Elephant Rumblings: World Baseball Classic underway

Happy Wednesday, Athletics Nation!

The World Baseball Classic is back! It’s been five years since the last tournament, which team USA won to notch their first WBC title. The 2021 tournament was canceled due to the pandemic, but has returned for 2023. The Athletic put out a WBC explainer yesterday that includes a lot of essential information to help fans keep up with the action.

Team USA plays its first game of the tournament this Saturday against Great Britain at 9pm ET/6pm PT. The US team roster includes many of the game’s top stars, including Nolan Arenado, Mookie Betts, and Mike Trout.

Other countries are represented by some of the MLB’s best, as well. Manny Machado and Juan Soto will play for the Dominican Republic. Shohei Ohtani and Yu Darvish will play for team Japan. Ronald Acuña Jr. and Xander Bogaerts will play for Venezuela and the Netherlands, respectively. So there is plenty of headline talent in this year’s tournament.

The A’s may presently be bereft of superstars, but they nevertheless have eight players in the tournament, listed below. You can get more details on the A’s WBC contingency from our own Frank Polito right here on AN.

• Adrián Martínez (Mexico)
• Jordan Diaz (Colombia)
• Denzel Clarke (Canada)
• Zack Gelof (Israel)
• Jake Fishman (Israel)
• Miguel Romero (Cuba)
• James Gonzalez (Panama)
• Joshwan Wright (Panama)

Athletics Nation wishes all of the A’s young prospects playing in this WBC the very best of good fortune! Be sure to check out The Athletic for more details on schedules and locations, team pools, how to watch, tournament format and rules, and more.

A’s Coverage:

• Toster: Diaz’s 3-hit game helps A’s snap 9-game winless streak
• MLB: Injuries & Moves: Kaprielian, Piña updates
• Brazil: Allen ready for clean slate, optimistic about A’s in 2023
• Kawahara: A’s James Kaprielian eager for ‘cat-and-mouse’ with hitters under new pitch timer ($)
• Espinoza: Lawrence Butler still feels slept on despite breakout spring

MLB News & Interest:

• The Athletic: Which players will be most affected by MLB’s new rules? One pick from each team ($)
• Rosenthal: The Shohei Ohtani you don’t see, plus Jacob deGrom’s ultimate goal and the Giants’ hope ($)
• The Athletic: World Baseball Classic explainer: Everything you need to know about the tournament ($)
• Stark: Rays remember Dave Wills, beloved radio voice who ‘led the league in fun’ ($)
• McDonald: Lorenzo Cain To Officially Retire As A Royal This Summer
• Kleinschmidt: Broadcasters across MLB embracing new pitch clock era
• Today in Baseball History

Best of Twitter:

Agreed. This should not be a contest of taxpayer handouts to billionaires.

Waldichuk expanded his repertoire.

Amen, Bryce.

Yes! Celebrate and welcome the entry of more women into the game.