Aaron Nola* to the mound at 8pm ET in Miami to take on Team Venezuela, who will counter with young righty Keider Montero. Venezuela managed to take down the reigning champions (Samurai Japan) in their last game and certainly has the stronger lineup of the two; Vinnie Pasquantino is Italy’s only hitter with multiple seasons of above-average offense in the majors, although they’re not short on interesting young hitters (e.g. Jakob Marsee, Jac Caglianone, Dominic Canzone). Venezuela, meanwhile, rosters Luis Arráez, Eugenio Suárez, Salvador Pérez, Maikel Garcia, Ronald Acuña Jr., Wilyer Abreu, Jackson Chourio and the Contreras brothers (among others). Will Italy be able to pull another rabbit out of their hats, or will Venezuela stop their Cinderella run?
2. Vasil being evaluated for elbow soreness:
White Sox right-hander Mike Vasil left his start over the weekend with elbow soreness, and yesterday MLB.com’s Scott Merkin relayed that Vasil is undergoing further evaluation to determine the nature of the issue. Vasil himself said Sunday morning that “something just didn’t feel right” during his start and that the team is running additional tests to figure out a path forward. Vasil, 26 later this week, was one of the team’s most effective relievers last year with a 2.50 ERA in 101 innings of work despite less impressive peripheral numbers. He’s been stretched out as a starter but has long appeared unlikely to crack the rotation for the White Sox, who added Anthony Kay, Erick Fedde, and Sean Newcomb this winter.
3. Suzuki to undergo imaging:
Over on the north side of Chicago, Cubs fans are waiting to hear more about the injury Seiya Suzuki suffered playing for Samurai Japan in the World Baseball Classic over the weekend. Cubs manager Craig Counsell told reporters (including Daryl Van Schouwen of the Chicago Sun Times) yesterday that Suzuki was still traveling to Cubs camp and that they wouldn’t be able to send him for testing until today. That could mean that the Cubs will have an update on the slugger’s status as soon as today. If Suzuki were to miss time, non-roster veterans Michael Conforto and Dylan Carlson would join third baseman-turned-utilityman Matt Shaw among the options to get right field reps in Suzuki’s stead.
*Italy had originally announced Michael Lorenzen as its starter, but Daniel Alvarez Montes of El Extra Base reported after this post was published that Italy was changing course and giving the nod to Nola. The two could be used in piggyback fashion this evening.
Tonight’s game would have been so much more intriguing if Teel hadn’t gotten injured.
A huge portion of the crowd will be supporting Venezuela, probably only 20% supporting Italia.
Gotta root for the underdog though, and starting pitching definitely favors Italia.
Yeah not super happy that Teel got hurt but whatever at least he can take his time and recover.
Dont sleep on Antonacci- that deke in the Mexico game is an all timer. Like the anti Nick Madrigal in terms of baseball iq. Can’t wait to see him join what’s becoming a stacked middle infield come mid-season
Im an American of Italian heritage. Grandparents on both sides were from Naples.
I’ll be rooting for Italy…which should really be called the italian American team lol
rob – If Italia wins tonight it could have a huge impact on the popularity of baseball in Italy, which should lead to more Italians playing in the WBC and MLB in the future.
The Italians in Italy generally do not like italian Americans. Would be nice if a team of us won. Would maybe change some feelings towards us
I think the wbc bends the rules a bit. Some of the guys on the team are 3rd or 4th generation italian americans. Well passed the old citizenship requirements
rob – Most of Europe feels the same way about the US. Unfortunately Americans aren’t usually on their best behavior in Europe, and when you’re the top dog in terms of country and baseball you’re gonna be resented. Just the way it is.
Ducey – As it stands now, as long as you can trace any ancestor’s birthplace to Italia you are eligible to play for them. So even if it’s a great-grandparent, doesn’t matter.
Fifa is the only strict entity about declaring affiliation. One and done once you pass a certain threshold n appearances for a national team. Wbc loosey goosey like the Olympics, where you can country shop in unlimited fashion like the portal swapping in college hoops
robluc – It’s not about citizenship though, it’s about ethnicity.
And they go by ethnicity to have more competitive teams, because very few Italian-American MLB players would be able to make the loaded US team.
Of all the ones that didn’t play in this WBC, Eovaldi is the one guy I really wish I could have seen pitch. The WBC is made for guys like him.
You and vast portions of Jersey and Brooklyn. Fughettaoutit!
Da vinci, the Renaissance , Michelangelo…yet we are reduced to fughettaboutit
My favorite Italians are Machiavelli and the great Boccaccio who wrote the Decameron which was a huge influence on Shakespeare.
And Tony Danza, don’t forget him!
Im a big fan of Chef Boyardee except on Wednesdays on the North End of Boston. Who knew that before he charted with Purple Rain, the artist formerly known boiled spaghetti
Theo – Going way back, does the name Arthur Fonzarelli ring a bell?
Who’d a thunk all 3 Italian teams would be out of the Champions league already (barring an unlikely Atalanta turnaround). And yet baseball. Sports, man.
Dude you are right about Antonacci…he looks locked in and I hear nothing but overly positive assessments of his high baseball IQ and awareness. White Sox fans are due for some good.news.
Cubs have depth and there’s only like 10 days until opening day, Suzuki will miss time and that’s okay.
He always does…..
But agree. Those two vets and Shaw will more than manage.
If they were to “more than manage”, Suzuki won’t have a job when he returns. The backup plan is never as good.
Manage does not equal replace.
I agree. However, “more than manage” implies better.
Unless there’s an America first pep rally that Shaw will have to attend
It’ll be good to have Shaw in the lineup more regularly but I don’t think they should be counting on Conforto or Carlson to be much of anything. If either is, that’s great, but they’re both huge question marks. Shaw, though, is solid and will more than fill in for Suzuki.
Cubs could wait until final spring roster cuts and grab a replacement for Suzuki if necessary.
They’re not adding Conforto or any other old bloated OF to cover a short term injury.
Conforto should should play better on a team without the expectations the Dodgers have. He looked like he was in his own head the entire season.
Nobody could’ve predicted Italy vs Venezuela in the semi finals. This has been a great tournament.
We certainly got a glimpse into baseball a week and a half from now last night.
That last pitch would be an instant helmet tap and we will see games going from dugout rushes to the mound for a win to a guy trotting to first and a new batter coming up.
Going to be very interesting on how teams manage/hold challenges as the season progresses.
I think it’s a great change and definitely feels like a new era of baseball. It’s long overdue in my opinion. Quite frankly, I’m sick and tired of bad umpiring even if the bad call goes my team’s way. It kills the vibe winning by a horrible call.
Probably better termed human limitations. Hopefully the challenge system is just a step to fully automated balls and strikes.
Sorry, but I find this comment a bit humorous because it is so lacking in perspective. Somehow, some way, baseball has survived over 150 years of “bad umpiring.” The funny part to me is the current generation of fans seeming to believe that they invented griping about umpires, and this is only because we’re now watching a video game version of baseball. So like every other change to the game made recently, the pitch challenge system doesn’t perfect baseball; it only changes it. How many changes does this game need, really?
That said, I don’t mind the limited challenge system. A full ABS system is another matter.
That last pitch is why I no longer watch baseball.
Until baseball can get simple ball and strike calls correct it’s unwatchable. No excuse for it.
Horrible and just ruins the game of baseball.
There’s no other way to describe it.
What the heck is the batter supposed to do?
Huh?
Come on.
It’s probably not that simple and you obviously watched the pitch somewhere.
Like replays in all sports—they need to get rid of the egregious mistakes.
—leave the smallest of fingers hovering over a base for a split second on a steal alone
But–what is going to happen is a team will be out of challenges and something like last night occurs.
I dunno. As an old player, coach and manager, it was always preached that on two strikes, you swing at anything close. And yeah, I get the idea of the replay and what it showed, but it was close enough. Can’t stand and watch that pitch
But yeah, your points are well founded
I’m sorry washedupoldtimer, 4 inches is not “close enough” in any sense of the phrase. Perdomo took a pitch that only a handful of the best of the best hitters could take in that situation and he should have been rewarded.
Respectfully disagree whiteninja221, as the 4 inches seems to me to be reflective of viewers discussing where the ball landed as opposed to where it crossed the plate.
I agree though. Never wish a game like this to end in such a way
No man, it’s reflective of the official measurement of where the pitch crossed the plate. 3.7”
@Washedup-agreed. The home plate ump was already having an off night having rung up Soto and one of the USA hitters not long after (almost like a makeup call). If it’s close like that with elimination riding you couldn’t bank on an ump getting the borderline pitch right. All missed calls (not just final one)have a domino effect throughout any game as far as lineup turnover, potential pitching changes, etc. where we have no clue how things would have unfolded.
Having the limited challenges should help b/c teams have to decide when they think it’s pivotal to how rest of game goes. An ump isn’t going to be perfect-yet we also see lot of instances where they’re right but the team doesn’t want to accept impact & challenge anyhow as wishful thinking.
sports would be better if we removed all humans to get rid of human error. come’on, you must not watch ANY sports if human error is your dealbreaker.
In addition to being a former baseball player until my forties, I’m also a long time track coach. Track has it figured out. It’s not really that hard to have balls and strikes called by technology. So just do it.
whyhayzee: Sounds like somebody’s got a case of the Mondays.
Why
Do you watch the NFL NBA MSL or any other pro sport? If so why they all have in common people officiating them. People make mistakes and that will never change. Can we go to an AI calling balls and strikes? Yes will it improve baseball maybe. Can they call outs in the field again maybe. That is a ways out.
NFL has people complaining but an AI making calls is a long way away. The one thing they could do is put a tracker type device balls for 1st downs and TDs. They have made some changes to replay which helps.
Do you watch the NBA if so come on that isn’t even BB anymore. Between the 5 steps they can take or more for the SS’s to phantom fouls. It isn’t even watchable to us oldtimers.
I officiated all 3 sports at the HS level. Balls and strikes is the hardest to call. Players get fooled all the time. Guess what so do Umps. There are times when you think it was inexcusable for them to miss a pitch so badly. They can get locked into a pitch then find it hard to come off of that call. There are bad Umps but those bad Umps are 100x better than you probably would be. None of the Pro officials want to make mistakes but they do. Just like in your workplace you make mistakes. You don’t have millions of people watching with 5 views of the call in super slo motion.
All you hope for as a player or manager is consistency. This wasn’t Angel Hernandez calling mystery strikes. Whether off a bit or not, the ump was consistent all game. If I’m a manager and watching the game, the Soto strikeout alone would have had me yelling at Perdomo to “protect the plate”. I don’t get the anger here. This is something you hear from Little League on up.
Yeah, the pitch was a hair low. I don’t care. Foul it off, whatever, but you can’t take a chance to look at strike three in that situation
Maybe Perdomo is a good hitter but I’m doubting the best hitters in MLB now or yesterday take that pitch
Washed….the pitch was not “a hair low”. 3.7 inches is about 1,800 hairs low.
These guys are trained professionals and Perdomo would have been way more incorrect to swing at a pitch almost four inches out of the strike zone.
Ump Scorecard has Blaser missing seven pitches all night, but four of the seven in the last two innings.
Just incredibly bad timing for a brutal miss, that’s all.
I dunno, Steelers (love the name). All I can go by is what I saw on TV. Looked close to me.
Dude, you don’t have to go by what you saw on TV anymore. We have so many concrete forms of data collection for this kind of stuff. Just look up the strike zone plot for the AB. It was not close at all.
And you talk about consistency: it was Cory’s worst call of the night in terms of distance off the zone. So while yes I’m totally with you in that if an umpire is giving a hair off the plate in a certain location, it’s a normal component of the game for a) the pitchers to exploit that and b) the hitters to adjust and protect that, this is not one of those cases.
Baseball would be so much better if only we could get the damned people out of it!
I don’t watch any sports very much. A handful of football games, the Olympics, a few World Cup soccer matches, a little bit of March Madness. I’d rather go out and run for three hours than sit through them.
When I was pitching, I never complained. No umps, no games. Period. But at the professional level, let’s get it right. If it can be done, use it.
Whyhayzee I see you on these boards all the time, but you’re telling us you don’t even watch any baseball ?? Just trying to get my head around it. That’s similar to posting all the time on political forums but only watching the 11 o’clock news.
I don’t know if you ever played or coached the game, or are just into data. I don’t know if you have any understanding of terms like “anything close” or “protect the plate”. I’ve seen the pitch now a thousand times and truthfully, you can stuff your data.
9th inning? Two outs? Two strikes?
You just can’t take that pitch.
Have automated calls in tennis and VAR in soccer, plus the challenge flag and replay assist in football and hoops which all offer a needed safety valve. About time
Also says something about TV announcers being beholden to MLB over the integrity of the game that they didn’t even mention the game-ending call. At least not in the minutes before I changed the channel.
Yeah this pissed me off too. Joe made one passing comment right before they went to commercial post game. The post game guys were better about it at least (except A-Rod saying it was “too close to take.”
But yeah the mission by Fox felt like “do not illegitimize the USA win,” rather than talk about what actually happened.
The old rejoinder to the missed call is you never want to put yourself in the situation where a missed call like that can be so devastating. If you’re ever complaining about the umpires after a loss , it’s never usually a good look. Your job is to not let your team get into a position where a bad call can affect you in that way.
What about Dezenzo?
“Exciting” more like “completely ruined by a joke of an umpire who should never be allowed on a baseball field again”
white:
One borderline pitch shouldn’t overshadow the facts:
2-for-9 (.222) with RISP
8 runners LOB
The Dominican offense had chances all night but didn’t convert well with runners in scoring position.
Even Pujols stated as much in the postgame press conference.
So if someone trips at the finish line and loses the race you tell him he should have been ahead by enough to get up and still win? Hmm.
It’s an interesting way to remove how it ended from being consequential. And yet, it is.
McLean will start the championship game for the USA.
Let’s goooooooooo!!!!
USA for the win!
The call on the last pitch of the game is the best argument for ABS. Disgraceful.
Today is a boring day.
no pi, no ides, no shamrocks.
Yes, but it’s the anniversary of my getting engaged. So there’s that. By the way, we purposely wedged it in there. Happy day!
congrats!
Nice, when’s the date
Throughout this entire tournament, Team USA has been criticized for lacking the passion and unbridled enthusiasm as some of the Latin American teams. Some Latin American players and their fans might even value a WBC title as much as or more than an MLB championship.
Alternatively, Team USA came into this tournament on a mission. They’re all business this time. The best team won last night, and it was satisfying to see their professionalism overpower such goofy behavior.
USA! USA! USA!
I don’t know what game you were watching but the USA team seemed pretty fired up and emotive after every big plan they made.
Timing is everything.
yea and they clearly were having a good time and and hyped after every big play.
Of course they did – but it was the semifinals where a win gets them to the championship.
They didn’t do it against completely inferior teams like Nicaragua, Panama or Colombia. Their only saving grace is that they didn’t get to intentionally try to embarrass a plumber pitching for Czechia.
*play