Aceves back in camp

In case (by some miracle) you haven't seen this yet, I give you the video of the brawl that took place between the Mexico and Canada World Baseball Classic teams. As far as baseball brawls go, this one is actually pretty intense - less standing around and puffing up of chests and more actual contact than I'm used to seeing. Who knew Canadians harbored that much aggression?

In totally unsurprising news, Red Sox pitcher Alfredo Aceves was mixing it up with Canada's Tyson Gillies, a player he'd never met:

"What can I say? It didn't surprise me. He threw me to the floor. I stood up and I reacted, too," Aceves said. "I didn't do nothing to him. I was just calming [others] down. The fighting was with the pitcher and the hitter. I was saying, 'Calm down, man. Calm down. Come on. Calm down.' He just grabbed me and threw me on the floor. I was like, 'I want to throw you on the floor.' Then when I jumped in to this guy, I got seven guys against me.  You’re locked in. You’re just trying to defend and knock them out. That’s it. We were trying to [defend] ourselves. We didn’t do nothing to him. He just threw me," he said.

Mexico has been eliminated from the WBC, and Aceves is back in camp, relatively unharmed and ready to pitch. Given Aceves' history of surliness and griping about his role, it will be interesting to see how things pan out in camp: though he has always wanted a spot in the rotation, there's simply no room. He'll probably end up in the bullpen, in a much less glamorous spot than last year, and hopefully he'll handle that with some maturity.

The Red Sox and the World Baseball Classic

There's less buzz about the World Baseball Classic among Red Sox fans this time around than there has been in the past - mostly because far fewer Red Sox players are among the participants.  In 2009, the Sox lent out David Ortiz, Dustin Pedroia, Kevin Youkilis, Daisuke Matsuzaka, and Marco Scutaro to various teams, while this year the Sox major league players at the WBC are limited to Shane Victorino and Alfredo Aceves.

Aceves, playing for Mexico, and Victorino, playing for the USA, are both in Pool D for the first round, and are playing in Phoenix, Arizona. It's likely that at least one of them will advance to the second round, which will be played in Miami, and should USA or Mexico make the semifinals and finals, they'll be headed out to AT&T Park in San Francisco. If you want more detailed info about this year's World Baseball Classic, check out this awesome infographic from MLB.

Former Red Sox Daisuke Matsuzaka was the MVP in the 2006 and 2009 tournaments, leading Japan to the title in both of the first two WBCs. However, the thirty-two year old pitcher is not on Japan's roster this year, guaranteeing that there will be a new MVP for the first time in the WBC's short history. My money is still on Japan to take the whole thing, but I couldn't begin to make an MVP projection.

The Red Sox will face off against the Puerto Rican WBC team in an exhibition tonight at JetBlue Park. John Lackey will start the game for the Red Sox, but he is just one of five Sox pitchers scheduled to get his work in during the contest.

Escaping the Carnage of the World Baseball Classic?

According to Boston.com's Extra Bases blog, the Red Sox may send just two of their major leaguers to the World Baseball Classic this year, with the possibility that both Alfredo Aceves (Mexico), and Shane Victorino (USA) will participate. This is a striking change for the Red Sox, who sent a much larger array of players to the 2006 and 2009 WBC.

The 2009 tournament particularly affected the Red Sox, because after Daisuke Matsuzaka pitched Team Japan to its second WBC title (and himself to its MVP), he was on and off the disabled list for the entire MLB season. The Red Sox did get some amusement out of that year's WBC, as Kevin Youkilis restyled his famous goatee:

And we all had some mixed feelings about the brand new bromance between Red Sox second baseman and all around dirt dog Dustin Pedroia and Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter - I mean, I know the tournament is supposed to be about forging connection, but come on!

And for what? The USA finished fourth in the 2009 WBC, because most US players feel their first allegiance is to the team that pays them (and MLB), while in Japan, playing for the national team is a huge honor.

And so I predict that this year, like every World Baseball Classic thus far, Japan will take home the first place, and Daisuke Matsuzaka might even claim his third MVP (though the rosters haven't been announced yet, so no guarantee he's playing). But for the Red Sox, the effect the tournament has on spring training and the 2013 season should be (thankfully) minimized.

Fear: A powerful motivator for Daisuke Matsuzaka

Who was that man last night (and the start before, for that matter), and what has he done with Daisuke Matsuzaka?  In all seriousness, over the last two starts, Matsuzaka has given up two hits, and no runs in fifteen innings.  It's especially impressive when you consider that his first two starts of 2011 saw him giving up ten runs in seven innings.

So what's the deal?  Well, we may finally be seeing the pitcher that we thought we were getting: the one who's been missing for three years except when he's wearing the Team Japan WBC uniform.  Matsuzaka has pitched brilliantly of late, mixing speeds and pitches, and attacking the strikezone - you know, all those things John Farrell and now Curt Young have been trying to get him to do all along.

Apparently, Daisuke Matsuzaka is totally aware that these last two starts have been probably the best he's had with the Red Sox, but the surprising (and vaguely infuriating) thing is that he remarked after Monday's game in Toronto that "he was motivated by the fear of losing his spot in the rotation." (via Boston.com's Extra Bases.)

So basically, until he thought he might lose his job (something Tito says was never a possibility), the Red Sox were never important enough to Daisuke to really buckle down and give it his all.  Personally, I always suspected that the Red Sox and MLB came in at a distant second on Matsuzaka's list of priorities, far lower than #1 Team Japan.  In a culture where personal and national honor is the most important thing in a person's life, this is unsurprising, but still disappointing.

It's clear that hoisting the WBC trophy for Japan, and then the WBC MVP trophy was a much bigger point in Daisuke's life than holding the World Series trophy in 2007.  Perhaps we should be proud to have this sort of player on the team: one to which honor for his country and himself means more than $50 million - a rarity in today's world. But it IS sad that only fear of losing his slot in the starting rotation could truly motivate Matsuzaka into pitching to the best of his ability, but I'll take whatever works, at this point.

As Terry Francona said, "If that’s the case I’ll go out and threaten him.”  If it would help, I'll be happy to do the same.

World Baseball Classic 2009

So, contrary to what I said in the last post, there are actually fifteen Sox players on tentative WBC rosters.

Dominican Republic: David Ortiz and Ramon Ramirez

United States: Kevin Youkilis and Dustin Pedroia

Japan: Daisuke Matsuzaka and Hideki Okajima

Canada: Jason Bay and George Kottaras*

Puerto Rico: Mike Lowell and Javier Lopez

The Netherlands: Dennis Neuman*

South Africa: Justin Erasmus*

Chinese Taipei: Chih-Hsien Chiang*

Panama: Angel Chavez*

Australia: Mitchell Dening*

* denotes minor league player

Fifteen players from ten countries is pretty impressive.  Also participating from the Red Sox is Jon Deeble, a scout, who will manage for Australia.  However, it is important to note that the more players participate in the Classic, the more disrupted Spring Training could be.  Assuming for a moment that both Mike Lowell and David Ortiz are healthy enough to compete so early [doubtful, especially in Lowell's case], the Sox Spring Training could be short nine contributors from the presumptive Major League roster.  If you believe that such a shortage might adversely affect the team's performance over the season, it might be instrumental to take a look at WBC participation among rival American League teams.

Yankees:  The newly retooled team to the south currently has thirteen players on provisional rosters, representing six countries, but most are minor leaguers.  The participants off of their Major League roster include Derek Jeter [US], Alex Rodriquez, Melky Cabrera, and Robinson Cano [Dominican Republic].  On one hand, this bodes well for the Sox: they have more established star power that will be competing early.  However, it cannot be overlooked that the Yankees will have a more normal Spring Training.

Rays:  The reigning American League champs have eight players in the WBC, all part of the Major League club, and all important contributers.  The Rays represent six countries: Australia [Grant Balfour], Mexico [Matt Garza], Japan [Akinori Iwamura], Venezuela [Dioner Navarro], DR [Carlos Pena], and USA [JP Howell, Scott Kazmir, and Evan Longoria].  This is especially worrisome for the rays, since their offseason has been shorter than both the Red Sox and the Yankees.

Angels:  The AL West Champion Angels have fifteen players representing nine countries.  Major contributers to the Major League Club include Joe Saunders, Scot Shields, and Brian Fuentes [USA].

White Sox:  President Obama's favorite team will send seven players, most notably Carlos Quentin, AJ Pierzynski, Matt Thornton, and John Danks all playing for the United States.

At first glance, the clubs most impacted by the Classic will be Boston and Tampa Bay, coincidentally the two teams that went furthest into the Postseason [Boston losing to Tampa Bay in Game 7 of the ALCS; Tampa Bay bowing out to Phillies in Game 5 of the World Series].  We already knew that the AL East would be the toughest in baseball next year, and the WBC will only make the stories that much more interesting.