First things first, the roster:
Pitchers
| Jeremy Affeldt | 41 | L-L | 6'4" | 225 | Jun 6, 1979 |
| Heath Bell | 21 | R-R | 6'3" | 250 | Sep 29, 1977 |
| Mitchell Boggs | 33 | R-R | 6'4" | 215 | Feb 15, 1984 |
| Steve Cishek | 40 | R-R | 6'6" | 215 | Jun 18, 1986 |
| Tim Collins | 55 | L-L | 5'7" | 165 | Aug 21, 1989 |
| Ross Detwiler | 48 | R-L | 6'5" | 190 | Mar 6, 1986 |
| R.A. Dickey | 43 | R-R | 6'2" | 215 | Oct 29, 1974 |
| Gio Gonzalez | 47 | R-L | 6'0" | 200 | Sep 19, 1985 |
| Luke Gregerson | 57 | L-R | 6'3" | 200 | May 14, 1984 |
| David Hernandez | 26 | R-R | 6'3" | 230 | May 13, 1985 |
| Derek Holland | 45 | S-L | 6'2" | 210 | Oct 9, 1986 |
| Craig Kimbrel | 46 | R-R | 5'11" | 205 | May 28, 1988 |
| Glen Perkins | 15 | L-L | 6'0" | 205 | Mar 2, 1983 |
| Vinnie Pestano | 52 | R-R | 6'0" | 200 | Feb 20, 1985 |
| Ryan Vogelsong | 32 | R-R | 6'4" | 215 | Jul 22, 1977 |
Catchers
| J.P. Arencibia | 9 | R-R | 6'0" | 200 | Jan 5, 1986 |
| Jonathan Lucroy | 22 | R-R | 6'0" | 195 | Jun 13, 1986 |
| Joe Mauer | 7 | L-R | 6'5" | 230 | Apr 19, 1983 |
Infielders
| Willie Bloomquist | 18 | R-R | 5'11" | 190 | Nov 27, 1977 |
| Eric Hosmer | 35 | L-L | 6'4" | 220 | Oct 24, 1989 |
| Brandon Phillips | 4 | R-R | 6'0" | 200 | Jun 28, 1981 |
| Jimmy Rollins | 11 | S-R | 5'8" | 180 | Nov 27, 1978 |
| David Wright | 5 | R-R | 6'0" | 210 | Dec 20, 1982 |
| Ben Zobrist | 12 | S-R | 6'3" | 210 | May 26, 1981 |
Outfielders
| Ryan Braun | 8 | R-R | 6'2" | 205 | Nov 17, 1983 |
| Adam Jones | 10 | R-R | 6'3" | 225 | Aug 1, 1985 |
| Giancarlo Stanton | 27 | R-R | 6'6" | 240 | Nov 8, 1989 |
| Shane Victorino | 50 | S-R | 5'9" | 190 | Nov 30, 1980 |
Coaches
| Joe Torre | Manager | |
| Gerald Perry | Batting Coach | |
| Greg Maddux | Pitching Coach | |
| Dale Murphy | First Base Coach | |
| Willie Randolph | Third Base Coach | |
| Larry Bowa | Bench Coach | |
| Marcel Lachemann | Coach |
When Looking at the roster one must be surprised to see some of the big name American's not on the roster such as C Matt Weiters, 3B Ryan Zimmerman, C Buster Posey, 1B Adam LaRoche, 1B Prince Fielder, 2b Dustin Pedroia, SS JJ Hardy, SS Ian Desmond, SS Troy Tulowitzki, 3B Chase Headley, and OF's Mike Trout, Bryce Harper or Andrew McCutchen. Noticable pitchers not be be added or to decline an invitation are David Price, Max Scherzer, Adam Wainwright, C.J. Wilson, and Jordan Zimmmermann. Relief pitchers that also should be on the roster are Ryan Cook, Joel Hanrahan, Jim Johnson, Lance Lynn, Joe Nathan, Jonathan Papelbon and Huston Street. Some more pitchers are obviously excused from participation, they include: Roy Halladay (strained lat), Clayton Kershaw (hip), Cliff Lee (oblique),
CC Sabathia (elbow surgery), Stephen Strasburg (innings limit) and
Jered Weaver (late-season fatigue) are understandable.
All that being said by no means does the American teams have a weak roster. By far I believe that their strongest position group would be the outfield with Braun, Jones, Stanton, and Victorino. All of them but Victorino have 30 HR power in the regular season and can easily strike at any time! Jones is a 2-time gold glover, Braun is the former NL MVP, and Stanton is a sensasible that quickly made a name for himself last year for the Houston Astros.
I think that offensively the catchers won't be all that productive. Mauer has not been what he used to be, Arencibia is decent, and Lucroy is okay, but none have the bat that will intimidate the other nation's pitching staff. However, I do believe that they are all above average defensive player, so I am happy with that.
I think the defense is decent. I really like Brandon Phillips and David Wright. Phillips is by far the best defensive second baseman in the MLB and is in the top 3 when it comes to his bat. Wright is an above average third baseman and who is a good power hitter, but doesnt get the credit he deserves for playing in a large ball park. I kinda like Ben Zobrist and Willie Bloomquist, but again nether of them scare me. Although I am not all that fan of Eric Hosmer being on the roster, however he is replacing Mark Texiera at the last moment due to Texiera spraining his wrist after reporting to Team USA.
The pitching staff has a few really good starters (Gio Gonzales and R.A. Dickey), but other than that none of the pitching staff stands out to me. I think they are all quality pitchers but I am not all the impressed and I think that this might be the weakest link to the Team USA roster.
One HUGE advantage that Team USA has is that former Yankees Manager Joe Torre holds the same position for them. Torre is probably the best Manager in the past 20 years, let alone the best manager in the WBC. Former MLB Managers Larry Bowa and Willie Randolph also strengthen the coaching staff.
So now that your introduced to Team USA's roster, let us take a look at their first round schedule.
I really like team USA in all of these games, not because I am American, but because I think they are the better baseball team in each. The one game that absolutley scares me the most though is against Canada, whose star is Joey Votto. I am predicting that Team USA will go 2-1 in this round (I am really hoping for 3-0) and be able to move on to the next round. If I had to guess a second team from POOL D to move on I'd pick Canada.
POOL C and POOL D UPDATE
As I mentioned at the beginning of this article, which at this point must seem like 5 years ago, POOL C and POOL D have begun. This afternoon Italy beat Mexico in a shocker in POOL D and Dominican Republic currently leads 5-3 against Venezuela in the bottom of the 4th in POOL C play as I am writing this. TO FIND OUT UP TO DATE INFO FOLLOW US ON TWITTER @hitting_a_td
HAPPY WATCHING!
GO USA!
-JM
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