Wednesday officially marked just one month before the start of this year’s World Baseball Classic.
The tournament will be making its triumphant return following a delay in 2021 thanks to the pandemic.
The best players in the world will soon join their respective teams representing various countries across the world and prepare to battle and see which county has the best and most elite talent.
Team USA is the defending champion, having won the tournament in 2017.
However, the road may not be as easy for them this year.
They went 6-2 in 2017.
On Twitter, Jon Morosi of MLB Network posted an interesting thread about the format and why a second loss could spell doom for the Americans this spring.
Doing some @WBCBaseball homework — which is the best homework — before our Thursday preview spectacular on @MLBNetwork.
One note: Team USA went 6-2 overall and had 5 off days while winning gold in 2017. This time, a second loss could mean elimination. Here's why . . .
— Jon Morosi (@jonmorosi) February 9, 2023
Firstly, Morosi notes that the format is slightly different this year than it was six years ago.
In 2017, the second round was a round-robin group.
This will not be the case in 2023.
The Americans lost their fifth game in 2017 and still won gold.
But this year, the fifth game is now a single-elimination quarterfinal, which means if Team USA loses, their run comes to an end.
Morosi went on to mention that if the Americans lose one of their first three games, their matchup against Colombia on March 15 may end up being a must-win.
Team USA would be able to rest their pitching for a day in that case while Colombia plays a game on the 14th.
The WBC is going to be full of some crazy moments.
It’s an exciting time to be a baseball fan.
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