It's one thing when the other nations in the world surpass the United States in terms of things like educational test scores in math and science, thats fine. But when they surpass us in baseball...that's when things have gone too far. The proverbial camel's back has been broken.
But lets stop and think about this for a moment. Has the inaugural World Baseball Classic really and truly shown that America is not one of the four best teams on the globe? No. All it has really shown us is that Team USA was not one of the best in terms of playing a round robin formatted tournament.
Look, does anyone truly believe that if all of these teams -- Korea, Japan, Cuba, Dominican Republic -- could keep up with Team USA over the course of a 162 game season? I think we all know that the answer is "no". In such a scenario, these teams could play small ball all they want to, be scrappy, yada yada, but in the end, once the sample size gets larger, the power and athleticism of the Americans would just be too much to overcome.
That's not to say that we can't learn something from the results of the tournament. The biggest lesson learned is that Team USA needs to prepare more before the tournament starts. Teams from Korea and Japan were working together for six weeks before WBC play began, while the Americans were together as a unit for about two or three days before the tournament began. Not only is that not long enough time to get aquainted with your teammates, it is also not long enough to get used to quality pitching or study your opponents.
Hopefully, by the time the World Baseball Classic rolls around again in 2009, those that run Team USA will have better scores in history than their counterparts in the rest of the world.
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Phillies Notes...
...On the brightside of things, Chase Utley and Bobby Abreu will be returning to the Phillies now that their teams have been eliminated from the WBC.
...Josh Kroeger was sent to AAA, leaving Shawn Garrett and Chris Roberson as the two remaining options in the big club's camp for the fifth outfielder slot.
...Gavin Floyd turned in a nice performance against the Blue Jays on Thursday. Confidence is a fickle thing, and hopefully this is what it takes to get the shaken Floyd on the right track.
