Slowing the Juggernauts

The Inaugural World Baseball Classic is very unique and makes it very hard for me to confidently pick a winner.  I know that the United States and Dominican Republic have the two best teams but there has to be some reasons why another team could win this tournament.

Last year, Lance Berkman of the Houston Astros missed the first month of the season, and when he did join the rest of the team he did not exactly hit rockets.  He was behind the other players, and had not hit live pitching in quite some time, and that is exatly what could happen to the MLB players in this tournament.  Some of the other teams do not have many MLB players, and that could play to their advantage.  The non-MLB players (minor leaguers included) have something to prove.  They are going to be ready, when non-MLB players like Barry Armitage of South Africa face Barry Bonds, Alex Rodriguez, Derek Lee, or any other of the plethora of All-Stars, they are going to have thought about that specific moment for at least the last couple of months.  The non-MLB players have been preparing to play in this tournament, whereas the MLB players are preparing for the season.  I agree that Barry Bonds and the rest of the U.S. team is so much better than the Barry Armitages that it will probably not matter, whether Barry Bonds has picked up a bat in one month or even one year.   

The U.S. Olympic Basketball team reminds me of something ele that is important to winning: team chemistry.  While the U.S. had the best players, they did not win, and that is something else that could slow these juggernaut teams down.  Their managers, Buck Martinez and Manny Acta, will have a good idea of how their stars play, they will not know they will mesh.  And yes, I agree, it does not matter whether you order your 3, 4, 5, hitters as 3)Albert Pujols 4)David Ortiz 5)Manny Ramirez or as 3)Manny Ramirez 4)David Ortiz 5)Albert Pujols, anyway you put these two lineups they are going to score runs.  They will not be the well oiled machine that they could be if say, they played their whole professional career together.

Cuba is being allowed to play in this tournament.  This is what they do.  They have been playing together for their whole careers and each player knows exactly what their role is, not only do they know exactly how they fit on the team, they are prepared.  While they officially just found out that they could play in the tournament, it is a guareentee that Fidel has been preparing for this tournament, although in the players spare time they have probably been practicing sneaking out of a hotel room to defect to another country. 

While the Dominican and the United States are the favorites, they are not going to run away with this tournament.  They both might get to the finals, but it will not be easy.  Cuba, Japan, and the other teams will all want to win this tournament so much that their desire alone will even the playing field, and like so many players have said, "I signed my contract with the                organization and that is what I need to concentrate on."  While I am not saying that I think the MLB players will be playing hard, they will not be playing as hard as an Australian who will be willing to run his body into the outfield fence to catch a foul ball, and THAT could be the difference in the game.