WBC: POOL A and POOL B Decided

Okay, so only POOL B has completely been decided. However, the two that will move on from POOL A have. The only thing that is left to be decided in POOL A is which of the two teams advancing will be the winner of the POOL. UPDATED!!!

Here are the results of POOL B:

Chinese Taipei 4, Australia 1

Netherlands 5, Korea 0

Chinese Taipei 8, Netherlands 3

Korea 6, Australia 0

Netherlands 4, Australia 1

Korea 3, Chinese Taipei 2

Final Standings

Chinese Taipei 2-1

Kingdom of the Netherlands 2-1

Korea 2-1

Australia 0-3 

The two teams that will be moving on from POOL B are Chinese Taipei and Kingdom  Netherlands due to the WBC tie-breaker rules. To find those rules revisit yesterday's post. Congrats to these two teams. I expected one of the the two to move on, but both, that is surprising. I really liked Korea to move on as the winner of this POOL. I was really surprised to see how well Chinese Taipei was able to play.  Their pitching was on point, they batted well, and really played great defense in the first round. Let's see if they continue to be a surprise in the Second Round. Good Luck to both Chinese Taipei and the Kingdom of the Netherlands. 

Here are the current results from POOL A: UPDATED!!!!!

Japan 5, Brazil 3

Cuba 5, Brazil 2

Japan 5, China 2

Cuba 12, China 0

China 5, Brazil 2

Cuba 6, Japan 3

Current Standings

Cuba 3-0

Japan 2-1

China 1-2

Brazil 0-3

So you can see that all the games have not been played yet, but you can also see how both advancing teams have already been decided. China and Brazil have both already played all three games and have been eliminated. Cuba and Japan will move, however, they yet to play each other in POOL play and will do so early Wednesday morning (NOT that early where they are playing). This match-up will decide the winner of the POOL. To me there were really no surprises in this bracket. Although I thought China would put up more offense, I did expect Cuba and Japan to move on from this POOL. Good Luck to both Cuba and Japan!

Cuba defeated Japan Wednesday, thus winning POOL A. 

The second round POOL 1 will consist of Cuba, Japan, Chinese Taipei, and the Kingdom of the Netherlands. 

First games will be:

 Netherlands vs Cuba (Thursday March 7 @10 pm ET)

Japan vs Chinese Taipei (Friday March 8 @ 5 am ET)

The rest of Round 2 is based of what happens in these games.

 

Continue to watch baseball played at the highest international level and ENJOY; this only happens every four years.

-JM