Does anyone know where we could find a definitive list of what Astros will be playing in the WBC this year?
https://www.nbcsports.com/chicago/w...ssic-2023-tracking-team-usas-roster-additions It's only Kyle Tucker.
Wasn't Pressly also supposed be on Team USA? Team Venezuela will have Altuve Team Dominican Republic will have Pena, Valdez, Javier, B. Abreu, Neris, Montero
Most of the Astros who participate will do so for their home countries like Venezuela, Cuba, Dominican Republic, etc.
The Dominican team is absolutely stacked this year. Especially their pitching staff. Won’t be surprising at all if they win.
They've released the "preliminary" rosters but haven't trimmed them down as far as I know. Here's the list of current and former Astros in play: Team USA Andy Pettitte, pitching coach Kyle Tucker Ryan Pressly Venezuela Omar Lopez, manager Jose Altuve Puerto Rico Alex Cintron, bench coach Martin Maldonado Christian Vazquez Kiké Hernández Dominican Republic Rodney Linares, manager (former manager w/CC Hooks) Framber Valdez Cristian Javier Bryan Abreu Rafael Montero Hector Neris Jeremy Pena Yimi Garcia Teoscar Hernandez Jose Siri Italy Trey Mancini Max Stassi Mexico Jose Urquidy Patrick Sandoval Roberto Osuna Netherlands Derek West Canada Abraham Toro
Is there any data on whether playing in the WBC has any effect on MLB performance? I thought I remember that after the first one, many players sucked for at least a chunk of the season and it was attributed to not having a normal training camp, but I don't know if they made adjustments or adapted to it or not.
The only one I really remember is Bregman playing and then sucking, but he always gets off to really slow starts I always worry about the pitchers, but I don’t know that there is any actual evidence to back up that it hurts them
I'm not sure how you could even compile that data in any usable form (usable enough to draw conclusions from).
I think there are a few ways, but it might be a pain: Compare the WBC players' stats during WBC year vs year before and after with the non-WBC players in the same timeframes. Compare WBC players' April or pre-ASB stats vs the rest of the season with the non-WBC players in the same timeframe (this is probably better). I don't know if there's enough players to be statistically meaningful over 1 WBC, but over several, if the WBC players consistently have worse Aprils or worse 1st-halfs than everyone else, it might be some indication of an issue. So for example, if the average MLB player is 10% worse in April than their overall season (cold weather, etc), but WBC players are 25% worse, then that might tell us something?
This is what I was getting at. It's not like there's a huge pool of MLB + WBC players, and it's not like there's a bunch of WBC's to compare the before/after to. Hell, as was mentioned before, I'm not even sure they play the same dates and interrupt Spring Training the same every year. And every offseason for every player is different, as is every ST. Also: what's your control group? (since we're getting all science up in this ****)
Yeah, I don't know if there's quite enough data yet to be statistically meaningful. If WBCers do 10% worse than non-WBCers, that might not be meaningful. If they do 30% worse, it might be worth exploring more. And yeah, I have no idea if WBC interrupts training camp the same ways each year, etc - I've never paid too much attention to it. Control group here would be all the MLBers who don't play in WBC and get a normal spring training/etc.
There are many Dominican players that their MLB teams are protesting/denying their ability to play. The Yankees just denied Luis Severino for instance. But there are 18 more players (not all Dominican, but many are) where the names haven't been released. Will be interesting to see how it plays out.
Wouldn't this skew the comparison, though? I thought only better players got to play on the WBC, so if you are comparing their performance against the rest of the MLB that don't play in WBC, then you are automatically getting an overall lesser skill control group. How do you draw conclusions between the stats from each of those groups?
No - to clarify, you're comparing each player to their own previous and following seasons. So if all the non-WBC players perform at their own individual norms, but WBC players all perform worse than they normally do, then that's a useful data point.
I hate that the WBC interferes with MLB's time frame and do not believe anyone with a Spring training invitation should participate. Rescheduling the WBC or restricting the players both seem like simple solutions. Rethinking the whole event after it has been tried for several years to see if it has accomplished it's intended purpose seems in order. Presumably to spread professional baseball around the world was an MLB marketing idea and I believe it has failed. Limiting those games to amateur players would accomplish the same thing and might incentivize players around the world to train for and participate enough to make those goals more realistic.
Rescheduling is far from simple and they have looked at it over and over. When do you think would be a good time? During the season? Immediately after the season when everyone is gassed? In the middle of the offseason when either nobody is game ready or they have no offseason? That's the entire calendar.
It should be easy (for MLB at least) to determine if injuries spike in WBC years, due for example to ramping up intensity or duration too soon. I imagine teams are most concerned about this, especially for pitchers.
I know I'm concerned with the number of Astro pitchers who may end up participating. I think they should not allow more than 1 or 2 pitchers from each MLB roster.
How about at the same time all other winter ball is played? Mostly I would prefer to exclude MLB players. I think it would incentivize
