I want to like the World Baseball Classic. The game, unfortunately, isn't really built for tournament play. Rather, it's a long-haul attritional battle. But the "one-and-done" nature of knockout contests certainly adds excitement. I don't have a dog in the fight. I don't really care about Team USA one way or the other. (The jingoistic coverage and "team of destiny" nonsense doesn't help.) I really like the international flavor of the event and like to see baseball from (weird?) places like Czechia and Israel.
But Team USA features Logan Webb. And Logan Webb is awesome so it was fun to watch the game last night. Brazil, despite being a large country, is a baseball minnow. The result was a sloppy 15-5 win for Team USA. Brazil pitchers walked 17 batters and hit two more! Team USA didn't have to do much as Team Brazil had a hard time throwing strikes and turned mini-rallies into routs.
The interesting thing about Team Brazil is its MLB connections. Their first batter was RF Lucas Ramirez, the son of Manny Ramirez. He hit a homer off Webb! That was quite a moment. Webb retired the next 12 batters on four grounders, six strikeouts, and two fly outs. Dante Bichette, Jr., son of Dante and brother to Bo, is Team Brazil's DH. And Jose Contreras' son Joseph, all of 17 and still in HS, is a pitcher. He got Aaron Judge (who homered in the 1st) to ground into a bases-loaded double play! Imagine being 17 and pitching in a game like that. I should mention that young Ramirez hit another homer in the game, that one off Gabe Speier (nephew of Chris).
So even though it was a mismatch and got rather ugly at the end it's clear there is a future for baseball in Brazil. The above-mentioned ballplayers have Brazilian wives, that's how their kids wound up on the team. Team Brazil also featured a Japanese manager and players of Japanese ancestry so it seems there is more than one big-time baseball nation involved in the program.
I hope the WBC continues to evolve and we see better baseball all over the world because of it. Unfortunately it seemed like a desultory crowd at the ballpark in Houston and there were plenty of empty seats, especially behind home plate. I'm sure Fox will fill them with the appropriate celebrities for the next match.
Finally, do we fully appreciate Logan Webb? He emerged in 2021 as a stud starter and made a name for himself that October with two superb games against the Dodgers in the playoffs. Since then he's made 132 starts and gone 54-43 for a .500 club, posting ERAs under 3.50 and FIPs under 3.20, all while leading MLB in innings pitched. The guy gets a lot of credit for being a "workhorse" which is true, but it obscures the fact that he's an "ace" as well! Logan Webb is about as close to a plug-and-play pitcher as there is in baseball. Mr. Automatic. The Giants have him signed for two more seasons after this one. He's at his peak—let's build a winner behind him.
Webb is supposed to pitch one more time. I imagine that would be the first game of the knockout round (assuming Team USA wins their group). That's Friday the 13th in Houston. It's on Fox and the only nice thing about Fox is we can get it off-the-air for free. (That's how we watch most of our baseball. I hate paying for TV.)
Anyway, it's still Spring Training. Go Giants!
--M.C.
