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Netherlands vs. Israel will decide a World Baseball Classic pool winner
Wednesday’s Say Hey, Baseball looks at a decisive WBC game, the makeup of Team Israel, and the surprising places MLB teams get their information from.
Photo by Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images
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Israel has played two games in the 2017 World Baseball Classic and won both of them. The Netherlands have also played two games and won both, the latter of those coming Wednesday morning in a walk-off against Chinese Tapei. Thanks to the magic of time zones — Israel, the Netherlands, and the rest of Pool A are playing in Seoul — the Netherlands will play their second game of the day at 10 p.m. ET on Wednesday, and it will determine the winner of Pool A.
The first round of the World Baseball Classic is round-robin, and no tiebreaker game will be necessary in Pool A given we have a pair of 2-0 teams and a pair of 0-2 teams. So, we’ll know by the end of the day Wednesday which of Israel or the Netherlands is the higher seed for the second round of World Baseball Classic play, and tomorrow morning we’ll know which of Korea or Chinese Tapei is going to finish last in Pool A and therefore need to win their way into the 2021 WBC through the qualifying tournament the year before.
Israel would be the surprise victor here — yes, they have a number of current and former MLB players on the roster, but they also don’t have the collection of exciting talent that the Netherlands does. As Korea has already found out, though, being the favorite doesn’t necessarily mean much in one-game samples: if Israel can pull off a win here, it will be quite the story for a team that had to win their way into the main tournament in the first place. Either way, though, both of these teams have advanced, and they’ll spend Round 2 of the WBC facing off against the best Pool B has to offer.
- Didi Gregorius had himself a game, hitting three doubles against Chinese Tapei, and the biggest of those tied the game with two outs in the eighth, helping lead to the Netherlands’ walk-off walk.
- Americans are dominating the World Baseball Classic even though Team USA hasn’t played a game. You can thank the makeup of Team Israel for that.
- Sho Nakata hit a homer in the seventh inning, putting Japan ahead of Australia for good en route to their second win of Round 1 play.
- Here are the full results of the World Baseball Classic so far, as well as the remaining schedule.
- The Marlins might not be contenders in 2017, but Jeff Sullivan wrote up what could be a great bullpen.
- If Mike Trout wasn’t the Mike Trout we know, what Mike Trout would he be? It involves spiders.
- This read on chess, baseball, and computers from Patrick Dubuque is worth your attention.
- As is this feature from R.J. Anderson on where it is teams are getting their information from these days. We’re way past Moneyball.
- Here are some Royals’ rookies who could make an impact in 2017.
- The Indians have a forward-thinking front office, but since it’s March, let’s pretend they don’t.
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