Day: July 11, 2005

Highlights from the press release

Your teams:

Block A (to be played in Japan)
China
Japan
Korea
Taiwan

Block B (to be played in US)
Canada
Mexico
South Africa
United States

Block C (to be played in Puerto Rico)
Puerto Rico
Cuba
Netherlands
Panama

Block D (to be played in US)
Australia
Dominican Republic
Venezuela
Italy

(snap judgement: oh man is DR going to roll it’s block. The teams there aren’t too scary or deep. If Cuba doesn’t play, they’ve got the easier road than the US. Netherlands is good in Europe, but we’re stepping up a level. Puerto Rico doesn’t have the pitching.)

First Round: Round Robin play (3 games). Top 2 teams from each block move on. (Tie breakers to be announced)
Second Round: Advancers from A & B play in the US, Advancers from C & D play in Puerto Rico. Again, Top 2 teams from each block move on
Third Round: Winner of Block A&B plays the runner up of A&B and the winner of Block C&D play the runner up of C&D. One game, winner moves on.
Final Round: Winners meet. No third place game.

Top 2 from each bracket get combined into two new blocks for round robin play; A & B play. Top 2 from those blocks play single-elimination style for a winner. There is no third place game. A team can play 8 games at most, 3 at least.

– Japan and Cuba are invited, but have yet to accept. They make it sound like all’s left for Japan is for the players to approve it with a vote on 7/22. No mention of an alternate team if Cuba doesn’t make it.

– 27 man rosters, with at least 12 pitchers (I’d assume 13 or 14.)

– No more than 9 players from each major league roster can play. (It’s implied “25 man roster”, but I would assume this means “40 man”.) Although it’s up to each national baseball orginization to pick it’s roster, MLB players selection must be approved by MLB. Managers must be approved by MLB and by their club.

– Netherland Antillies (Andruw Jones) and Curaco (Randall Simon) and Aruba (Sir Sidney Ponson) do count for Netherlands.

– IF Cuba plays, they won’t be using anyone who left Cuba.

– Rosters have to be set 45 days before the start of the tournament; Block A kicks off on 3/8/6, so 1/22/6 seems to be the deadline. There’s training camps two weeks before each block kicks off, and teams may play exhibition games against MLB squards (or Asian league teams for Block A) before the tournament kicks off. The Block A teams may play exhibition games in between rounds, since they’ll be done early.

– Drug testing is in play for WBC, but suspensions do not carry over to MLB.

– Next tournament will be in 2009, and every four years after that. They’re hoping to add more teams as they go on.

This is going to be so awesome. I can not wait. ONLY EIGHT MONTHS TO GO.