Italy’s major upset now has USA holding their WBC breath, Dominican Republic & Venezuela set for showdown

On this episode of baseball barbacast, we do our best to not miss speak team USA losing in

dramatic fashion in team Italy. A lot of controversy around comments from manager mark de rosa knowing

or not knowing the stakes. Who knew I don't know. Did he know? We'll also preview dr venizuela that

game taking place later today. And then a little bit of chatter about hunter green and haiscus

lasardo on the way out the door. It is baseball barbacast. I'm George instrument and I'm Jake

mints. And uh, where's the baseball barbacast? You already know that now Jordan and I cover the game

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first purchase download the game time app today. Hello and welcome to baseball barbacast,

only baseball podcast in the world 100% sure that its ticket has been punched to the WBC quarter

finals. I'm Jake Mints. That's Jordan Schusterman and I'm going to be there at Lone Depot this weekend.

No matter how the run quotient plays out. Oh my goodness, my friend. We had a feeling

that Mark Derosa was going to be a main character of this tournament. But not like this,

Jake Mints. Not like this and that is our opener.

One of the biggest upsets in world baseball classic history, Italy, eight, USA, six.

But this game and the conversation swirling around it was about a whole lot more than the final

score. There are a million directions to go. We will talk about Mark Derosa's

misspeaking, miscalculating. We will, however, begin by giving Italy their well earned due.

Yeah, and there is, it is kind of a shame that we can't just talk about how awesome of a baseball

game this is because it was an awesome baseball game. Italy jumps out to an early lead.

We got Nolan McLean on the bump for Team USA, Michael Lorenzen. I'll start right there.

When we preview this pool, I said, you know what? I actually don't love Michael Lorenzen on the

bump against Team USA because all these guys have faced Michael Lorenzen. I feel like there might

be an advantage to have to throw someone out there a little bit more novel that these guys hadn't

seen before. And yet, what I did not give Michael Lorenzen enough credit for. And I mean, I had

this thought. But again, I was just down, you know, downplaying his, his, where he's at in his

career and how good of a pitcher he is, which is that Michael Lorenzen was not going to be scared

because Michael Lorenzen has been in the major leagues for a long time. And so he had a game plan

and he went out and executed it. And he only allows two hits, no runs, one walk, two strikeouts,

pitches, almost five complete innings. But Italy gets on the board early with the

Homer from Kyle Teal and another home run from Sam Antonacci. As we've mentioned, as we've

talked about Italy, both going into the tournament and, you know, so far, this lineup is basically

Vinnie Pasquantino and a bunch of young guys who are talented and exciting, but haven't really

proven themselves yet in the major leagues. Some of them we've seen in the majors like Cags and

Jacob Marcy. And yes, we do have a better and at the top like John Birdie. Yeah, CanZone,

who's had some success in the majors. But the Kyle Teals and Sam Antonacci used yet to make his

debut in Dante Nori, who's like still in A-Ball. Like, these are not players. These are talented

players. These are prospects. These are players that will likely be major leagueers. But these are

not established guys. And the fact that these guys, these younger guys at the bottom of the lineup

have been doing the damage while Vinnie, I believe, still does not have a hit in this tournament. And

the top of the order in this game goes over 22, over 22, the top five hitters in this lineup.

And it does not matter because they get the homeruns when they need them. As I mentioned to you,

they get Antonacci. And then Jack Caglione delivers the big blow that puts Italy up eight to nothing

in the top of the sixth inning. And at this point is when we start to have the understanding of

like, oh, hold on a second. If USA loses, they're not advancing. And we'll get to Derossa and

everything. But as we're all figuring that out, USA is like, hold on a second. We're still

team USA, like we can score runs against the team Italy bullpen. And that is starts to what

what happens. And even as Italy is building this lead, the energy of watching this game was so

interesting because it did feel like they just needed to pop a balloon. Like, there was like a

dam of tension. And once the lineup got rolling, there was just too much quality for them to get

shut out, right? That seemed somewhat impossible. And so then USA starts tacking on. We get a

homer from PCA. We get a homer from Gunner Henderson and runs start to tally on the board. And then we

enter the ninth inning with the score eight to five. PCA adds a solo shot, trim the lead down to

eight to six. Get a base runner with one out for for Bryce Harper and then Aaron Judge.

Or no, that's not right. It wasn't Bryce. Yeah. It was gone. I was going to say we was gunner in

the two. You skip you skip past. We got to go back to the eighth because in the eighth inning,

it is fast. That was Bryce. This is this is when stuff really starts getting interesting because

PCA's first homer cuts the so Gunner gets them on the board with the first home run in the sixth

inning. Now it's eight to one. PCA's homer gets them on the board in the seventh. Now it's eight to

four. In the bottom of the eighth Matt Festa comes in and gets the first two outs. So two outs

right away. Yeah. I just want to say I'm sorry. I misspoke. Just now you misread the game log.

I misspoke. That's all. Sorry. Keep going.

Two outs. Matt Festa gets two outs. And at this point, it's eight to four and Italy is four

outs away with nobody on base from beating Team USA. Rather comfortable. Instead, we get a

shorter single. We get a Will Smith single. We get a Roman Anthony single who betrayed Team Italy

despite Vinnie Pasquantino's recruiting efforts. He said, no, I will play for Team USA. Oh,

I'll not play for Team Italy. We can kind of, we can kind of foolish now Roman Anthony. And then

runners on first and third. Here comes Bryce Harper. And Bryce Harper does not start this game

because Bryce Harper, I guess, I'm not really sure why Bryce Harper didn't start this game.

We'll talk about Mark Dorosa's managerial decisions in a little bit. But

I'll go to pick out the start in that first base. So here comes Bryce Harper, the natural

candidate to pinch hit against a new pitcher, Ron Marinaccio, who's coming in. And this is the spot.

This is what Bryce wants. I know he said it's not that big of a deal because it's not the Olympics.

But this is a pretty big deal. This is not the spot. He's not the spot. He wants that he wants

this in the Olympics. He wants to be playing, you know, you know, Belarus in LA in 2028 while there's

you know, track and field going on next door and archery down the block. That's what Bryce wants.

He doesn't want this. And that was the problem. Perhaps that is why he flew out

to the end of the inning. It was, I will say, heck of an at bat from both pitcher and hitter here.

But the execution on this change up Harper pops out to center as the last out of the eighth and as,

you know, the tying run. And it's like, man, okay, but because your team USA and your lineup is your

lineup, you got other good players that are going to come up still. And so it's not like, all right,

well, they're toast because now they're within three. And if they can just turn the line above or

we can get back to some of the best players in the world, right? Mason Miller comes out, goes one,

two, three in the top of the ninth. Bryce Terang leads up the ninth grounds out. And then PCA

goes yard again. Now the weird thing about the start of this inning is that we assumed that Greg

Weissert essentially now the Italian closer and a very good reliever for the Boston Red Sox.

It made all the sense of the whole that he would come in and hashtag on his mom's side.

hashtag on his mom's side. Okay. There are two there's Marnacio and Caglione who passed Quintino

on this team. And then you got the hashtag on his mom's side. Sorry, continue. Greg Weissert is

on his mom's side. Well, well described. But Greg Weissert is very good. And it was like, okay,

well, he should just clearly to come in for the ninth, right? Maybe he's not going to have a four-out

save. But he's coming for that. But he doesn't. Marnacio comes back out. It's like, oh my god,

Marnacio four-out save. Like, what is going on here? Maybe the plan was to always go to Weissert

for the top of the order. Either way, PCA goes yard again. Now let's say six Italy. Now Weissert comes

in with two more outs to get. And Bobby Whit hits the single because Bobby Whit is really good at

baseball. And now here we are. Here comes Gunnar Henderson and Aaron Judge. And it doesn't matter

because Greg Weissert locks it down with two of the gnarliest changeups you will see. Weissert

really known more for his sweeper in terms of the pitch that it's like when you watch Greg Weissert,

it's like, oh man, look at that pitch move. Again, the pitch execution here was spectacular. And

you need someone like Greg Weissert who is a good major league reliever who is pitched in high

leverage against some of the best shooters in the world, including Aaron Judge to come out there

and not P.S. Pants and absolutely slammed the door on one of the greatest victories in,

obviously, Italian baseball history and to send all of us into a state of chaos that we will,

of course, get into. But the baseball game itself was truly outstanding. And Italy's efforts

across the board, despite their over 22 atop the order, was remarkable. There were some great

defense. They made the pitches they need to make. They hit the homers when they needed them. And

man, oh man, what a win for team Italy and Francisco Survelli,

type of the cap to a manager who despite that strange Weissert decision seems to know what he's

doing mostly and is certainly an interesting contrast to Mr. Derosa who we will now reintroduce

as a main character. For the world, for the baseballing world to get on this stage, the wonderful

delight that is Vinnie Pasquantino in all of its forms and its full, multi-colored beauty.

Vinnie is one of one. He is a gem. And it is just so funny that Italy pulled this off with him

being absolute ass at the plate. At the plate, but we have to give him some credit for his defense,

which Vinnie and his very funny post-game interview with the MLB social group.

They asked him about them doing the splits and having some pretty impressive stretches.

Vinnie was like, yeah, you know, royals fans, they know about that, but that's on regional TV.

So this is the first time that people have seen my two national TV.

Walking down the tunnel to the clubhouse after the game, there's a clip of Vinnie screaming,

where's the effing wine? Just he understands the assignment. He gets the bit and he is

having a good time, which is not something that you can say about Team USA. I think what I'd like to do

here is handicap and highlight the situation for tonight for this Mexico Italy game. Take a break,

come back and laugh and explain what is going on with Marc de Rosa. Does that drive with you?

Yes. So because Team USA lost this game, they are not guaranteed a spot in the quarterfinals.

They have not punched their ticket through Miami. What is going to happen tonight? Mexico and Italy

will face off at Diking Park. Because the tiebreaker rules involve essentially runs allowed,

what happens in this game, not just the results of this game, but particularly the score of this game

is very important. If Italy wins again, Team USA is fine because in that scenario, Italy finishes the

pool undefeated. They win pool B, oh my goodness, cheers to them. And then USA and Mexico would have

the same record at three and one, at which point, or no, then Mexico just is two and two. And then

they're just out. Excused two and two. They're done. So if Italy wins, then USA is three and one,

they advance and run around. However, if Italy wins or sorry, Mexico wins and they score four runs or

fewer, that means the Team USA is eliminated on a tiebreaker. Because if Mexico wins the game,

all three of these teams will be three and one. And because the tiebreaker is essentially runs

allowed, I believe, divided by defensive outs recorded, Team USA, because they gave up all these

runs to Italy, in addition to giving up the even a few runs, if Mexico and Italy can play a

low scoring game that keeps both teams runs allowed totals low enough, that means that USA will have

the worst number in that mark and thus not advance on the tiebreaker and thus not make it out of

the pool play pool play and thus not even make it halfway to their stated goal of we got seven games

to win. Well, folks, if they don't advance here, we're going to have some tough conversations about

a lot of things involved, even acknowledging the small sample of chaos that this tournament presents.

There's so much going on here, but those are the sticks. Yeah, I want to hop in on that. And also

on the broadcast, they keep bringing up like, oh, well, you know, it's a small sample. You don't

want to overreact to too much in a couple of games. That's the tournament. That's the exercise.

This is our baseball brains. And like, we're guilty of this too, is like, we're just used to the 162

game sample. We're used to a seven game five game series where more often than not the quality

wins out. But that is not this, that is not what we're doing here. We're doing a different thing.

This is a different song. It is a different dance. And now soccer people are more used to this in the

world cup cycle where like, you know, you just have a couple bad days and then your manager gets fired

and you have to deal with four years of discourse. Well, guess what? This is what we're signing up for.

If you want this tournament to have real sauce and boy does it ever have real sauce this morning,

then the small sample size is just part of the equation. And that's what makes it great because

it would have by least favorite things about baseball is that like over the like small sample size

eventually moves back to equilibrium. And we just like have fewer extremes in a statistical,

say, you know, like into the numbers. That's not the case here. Like whoever wins the MVP of this

tournament might hit like 550, right? And that's hilarious. And that's great. And that's interesting.

And so I enjoy the lack of sample size going on in the WBC.

If you are a team USA fan, let's just lay this out very simple. You are watching this Italy,

Mexico game tonight. You are rooting for two very simple things for Mexico to score five runs

or for Italy to win. If this game is low scoring all the way to the end, you better hope Italy's

on top because the fact that team USA is going to have to watch this. I don't know if they were

already playing their flying to Miami. They should have some beers or what that will get to that.

I don't know exactly how sure they were that they were going to advance. I would love if they

just go to the game. They should just go to the game. Sit in the stands. Go cheer on.

Like a football tournament. Go put on your Kyle Teal jerseys and cheer them on even though they

just embarrassed you the night before. And I think it's also a really interesting spot for

Italy and Mexico because now they're not going to, you know, bend your heel after losing to USA the

night before. By the way, Team USA did beat Team Mexico over the first time in a while. And that

was something that we thought we were going to talk about on this podcast being like,

oh, look at USA. Good game. Paul Schienz was great. Bobby was great. And, you know, so and so,

whatever. Garrett Whitlock, wow, put respect on his name. No, because now there's a situation

where I know Benji heels like we would love to play USA again. How much would you love to play USA

again? Because if you just go ahead and win this game, you won't even have to. No one even

be your problem. But also only score only score four runs. We will see how this goes. But

there's a lot more to this because the situation itself was is is uh concerning enough for the state

of USA baseball. However, it is so much more than that. We're going to take a break when we return.

We will try and not misspeak. Now, you know, you can't draft in fantasy. Mark Derosa.

But you could draft basically anybody else on Team USA or Team Italy. And Fantasy Baseball

season is almost here. You should do it with us over at Yahoo Sports. Draft with your pals or

join a public league on Yahoo Fantasy. Sign up at the Yahoo Fantasy app or Yahoo Fantasy.com

Backslash Baseball. It is a great way to get the juices flowing as opening day.

And welcome back to Baseball Barba cast. Let's get to the thing that you want to hear us talk about.

It was not that team USA lost last night. As we mentioned earlier, anything can happen in a nine

in example. The issue, the problem, the reason that this is going to be bigger than the game,

is how and why USA lost. A video of USA manager Mark Derosa began circulating on the

internet machine in the middle of this game. Derosa, who for his day job, is a host on MLB Network.

He's been there for a long time. We have been on that show in the past. And like every other media

person today, I will say, I like talking to D-RO. I don't know him very well, certainly not as well

as some other people. But I like talking to him. He's a fun conversation to have. And I think

generally his breakdowns for the largest screen in America are good and insightful.

But on hot stove on Tuesday morning when discussing team USA situation, Derosa said that he and

team USA had, quote, punched their ticket to the quarter finals. And as that video began

flowing around the web, the connection between that and USA's substandard performance was too

impossible to ignore. I am amused by the phrasing that you use there. Not to not to, I just think

it's funny. I miss video was circulating. Well, right. A video was circulating as if like someone

caught Mark Derosa telling his friend in the hotel, like, yeah, we're clenched. Like, yeah,

we're chilling and I don't worry about this. He's on on a major league baseball network,

which he is very familiar with being home game, home game for him. I just want to say the quote,

can I just say the quote, like word for word just so I don't, you know, please quote, we want to win

this game, even though our ticket is punched to the quarter finals, he then used that like off of that

mentioned that he was going to be making some managerial changes that Paul Goldschmidt would be

in there for Bryce Harper, that Alex Breggman wanted to be playing Gunnar Henderson in at third

base or any Clement and it's second no Bryce to rang. And the context there is wild because then

it raises the question, and this is the whole thing, right? Did Mark Derosa and Team USA know

that they were not through to the quarter finals? And if so, when did they learn that?

Did they build the lineup and the pitching plan thinking that they had already gone through?

Yeah, so I actually want to pause it at this part of the question because this is something

where I'm not going to defend them, but I do think that this focusing on the specific line of

construction in this game and even the pitching to a degree, although I think that's a little bit less

defensible. Whoever they were going to send out there or not, it's more about whether they knew or

not, because this team is still way better than Team Italy. You can say, oh, but they didn't

have Harper in there. Oh, but they didn't have to rang in there. Oh, they totally ran Yarburo.

Like, I don't care. Okay. Your team USA, you have put together the best roster you ever had,

and even if you're only at 80% of your best, whatever, whether you were doing that on purpose

because you thought you were through, whether you were doing that on purpose because you thought

you could beat Italy that way. I don't care. And that's what goes back to the game recap of which we

gave, which is also gets to what Mark D'Rosa said after the game in addition to his trying to clarify,

which he didn't really clarify, which is that he kept saying we had the right guys up in the right

spot. Aaron Judge, Bryce Harper opposite time runs. They didn't come through. Brian Yarburo is a

good majorly pitcher. Is he the best option in that spot to stay in and allow a home runs Jack

Haggley on? Probably not. You can give D'Rosa some some some crap about that. The fact that Clayton

Kershaw was warming up, which D'Rosa admits later on was essentially because they had no

pitchers left. And guess what? That's important because every run you allow in a tiebreaker scenario

is incredibly important. I know this didn't matter, but if Clay Kershaw had come in and allowed

run or two or three or four, this game tonight would be even more treacherous because of what the

tiebreaker situation would be. And so and the whole thing would be even more embarrassing. They

dodged a bullet with the Kershaw thing. Like we were a little iffy about him being on the roster.

It has been celebrated as what an honor. But this career achievement award almost came back to bite

Team USA in the ass. Hey, why was Kershaw warming? He was the only guy we had left. Well, maybe you

should have added, I don't know, someone on a big league roster to do that, John.

It's Kershaw the pitching coach who cares? And so before just quickly before we go back to whether

they knew or not how D'Rosa is communicated what he said after the game because that is certainly

a focus here. I do want to take the time here to also just talk about this premise that continues

to come up also going back to the broadcast of well, you know, he's handcuffed. What can he do?

He has to use these pictures in these scenarios. By the way, he's not the only manager dealing with

this in this tournament as we know. But let's fine. Let's just granted him. Oh, well, sorry,

you know, I can't use this guy in back to back days. I can't just well run my first point,

which is that you're supposed to pitch last night, dude. Did you see this in Jeff Pass and

Stardis being basically Italy's preferred plan was to have Lorenzo and piggyback off Aeronola

against Mexico. And they were going to basically put their two best pitchers in the same game.

And the Colorado Rockies of all people who employ Michael Lorenzo were like, we don't want him

to throw on that day because it messes up the timetable. Francisco Survelli was dealing with a

similar thing as well. Now that ended up pushing Lorenzo into the spot. And he performed well. I

understand that. But to pretend like team USA is the only one dealing with these limitations is

preposterous. It's that. And then it's also just the way that you've heard this happened in some

of the earlier broadcasts. And this like really bothered me. But it's really only come up with

team USA where you're just hearing even when in the games that they've been winning. It's like, well,

you know, these guys are still trying to work on stuff. Oh, Michael walk is trying to get his

change up ready. Or he's trying to get a slider ready. And so we got to it's like, listen,

if you're here, I know that there are restrictions and there's pitch limits within the WBC rules

and probably within the restrictions. But once you're in the game and once you're

signing up for this, it's not spring training. It's not. And honestly, it's insulting to the people

and I by the way, I think that it's insulting to literally like the Aaron judges and the Bobby

wits and even the terror schools of the world who did go out of their way to participate in this

tournament and talk it up as if it is an important thing that they need to win. And then to have all

this messaging around it throughout the game, whether they're winning or losing it just being like,

well, you know, it's free training. You got to get a reference season. It's like one of the other.

One of the other. You don't have to do this if that messaging isn't happening on the broadcast.

If it's not something that is being brought up in off the record conversations between the broadcasters

and the staff, like if that was not a priority on the staff, it wouldn't have entered John Swells'

mind on the broadcast and we wouldn't be hearing about it. That's just how this works. Like they

meet with the manager every day and they're like asking about different guys and like, I you could

envision the resident like, oh, yeah, you know, we want to make sure we get him some work. It's like,

if you want to make sure that, you know, Michael Walker is getting the work he needs, go back to

surprise. Okay. Go back to surprise. That's the spring training. That's I don't know. It's not

we acknowledge that you are all working within some of these strange limitations and rules and

regulations and the MLB teams have an influence. That's fine. Once we get there, it should be about

trying to win the game and whatever that looks like and the way that that that team USA particularly

has talked about the lineup and getting guys off their feet and whatever and that's why again,

whether or not they were doing this or not, I think even if they 100% knew, oh, we need to win

this game. I think this very well might have been the lineup they put out there, which by the way,

I think it's fine because as I just said, they're way better than every other team even if you

just look at the top few hitters. So sure, it's not as good as if you had, you know, also

terrain in there over Ernie or whatever, Cal over Will Smith, whatever you want to do. It doesn't

matter. You're focusing what you're zooming in way too far on the lineup construction there. Where

no, it's it's not about that. Yes. It's about I think the Kershaw point is really, really important

when you're saying, well, we had no one else. Well, that that was a really important part of the

game. All things considered and you were going to go to someone that is retired. So I just, it's like

the hot dog band meme. We're trying to find out the guy who built this roster. Like, you guys had an

issue last time around with not having enough pitching depth because of these restrictions. You

knew that they were going to exist and look like this is so cool for Clayton Kershaw. I understand

that. But it's like, are you trying to win the tournament? Are you trying to make, you know,

viral clips? Are you trying to lift the trophy? Or are you trying to get working? I think

Team USA's priorities across the border, like stretched in a bunch of different directions. And

now some of that, as I talked about in the last podcast, is just like part of being the favorite.

I like that's built into an extent, but they have lost this operation has certainly lost the

benefit of the doubt in that regard. Oh, and it's not like this is new to Dero. So remember he

managed the team in 2023. And I think now is a good time to fold in his comments after the game

where, you know, he goes on MLB network in the morning and he says that

their ticket is punched asked about it after the fact. He says, quote, yeah, I misspoke. I was on

hot stove with a couple of buddies today and completely misread the calculations. Let me stop

there. Those are different things. I, he is mispeaking here again, which is kind of funny.

And look, I've probably jumbled on my words in like 50 million times on this podcast,

including just now, like it happens. I'm not blaming Deroza for that.

We knew Mexico was going to play Italy, running all the numbers. If we lost tonight,

with the runs allowed and runs scored an ounce. So I just misspoke. That does not answer the

question. It was a failure on some of our, you know, colleagues to not follow up on this.

In the press conference, someone needed to be like, hey, Mark, did you know that you were through

before the game? And if not, when did you find out? Like that is the biggest story here.

And like, it's easy for me to say from a, you know, courtyard, Marriott and Fort Lauderdale. I wasn't

there. These things are clearer and easier to handle when you're not in the thick of it. I've

been there. I'm sympathetic to it, right? But like, that was a mistake. And I think was

something of a disservice. And Deroza deserves some of the blame, too, for not clarifying that.

And then you have Deroza before the game telling in the press conference that the team USA guys were

having beers than I before celebrating after they beat Mexico. That's not a problem. Like,

having some beers and being up late is not the reason that these guys lost yesterday.

But like, the willingness to share that and like, admit that it was like a celebrate,

an overtly celebratory atmosphere that they had already kind of moved on just folds into the idea of

superiority complex of assuming that you were going to win of feeling confident enough to say

punched your ticket. Like, you know, who's not misspeaking in saying punch your ticket? 19 other

managers in the WBC. And so there's just that lack of attention to detail that just helps to maybe

explain how we got to this point. That is exactly where I was going to go, which is just the air

of hubris and confidence that comes in part with the favorite, comes in part with the media

crowning them before the tournament starts. I get it. You look at this roster and you say,

this is it. This is a team that should win, that can win, that we think probably will win.

So, you know, how much to be complicit in that. But again, especially just everything surrounding,

it's like, well, this is the team. We are not going to let this happen again. We've assembled this

roster has no holes. There's no problems. You can't, you can't beat us. And you're exactly right.

It comes through in the communication. It comes through in whether or not you knew you were through

or not saying like, ah, we're going to get some guys off their feet. You know, we respect Italy,

but it's fine. It's an important game. But, you know, we want to get, we want to get Goldchmidt

in there. We want to do this. We want to, you know, what I want. And then during the game,

it's going to get some length that Orion Yarbrough. It's like, okay, I understand you're working

within these constraints and he wants to get his pitch count. And you have these, you only have

so many pictures. Okay, that's all fine. But then you cannot talk as if you have this thing wrapped

up. Whether you actually think you do or not, the tone of the way that you have talked about

this team had just, you've just gone straight to, you have mentally gone to Miami as soon as you

beat Mexico. That is obviously very embarrassing and very problematic. They probably had to change

the schedule for the charter flight. Right? Because assuming that they win last night, they're

four no, they're flying a Miami today on Wednesday. Like, absolutely. Right? They're not staying in

Houston another day. They're getting to Miami. And now they have to wait until the result of this

game that starts seven o'clock Eastern tonight. And like, oh my god, the travel secretary of

your team USA picking up the phone. Hey, we're going to, we're going to need to push the flight back.

The, the last thing that we should mention about this Deroza situation. Again, I joke earlier

over the video circulating. It does appear that that clip of Mark Deroza on Hostile, which is

obviously whenever anybody goes on Hostile, you can find that clip on MLB.com and they post on

Facebook and they post on Twitter and whatever. It appears that they have taken that clip off of

the internet. And perhaps even edited a version of it that appears on Facebook. This is some

reporting on the athletic. I saw a couple other people on Twitter. Notice this, that this link to

where you can watch Mark Deroza talk about team Mexico, beating Team Mexico is not a link that is

now live. That is so embarrassing for, and that's, it's not like Mark Deroza told them to take that

down, right? Yeah, that is an editorial decision that I, I honestly cannot even fathom. Like that is

just so, it's, it's so much worse than just like, because who, yeah, you're doing damage control

for like essentially a league employee, right? But it's just, it's such a bad look. It's such a bad

look. And he doesn't want that. That's the horror story. He doesn't want it to get. Of course not.

Brother, it's, it's 2026, okay? It's you removing the video from your internal feed, which by the way,

of all the people that watch Mark Deroza say this, do you know how many of them watched it on MLB.com,

backslash, Mark Deroza talks on MLB hot stuff, like one percent. Oh, no, it's not. We're good.

It is just, again, what year do you think it is? It is just an unbelievable, unforced error that

what is it? It's so bad, dude. And this is the type of thing that MLB feels like what had done like

10 years ago. It's just such a unforced error. Oh, my gosh, so bad. So I don't like, okay, so they're,

they're just, let me take a pause here. Like, there are all these behind the scenes,

kind of like rumor conspiracy theory takes about like, oh, Deroza is just the manager,

because he does stuff with MLB on labor, whatever, and they want him to be around all the big

leakers or like Deroza is an MLB employee, so he gets more leash. Like, and I don't know if I

believe all of those things. Like, I don't, in fact, I don't think, like, there's maybe an aspect

of truth in that. But when you go and you delete this video, you are putting, you all on the fire,

brother. Like, you want to help build a conspiracy theory? Delete a video that people have already

watched billions of times. Like, that is not building trust with the public, okay? And, and yes,

100% and that is the last point here before we take a break and come back and preview another

extremely compelling baseball game that is happening tonight, too, really. Shots out Canada and Cuba.

Um, is just back to Mark Deroza as the main character. Why he's a manager or not? I know you just

mentioned, okay, what are the reasons? Whatever. It's also part of why when you think about, okay,

how seriously is Team USA taking this? This is part of why, as you mentioned, we are being pushed

in a lot of different directions because you have this many players participating and saying how

important it is and Aaron Judge being like, man, I watched this lose last time and I said never

again. And, you know, all these say, oh, I'm so proud and all these things. And then you also have

just the, a lot of the stuff around it and just how, whether it's being managed, whether it's being

talked about that makes it feel like this is not as important to you or you are not taking it as

seriously. And unfortunately, I think Mark Deroza has become the face of that, which sucks because

as you mentioned, this is not a bad dude or not a smart person, but maybe just not someone

who is in the best position to succeed. And he has not exactly done himself any favors, which,

again, the real tragedy of the misspeaking is that he's speaking on TV literally every day. So,

you know, that of all the people to put in that job and speak on behalf of your team,

that he would be someone in better position to do that. I really don't want to keep like

crappy on Deroza as funny as it is, but like, Francisco Survelli, team Italy's manager,

moved to Italy for half the year and was driving around the country in a van to draw up support

for Italian baseball. He has been managing games. He's been in the dugout. He's been building

this roster. He's been living, breathing and eating this thing for years. Now, I understand that whoever

the team USA manager is going to be has probably another job, but it's not a full-time job like it is

an international soccer. But like, shouldn't the manager be a manager? Like, someone who manages

like regularly? And that's not to say that Deroza is not qualified to be a big league manager one

day. Like, I think he very well could be, but the fact of the matter is he's coming into this

situation, having not worn baseball pants and held the proverbial clipboard since the last WBC.

You know? And it's like, it's difficult to swallow that and to square that with the result that we

saw. Last thing. Last thing. Team USA? Still the favorite to win the tournament?

I can't say that now because they have not punched their ticket. They have not punched their ticket.

And by the way, they could get all the way there. They'll easily win. You know, they can still easily

win, dude. Like, that is like, if they're not the number one favorite, they're two or three,

even still. Like, even still this line up. This roster is so freaking talented.

Are the vibes a disaster fest right now? Yes. The energy is wacky, wack. Yes. The names in the

town on this roster are enough to overcome that and win like the most soulless WBC title of all time.

That is in play. That is very much in play. We will talk about that on Friday to see once they

punched their ticket or not. Yes, we will. All right. We're going to take break when we return

to D.R. versus Ben as well. And to other notes, before we take a bite.

Welcome back to baseball bar because it is now time to talk about the pool play game that we

thought we would be leading with. This is a game that has been circled on our calendars for

essentially since literally the day the WBC schedule was announced with the final game of pool

play on Wednesday night, Dominican Republic versus Venezuela. Both teams, three and oh,

I like to think that this is exactly how they set it up where they were like, you know,

be really cool. Both of these teams with three and oh going into this last game. But it is not

just that these teams are trying to, you know, prove like, hey, where we are the, you know,

Latin American baseball powerhouse. There are real stakes here. It is not just both of these teams

have indeed punched their ticket to the quarterfinal. So this is not an elimination game for these

teams. However, it is one with serious stakes. And that is because the winner of this game will face

Korea on Friday, the runner up in pool C. Whereas the loser who will be the runner up in pool D

will face the winner of pool C. And who is that? Oh, a little team called Samurai, Japan,

who by all accounts is expected to send a right handed gentleman named Yoshinobu Yamamoto

to the hill on Saturday night in Miami 9 p.m. local start for that game. So this game is humongously

important for either of these teams' chances of going all the way. Now could either of these teams

just beat Japan? Yes, absolutely, because they have a lot of really good baseball players. And Japan

has certainly not looked invincible. However, Japan, DR, Venezuela, all still undefeated,

unlike Team USA. And so this game is going to be an interest, especially if, you know, Italy,

Mexico goes the way that it could and USA is out. Now we're talking about these teams as the ones

potentially in best position to win this whole thing. And this game in particular is a very

fun matchup when you consider the context of what happened three years ago, which was when it was

the first game of pool play. And Venezuela won that game five to one, which immediately got DR off

on a the wrong foot. They ended up losing to Puerto Rico as well. The art is not even advanced

out of pool play. Venezuela goes on to lose a heartbreaker in the quarterfinals against Team USA,

as we know. But the fun element of this rematch is the fact that it will include one of the same

starting pitchers, Sandial Contra in his home ballpark. We'll be taking the ball for DR against

Venezuela. Eduardo Rodriguez on the bump for Venezuela. And Sandy in that game, 2023,

went three and two thirds, five hits, three runs, three walks, two strikeouts allowed a home run

to Anthony Santander. He will not have to worry about Anthony Santander in this game. But he doesn't

have to worry about, in fact, a have to worry about Anthony Santander. No one will have to worry

about except I guess the blue jays, except for the blue jays. Yeah, yeah, blue jays are not,

they're very worried about Anthony Santander. But Sandy has a chance at redemption here. As we know,

again, the rules dictate he can only throw 65 pitches or a little bit more than that,

depending on where he's at in the outing. But this is a big opportunity for Sandial Contra,

a big opportunity for both of these teams. And the star power here is spectacular.

These teams had a lot of good players last time. And now it is even more so because as we know,

Team DR is even better than last time. And I think you could argue, maybe not on the pitching side,

but the lineup for Venezuela, I think is a good case of being even better than it was last time.

Especially if Luis arrives does home runs now or does home runs only in the WBC. So I will be

at this game tonight. I'm currently in South Florida. And I will, this will be my first ever WBC

experience. I'm unbelievably excited. And I think the context around this game is making me

even more excited that both of these teams are indeed through. Sure, you don't want to play Japan

and Yamamoto. Sure, you prefer to play Korea. I get all that. But I think tonight is really going

to just be like a celebration of baseball. There will be tension. Yes, there will be stakes. Yes,

the energy is going to be phenomenal. But I am excited about where this game is within the

context of the pool. Like it'll be a slightly different experience because the worst case scenario

for both teams is getting through this, having their ticket already punched. And I can't

remember being this excited to go to a baseball game in quite a long time. You know, maybe

game seven of the World Series last year, but this is definitely up there. That wasn't that long

ago. And of course, Yamamoto, yeah, we saw him in that game as well as the game before. Do you remember

that? A lot of Yamamoto, a lot of Yamamoto in our lives. And I'm not complaining. But ERAD against

San Diego Contra, I will say the thing. Now listen, the lineups, you know, we could go, we could

do a full preview. Honestly, we'll save that for for when these teams advance really digging in on

kind of what these lineups look like. You know, there's a couple of questions for Venezuela,

mostly Jack Tuturio who missed the first two games because he was, I believe, hit by a pitch

in one of the exhibition games, but he did start in center field in their third game against

Netherlands and bad second. Otherwise, we saw Michael Garcia batting second with Acunia at the top,

a rise batting third, which I don't think is suddenly going to change now. I think what's

more interesting is where Arise is playing defensively. We've seen him a little bit at second,

a little bit at first. How they mix in the Contreras brothers, Sal Perez, I expect we'll be playing

behind the play. Geno Suarez is he in the lineup. Do we see, you know, is Michael in the lineup also

with the Geno, et cetera, et cetera. But obviously the DR lineup has been the real, the star of

pretty much the entire tournament. I know they haven't faced the greatest competition,

but they have dominated since they were down three two through two innings against their opening

game against Nicaragua. The DR has outscored their opponents 32 to two with nine home runs.

So you can say, oh, well, who are they facing? Yeah, bad teams, but guess what? As we've seen,

there are other good teams facing bad teams, and it hasn't looked this overwhelming.

This lineup has lived up to the hype in every sense. Cameron Arrow has been amazing. Juan Sado has

been amazing. Tati's had his moment the other day. Julio's batting six to seventh, and even Austin

Wells is getting it on the party, even if he's not celebrating like the rest of his friends.

So this team's amazing. And I will say too, you got to give credit to the DR pitching so far, man.

Like I said, have not faced the best competition, but those relievers have generally come in and thrown

strikes, which was really my concern. And I think it's going to be really important in this game,

too, now that they're facing a much higher quality of opponent. Oh, I'm so excited. Oh my god.

Yeah, this is going to be okay enough enough about this. The one other thing we have to mention,

and then we'll quickly hit a few more pieces of news is there is one more pool,

pool. I remember play. Listen, it's the first. That's the moments. It's the A. It's had some only pool.

It's had some rain, rain delays, which is not helped. However, this pool also is coming down

here. It does. It doesn't need Cuba versus Canada. Did you dye your hair? I'm going to dance this

afternoon. Is that why your hair is for team Puerto Rico? That color because you're for team Puerto Rico.

Never. It's never been that light. That's for sure. Canada versus Cuba winner advances. Leave

on Moinello, one of the best pitchers in the world that is not in Major League Baseball.

You left her lefty who's been dominating in Japan for the last few years. He will be on the

mountain for Cuba. Cow-quantral taken the ball for Canada. What's interesting about this is that

it's not just that they're playing to advance because of the way that the rest of the pool is

shaking out. They're also playing for the top or runner-up. If Cuba wins, they will be the runner-up

because they lost to Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico would win the pool. However, if Canada wins because

they beat Puerto Rico last night, that means the Canada will win the pool in Puerto Rico. They get to

play Team USA. Well, what is most interesting about that is no matter what once this game concludes

because this is in the afternoon, neither team, whoever advances will have any idea who they're playing

because it will be entirely dependent on who advances. I honestly am not even sure how the

seating is going to work based on the mess that we are about to witness between Italy and Mexico

and USA watching. But the point is that these teams are playing for advancing but they aren't going

to know who they're playing until much later because that is the chaos that we have now made

it to the final day and we do not know literally any of the quarter-final matchups yet. That is

great. That is really something. A quick thought and leave on Moinello. You mentioned he is

almost undeniably the best pitcher on the planet not currently employed by a major league baseball

team. He is from Cuba. He instead of going stateside with defecting, he didn't even technically

defect. A number of Cuban players go over to Japan to play an NPV. I heard an amazing story from a

scout yesterday that I'd like to share. This scout works for a big league team, went over to

Japan in 2024 to go look at Rocky. It goes over, looks at Rocky and it's like Rocky against

Moinello or it was like a double header and Moinello is pitching in the morning, Rocky and whatever.

And he's sitting there after seeing Rocky and he's watching Moinello and he turns to his boss

and he's like forget Sasaki, who is this guy? He could be a number three in a big league rotation

right now. And the guy's boss had to be like, yes, so he's not coming over. You know, Cuba

government, he stayed in Japan. The upshot here is that leave on Moinello. He would be what?

I mean, maybe this is preposterous. He would be the fifth best starter on Team USA's team maybe

before. He's really good. This is not like a guy who knows how to work the edges and has a lot of

pitches and he's got experience on the international stage. He's throwing in the mid-90s with legit

stuff. And so kind of a bummer for Canada that they have to face it because of the way Cuba's

schedule played out like they get to throw Moinello twice. He threw the opener and now he's

enough rest to pitch twice in pool play, which is kind of wild. So we will see how this goes. But

like, yeah, Moinello is not, this is not like many barreda who started against Team USA for Mexico,

who is just like hoping and praying that he would get some lineouts like this is a dog.

Moinello and then their closer ride El Martínez, very similar.

Similar. Also been one of the best pitchers in Japan. Also not really expected to come over

because he's making a ton of money in Japan and kind of has an arrangement there.

How many innings that those two can cover within their pitch counts is probably going to

determine how this how this game goes. But like I said, big stakes, but they don't even really know.

But fortunately, there's not some shenanigans. They're not going to try and like it's not a

situation where it's like, oh, I can kind of avoid Team USA by maybe winning or only doing this like

no, they need to win. And so this game should also be very compelling and that will be in the after.

Newt. All right, Jake. Before we say goodbye, two bits of news that we wanted to hit.

One is bad and one is good. We will begin with the good. And that is that Hayesus Lazardo

is a whole lot wealthier. Congratulations to the left-hander who turns 29 in September.

This dude is one of the best left-hander pitchers in the world. And the Philadelphia

Phillies just paid him as such as they signed him to a five year 135 million dollar extension that

begins next year. Yeah, so he's actually not a whole lot wealthier. You say he's a whole lot

wealthier. That's not yet. Not yet. Just just 11 million in our this year and then 27 a year

through 2031. This reminds me a little bit of the Tyler Glass now extension.

Just because there's not really a doubt that Hayesus Lazardo is really good, but he hasn't pitched

that much. And so the difference here is of course the Dodger signed Glass now to an extension

before he even threw a pitch for them. The Phillies got kind of the trial run and the trial one was

awesome because he just threw a career high 183 innings, seventh in the NL Siang, peripherals were

outstanding and he's just really, really, really good. And so I think the Phillies are kind of looking

at their rotation which they've already invested heavily in and are just like, all right, these are

our pitchers, Andrew Painter. Hopefully you can come on down and be a cheap good pitcher for us while

we are paying literally everybody else a ton of money. I know Christopher Sanchez on a very

team-friendly contract, but we know Wheeler's making a ton of those. The most. He is on the most

team-friendly contract in baseball. I think he does have a very strong case that that is the case

now. But yeah, I mean, he's good for Lazardo, man. I think he was certainly primed to be one of

the top available free agent starters next offseason, but I can totally understand because he has

dealt with, I mean, again, it has not been the cleanest track record of health, but the Phillies have

done about as well as any team of baseball keeping their guys in the field. I know the Wheeler

one is kind of a bit of more of a fluke injury situation. Same with the last year, you get on the

foot by a comeback. Not an armed trouble, but a lot of their guys stay on the mound, and I have to

imagine that helps in addition to, you know, being on a good team and clearly a place where he's

kind of unlocked another level. So good for him. Two things here. One is the Phillies last year. I'm sure

thought about Hazel's Lazardo and Ranger Suarez as in their minds maybe fighting for this contract.

It makes sense that they did not try and keep both of these guys around long term. When you look

at the numbers, they're pretty similar, right? Didn't Suarez get a deal around the same amount of

money? Yeah, it's a great point. And so the Phillies are working with a ton of information on both of

these guys, right? Yes, Lazardo was only there for one year and they only have a year of data and,

you know, info from being around him. Ranger Suarez was there for a long time. And I think it is

revealing an indicative that the Phillies with all that information were like Lazardo, not a question,

we'll pay him that money. And so when you look at the Ranger Suarez decision in retrospect,

it doesn't like make him look bad Suarez. It just, we can now read that as a Lazardo over Suarez

decision and not like a we're going to try and put money back in our pockets. And the other

thing that I would like to point out before Orion Kirkering, you know, yeeted the ball against the

net, Lazardo came in and relief in that game. And I believe the 11th and the 10th and the 11th

and was like pretty great on only a few days rest. And to do that at that point is like he's

awesome. Like his stuff is so good. And yeah, they can keep him on the field. He's going to be good

for them for a long, long time. But one other bit of news pitching related we should we should

mention is that Hunter Green, the Reds ace is out for a few months. He had arthroscopic surgery

to remove bone spurs and loose bodies. He had both my brother and law got some loose bodies removed

this winter Jordan. And so whenever he talks about the surgery, he just waves his arms around

and he just goes to loose bodies. So I couldn't stop loose. Yes, the bone chips and

salsa. I don't think Hunter Green is, you know, dancing around his house right now thrilled about

this news. He did put out his own, his own statement kind of on the situation. There's some

weird stuff around this because Hunter Green basically revealed that he's been dealing with this

for a long time. And he said like, yeah, I wanted to push through it for the postseason run last

year. And that makes sense. But because of the number of times throughout Hunter Green's career,

there've kind of been some strange like how healthy is he is like I see on the same page with the

team. That's been a little bit odd. That said, this just sucks. Fortunately, the Reds have accumulated

some other really, really good pictures. But Hunter Green is still their best arm. And now they will

be dipping into pitching depth that they probably wish they could have kind of held on to.

They still again, Andrew Abbott's really good. Brady Singer is solid. Nick Liddell is really good.

Chase Burns could just blow up and be one of the 30 best pictures of baseball this year. So

that's possible. But now it's a pressure on guys like Ret Louder who we did not really

pitch at all last year because of injuries. Chase Petty, Brandon Williamson, who have not really

succeeded in the major leagues that much. At least not recently in the case of Williamson. So

it sucks. It's disappointing. And you know, they'll spin it and be like, oh, awesome. We'll get

in with the trade deadline. Hunter Green, come on down. But when you're a team like the Reds, where

you're already probably going to be on the fringes of any sort of postseason race,

not having Hunter Green is not a good thing. You might be in a much worse situation by the time

he comes back than you would have been otherwise. And that is why it is no bueno. All right,

we're done. We have some baseball to watch. How about that? Did you hear this is that what a freaking

USA lost? I hear USA lost. I did. Can I make one more point this? Let me make one more point. Oh,

please, please. We talk about the that can't happen scale quite often.

And I can't remember a moment breaking the that can't happen scale off the field

in the way that the team USA messaging and video getting taken down has broken the that can't

happen scale over the last 12 hours. Just a masterclass in what cannot happen. That's all.

Well said. We will be back. You will be back. I have some some family matters to attend to

later this week, but you will be back later this week. And we will see if TV USA is still in the

tournament or not. I'm flying to Miami on Saturday. We will be covering those last few games in

person. Very excited for that. But enjoy DR and Venezuela. Thank you to Andrew Hartz and

Good Roses for producing. You can email us at baseballbarbycastagemo.com. If there's anything else

about this old Derosa situation that we missed, please let us know because there's even more angles

that I was thinking about that we didn't get to. But for now, we will end it. Thank you for listening

to baseballbarbycastagemo.