In today’s installment of our daily thrice weekly occasional spring series, I wanted to ask about the World Baseball Classic. Exhibition games kick off tomorrow, WBC squads facing off against MLB teams. The Jays host Team Canada at their usual 1:07pm ET spring timeslot. Canada then visits the Phillies on Wednesday before flying to Puerto Rico for their pool play. They’ll take on Colombia at former Montreal Expos home field Hiram Bithorn Stadium (look, 2003 was a weird time) on Saturday morning. Canada can,
in theory, qualify for the 2028 Olympics if we’re one of the top two finishers from the Americas (excluding the US, who get an auto-bid as the hosts), but realistically getting out of a group that also includes Puerto Rico, Panama and Cuba would be a huge achievement on its own. The Jays, meanwhile, will roll on with most of their usual infield away representing their national teams but most of the pitching staff intact.
For today’s question, let’s make some predictions. How many games do you think Canada wins? Will Japan defend their title, and who do you think comes out of the Americas gauntlet to qualify for the Olympics? I’ll say our national team puts up a game effort and wins two. We have a lot of talented pitching in Mike Soroka, Jameson Taillon and James Paxton, none of whom have had time to suffer their annual debilitating injuries yet. For the overall winner, I’ll pick the Dominican Republic. “Whose pitchers show up” is always the big question of the WBC, and with Cristopher Sanchez and Brayan Bello in the fold, plus Sandy Alcantara and a lot of good relievers, the D.R. looks pretty loaded. I’ll take Venezuela for the other spot.
Let us know who you’ve got in the comments.
