Christian Romo

The U.S. boofed the Italy game and let a not-so-great Canada team hang around until the end.

I’m liking the DR’s odds.

Korea has played really well this tournament! The DR has just been so much better than every other team this tournament

The WBC is great because Soto would never slide like that in the regular season. I didn’t even know he was capable of that

SOTO SWIM

Lost in the shuffle of the DR players having so much fun is how seriously this team seems to be taking this competition.

No messing around when it comes to lineup and pitching decisions. A pro org with a pro strategy to match.

Meanwhile for the DR

“We have the NL’s best lefty on out staff, should we use him?”

“It’s a knockout game. So yes.”

“Who should we pitch against the greatest lineup ever constructed?”

“How about a 39-year-old then a 42-year-old?”

“Perfect.”

I, uh … do not understand Korea’s pitching strategy against the DR

Manny shaking the little kid’s hand was super adorable

NANDO!!!

Pujols seems like a serious and competent manager for DR while the Venezuelan coaching staff is just “who are our country’s WAR leaders?”

VLADITO

The DR/Venezuela/Japan/Korea side of the bracket is the real final four idc

Vladito just pimped a walk. DR winning it all

Has there ever been a better high-ball hitter??

SOTO

Fox One it is, i guess

Tubi down as the Caribbean Super Bowl starts. SHOCKER

I get why fox relegated DR-Venezuela to Tubi, but this is the Caribbean Super Bowl

Good for Canada

Cuba finally got a pool in the western hemisphere with a hamstrung Puerto Rico and Canada’s weakest WBC team in a while. It had no chance at making a final, but no excuse not to win the pool

Not just bad defense, boneheaded defense. Completely winnable game turned disaster

Can’t hit, can’t defend. Hard to say this Cuba team deserves to advance

Defense never seemed to be a problem, though …

For 20 years, Cuba had no problem scoring runs but struggled developing pitching that could hang in international tournaments.

That seems to have flipped, which might signal progress if Cuba can send more pro-level hitters to NPB

Okay this is some bullshit on the umps in the cuba game. Miserable officiating

Two things (I think) will prevent Mexico and Italy from WBC collusion:

1. Winning the pool is a significant advantage, and both teams will want that.

2. These teams have a ton of U.S.-born MLB players that will never hear the end of it if they don't play a fair game

TBF the WBC’s tiebreaker rules are not intuitive and his explanation totally makes sense.

Still, it’s your job to know the rules MARK

If Cuba somehow wins tomorrow and can make it to the semis again because they drew Italy in the quarters (who i dont think they should be favored against, for the record), well …

The World Cup mostly avoids collusion scenarios with four-team pools and last two pool games that start at concurrent times.

The WBC should, like, just do that.