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Chapter 1: What is the significance of the World Baseball Classic?
Yeah, there should be some passion. This doesn't have to be boring.
You don't get bored by baseball. Okay, one thing the game needs is more people like you. You. You. You. You. You. You.
You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You.
Welcome to Baseball Isn't Boring. Here's your host, Rob Radford. It's about that time. It's about that time. Let's go. Even if it wasn't about that time, there's no human being on the planet I'd rather talk to more than Sean Spradling. WBC central. It is. We are, we are set or cut on our delivery of, of WBC coverage right now.
I mean, it is like a straight ball right down the middle and you are here to hit it 50 million feet. So I don't know. I don't know where that came from, but I just, I'm just so excited for you to be excited because I know, you know, we've talked about this. Is this like the, is this the third go round sort of for you?
For me, watching the WBC, yes.
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Chapter 2: How did Shawn Spradling get involved with WBC coverage?
Covering the WBC, making content, it's the second. I started right before the 2023 WBC. Right before. Okay. Yeah, yeah.
So, yeah, but this is the time, though. I mean, I remember last time we did it, when you were covering it for the first time, it was just epic, the job that you did. And it was epic WBC. Everything about it was epic. And then it ended, and I don't know how you felt.
I knew that you could keep it going, but it's still... I don't know if you felt at that time, oh man, this is going to be a long three years. You remember how you were feeling after the last one ended?
Dude, I... I feel like this is pretty common for anybody in any sport that has some big event, whether your team makes it to the World Series or you're a player and you're going through your playoff run and you get to the peak and then it's on the other side of the hill. But I legitimately, after March 2023...
April, I was kind of like in a low emotional place because I was like, man, I was so high for so long. And it was just like just WBC, WBC, WBC, like baseball, baseball, baseball, staying up all night, watching the games in Japan. Obviously, the way that the tournament ended couldn't have been more perfect. So it was just like so much stimulation. And then all of a sudden it was nothing.
It was like normal, regular baseball season, which was great before. But then now that it was like right after the WBC, it just didn't. I don't know, man. It was crazy. But yeah, it was I was thinking like, man, we got three whole years to wait. And all of a sudden it's here.
It's oh, it's we're here. We're here. And how long, it wasn't, I don't feel like it was that long, like after where we were able to grab onto something. I don't know what it was we were able to grab onto. And I know that you were waiting at the gate to say, just give me like some semblance that 2026 isn't that far away. What was the first thing that came out after 2023?
Well, I'm trying to remember what the first thing that was released or like announced by MLB. Because for me, I did my like way too early projections, like rosters. Like literally it was 2023 and I was already trying to project like Team USA in Japan, Dominican Republic, which they're not too far off.
No, I was going to say.
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Chapter 3: What are the top teams to watch in the upcoming WBC?
What is happening? Has that gotten any better?
Dude, well, to answer your question, in short, yes, it's better. I think that there's still an opportunity to where they can make more, better, cooler merchandise for the WBC because I'm telling you, man, and I'll do a shameless plug for myself right now, but if there's any brands that are like, we want to make WBC content and want to sell it,
DM me because I have hundreds of followers who are like chomping at the bit to buy WBC gear. And I'm ha I will happily be an ambassador affiliate. We will cut that clip. And I, but no, I, it's like, it's, it's interesting because the, like the merch is out. It's all Nike, which is great. Like, I love the stuff that has been released.
It's not a ton, but the thing is for the uniform, like the juries themselves, um, We still don't know what they look like. There's been speculation and rumors, but in 2023, every team had to have their own manufacturer. This time it's looking like most likely it's all going to be back like it was in 2017 when everyone used the same manufacturer, Nike.
And if that's the case, there's going to be, I guess, a little less creativity when it comes to like the individual uniforms. But at least they're all made by Nike. So it's cohesive.
Well, it's funny you say that because talking to Bradley, the Great Britain manager, Marcelino, Marcelino.
Marcelino.
Oh, my great guy. Nailed it. Great guy. But one of the first things, like when you talk to them, they're like, hey, he's just joking about, yeah, we're going to have uniforms that don't have the letters falling off. Which, of course, Great Britain, that was like, poor Great Britain, man.
It was brutal in 2023. I felt so bad for them.
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Chapter 4: What are the different tiers of teams in the WBC?
But I think that you're right, though, about the gear. People love the gear, man. They love it. People love it. And I'm going to just say we also are trying to jump into the WBC gear fray with baseballs and boring, which I will fill you in on later. So, all right. Well, the gear is one thing. The teams are another. The rosters.
I initially was like, you know, we were just texting and say, hey, well, you know, what do you want to do? I said, really, I just want updates on every team. But probably a more entertaining way of giving updates on every team is just to power rank them, right? Yeah. Right. So how many teams we got total?
We got 20 teams. Oh, we aren't going to power rank 20. What if we do, like, tiers? Or maybe, like, I don't know, top ten?
Why don't we do the top tier? So what would be the top tier? The top tier would be top ten?
I mean, I think the top tier is a clear one, two, three. I think it's Japan, USA, and Dominican Republic.
Okay. And then... Okay. Well, let's do tiers. So if there's 20 teams, if my math is mathing, let's do four tiers. The happy to be there tier. Okay. The we feel good about ourselves because we're better than the happy to be here tier.
Okay.
Okay. We're good, but not good enough to be on the top of the tippity top. I mean, I'll have other names for these, but still. And then the top tier.
So it ends up being sort of like quarters almost. Yeah.
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Chapter 5: Which teams are considered underdogs in the WBC?
Okay. Okay, cool. I'll try to remember everything off the top of my head. I'm looking at the bracket right now to help me remember. But for the happy to be here tier, I'm going to say that's definitively Brazil –
czechia um and then if we want to go and do a couple more maybe nicaragua um yeah those are the those are the teams that i would say are the happy to be here especially those bottom two brazil and czechia i don't know if you saw the bo bichette news today i did yeah yeah it's brutal would bo bichette have moved them out of the happy to be here tier
I don't know if he would have moved them out of the tier, but at least he would have given them a big league caliber bat. It's just their lineup is pretty bleak. Their pitching is pretty solid, but it's the offense, man. I don't know where the runs are going to come from.
Okay, we can do that. If you feel like those three are definitively... In the happy to be here tier, we could just cut it off there. That's fine.
Okay. Yeah. I think so because I could make an argument for any of the other teams really to be in the like, we expect to be here tier.
All right. Let's do that. Let's do that. We'll do three tiers. The happy to be here tier. The expect to be here tier. We expect it to be here tier. And then we're going to win this whole thing tier. Okay. All right. Okay.
That good? Yeah. We can do three unless we want to break the third into two because that's going to be a really big tier with three on top and three on bottom. Okay. Yeah. We can work on – so I would say that we expect to be here but still not really competing for –
The championship would be like the Australia, Israel, I would say probably Netherlands, Great Britain, although Great Britain has some solid names they're going to be announcing. They're going to be pretty strong. And I think last WBC, Great Britain was in the happy to be here tier, and they've raised up a tier. Did I say Panama already? No.
I would say Cuba because even though Cuba used to be in the top tier or two, they've struggled to get players.
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Chapter 6: How does team chemistry affect performance in the WBC?
I would say Colombia and... Taiwan, maybe. Taiwan? Okay. Yeah. This tier is interesting because I think they have some dark horses. One, two, three. Both of those teams, like Colombia and Taiwan, they're pretty solid. They got a pretty solid roster.
How about South Korea?
Yeah, Korea. That's a good one. That's a good one to put in there.
I probably didn't put them in the top here. Define it as South. Everyone knew it wasn't North. So one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine in the we expect to be here. You have three in the just happen to be here. So that's 12 total. So you have eight left.
Okay. So then if we have those three in the top, we have USA, Japan, Dominican Republic, then I would say the like the
whatever we want to call the tier where it's like they're not the favorites but they can win they can win there's a they can okay so usa dominican republic and what japan was that the other one yeah usa dr in japan those are going to be your perennial like one have the roster to win every time four five six seven eight nine ten eleven twelve thirteen forty fifty all right so uh yeah so you have five teams left in the
they could possibly win.
Okay. So if it's five, then this would be the Puerto Rico, Mexico. Um, I'm going to put like, honestly, I'm so back and forth with them, but I think that if they get everybody, I would put Canada in that tier and Italy. How about Venezuela? Oh, did I say Venezuela? Definitely Venezuela in that tier. Yeah, for sure. They're probably top of that tier.
Canada, and Italy. I think that's it. Is that all of them? Okay. I think it is. Let me check. 5, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20. Yeah, that's it. Solid. So, in synopsis... In synopsis... Now, this is off the dome, so we might... No, no. I'm going to say it. This is like we're workshopping it.
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Chapter 7: What factors influence team rankings in the WBC?
I say it's dysfunctional, but it's kind of weird to say a two-week tournament or three-week tournament. It's like, oh, well, you have to have good clubhouse culture.
Yeah, but I think that might... I've seen a lot of people attribute it to that. There were a lot of big personalities. There was a lot of... maybe conflict, like maybe conflicting personalities and not much of like not much leadership. I've definitely seen like Juan Soto take sort of a leadership role in recruiting this go around.
I think Pujols and Nelson Cruz aren't really going to stand for any other messing around now moving forward. And a lot of the like young guys like Jeremy Pena or Julio Rodriguez, they're a couple of years older now. And so I think that, Not that they were immature by any means, but that there's just even more maturity in the clubhouse now. And like you said, it's a short tournament.
So it's not like you have a ton of time to build any sort of team chemistry, but It does matter. That's honestly why I think Japan is just so dominant every single tournament they enter, whether it's the WBC, the Olympics, the Premier 12, because they all play together. They know each other. They play together in multiple events, at least one a year. They know each other.
They have the greatest chemistry. There you go.
You went away. Now you're back. Oh, that was weird. Can you still hear me? Oh, I heard you the whole time. I couldn't see your excited face. All right, well, let me ask you this. Here's the next level of this game that we're playing. Okay. I'm going to give you the tiers and who could sneak up or down. So of the three teams that happen to be here, Team Tear, Brazil, Czech, Nicaragua.
Which team could sneak into, we knew we were going to be here, but we don't expect to win tier?
Of those three, definitely Nicaragua. Because I think that they have the pitching to win a game. If they can... The offense, kind of like Brazil, is pretty weak, but they have a good amount of minor leaguers that I think can... in a tournament setting can find a way to win a game. There's a lot of minor leaguers.
They don't really have any big leaguers other than Mark Vientos, who actually is kind of a difference maker for them because he brings a big league...
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Chapter 8: Who are the favorites to win the WBC this year?
Yes. I think so. He hasn't said anything, and they haven't announced his name, but I would assume so.
All right. Well, I hope so. He was so excited. I mean, he was so awesome. It was so great. It was also a great story how he basically had to multiple times tell them, by the way, my parent is from England.
Yeah.
He was literally born there, so that's a difference.
This isn't a J.J. Weatherholt situation where they're like, you're not Korean enough.
Oh, dude, that was rough. I love that quote, though.
I was like, man, that's a good answer. If there was ever a time for a good T-shirt in spring training, it would be him wearing the I'm not Korean enough T-shirt here because I'm not Korean enough.
Talk about wearing like a different country's hat. I would love to see Rob Bradford in a, I'm not Korean enough t-shirt. Ooh, I would.
I buy, I have so many t-shirts I'm wearing around spring training as it is including the best, best shape of my life club t-shirt, which I haven't got. Have I got yours yet? Uh, not yet. Oh, well I need it. I need it. If you want a t-shirt, you got to do something by opening day, a push up, pull up, uh, four minute mile, whatever you want. I'm running a 10 K in like a month. Oh, perfect.
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