The Dominican Republic, which was considered a candidate to win the 2023 World Baseball Classic (WBC), faced a major crisis.
Major League representative Hector Gomez wrote about the Dominican national team on his personal SNS on the 3rd (Korean time).
Gomez said, “Bad news has been delivered to the Dominican national team. Starting pitchers Luis Severino (29, New York Yankees), Freddy Peralta (27, Milwaukee Brewers), and Luis Castillo (31, Seattle Mariners) cannot join the national team. The player received an offer from the club to ‘not participate in the competition’.”
Prior to the tournament, Dominica was evaluated as having a large number of major league star players joining in to rescue its all-time power. Power hitters Manny Machado (31, San Diego Padres) and Juan Soto (25, San Diego), Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (24, Toronto Blue Jays) and pitchers Sandy Alcantra (28, Miami Marlins), Framber Valdes (30, Houston Astros), An ultra-luxurious lineup was expected with top-notch players such as Christian Javier (26, Houston).
For this reason, Dominica was considered the strongest candidate for the championship along with the United States. In fact, in the WBC winning dividend compiled by Canada’s ‘The Star’ last month, Dominica led with the figure of +250 (meaning that if you bet $100 and hit, you can receive $250 in dividends) side by side with the United States.
Preparing for the competition that seems to be going smoothly. However, the airflow changed little by little. Concerned about injuries, the club began to block the participation of key players one by one. Nelson Cruz (43, San Diego), general manager of the Dominican national team, announced that “out of 50 players on the reserve list, 18 did not receive permission from the club,” and the concern about player departures is spreading to reality.
First of all, the gap in the starting lineup stands out. All three of the breakaways Gomez announced are starting pitchers. The total number of starts for the three players is 322 (Severino 107, Peralta 67, Castillo 148), and players with rich experience leave and the power weakens. There were six candidates for selection before the competition, but now only three, half of them, remain. It is clearly not enough to build a national team with three starting pitchers in a tournament that will last about a month.
Even more serious is the possibility that there will be continued absenteeism. If more than this bleeding occurs, it could be a significant bad news for the Dominican national team. 카지노
Initially, Dominican fans showed high expectations, dreaming of winning the second WBC ever since 2013. There were quite a few fans who were already anticipating the final against the United States prior to the tournament. However, as the players leave, the power is gradually weakening. At this rate, there is a possibility that the championship candidate Dominica will become a laughing candidate.