January 20, 2006
Cuba to Play
The U.S. Treasury Department issued Cuba a license to play in the World Baseball Classic today:
"Working closely with World Baseball Inc. and the State Department, we were able to reach a licensable agreement that upholds both the legal scope and the spirit of the sanctions," Treasury spokeswoman Molly Millerwise said.
So basically, once MLB figured out there were laws that needed to be followed, they got the license. Maybe reading the law in the first place could have avoided the whole mess.
I wonder now, how the Cubans will do? Puerto Rico is their only real competition in the first round, but in round two they'll likely face both Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. I'll bet they don't survive that challenge.
Posted by David Pinto at
12:07 PM
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I think the DomRep. along with the US will be the overall favorites. I don't think Cuba will field a very strong team and could be upset in their first bracket.
And yes, it would have been nice for Selig to have cleared this issue up BEFORE he even agreed to the WBC and saved everyone all the headache.
I'll be interested to see whether any of the players or coaches try the USA squeeze play (i.e. defection) successfully. I suppose they will be on tight leashes.
The last time I checked the oddsmakers had DR at even, the US at 6/5 and PR 2/1.
I agree. I think Cuba will do very well to finish in the top 6. Their days of dominance are over. Personally, I think the US will win because of pitching strength. Though the Dominicans look wicked scary.
Their days of dominance were long gone in 1999.
Regardless of how they'll do, I'm very happy to see them included. Having visited, I'd say their love of baseball is second to none.
it's too bad that cuba may not have the weapons to compete (bad pun), b/c you know they will have more heart in this tourney than most other teams. they have everything to play for, including respect. i wouldn't count them out just yet.
Woody Paige and I think they will win.
DR looks nasty...watch out for Venezuela, plus i think we are all underestimating Japan.
The cubans will have more heart? I think not. Most, if not all, of the starters will be looking to defect. Oddsmakers put DR and PR up as strong favorites in the heart category. Should be fun to watch.
Watch out for the Dutch to maybe upset the Cubans. Holland's pro baseball league is roughly Double-A in talent level, but since the Netherlands will have people from the Netherlands Antilles (Andruw Jones, for example), Aruba (Sidney Ponson, perhaps) and Americans of Dutch descent (Shea Hillenbrand or Mark Mulder, although whether they will play or are just on the 60 man roster is unknown), the Dutch may be a super-spoiler. They almost certainly won't make it to the finals, or even the Semis, but I think they could take down Cuba depending on how good their pitchers are.
Tony,
You are correct about Venezuela being a dark horse. They will have excellent front of rotation starters (Santana, Garcia, Zambrano, Felix Hernandez etc). The only question is will their offense score enough. With Maggs, Abreu, and Miguel Cabrera in the heart of the order they just might.
miles,
king felix isnt playing. the mariners asked him not to. i would really have liked to see how he fared on this stage after a great rookie year.
good thing Venezuela got the other Zambrano, Victor, to take his place!