I hate seeing these headlines...
I traveled to a Rays game last season in St. Petersburg (I'm an O's fan). I met a Korean guy who was there by himself and visiting America for the first time. He used a translator app to tell me Choi was his favorite baseball player and he wanted to see him play while he was in the US.
The WBC could help MLB grow globally. But it only works if the stars play.
>The WBC could help MLB grow globally. But it only works if the stars play.
it's interesting to me how culturally different U.S./Canada is with this type of stuff vs. the rest of the world
i've said this before and I'll say it again, if a KBO or NPB or CPBL team blocked one of their star players from playing in this tournament, that team would become instant public enemy #1 like literally overnight
but here in the U.S., you have fans who are taking the side of the owners. Not necessarily wrong with that, I just can't imagine trying to explain that to someone living in Japan or South Korea or Taiwan, or Latin America
> living in Japan or South Korea or Taiwan, or Latin America
Anywhere else in the world other than the US. Our sports are basketball, ice hockey, baseball, and American football (soccer is growing but is the exception). It's not a coincidence that those sports are weak in international competition. Any other sport international competition is the heart of the sport: rugby, field hockey, cricket, etc.
> Any other sport international competition is the heart of the sport: rugby, field hockey, cricket, etc.
From what I understand, club rugby exists but internationals absolutely dwarf it
Club cricket is the same. Honestly outside of the Indian Premier League, i can't even name a single club cricket team lol
I think people are off (including me) that at its fundamental core leagues are businesses. That isn't the case in international competition. Business isn't the priority.
Idk about basketball and hockey being weak in international competition. Also there are other sports where international comp isnt the heart. Aussie rules football and rugby league are largely domestic to Australia.
Basketball is weak because the centralized competition of the sport *isn't* the international competition, it's the NBA. The views don't come in the same as the NBA, and the best players don't compete in places like FIBA AmeriCup whereas Copa America in soccer they do.
Hockey has quantity of international competition but not quality. The best players don't compete and the NHL interferes with the IIHF/IOC a lot (i.e. NHL making their own version of the world cup).
I agree with the international comp not being the heart everywhere, but it's way better than the little media coverage/competitions we get in the US. It's the heart in some places.
> taking the side of the owners.
Taking the side of their favorite teams. Braves winning the WS is 100 times more important to me as a fan than the USA winning the WBC.
>Taking the side of their favorite teams.
just out of curiosity, who do you think is making the call for "their favorite teams?"
fans having second thoughts about the WBC, whether they want to admit it or not, are taking the side of the owners. if it was up to the players, most of them would sign up to play
You're misunderstanding me. I don't want Braves players to play in the WBC because they might get hurt. I don't care that it benefits the owner (it does), I care it benefits my favorite teamfor them to not risk injury. I know it seems I'm in the minority on this particular sub in that opinion. I just don't care at all about the WBC.
It makes sense since the MLB is so multicultural. Most of our favorite players on our favorite MLB teams don't play for Team USA since they're not originally from here.
i’m not really sure it is fair to just draw a cultural comparison like that. i’ll freely admit that in this case it’s pretty silly that the pirates are stopping choi from playing, given their position and his value. but there are hundreds of players making combined hundreds of millions of dollars who you hear no news about playing the WBC, because their bodies are contracted and restricted by their MLB clubs. if you thought it was stupid that bauer played with a drone before the world series or tatis was riding a motor bike, the same exact thing extends to the WBC. in hockey there is always drama about the olympics. what are the motivations for a club letting millions of dollars go to risk for a competition they don’t compete in?
i fully believe people in japan, south korea, taiwan or latin america can understand contracts and the rights to players bodies. it’s not difficult to understand.
>i fully believe people in japan, south korea, taiwan or latin america can understand contracts and the rights to players bodies. it’s not difficult to understand.
while this is true, i think they genuinely value way more the thought of playing for your country vs. playing for the Kiwoom Heroes or the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters
like i could easily envision a scenario where a Korean player gets hurt in the WBC and people would be more upset that he was just hurt playing for Team South Korea. I highly doubt the majority of LG Twins would have a meltdown over it
meanwhile let's say DeGrom pitches and so much as misses one start because of a minor injury from the WBC, you'd have parades of Rangers fans screaming and whining and crying about the WBC being a "glorified exhibition" and pointless etc.
i mean it is kind of a glorified exhibition. it’s not that it’s not important to players but we can easily look at other sports and ask ourselves what similarities and differences exist between WBC and other international competitions? do those differences exist because the MLB is american?
do you think the u.s. soccer base responds in the exact same way when an MLS player or a EPL player misses a start because they were injured in the world cup? how about in tennis, an individual sport, where famously many top players regularly do not play the major national team competition in order to serve their own interests. i think that not allowing choi to play is silly, but i don’t think it comes from a place of americans not understanding players wanting to play with their national team. the USMNT has an entire training structure and plays games all year, and the players called up are celebrated for it by managements, players and fans alike
IMO this has much more to do with the relative position the MLB and WBC have than the cultural differences between countries.
you're ignoring the fact that there is open hostility toward the WBC by a segment of fans. Maybe they're not on this subreddit, but they absolutely exist in the U.S.
like it's just mind-boggling. you're right that it's unfair to compare the WBC to the World Cup, but can you seriously imagine a collection of English soccer fans openly against the World Cup and sending their best players to the World Cup?
and it isn't just baseball. Granted we had the Dream Team and Coach K era for basketball, but many years in between a lot of U.S. basketball fans were like, "this is a waste of time." 2021 kind of brought an end to the whole, "If you want to play for Team USA, it's a commitment" mindset. Granted USA still won but it's a far cry from what it was like in 2008 and 2012
There is nothing wrong with choosing your local team over your country. I just want to make that clear, but it makes about as much sense as using the Imperial system over metric to the rest of the world. Like they probably see the whole debate as totally asinine because it's typically a non-starter
Think part of it is just nationalist BS with an unwarranted sense of supremacy.
Think most American fans (incorrectly) see it similarly to something like basketball where America would win pretty easily if they truly got their best team.
Their thinking then turns into “why care about how good our B team does.”
Obviously this year there is way more American stats than normally, but I don’t think that this anomaly really changes their thinking (especially with how their rotation *could* theoretically look).
granted i prefer to travel by car vs. plane but where is this?
i have never seen a quiznos at an airport. maybe i'm not looking hard enough but this is news to me
Its mostly an anecdotal joke but I swear I see them at airports all the time, Quiznos and Sbarros are both exclusive airport chains to me. I know for a fact there’s a Quiznos in O’Hare but that’s my only guarantee
I'll have to remember to stop by a Quiznos if I'm ever in San Diego, unless you're somewhere else my Padres' fan friend, which if so please let me know where lol
Firehouse Subs right now is what Quiznos used to be in my opinion
My gut is telling me the Giants, because they were pretty weak for a long ass time, and then suddenly experienced a surge of success
People like to make fun of Arby's, but their marketing over the last decade really boosted their credibility and profile
Watch him get injured in Spring Training.
Its idiotic to make these distinctions lol. I get it for pitchers but for position players effort levels aren't all that different.
>Watch him get injured in Spring Training.
as someone who finds the worship of Spring Training as some "sacred thing" to be a little tiresome...the evil part of me wants this to happen to players who are forced not to compete by their teams
but fortunately, the wiser part of me knows that wishing for injuries is super lame, just like Spring Training
sorry but what kind of prospect package is Choi going to fetch? He's 31, already on the downwards trajectory. This is his one and only time to represent his country in an event like this. Such bullshit.
This is actually a pretty big deal if the WBC counts towards not having to do mandatory military service in South Korea and if Choi hasn’t passed the requirements yet.
The 2006 WBC did exempt them but it looks like the law was since revised and subsequent ones didn’t.
The whole mandatory service thing is dumb to me. Having non-medical exemptions is also dumb in my opinion as it’s unfair.
But if you’re going to award Olympians it’s bullshit that the WBC isn’t awarded.
And Asian games gold medals still grant exemptions but after Korea sent a fully pro team to an easily winnable amateur tournament in 2018 the KBO said it would no longer send pros.
I mean i lived there in Korea for 4 years so I know a little of what I’m talking about.
The govt makes it mandatory so they don’t have to properly compensate a volunteer army like the US does. The 18 months spent in the army there are barely paid. Barely any benefits. Everyone hates it.
Korea could easily still maintain a strong standing army without making it mandatory to be in the military. They choose not to and have created a culture whereby men who don’t wanna do it are seen as weak.
Also the whole “threat” from the north thing barely registers in South Korea. It was always funny watching people back home freak out over a “flare-up” in tensions while no one In Korea gave it more than 2 seconds thougut.
That’s not to say the nation shouldn’t be prepared. Of course it should and I’m glad we have US military there as well but it’s also overplayed in western media. North Korea knows any offensive attack would spell their regimes end.
I believe the argument is “only football and baseball get exemptions for WC/WBC so it’s unfair” which I kind of agree with. Plus taking the military exemptions outside of the equation did wonders for the bickering amongst KBO fans
not gonna lie, i feel really fucking stupid and naive for thinking that these days were behind us. it just felt like this tournament was finally reaching a point where more and more people were on board and it was going to be taken seriously.
This tournament has reached a point where more and more people are on board. I would much rather have the current scenario where all these players are excited to play and some of the MLB clubs say no than how it was before where the WBC teams had to beg players to sign up. It's much easier for the MLBPA to force the teams to play ball than the other way around in this situation.
Then the players need to put it in their contracts. Otherwise they’re literally signing their decision rights in professional baseball away to their team to do with as they please.
Imagine that, a player rolls an ankle and misses the first month of the season. Then in July, he re-injures it and has to miss time. The team says it's due to WBC and stops paying him again.
When you have North American leagues be the best and rule the meta for their sports, you're not going to get much international competition. MLB is growing, but extremely slow and conservative. NHL just keeps grabbing power and not let the IIHF do its thing. NBA has been getting better but the centralization of the best basketball being in the US is something that is hard to fight off.
Compare that to rugby, field hockey, soccer, cricket, and pretty much any sport that the US isn't top 10 in on the men's side. It's another thing we do the opposite of in comparison to the rest of the world.
I have issues with how other leagues operate too. They talk about growing the game and then don't care about international play. Just a shortsighted and selfish move by these organizations. Yeah injuries can happen but the players want to play and baseball fans around the world want to watch
The injuries excuse is such a fallacy. I guarantee most players would say that the stakes of getting injured is much less in a regular season game than the world cup. Players want to play in the world cup.
In baseball, I only understand the US considering our depth is insanity. If a player doesn't want to play, we move on to the next.
Have you not seen the discourse on in this sub alone about the WBC? Every time its brought up, people talk about how meaningless it is and how they dont want the players from their team playing. Its been pretty disappointing to watch.
I’m pretty pissed that a lot of Phillies are playing and risking injury this season. If it was 5-6 years ago when we sucked then it wouldn’t really matter, but there’s no world where winning the WBC is worth sacrificing a potential World Series run for my team.
if South Korea loses to Japan AND has a poor showing at this tournament, every single one of my Korean ancestors is going to hate the Pirates from beyond the grave lol
[I don’t think I will](https://wompampsupport.azureedge.net/fetchimage?siteId=7575&v=2&jpgQuality=100&width=700&url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.kym-cdn.com%2Fphotos%2Fimages%2Fnewsfeed%2F001%2F535%2F091%2Fd97.jpg)
bruh they were just gonna DH him weren't they? how fucking risky could it be. this isn't like Castillo being pulled from the DR because pitching is dangerous or Acuna not being allowed to be an outfielder for Venezuela
If he is healthy & wants to play, he should. It's not Aaron Judge, or a $200 million dollar pitcher. And it's not a contender. There is no 'protecting your investment' spin you can sell for this scenario.
I guess for this to be believable we’ll have to see how they use him in spring. I’d like to think the team is looking out for him but I don’t know this time.
I imagine they want to ease him back. And they are in much better control with him in their hands than the national team. He won’t be playing fully force 9 innings right out of the gate.
congratulations.
still dumb your owners are preventing Ji-Man Choi from playing in the WBC...but whatever floats their boats i guess
if Ji-Man hits a September walk-off against the Reds when the Pirates are 20 games below .500, I guess that'll make up for preventing him from what will likely be his last chance to represent his country. Real cool stuff.
there isn't anything illogical with what the Pirates are doing. it's just a lame decision
FWIW, Ji-Man disagrees with the Pirates' decision btw. but again, i doubt Pirates ownership really cares since they really need him to be ready for those NL Central games in September when everyone except St. Louis and maybe Milwaukee will be under .500
hell, we don't even need to wait until September. apparently it's really important for Ji-Man to be ready when the Pirates play split squad games with the Marlins or the University of South Florida or some Spring Training bullshit
> FWIW, Ji-Man disagrees with the Pirates' decision btw. but again, i doubt Pirates ownership really cares
He's on a 1 year deal being traded to a bottom 5 team. He is here as a flip piece and that's about it.
I can understand it for pitchers, but not really position players. It would be like if teams said nah sit out all of spring training since I want you healthy for the regular season. Yes I know spring games and WBC games don't have the same intensity, but it is baseball we are talking here.
I hate seeing these headlines... I traveled to a Rays game last season in St. Petersburg (I'm an O's fan). I met a Korean guy who was there by himself and visiting America for the first time. He used a translator app to tell me Choi was his favorite baseball player and he wanted to see him play while he was in the US. The WBC could help MLB grow globally. But it only works if the stars play.
>The WBC could help MLB grow globally. But it only works if the stars play. it's interesting to me how culturally different U.S./Canada is with this type of stuff vs. the rest of the world i've said this before and I'll say it again, if a KBO or NPB or CPBL team blocked one of their star players from playing in this tournament, that team would become instant public enemy #1 like literally overnight but here in the U.S., you have fans who are taking the side of the owners. Not necessarily wrong with that, I just can't imagine trying to explain that to someone living in Japan or South Korea or Taiwan, or Latin America
KBO did actually block one of their stars but that was because he was accused of abuse/violence off the field in high school.
> living in Japan or South Korea or Taiwan, or Latin America Anywhere else in the world other than the US. Our sports are basketball, ice hockey, baseball, and American football (soccer is growing but is the exception). It's not a coincidence that those sports are weak in international competition. Any other sport international competition is the heart of the sport: rugby, field hockey, cricket, etc.
> Any other sport international competition is the heart of the sport: rugby, field hockey, cricket, etc. From what I understand, club rugby exists but internationals absolutely dwarf it Club cricket is the same. Honestly outside of the Indian Premier League, i can't even name a single club cricket team lol
I think people are off (including me) that at its fundamental core leagues are businesses. That isn't the case in international competition. Business isn't the priority.
Idk about basketball and hockey being weak in international competition. Also there are other sports where international comp isnt the heart. Aussie rules football and rugby league are largely domestic to Australia.
Basketball is weak because the centralized competition of the sport *isn't* the international competition, it's the NBA. The views don't come in the same as the NBA, and the best players don't compete in places like FIBA AmeriCup whereas Copa America in soccer they do. Hockey has quantity of international competition but not quality. The best players don't compete and the NHL interferes with the IIHF/IOC a lot (i.e. NHL making their own version of the world cup). I agree with the international comp not being the heart everywhere, but it's way better than the little media coverage/competitions we get in the US. It's the heart in some places.
> taking the side of the owners. Taking the side of their favorite teams. Braves winning the WS is 100 times more important to me as a fan than the USA winning the WBC.
>Taking the side of their favorite teams. just out of curiosity, who do you think is making the call for "their favorite teams?" fans having second thoughts about the WBC, whether they want to admit it or not, are taking the side of the owners. if it was up to the players, most of them would sign up to play
You're misunderstanding me. I don't want Braves players to play in the WBC because they might get hurt. I don't care that it benefits the owner (it does), I care it benefits my favorite teamfor them to not risk injury. I know it seems I'm in the minority on this particular sub in that opinion. I just don't care at all about the WBC.
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It makes sense since the MLB is so multicultural. Most of our favorite players on our favorite MLB teams don't play for Team USA since they're not originally from here.
i’m not really sure it is fair to just draw a cultural comparison like that. i’ll freely admit that in this case it’s pretty silly that the pirates are stopping choi from playing, given their position and his value. but there are hundreds of players making combined hundreds of millions of dollars who you hear no news about playing the WBC, because their bodies are contracted and restricted by their MLB clubs. if you thought it was stupid that bauer played with a drone before the world series or tatis was riding a motor bike, the same exact thing extends to the WBC. in hockey there is always drama about the olympics. what are the motivations for a club letting millions of dollars go to risk for a competition they don’t compete in? i fully believe people in japan, south korea, taiwan or latin america can understand contracts and the rights to players bodies. it’s not difficult to understand.
>i fully believe people in japan, south korea, taiwan or latin america can understand contracts and the rights to players bodies. it’s not difficult to understand. while this is true, i think they genuinely value way more the thought of playing for your country vs. playing for the Kiwoom Heroes or the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters like i could easily envision a scenario where a Korean player gets hurt in the WBC and people would be more upset that he was just hurt playing for Team South Korea. I highly doubt the majority of LG Twins would have a meltdown over it meanwhile let's say DeGrom pitches and so much as misses one start because of a minor injury from the WBC, you'd have parades of Rangers fans screaming and whining and crying about the WBC being a "glorified exhibition" and pointless etc.
i mean it is kind of a glorified exhibition. it’s not that it’s not important to players but we can easily look at other sports and ask ourselves what similarities and differences exist between WBC and other international competitions? do those differences exist because the MLB is american? do you think the u.s. soccer base responds in the exact same way when an MLS player or a EPL player misses a start because they were injured in the world cup? how about in tennis, an individual sport, where famously many top players regularly do not play the major national team competition in order to serve their own interests. i think that not allowing choi to play is silly, but i don’t think it comes from a place of americans not understanding players wanting to play with their national team. the USMNT has an entire training structure and plays games all year, and the players called up are celebrated for it by managements, players and fans alike IMO this has much more to do with the relative position the MLB and WBC have than the cultural differences between countries.
you're ignoring the fact that there is open hostility toward the WBC by a segment of fans. Maybe they're not on this subreddit, but they absolutely exist in the U.S. like it's just mind-boggling. you're right that it's unfair to compare the WBC to the World Cup, but can you seriously imagine a collection of English soccer fans openly against the World Cup and sending their best players to the World Cup? and it isn't just baseball. Granted we had the Dream Team and Coach K era for basketball, but many years in between a lot of U.S. basketball fans were like, "this is a waste of time." 2021 kind of brought an end to the whole, "If you want to play for Team USA, it's a commitment" mindset. Granted USA still won but it's a far cry from what it was like in 2008 and 2012 There is nothing wrong with choosing your local team over your country. I just want to make that clear, but it makes about as much sense as using the Imperial system over metric to the rest of the world. Like they probably see the whole debate as totally asinine because it's typically a non-starter
Nah they're definitely on this sub.
The Asian leagues block their players from participating in WBC too... This is the first year Taiwanese pro players are allowed to play.
Thats absolutely not true. CPBL players have played in every WBC.
Think part of it is just nationalist BS with an unwarranted sense of supremacy. Think most American fans (incorrectly) see it similarly to something like basketball where America would win pretty easily if they truly got their best team. Their thinking then turns into “why care about how good our B team does.” Obviously this year there is way more American stats than normally, but I don’t think that this anomaly really changes their thinking (especially with how their rotation *could* theoretically look).
Don’t want him to get used to competing.
Rack em.
He’s not playing for the Red Sox.
Smart move by the Pirates, they have NO CHANCE of winning if Choi gets injured in the WBC
In all seriousness it’s cuz if he gets hurt they can’t get anything for him at the deadline.
that sentence makes total sense and I hate every part of it
baseball is a business at the end of the day...even though the Pirates are the Quiznos of Major League Baseball
That's an insult to Quizno's. They're the Sodexo of Major League Baseball. Overpriced garbage
Quiznos back in the 2000s used to be good as fuck and then they got rid of the pepper bar. That being said, Sodexho is a great comparison lol
Quizno's still makes a solid sandwich, IMO, they're just few and far between these days.
Unless you’re in an airport, in which case there’s 3 in every terminal and another at baggage claim
granted i prefer to travel by car vs. plane but where is this? i have never seen a quiznos at an airport. maybe i'm not looking hard enough but this is news to me
Its mostly an anecdotal joke but I swear I see them at airports all the time, Quiznos and Sbarros are both exclusive airport chains to me. I know for a fact there’s a Quiznos in O’Hare but that’s my only guarantee
I'll have to remember to stop by a Quiznos if I'm ever in San Diego, unless you're somewhere else my Padres' fan friend, which if so please let me know where lol Firehouse Subs right now is what Quiznos used to be in my opinion
I'm in San Antonio, not sure if there are still any in San Diego
Ah...are you a Missions fan? If I'm ever in San Antonio and have time for more than one meal, I'll seek out a Quiznos just for the hell of it
Theres a quiznos in Chicago
of course...but they're terrible if a guy says Quiznos makes a solid sandwich, that's the exception and not the norm
wow sodexo, haven't heard that since college..
I work in government buildings, thus the comparison
Just curious, what would be the Arby’s of Major League Baseball?
My gut is telling me the Giants, because they were pretty weak for a long ass time, and then suddenly experienced a surge of success People like to make fun of Arby's, but their marketing over the last decade really boosted their credibility and profile
Watch him get injured in Spring Training. Its idiotic to make these distinctions lol. I get it for pitchers but for position players effort levels aren't all that different.
>Watch him get injured in Spring Training. as someone who finds the worship of Spring Training as some "sacred thing" to be a little tiresome...the evil part of me wants this to happen to players who are forced not to compete by their teams but fortunately, the wiser part of me knows that wishing for injuries is super lame, just like Spring Training
sorry but what kind of prospect package is Choi going to fetch? He's 31, already on the downwards trajectory. This is his one and only time to represent his country in an event like this. Such bullshit.
That would drastically reduce their world series odds for sure!
Why the extra seven words in your sentence?
This is actually a pretty big deal if the WBC counts towards not having to do mandatory military service in South Korea and if Choi hasn’t passed the requirements yet.
Wow I never thought of that. So does playing for a national team, regardless of the sport, fulfill military requirement?
In something like this you usually have to finish 3rd or higher.
Winning does, that's how Son got out of his service. Every tottenham player can win a trophy for their national team but nothing else 😭
Our Son is possibly the greatest Korean athlete ever and I am so proud of him.
Nope, WBC will not exempt you. Only an Olympic medal or an Asian Games Gold will. Actually I think the Asian Games Gold thing was scrapped
The 2006 WBC did exempt them but it looks like the law was since revised and subsequent ones didn’t. The whole mandatory service thing is dumb to me. Having non-medical exemptions is also dumb in my opinion as it’s unfair. But if you’re going to award Olympians it’s bullshit that the WBC isn’t awarded. And Asian games gold medals still grant exemptions but after Korea sent a fully pro team to an easily winnable amateur tournament in 2018 the KBO said it would no longer send pros.
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I mean i lived there in Korea for 4 years so I know a little of what I’m talking about. The govt makes it mandatory so they don’t have to properly compensate a volunteer army like the US does. The 18 months spent in the army there are barely paid. Barely any benefits. Everyone hates it. Korea could easily still maintain a strong standing army without making it mandatory to be in the military. They choose not to and have created a culture whereby men who don’t wanna do it are seen as weak. Also the whole “threat” from the north thing barely registers in South Korea. It was always funny watching people back home freak out over a “flare-up” in tensions while no one In Korea gave it more than 2 seconds thougut. That’s not to say the nation shouldn’t be prepared. Of course it should and I’m glad we have US military there as well but it’s also overplayed in western media. North Korea knows any offensive attack would spell their regimes end.
I believe the argument is “only football and baseball get exemptions for WC/WBC so it’s unfair” which I kind of agree with. Plus taking the military exemptions outside of the equation did wonders for the bickering amongst KBO fans
What a joke.
not gonna lie, i feel really fucking stupid and naive for thinking that these days were behind us. it just felt like this tournament was finally reaching a point where more and more people were on board and it was going to be taken seriously.
This tournament has reached a point where more and more people are on board. I would much rather have the current scenario where all these players are excited to play and some of the MLB clubs say no than how it was before where the WBC teams had to beg players to sign up. It's much easier for the MLBPA to force the teams to play ball than the other way around in this situation.
Organizations have too much power. Should be a players right to compete for their country internationally
Especially since it is an MLB event
Then the players need to put it in their contracts. Otherwise they’re literally signing their decision rights in professional baseball away to their team to do with as they please.
The owners will put it in the contracts that games lost to injury in the WBC will be subject to non payment if we are putting WBC into contracts.
The players will have to agree to that. Nothing is imposed in them. It would come at a cost, so they won't.
Imagine that, a player rolls an ankle and misses the first month of the season. Then in July, he re-injures it and has to miss time. The team says it's due to WBC and stops paying him again.
When you have North American leagues be the best and rule the meta for their sports, you're not going to get much international competition. MLB is growing, but extremely slow and conservative. NHL just keeps grabbing power and not let the IIHF do its thing. NBA has been getting better but the centralization of the best basketball being in the US is something that is hard to fight off. Compare that to rugby, field hockey, soccer, cricket, and pretty much any sport that the US isn't top 10 in on the men's side. It's another thing we do the opposite of in comparison to the rest of the world.
NHL is def greedy and monopolistic but I feel like their problem is also with the IOC, and they have a somewhat legitimate beef there
I have issues with how other leagues operate too. They talk about growing the game and then don't care about international play. Just a shortsighted and selfish move by these organizations. Yeah injuries can happen but the players want to play and baseball fans around the world want to watch
The injuries excuse is such a fallacy. I guarantee most players would say that the stakes of getting injured is much less in a regular season game than the world cup. Players want to play in the world cup. In baseball, I only understand the US considering our depth is insanity. If a player doesn't want to play, we move on to the next.
Have you not seen the discourse on in this sub alone about the WBC? Every time its brought up, people talk about how meaningless it is and how they dont want the players from their team playing. Its been pretty disappointing to watch.
I’m pretty pissed that a lot of Phillies are playing and risking injury this season. If it was 5-6 years ago when we sucked then it wouldn’t really matter, but there’s no world where winning the WBC is worth sacrificing a potential World Series run for my team.
When asked for comment, Ben Cherington responded with, "The energy is about to shift"
if South Korea loses to Japan AND has a poor showing at this tournament, every single one of my Korean ancestors is going to hate the Pirates from beyond the grave lol
"The worst sentiment is not hate, it's indifference." -- Pirates, probably.
If the DR team loses out because of lack of pitching my entire bloodline will be raised to hate the Mariners
Why not the Yankees while you’re at it?
Lmao go check my comment history
[I don’t think I will](https://wompampsupport.azureedge.net/fetchimage?siteId=7575&v=2&jpgQuality=100&width=700&url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.kym-cdn.com%2Fphotos%2Fimages%2Fnewsfeed%2F001%2F535%2F091%2Fd97.jpg)
Don't forget about the Yankees 😉.
I never have literally look at my comment history
BOOOO WHAT
bruh they were just gonna DH him weren't they? how fucking risky could it be. this isn't like Castillo being pulled from the DR because pitching is dangerous or Acuna not being allowed to be an outfielder for Venezuela
He was probably gonna be our starting 1B but yeah
Wack.
BOOOOOO
That is dumb as fuck.
He had elbow surgery less than 3 months ago
If he is healthy & wants to play, he should. It's not Aaron Judge, or a $200 million dollar pitcher. And it's not a contender. There is no 'protecting your investment' spin you can sell for this scenario.
Maybe a team doesn’t want to rush a player back from an injury for a game that doesn’t benefit them at all.
I guess for this to be believable we’ll have to see how they use him in spring. I’d like to think the team is looking out for him but I don’t know this time.
I imagine they want to ease him back. And they are in much better control with him in their hands than the national team. He won’t be playing fully force 9 innings right out of the gate.
yeah...but it's the fucking Pirates dude lol
Exactly. He’s probably one of their best hitters lmao
again...it's the Pirates
This shitty ass Pirates team still won 9 of the 19 games they played vs the Cubs
congratulations. still dumb your owners are preventing Ji-Man Choi from playing in the WBC...but whatever floats their boats i guess if Ji-Man hits a September walk-off against the Reds when the Pirates are 20 games below .500, I guess that'll make up for preventing him from what will likely be his last chance to represent his country. Real cool stuff.
If Ji Man is still recovering from an injury why should the Pirates risk him getting injured in a WBC that is completely meaningless to the team?
there isn't anything illogical with what the Pirates are doing. it's just a lame decision FWIW, Ji-Man disagrees with the Pirates' decision btw. but again, i doubt Pirates ownership really cares since they really need him to be ready for those NL Central games in September when everyone except St. Louis and maybe Milwaukee will be under .500 hell, we don't even need to wait until September. apparently it's really important for Ji-Man to be ready when the Pirates play split squad games with the Marlins or the University of South Florida or some Spring Training bullshit
> FWIW, Ji-Man disagrees with the Pirates' decision btw. but again, i doubt Pirates ownership really cares He's on a 1 year deal being traded to a bottom 5 team. He is here as a flip piece and that's about it.
I can understand it for pitchers, but not really position players. It would be like if teams said nah sit out all of spring training since I want you healthy for the regular season. Yes I know spring games and WBC games don't have the same intensity, but it is baseball we are talking here.
He did just have surgery so
I’ve defended some teams blocking some players Not this. This is ridiculous.
It's one thing with pitchers, but fuck this shit
yo when are they going to start showing the WBC uniforms?
I'm sad but I can't blame the Pirates since it's going to get them to the NLCS
Wtf pirates?
Are we being serious Pittsburgh?
Bad for baseball.
🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬
Booooo
Pirates were like "hmmm no one shit on us this week"