Are Team USA bothered enough to win the World Baseball Classic?

Picture a world where Messi, Christiano Ronaldo and Robin van Persie decline the obvious opportunity to represent their country at the World Cup. You can’t really do that because only injury would keep them away from the biggest tournament in world football, but if you managed to envisage how that would go down and what it would mean for the sport, you pretty much have the World Baseball Classic (WBC).

The what now? Yes, baseball does have a tournament fielding countries and not just major league teams. But how can it improve and why are so many big stars turning down the chance to represent their country, or more specifically, the USA?

It’s the equivalent of a football World Cup or Rugby World Cup but is extremely young in comparison – it debuted in 2006 and came back again in 2009, and this March sees its third instalment. But after a historic season in major league baseball, it’s a shame to see that individuals like Clayton Kershaw, Justin Verlander, Mike Trout, Buster Posey and Bryce Harper aren’t going.

And they aren’t going because they chose not to.

There are a lot of things that the WBC gets wrong but it can’t really help some of them either. The tournament takes place in March which as we know is when all teams are back in spring training, so for some players they are worried of picking up an injury so close to the start of the new season and opposite to that clubs put pressure on their stars to stay in camp. This, I must stress, is prohibited under the MLB-sanctioned WBC charter.

Could you – sorry to sound repetitive – imagine a system where clubs in other sports have the power to prevent their players from representing their countries? You have to ask the question of importance – is club or country the priority? In baseball right now, there are far more rewards and incentives to play well for your club as opposed to your country. Playing under Joe Torre for Team USA with a potential final at AT&T Stadium in San Francisco? Not important.

To emphasise this, just take a look at the list of players who aren’t competing: Buster Posey, Mike Trout, Bryce Harper, Andrew McCutchen, Prince Fielder, Josh Hamilton, Justin Verlander, Clayton Kershaw, Matt Cain, David Price, Gio Gonzalez, Stephen Strasburg, Cole Hamels, Jered Weaver and Jim Johnson.

If the WBC is to reach its full potential, and if it wishes to be taken seriously, this has to change.

Torre is the skipper and his pitching coach is the legendary Greg Maddux, and because there are pitching limits for starting pitchers – 65 in the first round, 80 in the second and 95 in the semi-finals and final – the coaching staff have chosen wisely in the rotation.
But another issue with this whole procedure is that Torre and his staff has until February 20 to submit their final 28-man roster. That is over four weeks away and with the original roster picked already, there is plenty of time for a few guys to suddenly change their minds and drop out.

For now, Torre and Maddux have settled on 10 relief pitchers for a 14-man pitching staff, along with a rotation of R.A. Dickey, Ryan Vogelsong, Kris Medlen and Derek Holland.

On paper, you can hardly argue with that selection. Although a starting quarter of Verlander, Kershaw, Price and Strasburg would be a damn sight better, just look at the 2012 performances of those who are in.

Dickey is the reigning NL MVP, Vogelsong was 3-0 in the postseason while posting a 1.09 ERA and Medlen was the best pitcher in baseball during the second half of last season.

27 of the 28 players have been selected but it’s wishful thinking to believe one of those four desirables above would be a late newcomer. If Team USA – how Olympic does that sound – advance from pool (or group) play, they are scheduled to play four games in five days in March. That strikes of injury worries for the pitchers involved. Maybe they are right to have doubts about playing so close to the regular season?

MLB research shows there were more April disabled list assignments, by percentage, in ’06 and ’09 for players who did not play in the WBC than for those who did. Chew over that while you work out in Florida or Arizona this spring.

Perhaps none of the 16 teams involved have a better rotation than Team USA but the absentees again show an underlying flaw with the WBC. This tournament should become baseball’s answer to the football World Cup, but the attitude of American players, executives and fans means the source of the problem still exists.

To this point if you don’t have any knowledge of this tournament then you won’t know that Japan is the two-time reigning champions. USA’s overall record is 7-7, and they haven’t yet made an appearance in the title game.

Players see the WBC as a chore as opposed to an opportunity to don their nation’s colours, and because some of the major leagues top stars are involved deep into the postseason, they require more rest and want a ‘proper’ spring training programme as opposed to the high-intensity and pressurised cauldron of an international tournament.

So what of the other nations? They receive an almost immediate “yes” from their MLB representatives, and that is the most embarrassing thing for the USA. Miguel Cabrera and Pablo Sandoval were on the field in Detroit on October 28 for the final game of the 2012 World Series, but they were the first players to commit to Venezuela.

Seattle Mariners ace Felix Hernandez is also joining them despite being as close to free agency as Verlander and Kershaw – in a players’ walk year, quality performance is everything and any risk will usually be surrendered – and what is more ‘King Felix’ has averaged close to 240 innings over the past four seasons, an incredible workload.

Surely a spring training game can be as dangerous as a WBC game. When I say dangerous I mean that players are at a minimal risk of injury, and when you take into account that in spring training your top hitters could face a young pitcher called up from single A ball who may be over-erratic considering his age and energy, maybe the WBC is safer?

If a long-term injury does occur during the WBC, the player’s MLB club is insured 100% for the salary he earns while on the disabled list. It that sense, the bases are covered.

Baseball is America’s national sport, its pastime and forms their national identity. It remains the nucleus and central structure of the baseball universe, producing more than 70% of current major league players and serving as the base for 29 of its 30 teams.

That makes the USA responsible for the reputation and growth of the WBC. They should want to win it, but more importantly they should want to show up and play.