Batter's Box Interactive Magazine - Japan Wins WBC Again!

Japan will be looking for a three-peat at the next World Baseball Classic in 2013. They defeated Korea 5-3 in 10 innings Monday night at Dodger Stadium thanks to a certain Seattle Mariner.

Ichiro Suzuki came through with the big hit to bail out winning pitcher Yu Darvish, who could not protect a 3-2 lead in the ninth as Korea's Lee Bum-ho came through with a two-out single to plate the tying run. Daisuke Matsuzaka won the MVP award for the second straight time as he went 3-0 with a 2.45 ERA in the tournament. This game was much more entertaining than the semi-finals that proceeded this when Korea pounded Venezuela 10-2 while Japan knocked out the U.S. 9-4.

It'll be interesting to see what will happen at the next World Baseball Classic. Bud Selig is hoping the 2013 version will see even more countries taking part. I sure hope Canada has a better showing the next time around. The Canada-U.S. game was definitely a highlight but Canada-Italy was the total opposite. Regardless, it was the first time I was able to see baseball live in March and that was a good thing.

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Meantime, the Jays Ricky Romero gave up two runs in five innings in the Jays 3-0 loss to Cincinnati in Sarasota, Florida. On the surface, it's a decent start as he had a K/BB mark of 5-2 and recorded five groundouts. However, he uncorked two wild pitches and allowed 9 baserunners for a WHIP of 1.80. The Phillies also managed to steal a pair of bases against the lefty. Still, it was a better performance than Matt Clement's disaster against the Twins and it certainly made an impression on manager Cito Gaston. Lefty Brian Burres supplied two shutout innings in relief but Jeremy Accardo gave up a run on two hits in one inning of work. At the plate, Aaron Hill had two doubles in three at-bats and stole a base but was later thrown out at home. Scott Rolen had a triple and a walk while Vernon Wells and Raul Chavez had the other base knocks.

This afternoon, the Jays play the Phillies in Dunedin for a 1:05 p.m. EDT start. David Purcey will face Chan Ho Park. Toronto is 9-11 on the preseason.

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Aaron Hill remains the only Hill on the Toronto roster. There was speculation that the Jays were looking at signing Mississauga native and former Montreal Expo Shawn Hill. However, the 27 year-old righty has decided to try to catch on with the San Diego Padres by signing a minor league deal where he'll enter the mix for the number 5 spot in the Friars rotation.

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Curt Schilling gets a thread on his retirement but I forget to mention Corey Koskie's? ARGH! Anyways, a tip of the cap to the pride of Anola, Manitoba for trying to resurrect his career and getting a double for Team Canada during an exhibition game against the Jays this spring. Unfortunately, the concussion problems that sidelined him with Milwaukee in 2006 came back ultimately forced him to end his comeback attempt with the Chicago Cubs. Hopefully, Koskie can recover from this and lead a happy and healthy life. All the best to the popular Twin and 2005 Jay.

Posted by #2JBrumfield on Tuesday, March 24 2009 @ 04:42 AM EDT.

Japan Wins WBC Again! | 17 comments | Create New Account

The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.

Lucky - Tuesday, March 24 2009 @ 08:34 AM EDT (#197409) #

I saw where former Jays Tracy (Tree) Thorpe and Quiroz were released by their respective teams. Hope someone picks up Tree.

Maldoff - Tuesday, March 24 2009 @ 09:25 AM EDT (#197410) #

I know it's slightly off-topic, but does anyone know when the Jays will set their minor league affiliate rosters?

Congrats to Team Japan on their WBC Title. I watched a few of their games and love the way they play the game. Truely what it was meant to be.

Thomas - Tuesday, March 24 2009 @ 11:00 AM EDT (#197411) #

The final was a fantastic game with several defensive gems and superb pitching. If you missed it, you missed some great baseball. It was a fitting end to what has been a very successful WBC.

Some improvements need to be made for the next tournament, and I'd start by moving to a round robin for the first pool, which would mean the games could be played in three days and would eliminate the unnecessary seeding game. I'd also make sure that the two advancing teams from each pool ended up in different groups for the second round, which would prevent them from playing each other again. Japan and Korea each played 9 games in the Classic, 5 of which were against each other. That situation shouldn't occur again, although it made for some great games.

johnny was - Tuesday, March 24 2009 @ 11:15 AM EDT (#197412) #

The Baseball Cube now lists NPB stats, which weren't that easy to find not so long ago.

Fantastic, gutsy effort from the Koreans, but it was probably Japanese SS Hiroyuki Nakajima who impressed me the most of the players I'd never seen before the tournament. Wondering if he has any interest in coming to North America at some point...? Iwakuma, Murata and Aoki look like they could keep their heads above water over here, too.

Paul D - Tuesday, March 24 2009 @ 11:50 AM EDT (#197414) #

From the latest Rosenthal:

The Blue Jays have been scouting the Dodgers' Chin-Lung Hu and Juan Castro, as well as other shortstops whom they could stash at Class AAA and summon if either Marco Scutaro or John McDonald were injured.

The team, which lost McDonald and David Eckstein in the same game last season, currently lacks a viable third option and has tried Jose Bautista and Joe Inglett at short this spring.

The Indians' Wilson Valdez and White Sox's Eider Torres are among the other shortstops who could fill the Jays' need.

The full column is here:

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/9374130/Competitions-won%27t-end-on-April-6?CMP=OTC-K9B140813162&ATT=49

Lugnut Fan - Tuesday, March 24 2009 @ 12:14 PM EDT (#197415) #

Maldoff,

To answer your questions, minor league rosters aren't finalized to generally the last weekend before the season. Still a little ways from that.

I enjoyed the WBC a ton. It was interesting to watch the contrasting styles of Team USA, Venezula, P.R. etc where they have a team built with power play against the small ball style of the Netherlands, Japan and Korea. Maybe something can be learned from that style of play.

Paul D - Tuesday, March 24 2009 @ 12:25 PM EDT (#197417) #

Granted I missed a bunch of the games, but was Korea really a small ball team?

Lugnut Fan - Tuesday, March 24 2009 @ 12:30 PM EDT (#197418) #

They had a guy or two that could take it out if need be, but for the most part, their style of play is very similar to Japan's in my opinion. I think where Japan had the advantage was in the pitching department.

Mylegacy - Tuesday, March 24 2009 @ 01:06 PM EDT (#197419) #

I was REALLY impressed by the FEBC (Far East Baseball Classic)...er...WBC... both Korea and Japan are GREAT teams. It would have been a more interesting ending if the Korean's had not had to remove their bangers for baserunners in the late innings to get the tying runs across.

Still - exceptional baseball.

Japan - congratulations! You are worthy "World" champions!

Now, testing...one...two...three...testing..."Blue Jays you are worthy "World" champions!" Just in case - hope springs eternal!

Maldoff - Tuesday, March 24 2009 @ 01:16 PM EDT (#197420) #

Thanks Lugnut Fan.

With regards to looking for a backup shortstop, why not contact the Texas Rangers about Joaquin Arias? He was a pretty solid prospect, but could never break through due to the presernce of Michael Young, and now Elvis Andrus.

lexomatic - Tuesday, March 24 2009 @ 01:41 PM EDT (#197422) #

re: Joaquin Arias

I imagine Texas will try and hang on to him until Andrus is ready, and in case Vizquel is toast. He's the most ready option.

TimberLee - Tuesday, March 24 2009 @ 02:03 PM EDT (#197424) #

I have been following The Game for over 50 years and I don't recall a better game than that Korea-Japan championship match. Both teams play a very entertaining brand of ball. I suppose MLB fans would say they are forced to do everything else well because they don't hit the ball out of the park very often. It was great to watch, especially with the tremendous crowd at Dodger Stadium. The entire tournament was wonderful.

Let's see what you have, MLB!

Glevin - Tuesday, March 24 2009 @ 03:54 PM EDT (#197435) #

Great final. I wasn't paying attention to see who the colour commentator was, but he was one of the worst I have ever heard. During the U.S./Japan game, the guy said so many things that made me laugh out loud, it was shocking. The tournament does need a better format. It's ludicrous to play so few games and also to have meaningless seeding games. Still, it produced some great baseball.

chocolatethunder - Tuesday, March 24 2009 @ 04:42 PM EDT (#197438) #

I wonder is Romero being showcased to the Dodgers for Chin-lung Hu???.....my favourite player of the WBC is Bum Ho....man I don't know if he would make it over a 162 game season, but he was in the zone last night batting agains Darvish....what a game!!

jmoney - Tuesday, March 24 2009 @ 07:39 PM EDT (#197446) #

Good point Timberlee.

Maybe there was something to Ty Cobb's issues with Babe Ruth and all the homeruns taking the strategy out of baseball. :)

subculture - Tuesday, March 24 2009 @ 11:32 PM EDT (#197456) #

Paul D,

I watched most of the WBC games, including all the Korean and Japanese matches, and my view is that the Korean team plays a style in between that of the Japanese, and our major-league teams. They clearly have more power than the other asian teams (Koreans are known in East Asia as being larger on average, along with some northern Chinese) and you could see this in the no-doubt homers they slugged at both Petco and Dodger stadium.

They clearly emphasize defense over offence at key positions, like SS, 2B and C, but these defensive guys are pretty good at 'small ball' so they are not the offensive sinkholes that you would expect. Even their sluggers are gold-glove caliber (that 1b is awesome, despite his one error in the final game), and when their biggest slugger misplayed a ball in one of the earlier games at 3b (trying to backhand a ball instead of getting in front of it) he was replaced by Bum Ho the very next inning I think, and mostly came off the bench after that.

Unlike the Japanese 3-4-5-6 hitters however, who are all very good at hanging in there on tough pitches and content to hit opposite field liners and singles, the Korean power hitters often do take full-swings and clearly try to leave the park. The Korean manager in an interview said he wanted his team to "avoid swinging at balls, and swing hard at strikes". No small ball for their power-hitters.

The announcers for the first 2 Korea-Japan games in Tokyo clearly knew these teams much better than the guys who did the ones played in the US (I think Rick Sutcliffe was the guy full of hyperbole last night), and they commented how the Koreans built their team to clearly have more power than the Japanese, and it was obvious in the size of the hitters. Only Murata would be in the same weight/power class as the top 5 Korean hitters. This is not to demean the other Japanese hitters, because you can't fault the approach they had, continually loading up bases and pressuring opposing pitchers with hard single after single.

What impresses me is how Korea has been able to compete with either Japan or any of these other baseball-rich countries, despite being far behind in infrastructure and resources. This is an interesting article describing just how incredible their results are:

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/sports/2009/03/136_41600.html

cbugden - Thursday, March 26 2009 @ 06:01 AM EDT (#197497) #

With all their bluster the USA seemed destined to come up short playing "their" game. Davey Johnson was preparing himself for failure before the semi-final when he complained that the other teams had an advantage because they trained together for a longer period, but the best was from the last losing USA manager (Buck Martinez) who opined that the real measure of a world champion was to play 162 games and then 3 rounds of playoffs.

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