I am happy for Venezuela, no bad outcomes tonight

Dante Nori did not face pitching like that in Clearwater last year

It is a real pity that Jesús Luzardo getting paid what he is worth is preventing him for pitching for Venezuela in the finals

as someone present on Saturday and tonight, I can confirm that literally this crowd is way more intense (positive) than Saturday I literally saw french fries flying thru the crowd after they scored the fourth run

John Smoltz wondering if the Venezuelan fans can do another night of this like they aren’t just getting louder

In nine months MLB owners are going to tell you they need to shut the sport down because places like Miami are small markets with few baseball fans

Well they left him in too long because they don’t have pitching. This Venezuela team can hit, hope they do it tomorrow too

I am very excited after tomorrow to not be advertised a bunch of things that are apparently in the broader culture that I don’t know how they exist.

Michael Lorenzen is allowing a lot of contact that is finding gloves? I am shocked, that never happens.

Has Cervelli pulled a Gabe Kapler here?

So who pitches tomorrow if Italy wins?

I thought that was a bad pitch, but he did that to a curve that was ending outside the zone. Sometimes batters do things.

The ump paused for so long I thought he wasn’t going to call it

We just aren’t going to talk about why there may be Venezuelans watching things with hope? Not that I expected them to, but it was so close the silence was awkward.

I don’t know how this happens, I was told you were supposed to swing at those pitches and not let the ump decide things.

I am worried for Italy with how many pitches Nola has thrown

We aren’t having pasta e fagioli and opening a bottle of wine tonight because we are rooting for Italy (we are though), but because I married an Italian American woman from Philly and we had to shovel nearly two feet of snow today.

I think the Phillies will take him back for his last option year for the second half of this year. Going forward, if he puts in the work and wants to do it, his speed and defense probably buy him another 2-3 more years as a non-roster invite guy bouncing around the league

Rojas suspension doesn’t really change a whole ton. He was mostly emergency insurance. They now have 2 open 40 spots, plus one from a catcher, and at least one from McCambley/Pop. Need two, possibly 3 for Crawford, Moore, De La Cruz. So that is one for a signing or waiver claim.

Felix Reyes has just absolutely crushed some balls this spring. One walk and one strikeout in 28 PAs says his plate discipline is also in midseason form.

Wasn't paying attention, and that was the audition Chuck King was looking for. I think he has looked intriguing all spring, but the line between intriguing and major league good is not a small one.

First reported game velocity for catcher to pitcher conversion Anderson Navas and he is sitting 94-97.

This would indicate that ABS and data is not coming to new leagues this year if they can't even get Daytona on the same level as the rest of the FSL

This is both from a data and rule consistency side, are we not getting the challenge system at full season minor league levels? Is it that they haven't installed the infrastructure? Regardless of how you feel about ABS/Challenge system it feels like it if it is in the majors it should be everywhere.

I would also like to point out that if DeRosa says Team USA is playing for the troops, then everything is political.

The idea that swinging at this 3-2 pitch was likely to produce a better result than taking it is asinine.

Not only is this pitch not even remotely close, swinging at it is likely to make an out. Quit making excuses for someone sucking at their job.

Who knows what happens, but it is likely he would have been held to account at some point (like the blown call on Soto) and had some actual accountability on a horrendous strike zone. Like maybe the ump just does his job.

Bullshit, just fucking bullshit

Ump is in the bag for the US

Why would you put Buxton in CF and PCA in LF

I thought for sure that was a run

I am not sure that was a home run, but that was a fucking amazing catch

People want him to hit it in the air Smoltz because if that ball is elevated at all it is out of the fucking park. Please just retire.

The booth is surprised by the velocity like they don’t watch baseball (they don’t). Random college relievers are sitting 96, no shit teams with mlb second tier RPs and AA/AAA guys have dudes capable of touching the upper 90s.

This Dominican bullpen has some Phillies of seasons past, and that is giving some 2025 Blue Jays vibes in not a good way

Hey guys let's not get lost about why we're in this global celebration of baseball: 1. To be pissy and weird to everyone else 2. For the soldiers To be safe I'll be talking about both nonstop

I don’t even know who they are cosplaying for. Like is there a horde of mouth breathers waiting for this to watch baseball. Do they just want to meet a corpse in a red hat or get guest spots on Fox?

Ohtani making the last out after the last WBC is just perfect writing

My real conspiracy theory thing here is that they designed the brackets so that the US would face Canada, Cuba, or Puerto Rico and for Japan to face DR or VZ

Japan winning and then somehow getting permission for Ohtani to pitch would be the second best outcome. The best outcome is a Venezuela-Dominican Republic final

Yoshida has not played a good left field, not surprising, but it has not been good

Ranger made a mistake, but Venezuela pitching Ohtani like the Phillies did

Puerto Rico has gotten a lot of press about guys being unavailable, but Venezuela could use Jose Alvarado

This has been a broadcast of some really oddly said things

The behind home plate cam on the pause in the delivery is the one good use of that perspective

Miguel Cabrera’s job over the next 4 innings is to prevent Acuña from getting himself ejected

Oh no Ranger

Which of these are HoFers (without accounting for defense) 6648 PA 191 HR 101 SB .248/.349/.397 101 OPS+ 6850 PA 282 HR 25 SB .262/.337/.452 110 OPS+ 6904 PA 303 HR 6 SB .264/.301/.457 105 OPS+ 5542 PA 180 HR 104 SB .270/.328/.447 110 OPS+

There are a lot of flaws about Ranger Suarez that aren’t talked about (he always misses time and has 1-2 months where he is mediocre), but when he is healthy and on, he is one of the best pitchers on the planet.