This year's World Baseball Classic features the top players in the world representing their countries and takes place from March 5-March 23.

Here's the official site for the competition:

http://web.worldbaseballclassic.com/index.jsp

Sixteen teams will be competing, starting off divided into four pools for a round-robin group stage.

Here's the four pools:

POOL A- held in Tokyo, Japan:
China
Chinese Taipei
Japan
Korea

POOL B- held in Mexico City, Mexico:
Australia
Cuba
Mexico
South Africa

POOL C- held in Toronto, Canada:
Canada
Italy
United States
Venezuela

POOL D- held in San Juan, Puerto Rico:
Dominican Republic
Netherlands
Panama
Puerto Rico


This'll be the second World Baseball Classic after the event made its debut in 2006. The conclusion of that competition probably surprised most people, with Japan beating Cuba in the final.

The US team is doing fairly well against Venezuela, offensively they are fine, but once their offense sputters, I fear for the pitching :o

I just checked the site that Satish linked to up above, and USA is crushing Team Venezuela right now 11-5 in the 7th.

I just checked the site that Satish linked to up above, and USA is crushing Team Venezuela right now 11-5 in the 7th.

Final score was 15-6.

Geez, Canada lost to Italy.  >:(
In soccer, I can see it, but Baseball? Too bad most of our good pitchers aren't there.

In not one, but two, incredibly shocking upsets, the Dominican Republic lost to the Netherlands TWICE! The Dominican Republic were one of the favourites in the competition, with all their Major League stars. There's no way anyone would've predicted the Dutch players would be capable of it!

I happened to watch Cuba defeat Australia 5-4 last night; the game had been televised on the MLB Network. So the Cuban team will be moving on to the next round for sure.

The first round is now over. The top two teams from each pool advance to the next round, which will consist of them being divided into two pools of four.


Here's the two pools-

POOL 1- held in San Diego, California:
Japan
Korea
Cuba
Mexico

POOL 2- held in Miami, Florida:
United States
Venezuela
Puerto Rico
Netherlands

Wow, Puerto Rico beat the United States 11-1. That was quite the thumping!

Wow, Puerto Rico beat the United States 11-1. That was quite the thumping!


Probably would have won by more if not for the mercy rule :P

If the US can hold off Venezuela they should be able to make it to the semis right?

So Japan and S. Korea are left in Pool 1 now...and Venezuela has won Pool 2 after defeating USA yesterday.

The second group stage is now over, with the top two teams from each pool advancing to the semi-finals. Here's the semi-final match-ups:

South Korea vs. Venezuela
United States vs. Japan




The United States was able to come back from its initial defeat against Puerto Rico to beat them 6-5, eliminating them from the competition.

Go U.S.!

If they don't win then I'll be fine with whoever ends up advancing to the final. ;)

Well, looks like it's gonna be Korea vs. Japan in the championship game.

I won't even watch Japan Vs Korea myself. Just not interested.
I thought USA was gonna comeback in that last game when they cut the lead to 6-4, but then Japan scored 3 more.

OK, now waiting for the real season to start. Wonder how the American league east will turn out this year.

I won't even watch Japan Vs Korea myself. Just not interested.
I thought USA was gonna comeback in that last game when they cut the lead to 6-4, but then Japan scored 3 more.

OK, now waiting for the real season to start. Wonder how the American league east will turn out this year.



Japan and Korea played a great game last night, you missed out.

Ichiro WIN.

I happened to watch the game...Japan won it, 5-3. 8) In the long run I didn't really care who won, since both teams seemed to be doing quite well.

Congratulations to Japan for repeating as champions of the World Baseball Classic. Of the two times this competition has been held, the Japanese won both.

The match-up in the final between Japan and Korea was the fifth meeting in this year's competition between the two teams, with Japan taking the overall series 3-2.