2026 World Baseball Classic

[Philsmania]

Where does the Phillies organization rank in terms of sheer number of players participating in the WBC?

I love the idea of baseball having some semblance of a World Cup but I HATE the execution of it right in the middle of ST. My suggestion has long been to stage it in February and then have the players report a little late to ST if their team's run in the tournament goes far. And, they should find a way to merge the event with the Baseball World Cup.

[zambonir]

That makes more sense than having it in July, but that's probably what will happen if it finally becomes part of the Olympics... and then they'd probably stick with that for the WBC every four years in the non-Olympic years. But baseball is certainly less well-equipped than hockey to take two-three weeks off unless or until they shorten the schedule, even then then the weather/calender is more unforgiving.

I'm not sure February would really be any better though. Probably would have more injuries and even sloppier spring trainings, albeit with more time to bounce back from both. And since WBC is an MLB even they want the players to benefit from a few weeks of ST to improve the quality of WBC play.

The Baseball World Cup is dead now, and I'm sure neither MLB nor IOC wants to share at this point.

[andyb]

They could do an interesting 8-country tournament in 1 week in July on All Star week if they wanted to. Get rid of the All Star game. 2 groups of 4 countries play Tuesday-Thursday. Semis and finals on Saturday and Sunday. Qualifications could happen in February or November if they want 20 countries or more to participate (they already have qualifiers for the minor countries).

Would countries be excited about pitchers going 7+ innings for their country in July? No. But are we excited that Sanchez and Nola will throw up to 65 pitches next week in higher pressure situations? Probably not.

This is just good for baseball though and like hockey and basketball they should try to do something every 2-4 years.

[andyb]

Harper2-3 and Schwarber 0-2 in the preseason game against the Giants (15-1 now for the USA). Harper does appear to be swinging the bat really well though we probably have to wait until real games to see if he can dial down the chase rate a bit. His exit velocities are up though compared to last season (SSS).

Italy beat up on the Cubs 9-4 and Nori subbed in with a 2B.

Boxes on the WBC site and not ESPN.

[Philsmania]

That makes more sense than having it in July, but that's probably what will happen if it finally becomes part of the Olympics... and then they'd probably stick with that for the WBC every four years in the non-Olympic years. But baseball is certainly less well-equipped than hockey to take two-three weeks off unless or until they shorten the schedule, even then then the weather/calender is more unforgiving.

I'm not sure February would really be any better though. Probably would have more injuries and even sloppier spring trainings, albeit with more time to bounce back from both. And since WBC is an MLB even they want the players to benefit from a few weeks of ST to improve the quality of WBC play.

The Baseball World Cup is dead now, and I'm sure neither MLB nor IOC wants to share at this point.

Have the WBC rosters gather in mid-January for spring training of their own to get them in game shape, practice and play a few "friendlies" before WBC play begins.

[Philsmania]

I have a hard time seeing how MLB players in the Olympics would work with the long layoff it would create. Yeah, you would need to start the regular season in mid-March (and ST) would probably need to start at the very beginning of February and the World Series would be played in mid-November. See also soccer in which the world's elite players don't take part in the Olympic games--the World Cup is their holy grail international event. Olympic soccer is basically an under-23 event where up-and-coming players take part and the games usually conflict with FIFA's preseason. Perhaps the WBC could be for baseball what the World Cup is for football. Honestly, do we need both a WBC and MLB players in the Olympics? Hockey and basketball only have the Olympics as their premier national team event while, as I said, soccer/football only has the World Cup. WBC or MLB plyers in the Olympics seems to me like it should be a one-or-the-other proposition.

[zambonir]

But soccer/football stops dead all the time for the World Cup, and also for friendlies (just got my email ad for Sunderland-Wrexham here in August as I'm sure you did too). Three times a year! MLS just finally took steps to adjust its own calendar to keep up.

And hockey is going to have a World Cup in 2028 (in February) and had the Four Nations which shut down the league for 12 days last year. They're probably going to keep doing both (or one or the other). Women's hockey also shuts down twice per season (for the Rivalry Series and either the Olympics or the Worlds, since unlike the NHL all of their players go to the latter).

For sure baseball's calendar and weather needs make it more complicated but clearly MLB wants the $$$ and marketing. They could probably care less about the Olympics since they don't benefit from that directly but if it suits them to make the players happy and they can get a piece of the action it would probably happen. And then you have the WBC in the even-numbered non-Olympic year (you do one or the other every two years not every year).Andy's idea for a much smaller tournament also makes sense, and would put it on the same rough timeline as the Olympics where the WBC is currently not.

[Philsmania]

Just my opinion, but hockey having a big international tournament three out of four years is definitely overdoing it.

Basketball has a world cup too and NBA players play in it but not usually the cream of the crop guys.

[zambonir]

It's only three out of four years this time, it's been zero out of four most of the time. This was the first Olympics since 2014 and '28 will be the first World Cup since 2016. The Four Nations was (as the name implies) only four teams and merely extended the All-Star break, but was also clearly a test run for those teams to develop and select their Olympic rosters.

The men's hockey world championships are annual, but never feature NHL players whose teams are in the playoffs because they overlap. If the NBA was actually involved in the FIBA World Cup I'm sure the players would be. It's only every four years and doesn't conflict with the season, much like the WBC. My guess is you'll see the NBA start something of its own, taking its cue from MLB and NHL. Would be more interesting than the current "tournament."

[BostonRoss]

Another complication: Usually the Summer Olympics end in August, and often they don’t begin until August. The 2028 Games will be the first in over 100 years to end in July, I think. They have sometimes not started until September or later.

[andyb]

Curtis Mead with a big 3-run HR last night. Japan will likely win that pool (13-0 over Taiwan) but Korea and Australia should fight it out for the second quarterfinal spot.

Other pools start today. US-Brazil at 8 tonight. We can't beat them in soccer but I like our chances here. Sanchez pitching for the Dominican tonight against Nicaragua.

[Philsmania]

I'm rooting for Czechia to win at least one game or at least not get their backsides handed to them. The Czechs have an "organic" Czech team comprised of all Czechia born and raised players and no dual citizen ringers with grandparent ties to the country. My wife and I did a nine-day tour of Slovakia in the summer of 2024 stopping in Vienna (Wien, as the locals call it) for a couple of days on the way and then followed by a couple of days in Prague (Praha, as the locals call it) thereafter. So my having been to Czechia gives me a little more incentive to pull for them as well. For the record, my wife can get Slovak citizenship based upon her paternal grandparents birth there though they left when Slovakia was a part of Austria-Hungary and before Slovakia was half of Czechoslovakia. With my Irish citizenship (by way of my paternal grandfather born in County Cavan), we would have the option to live in the EU someday.

I suspect countries like Ireland and Poland could get a lot of North American ringers to play for them. In the case of Ireland, Baseball Ireland has a strict quota in terms of dual citizens which limits the number of North American ballplayers who could qualify for Irish citizenship otherwise play for them. I know Germany has been able to field teams with Ramstein-born US military brats who grew up to be ballplayers (like Aaron Altherr for example). It would surprise me if we saw the same thing play out with Saudi Arabia or one of the Persian Gulf states.

[andyb]

Not a good outing for Sanchez at all. Good news is he struck out 4 in 1.1 innings. Bad news was he sprinkled 6 hits and a walk to give up 3 earned runs against a mediocre Nicaragua lineup (the Dusty Baker magic lasted only 2 innings in a 12-3 loss eventually).

Apparently he struck out 4 in the first with an extra WP in the dirt that the hitter swung at.

Harper 1-5 with a BB, Schwarber 2-4 with 2 BBs for Team USA.

[andyb]

Huge game for Nori against Brazil. 3-3, 2 HR

[owaistabish]

Solid player and contact hitter. Needed in Phillies lineup.

[andyb]

It is fun but Nori hitting an 85 mph fastball really does not tell us much. An 8-team focused event would be much better competition.

Upper deck Schwarbomb also last night. Against some scrub of course (the pitcher was actually named Andre Scrubb).

[andyb]

US and Italy both undefeated in their group are playing tonight. Nola is starting tomorrow against Mexico which is likely a big game with the winner going onto the quarterfinals as Mexico also has one loss. This is almost certainly Nola's only start though technically he'd have 5 days rest for the final if Italy made it that far.

[VoteForKalas]

USA loses to Italy 8-6 and now has to watch Italy & Mexico play to decide if they advance or go home. Really disappointing loss.

To make things even worse, the buffoon manager Mark DeRosa stated on MLB Network earlier in the day that the team had "already punched their ticket to the quarterfinals" and thus the game vs Italy did not matter.

How the manager does not even know where his own team stands and what the rules of the tournament are is beyond mind boggling.

[fish]

Of all the dominant relief arms in the game and on the roster, why is Ryan Yarborough on the team?

[zambonir]

Guess Aaron Nola is pitching for Team USA tonight after all, one way or another (he either has to win for US to get the spot or get hammered by Mexico for US to get the tiebreak).