USA World Baseball Classic 2023

[Ron Madden]

Top 9

Pitching Change: Shohei Ohtani replaces Yu Darvish.

Jeff McNeil walks.

Mookie Betts grounds into a double play, second baseman Tetsuto Yamada to shortstop Sosuke Genda to first baseman Kazuma Okamoto. Bobby Witt Jr. out at 2nd. Mookie Betts out at 1st. 2 outs

Mike Trout strikes out swinging

Japan wins 3-2


well it's been a great WBC series we got to see some good baseball

[Joeyjection19]

I can't be mad at that. Ohtani is unlike anyone before and there's no one I'd rather have batting than Trout. Wow.

[Redsfan6272]

They should do this every 2 years..

[Bob Sheed]

Couldn't have scripted it any better. Unless maybe Trout hit a HR to tie it up.

But I digress. Amazing tournament. As a Reds fan, it feels like this was my playoff experience for the foreseeable future.

[LeatherPants]

WBC is a joke. Why do they insist on making this a legitimate "must see" event? It never will be.

This didn't age well.

[Ron Madden]

I really wanted the USA team to win the championship but I gotta say Shohei Ohtani Is Amazing !!!

[Ron Madden]

Now I don't know about this!

Rob Manfred pushes for more star pitchers in next WBC

The World Baseball Classic, which has produced a string of exhilarating games and enthusiastic crowds, will "100 percent" return in 2026, Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred said Tuesday, moments before Team USA and Japan squared off in the championship game from LoanDepot Park.

Before then, Manfred said, he would like to see more stars playing in the tournament, particularly on the pitching side.

"It's great the guys that we have," Manfred told a small scrum of reporters, "but I'd like to see pitching staffs that are of the same quality as our position players."

A long list of star position players decorated rosters throughout the World Baseball Classic, but a lot of the sport's best pitchers either did not participate or faced tight restrictions regarding their usage, especially in the late stages of the tournament.

MLB hopes to convince major league teams to be more cooperative with their pitchers in future events.

Read More Here:
https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/35913858

[Ron Madden]

WBC returns in March 2026, retaining spring training slot

The World Baseball Classic will return for its sixth edition in March 2026, with organizers concluding spring training remains a better time than after the World Series or in the middle of the major league season.

Since its launch in 2006, the WBC has been played in March, ahead of club opening day in MLB, Japan and South Korea.

Speaking before Tuesday night's final between the United States and Japan, Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred said MLB owners and general managers have to be pursuaded to make more star pitchers available to national teams.

Many MLB teams blocked pitchers from participating, wanting them to concentrate on preparing for the season's start.

“From a competitive perspective, I think the most important thing is we’re going to need to continue to work, particularly with our clubs, about pitching,” I’d like to see pitching staffs that are of the same quality as our position players.”

Two All-Stars players got hurt during the WBC. Mets closer Edwin Díaz injured a knee during a postgame celebration with Puerto Rico last week and had season-ending surgery. Houston second baseman Jose Altuve broke his right thumb when he was hit by a pitch and needs an operation that will keep him sidelined for a period still to be announced.

“I think maybe the best testimony to it is how the players, after the unfortunate injury that Díaz had, how the players came out and spoke in support of the tournament,” Manfred said. “It’s an indication that they really, really care about the event.”

He said the WBC will continue to take on the insurance of players participating with their national teams.

“You can’t play this event without insuring the players,” he said. “It's enough that the teams take the risk that somebody is going to be down, but to then say, oh, by the way, you get to pay for it, I don’t think that's fair.”

Unlike the World Cup in soccer, he doesn't intend for the WBC to become a bigger event than MLB's playoffs and World Series.

“I don’t foresee or actually want the tournament to be bigger than our traditional format,” he said. I think the World Series is always going to be the World Series, but I don’t see it as an either/or proposition. This is a different kind of competition. We do it to grow the game and internationalize the game."

https://www.sfgate.com/sports/articl...g-17852679.php

[Bob Sheed]

Japan vs USA for the world championship, is a lot cooler than Los Angeles vs Houston for the "world" series, I must admit.

Way way cooler.

[Ron Madden]

Codify
@CodifyBaseball
·
10h
If you aren't impressed, you should be. Mike Trout has had 3 swinging strikes in only 24 of his 6,174 career MLB plate appearances!

Watch:
https://twitter.com/CodifyBaseball/s...DSydWl3rwtAAAA


ESPN Stats & Info
@ESPNStatsInfo
·
11h
Shohei Ohtani has never recorded a save or finished a game in either his MLB or NPB career, but he did so Tuesday night, striking out his Angels teammate Mike Trout to seal the 3-2 victory.

Tuesday was also the first time the WBC Championship was decided by a single run.

LanceMcAlister
@LanceMcAlister
·
12h
Final: Japan 3 USA 2
Save Ohtani
BB McNeil, DP Betts, K Trout
What a 3&2 pitch to end it with a swing and miss.
Damn…that was a bunch of fun.
What drama.
A story that will be told for years to come.
Bring on Opening Day, already!

Codify
@CodifyBaseball
·
12h
Kyle Schwarber has homered in the:
✅ World Series
✅ AL Championship Series
✅ NL Championship Series
✅ AL Division Series
✅ NL Division Series
✅ AL Wild Card Game
✅ NL Wild Card Game
✅ World Baseball Classic Championship

It's insane.

[UPRedsFan]

Already looking forward to 2026 and Hunter Greene anchoring the US pitching staff

[Boston Red]

Already looking forward to 2026 and Hunter Greene anchoring the US pitching staff

And the meltown if he gets so much as a hangnail! God forbid a blister!

[Chip R]

Some of my thoughts on the WBC:

It was great fun. The players and fans sure had fun. I don't know where I am yet on all the noise the international fans bring in but it's certainly not the worst thing about baseball. Now were the games fun because they were close or would it have been less enjoyable if they were blowouts? I've seen some suggest the WBC was so much fun because the new rules were not a part of it. So they would have been less fun if the rules were in place? We can't know the answer for sure but I don't believe that. If you can't enjoy the game because of a few tweaked rules, you're not much of a fan to begin with. You just like having something to complain about. I think, the next time around, they are going to have to go with the new rules. After three years of the new rules, we're asking MLB players to go back to the old ones?

The injuries were unfortunate but guys get injured in Spring Training too.

From the games I saw, I thought the umpiring was very good. Sure, they missed a close one now and then but that will happen to the best of them. I didn't see any egregiously bad balls and strikes called. I didn't see umpires making themselves part of the show either.

I think next time there will be more MLB players participating. Most people are drawn to fun things. The players, to a man, said they really had fun. Some said it was the most fun playing baseball they have ever had. They are going to go back to their teams and tell the other players about how much fun they had and then the ones that didn't want to go, will want to go next time agents be damned. Would you rather be playing meaningless games in Florida and Arizona or would you rather be playing for a championship with your peers for your country? Which option seems more fun?

The format seems to be the most controversial part of the WBC. Do you keep it as is or do you move it to after the season or put it in the middle of the season and truncate the schedule? The MLBPA and Manfred want to keep it the way it is. Some will tell you you could put it in the summer and just not have any games for a few weeks like the World Cup. While it's true most of the major soccer leagues around the world don't have games during the World Cup (June-July) that's because their seasons end in May and begin in November. This last one was an aberration since the World Cup was later in the year. Owners probably don't want it because their stadiums would be shuttered for at least a couple of weeks. And it's true MLS continues to play during the World Cup, only a few top players play in MLS. 95% of the top players in baseball play in MLB. Would MLB really want to play regular games while the WBC is going on? The World Cup is also played in one country. I know in 2026 it will be in the US, Canada and Mexico but that's one continent. In the WBC this year, pool play took place in Japan, Taiwan, Arizona, Florida and Puerto Rico. That's an awful lot of traveling. The overseas teams are going to be at a distinct disadvantage. If you put it after the season, I guarantee more players will beg off. Plus it's during football season. Scheduling it against March Madness is bad enough. Scheduling it against football is a good way to lose interest in it.

[RED VAN HOT]

In the past, this event has been little more than a distraction, bordering on a nuisance. Now, I am a fan.

[goreds2]

Some replays of the WBC 2023 now on MLB Network until 7pm est.