Welcome to SB Nation Reacts, a survey of fans across the MLB. Throughout the year we ask questions of the most plugged-in Arizona Diamondbacks fans and fans across the country.
Sign up here to participate in the weekly emailed surveys.Let’s start off with the national poll results, which also discussed the World Baseball Classic this week. The questions there were a little more focused. The first asked what was the most enjoyable part of the tournament. This was followed by getting respondents to choose
the team which was most entertaining. Finally, they were asked how they felt about international baseball events generally. Here are the results:
Personally, in regard to the first question, I’m firmly on the side of National Support. High-intensity baseball is nice, but we’ll have plenty of that beginning in about five days. Player celebrations? If I wanted to watch that kind of thing, I’d be a fan of the NFL For me, it’s the fact that players are playing for their country (ok, for a fairly loose definition of “their country” in some cases!) which inherently separates this tournament from the mercenary endeavors of the regular season. I would agree with Italy though: they were certainly the underdogs all the way to the semi-final, and I’d have loved to have seen them in a rematch with Team USA.
Here on the SnakePit, we kept things considerably simpler. But before we get to that, let’s just have a quick round-up of how the various Diamondbacks performed on their national rosters, and some memorable moments from the event.
- Nolan Arenado (Puerto Rico) – Played in all five games, but underwhelmed at the plate, going 4-for-19 with no walks or extra-base hits, for an OPS of just .449
- Corbin Carroll (United States) – Did not play. He was originally listed on the roster, but the broken hamate bone disappointing put an end to his chances of participation.
- Wallace Clark (Great Britain) – A rare player on Team GB actually born in Britain, Clark went 0-for-3 but did draw two walks and scored a run.
- Indigo Diaz (Canada) – The newest D-backs, signing a minor-league contract on Christmas Eve, appeared twice, allowing a run over 1.2 innings, on two hits and two walks with three K’s.
- Jakey Josepha (Netherlands) – Another late call-up, replacing Jurickson Profar after his PED ban. Josepha went 0-for-2 with two K’s, but to be fair, has never played above A-ball.
- Druw Jones (Netherlands) – Andruw’s son led the Dutch team in OPS, with a line of .400/.563/.500 – in large part thanks to five walks, tied for most among teams eliminated in pool play.
- Jaitoine Kelly (Netherlands) – Became the youngest pitcher ever to start a WBC game, against Nicaragua, and tossed two scoreless innings in a 4-3 win.
- Yu-Min Lin (Chinese Taipei) – Pitched in the 14-0 drubbing of Czechia, working 2.1 scoreless innings, on two hits and no walks with three strikeouts.
- Ketel Marte (Dominican Republic) – Appeared all six games, mustering a line of .263/.423/.474 for an .897 OPS, and walked more times (5) than he fanned (4).
- Geraldo Perdomo (Dominican Republic) – Even more remarkably, had it not been for THAT call, Perdomo would have had a K:BB of 1:6 in the WBC.
- Kristian Robinson (Great Britain) – Had a rather disappointing WBC, going 1-for-9 with five strikeouts, leaving his OPS of .311, below even Clark.
- Eduardo Rodriguez (Venezuela) – His start in the final, 4.1 innings of one-hit ball, ensured he’ll never buy a drink at home ever again. Gave up three in 2.2 IP against the DR, including a home run to Marte.
- Carlos Santana (Dominican Republic) – It’s cool 3/4 of our starting infield was on the DR team. Though behind Vlad Jr, Santana didn’t see as much time, going 1-for-6.
- Michael Soroka (Canada) – Started two games, getting the W against Colombia, but was unable to get through the third in the quarter-final versus Team America.
- Alek Thomas (Mexico) – Though not making it out of pool play, Thomas led the team with six RBI, going 4-for-15 and scoring three runs.
What did we think of the event here?
Well, that’s pretty conclusive. Nobody at all went with the two lowest options on the poll, “Poor” or “Terrible”. I’m not sure I can remember that ever being the case before. Instead, ninety percent voted for one of the two most enthusiastic choices. I think it’s safe to say we are all looking forward to the event’s return in 2029 – hopefully, it will also come back to Chase Field again, so we can experience it in person.
