January 17, 2006
World Baseball Classic Roster
The preliminary US Roster was named yesterday. With Barry Bonds on the list, the Arizona Republic notes the drug testing provision:
As part of their commitment to play, all 42 big leaguers agreed to submit to Olympic-style drug testing, including pre-competition screening.
The problem is, positive tests will only keep a player off the final roster:
Major leaguers wouldn't face professional penalties if caught. An agreement with the players union prevents their names from being released.
But anyone caught will be barred from competition, which assures players on the final rosters tested clean
.
So does MLB get to test the player officially if he comes back positive for the WBC? If someone test positive and MLB doesn't start scrutinizing that player, there's something wrong with the system.
Looking at the roster, even the second string team should be very good. The outfield is interesting. You can have the slow but powerful outfield (Bonds, Griffey, Berkman), but my guess is a lot of ball would be falling between the fielders. Do you start Crawford for his defense, or just let those three bomb the competition?
Posted by David Pinto at
07:59 AM
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Start Crawford over Griffey, who is no longer a quality player.
I'm sure Barry's been clean long enough to get anything illegal out of his system. There may be one or two players who get a strained hamstring or such, and thus unable to play.
Overall, my money's on the Dominican Republic to win it all.
RBJ:
Or Bonds could be on some new undetectable substance. He wouldn't have allowed himself on the team if he was going to get caught, that's for sure.
This is the second year in a row the Braves have avoided arbitration with Marcus while signing him to a one year deal. I'm surprised they haven't given him a long term deal year.
I think the Braves gave Marcus about what he would have made in arbitration last year (2.35 million - he asked for 2.7, and the Braves opened with 2.05), considering it was his first year of eligibility.
I definitely think 3.85 million is below what he would have gotten in his second year of arb.
But I don't think Furcal got more than that his second year of arb, did he? Baseballreference.com has his pay going from 2.2 million to 3.7 million....
Um...Adam, I don't know if you saw Griffey's line last year, but his .301/.369/.561 line with 35 homers isn't anything to sneeze at.
I think Bonds will DH -- his knee's probably not up to field duties.
Re: Griffey vs. Crawford
As Dave pointed out, Griffey hit .301/.369/.561 with 35 HR. Crawford hit .301/.331/.469 with 15 HR. In a short series like the WBC, it's a no-brainer. Take Griffey.
A few observations from the WBC rosters page (http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/mlb/wbc/rosters.jsp)
While Andruw Jones does cover a lot of ground, it looks like he will have to play every position for the Netherlands since he is the only player listed on their roster. At least Panama has 4 people listed.
The thing I found the most amusing was the Unaffiliated list. It contained one name: Marco Scutaro. Did he sign up for the WBC but no country wanted him?