Sully Baseball Daily Podcast - March 20, 2013

In today's podcast, I bring up "We Are The World", "Top Chef" and Smokey and the Bandit Part 3 while talking about the WBC. Then I wonder why the White Sox don't get more love.
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Sully Baseball Daily Podcast - March 20, 2013

Sully Baseball Daily Podcast - March 15, 2013

 On today’s edition of The Sully Baseball Daily Podcast, I make the connection between the WBC and the band Gwar while driving home from the airport.

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Sully Baseball Daily Podcast - March 15, 2013

Sully Baseball Daily Podcast - March 10, 2013

I complain about the World Baseball Classic.
I offer solutions about the World Baseball Classic.
And somehow a squirrel is involved.

Sully Baseball Daily Podcast - March 10, 2013

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Sully Baseball Daily Podcast - March 9, 2013

The WBC stinks, we can all agree on that right? The players going at 50%, the rules to make sure that they don't work too hard and things like "Mercy Rules" and "Runners on base to start extra innings" show that it is lame with a capital lame.

But as Bud Selig and company try to sell this lemon, they are also pricing out little leagues to use their uniforms.

Is there ANYTHING more short sighted than that?

That is the topic for today's Sully Baseball Daily Podcast. Sully Baseball Daily Podcast - March 9, 2013
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Sully Baseball Daily Podcast - March 1, 2013

On today's Sully Baseball Daily Podcast, I discuss Ken Rosenthal's article about the WBC on Fox Sports... and I describe why I disagree with him.

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Sully Baseball Daily Podcast - March 1, 2013

Sully Baseball Daily Podcast - February 9, 2013

On today's podcast, I talk about Felix Hernandez, the WBC and why I need a ladder to change my smoke alarm.

Sully Baseball Daily Podcast - February 9, 2013

Olympic Hockey is everything the WBC wants to be... but can never acheive

How big was today's win in Vancouver by team USA over the Canadian hockey team?

My wife, who is hardly a hockey fan, read that and said "Wow!"

And it was indeed a wow. A tense game which Red Wing Brian Rafalski playing for Team USA became the offensive hero.

Devil's captain Jamie Langenbrunner provided some offense for USA while Penguins star Sidney Crosby scored for the Canadians.

Caps star Alexander Ovechkin plays for the Russian team as does Evgeni Nabokov of my San Jose Sharks.

Anaheim's Teemu Selanne plays for Finland. Detroit's Nicklas Lidstrom plays for Sweden. Former Hart Trophy winner Jaromír Jágr plays for the Czechs.

And those are just a few of the NHL stars that this casual hockey fan recognizes.

The biggest names are on the ice... and they are playing full speed. The intensity of today's game was enormous and it wasn't even a medal game!

I wonder if Bud Selig was watching. I am guessing he was. I am sure he looks at this and says "Why can't the World Baseball Classic be more like this?"

And sure, it would be great to see an American team filled with all of the American superstars...

And a Domincan team playing at full strength and full speed.

And a Venezuelan team playing one brand of baseball while a Japanese team plays a different kind.

But this is just one thing hockey will have over baseball.

Remember how the WBC actually unfolded: Many star players saying "thanks but no thanks." Stadiums 2/3 empty. Indifferent fans. And with the exception of Ichiro, all of the marquee superstars mercifully back with their teams by the finals.

And lest we forget the level of play! Pitch counts. Players going at half speed. Pitchers "trying to get their work in" during potential elimination games.

The Olympic medal actually means something, unlike the WBC trophy (which I am dubbing the "Selig Cup.")

Be thankful hockey fans that you get a tournament like this. It is unique. It is special.

And it ain't happening in baseball.

Are you kidding me?

When I saw the Late Daisuke Matsusaka, who passed away shortly after the moronic World Baseball Classic, was pitching tonight... I thought "3 innings max."

He hadn't pitched since getting torched on June 19th against Atlanta. His longest outing was 5 2/3 innings against Texas and he STILL got lit up in that game.

So you will forgive me that I wasn't brimming with optimism.

Before the game I was thinking "Hmm... the Sox had yesterday off. Plus since Thursday the Red Sox bullpen had thrown a grand total of three innings. So they were rested."

And knowing it was Dice-K I caught myself thinking

Bowden can throw the 3rd
Bard can throw the 4th
Ramirez can throw the 5th
Okajima can throw the 6th
Delcarmen can throw the 7th
Wagner can throw the 8th
Papelbon can throw the 9th...

And I was still nervous because I wasn't sure if Dice-K could give the Sox two innings!

I would feel like if I asked a Genie for 6 shut out innings, I would be overreaching.

Man, can you imagine if Dice K is pitching well...
And Beckett is pitching well...
And Lester is throwing like an ace...
And Buchholz has turned a corner...

LET'S GET OCTOBER STARTED ALREADY!!!

Dice K Oed

Why shouldn't the Red Sox be so quick to deal Brad Penny?

Exhibit A: The massive sea of suck that is known as Daisuke Matsusaka's 2009 season.

Maybe we shouldn't be so quick to deplete our pitching staff.

Can't we put Daisuke on the "F---ed Up By The WBC List" and keep Penny?

I DEMAND to hear from all WBC fans today

Seriously. Where are you today?

Junior! You are a faithful reader!

Here, I'll give you a plug. Click this link and you'll get Junior's blog.

Now write in! I want you to tell me how great Bud Selig's little tournament is.

Tell me how wonderful for baseball it is and that you really REALLY got into it. You said you'd rather see the USA win the WBC than your Yankees win the Division.

Do you still think that? Do you replay the games in your head?

Or have you completely forgotten what happened because it was f---king Spring Training!

Well, I'm glad that Bud Selig got an opportunity to have a few Dutch and South African players play. 

I'm sure he's thrilled to have the Koreans and Japanese have a wonderful final game in Dodger Stadium. (I am assuming it was a wonderful game. I didn't watch it.)

Well Daisuke Matsuzaka is on the Disabled List with arm fatigue. Your arm shouldn't be tired BEFORE you file your taxes!!!!

Why is his arm tired?

Oh yeah... he was throwing full speed before he should have been. He was participating in some stupid, meaningless, contrived, moronic and completely forgettable fake tournament!

Seriously... tell me I'm wrong! Tell me that the WBC is great! Tell me that it is baseball's answer to the World Cup or the Olympics.

All I know is the Sox lost their 18 game winner who is going to cash $8 million in checks. I don't know for how long he'll be gone.

But in four years, if the ironically named World Baseball Classic is back, I truly hope that all 30 GMs forbid their players from participating.

Where are you, apologists?

I have a feeling I am not going to hear from many.

I want to hear from you WBC apologists today

Seriously... how heartbreaking was this game?

Junior... you are one of my loyal readers.

You wrote in my comments section "I would rather see USA win the '09 WBC than the Yankees beat Boston in the ALCS."

So today must be one of the most heart breaking days in your baseball viewing lives.

As a Yankee fan, this must be up there with Edgar Martinez's double in the 1995 Division Series...

This must rank with the pain of the last inning of the 2001 World Series, the mighty collapse of 2004 and the absurdity of the midges in the 2007 playoffs.

This must be one of those mornings like after the Aaron Boone homer when people just knew NOT to e mail me.

I mean does it really rank up there? Are you going to be replaying that Jeter error that broke open the game in your head over and over again?

"Man, we HAD them!"

Or are you thinking "Rats... we could have won that. Oh well, the real season is starting soon"?

Those games I mentioned above... they didn't involve insane pitch counts. They didn't involve teams dictating "This player needs to rest."

They involved starters coming out of the bullpen (Randy Johnson pitched in relief in the finales in 1995, 2001 and 2005!) 

Think Schilling's sock would have blood (or cocktail sauce) on it in March?

Think Kirk Gibson would limp to the plate before Easter?

Would Jeter dive face first into the stands for Team USA?

That wasn't even a playoff game... but it was Red Sox/Yankees.

The WBC is a nice idea... but it carries no weight. And no matter how much excitement people try and manufacture for it, it will remain an exhibition at half speed.

At one point when Roy Oswalt was being beaten like a drum last night, one of the ESPN voices said that Oswalt was getting his pitches in that the Astros would have required.

Getting his pitches in? This was an elimination game... supposedly in a World Wide Tournament! (Where Mark DeRosa is the best first baseman in America.)

I guess today is the wrong day for pointing all of this out.

What I am saying is, for my readers like Junior who think I am too harsh on the WBC and that it IS a meaningful title... check Sully Baseball in June.

I'll ask you if you even remember the final game.

Ahhh... the WBC

Yeah, the WBC really means a lot to the players.

They don't physically have a first baseman anymore. There are 30 major leagues, each with a first baseman and NONE of them are accepting the honor of playing first?

Ugh.

Seriously, why not just have the 14th caller play first at this point?

Or find a guy whose name is actually "Who?"

Hope you are enjoying the second AND LAST World Baseball Classic!

Hope you enjoyed a tournament where players played for PRIDE OF COUNTRY!

I hope you enjoyed a meaningless exhibition where the best teams were playing at half speed, and over 50 American stars either said "No Thanks" or were forbidden to play by the teams who will pay them millions of dollars.

Because it isn't happening again. And like the USFL, I can't imagine it will be missed.

BE HONEST! You may have watched an inning or two, but mainly you were holding your breath that the guy on your team didn't get hurt!

When I saw Dustin Pedroia had an injury playing these silly games, I washed my hands of it.

I love America and I root for American teams in the Olympics and the World Cup. But guess what? I would rather watch the Red Sox win the April 17-19 series against the Orioles than see the USA win Bud Selig's little experiment.

Hey Met fans! Your team had their second straight monumental collapse last year. Don't you think having a little cohesion in spring training would be nice? Well, 12 of the Mets predicted 25 man roster are playing these silly games in front of empty seats.

Hey Yankees fans! With all the expectations and the craziness in Yankee land, wouldn't you rather have your captain playing with Cano, Teixeria and which ever shmuck winds up playing third base than high fiving Youkiliis and Pedroia?

And now after employing the "Mercy Rule" when the USA got their butts kicked the other day, manager Davey Johnson is talking about a possible forfeit of Team USA if the injuries continue to pile up.

And in the end, only Korea, Japan and Cuba will care! They have the most to gain either by picking up a nice paycheck (Dice-K cashed in on the last one) or reminding us there is a great untapped reservoir of talent in Cuba.

But once again America won't be playing in the final if the injuries keep up... once again the final game will be played with players that nobody has ever seen.

It looks great on paper but so did the new Star Wars movies.