For the past few days, the World Baseball Classic has been attracting attention in the sports world. There is some very good ball being played between the different participating countries, and really, the quality of the show is solid.
That said, the fact remains that there are plenty of big names who have decided to skip the tournament in order to prepare for the season. Think of the many American pitchers who are not there, for example.
Of the lot, there is Max Scherzer, who was not there so as not to slow down his preparation. Asked about this, Scherzer brought up an interesting point: in his view, the tournament should be moved to the mid-season of the MLB.
According to the Mets gunner, playing the tournament before the start of the season poses too much of a risk for pitchers, who are still in the stage of preparing their arm for the season. Most of them haven’t launched for months and they are progressing slowly.
However, if the tournament took place in the middle of the season, the guys would be warmed up and they would be able to take part. It would also allow the tournament to end shooting limits for pitchers, which would not be too much for the Americans currently.
Scherzer says it would increase the players’ workload, sure, but they would at least be more ready to throw big, important innings. Because right now, they’re not necessarily.
That said, I don’t know if teams would like the idea considering the fact that a mid-season injury is even more serious than an injury before this one. And we know they’re reluctant to let the guys play until the start of the campaign, so clearly that’s not going to help them.
Anyway, we’ll see if Scherzer’s idea gets some support, but I don’t know if it’s realistic. His argument is interesting, but I think the risk of injury at an important time in the season could scare the teams.
- Mike Trout defending Mitch Bratt.
- The Angels were expensive.
- Read on Dusty Baker for the next season.
