Weekly Preview

Europe

The European Cups will take place this week in 2 separate sites in Italy.

The Pool in Nettuno, Italy features the following clubs:
Danesi Caffe' Nettuno (ITA)
L & D Amsterdam (NED)
Legionaire Regensburg (GER)
Port of Antwerp Greys (BEL)
Rouen Baseball '76 (FRA)
Tenerife Marlins (ESP)

The pool in Matino, Italy includes the following clubs:
Corendon Kinheim (NED)
Draci Brno (CZE)
F.C. Barcelona (ESP)
Fortitudo Bologna (ITA)
T&A San Marino (SMR)
Templiers Senart (FRA)

The top 2 teams in each group advance to the European Champions Cup in June, where a European Champions will be crowned. Each team will play each other in a single round robin format taking place from Tuesday the 31st of March, through Saturday, April 4th.

Tuesdays game will include:
L & D Amsterdam (NED) vs. Port of Antwerp Greys (BEL)
Tenerife Marlins (ESP) vs. Rouen Baseball '76 (FRA)
Legionaire Regensburg (GER) vs. Danesi Caffe' Nettuno (ITA)
Templiers Senart (FRA) vs. F.C. Barcelona (ESP)
Corendon Kinheim (NED) vs. Draci Brno (CZE)
Fortitudo Bologna (ITA) vs. T&A San Marino (SMR)

http://competition.baseballeurope.com/2009/2009.htm


Cuba
The 48th National Series will continue on Tuesday, March 31st with the following 3-game sets:
Villa Clara @ Metropolitanos
Ciego de Avila @ Matanzas
Isla de la Juventud @ Camaguey
Pinar del Rio @ Las Tunas
Sancti Spiritus @ Holguin
Cienfiegos @ Granma
Industriales @ Santiago de Cuba
La Habana @ Guantanamo

The current standings looks like this:

Oriental
1. La Habana 40-19
2. Pinar del Rio 31-29
3. Isla de la Juventud 29-31
4. Metropolitanos 27-33
5. Matanzas 25-35
6. Sancti Spiritus 24-36
7. Industriales 22-37
8. Cienfuegos 18-42

Occidental
1. Villa Clara 42-18
2. Ciego de Avila 41-19
3. Santiago de Cuba 37-22
4. Holguin 36-24
5. Camaguey 30-30
6. Granma 27-33
7. Guantanamo 25-42
8. Las Tunas 24-36

Weekend Recap

Cuban National Series

Here are the results for the week end, series by series:

Pinar del Rio won 2 of the 3 games with Matanzas (5-3, 1-10, 12-4)
Isla de la Juventud took 2 of 3 against Metropolitanos (9-11, 7-2, 9-7)
La Habana swept Cienfuegos (6-5, 12-2, 8-2)
Sancti Spiritus swept Industriales (12-6, 5-3, 13-3)
Ciego de Avila took 2 of 3 against Villa Clara (7-3, 2-3, 15-4)
Camaguey beat Las Tunas in 2 of 3 games (8-1, 8-10, 13-4)
Holguin took 2 of 3 from Granma (9-8, 3-7, 10-6)
Santiago de Cuba won 2 of 3 with Guantanamo (7-5, 6-2, 1-3)

The current standings looks like this: (Team, GB)
Oriental
La Habana -
Pinar del Rio 9.5
Isla de la Juventud 11.5
Metropolitanos 13.5
Matanzas 15.5
Sancti Spiritus 16.5
Industriales 18
Cienfuegos 22.5

Occidental
Villa Clara -
Ciego de Avila 1
Santiago de Cuba 4.5
Holguin 6
Camaguey 12
Granma 15
Guantanamo 16.5
Las Tunas 18

Taiwan

The CPBL season got underway this weekend with 3 games taking place over Saturday and Sunday. 10,000 fans witnessed the season opener in Tainan City, where the host Uni-President 7-Eleven Lions defeated the Brother Elephants by a score of 5-1.

On Sunday the Elephants avenged the opener, shutting out the Lions by a score of 7-0. Down in Kaohsiung, hosts La New Bears defeated the Sinon Bulls by a score of 12-8.

Saturday
Elephants 1 4 2
Lions 5 12 0
WP: Wei-Lun Pan (1-0)
LP: Kobayashi Ryokan (0-1)
HR: Elephants - Peng-Chen Min (1), Lions - Wu-Hsiung Pan (1)


Sunday
Bulls 8 15 1
Bears 12 13 3
WP: Si-Yo Wu (1-0)
LP: Shoda Itsuki (0-1)
HR: Bears - Long-Yi Huang (1), Chin-Feng Chen (1)

Elephants 7 12 0
Lions 0 5 1
WP: Yu-Cheng Liao (1-0)
LP: Chris Gissell (0-1)


Here are the current standings:
1. Bears 1-0
2. Elephants 1-1
2. Lions 1-1
4. Bulls 0-1

Cuban National Series Resumes

With the World Baseball Classic coming to a close earlier this week, the 48th Cuban National Series awakens from it's hibernation. With 2/3rds of the qualification round in the books let's recap the season so far.

In the Occidental/West Division; La Habana occupies first place 8.5 games ahead of Pinar del Rio. Isla de la Juventud and Metropolintanos round out the top 4. The bottom half of the division shows Matanzas, Industriales, Sancti Spiritus and Cienfieguos is positions 5 to 8 respectively.

In the Oriental/East Division Villa Clara holds a slim 3 game lead over Ciego de Avila for first place. Santiago de Cuba and Holguin occupy 3rd and 4th respectively, while Camaguey, Granma, Guantanamo and Las Tunas round out the division.

The standings can be viewed here

Note that the top 4 teams in each division advance to the play-off round.

The batting leader through 2/3rds of the season is Ciego de Avila's Yorelvis Charles with an average of .390, followed by Matanzas' Yolandry Garlobo and Cienfuegos' Yusniel Ibanez, both batting .385. The ERA leader is La Habana's Yadier Pedroso with an ERA of 1.37, followed by Pinar del Rio's Yuniesky Maya at 1.51 and Ciego de Avila's Maikel Folch at 2.20.

Now for the weekend's games:
Friday, March 27th
1:30pm:
Metropolitanos @ Isla de la Juventud
8pm:
Matanzas @ Pinar del Rio
Cienfuegos @ La Habana
Sancti Spiritus @ Industriales
Ciego de Avila @ Villa Clara
Camaguey @ Las Tunas
Granma @ Holguin
Santiago de Cuba @ Guantanamo

Saturday, March 28th
1:30pm:
Metropolitanos @ Isla de la Juventud
Ciego de Avila @ Villa Clara
Camaguey @ Las Tunas
Granma @ Holguin
8pm:
Matanzas @ Pinar del Rio
Cienfuegos @ La Habana
Sancti Spiritus @ Industriales
Santiago de Cuba @ Guantanamo

Sunday, March 29th
1:30pm:
Metropolitanos @ Isla de la Juventud
2pm:
Matanzas @ Pinar del Rio
Cienfuegos @ La Habana
Sancti Spiritus @ Industriales
Ciego de Avila @ Villa Clara
Camaguey @ Las Tunas
Granma @ Holguin
Santiago de Cuba @ Guantanamo

A Classic Finish at the WBC

First of all, congratulations to Japan. Japan won the second World Baseball Classic on Monday, repeating the feat they accomplished 3 years ago. The Japanese defeated a very competitive Korea squad in the final game at Dodger Stadium. With Japan leading Korea 3-2 in the bottom of the 9th inning and star pitcher Yu Darvish in to try and pick up the save, Bum-Ho Lee came up with the clutch RBI single to send the game to extras. In the 10th, Ichiro Suzuki drove home 2 runs on a single to give Japan the lead again, one they would never relinquish.

This final was the perfect ending to a great tournament. Each round had it's share of exciting games, from the USA squeeking out a win against Canada at a sold out Rogers Centre, to the Netherlands beating the Dominican Republic not once but twice, and the USA beating Puerto Rico with a 9th inning rally to move on to the Final Round.

MLB comissioner Bud Selig guarenteed that the World Baseball Classic would be back once again in 2013, and again during the month of March. Obviously the timing will again affect the amount of MLB players that will participate but considereing the alternatives, I'd have to agree March is the most practical time of the year to hold such an event.

So with the tournament complete we have final standings looking like this:

Rk	Team	W	L	Tiebreaker
1	Japan	7	2	-
Lost in Final
2	South Korea	6	3	-
Lost in Semifinals
3	Venezuela	6	2	-
4	United States	4	4	-
Failed to qualify for Semifinals
5	Puerto Rico	4	2	1.75 RA/9
6	Cuba	4	2	4.15 RA/9
7	Netherlands	2	4	3.98 RA/9
8	Mexico	2	4	10.10 RA/9
Failed to qualify for Round 2
9	Dominican Republic	1	2	1.57 RA/9
10	Italy	1	2	6.84 RA/9
11	China	1	2	7.43 RA/9
12	Australia	1	2	10.96 RA/9
13	Canada	0	2	6.35 RA/9
14	Chinese Taipei	0	2	7.31 RA/9
15	Panama	0	2	9.00 RA/9
16	South Africa	0	2	11.65 RA/9

My question is now...are these standings representative of the current hierarchy of world baseball, or does the tournament mean nothing?