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For me the jury is still out on the World Baseball Classic. I haven’t sat down and watched an entire game just a few innings here and there. I guess maybe I’m too used to this being spring training time and top players not being on the field for the whole game. Plus, I wonder after an off season how many players are actually ready to go out and perform at a top level?

I’m also not all that thrilled with the timing of these games. There has to be a better time to schedule a tournament like this and right before the regular season starts isn’t one of them.

I haven’t really looked into how Major League Baseball, or the teams feel about this tournament and the time it takes place, but you’d have to think that teams aren’t happy about having their top players away from spring training just weeks before the regular season starts. We’re actually just 11 days away from the start of the 2023 regular season.

Of course, the other issue that the World Baseball Classic could cause on Major League Baseball teams is injuries. Now we’ve already had one very significant injury. The New York Mets lost their closer Edwin Diaz for the entire 2023 season when he torn the patella tendon in his right knee celebrating a win in the World Baseball Classic. Then last night Houston Astros 2nd baseman Jose Altuve was hit in the right wrist by a pitch while playing for Venezuela.

Altuve was facing Daniel Bard of Team USA. Bard’s fastball ran in on Altuve and hit him on the wrist. Altuve was knocked off his feet, and started shaking his hand as soon as he hit the dirt. He stayed lying down in the batter’s box for a moment and was eventually helped off the field. Altuve could be seen grimacing and holding his wrist as medical staff walked him back to the clubhouse.

There has been no update on Altuve’s condition, but with the regular season starting in just 11 days you’d have to think it’s doubtful that he’ll be ready to go when the Astros open up their season on March 30th at home against the Chicago White Sox.

Not surprisingly there has been a lot of criticism of the World Baseball Classic because of these injuries, but the players are the ones who make the decision to play or not and they have largely defended the tournament and have mentioned how excited they are to play for their home countries.

With the regular season just 11 days away like I mentioned earlier one of the fantasy baseball leagues I’m in ha started their draft. They call it a slow draft and trust me there’s a good reason for that. We started this draft on Friday and I think we’ve made seven picks.

I understand the reasons for doing a draft this way, but this is easily for me the worst way to do a draft and it’s no wonder that my team has never done well in this league. I like to sit down and do the draft all in one shot. When we do the draft this “slow” way I have a tendency to sit around and over think every pick that I want to make and in the end I always seem to make the wrong one.

I share this team with a friend of mine, so we co-manage it. I was all set on taking Shohei Ohtani with the 9th pick overall, but he more or less overruled me and we went with Julio Rodriguez. Being that I like the Seattle Mariners I have no issue with taking Rodriguez, but I really thought that Ohtani would’ve been the better pick. I guess will see how that plays out.

I’m guessing every fantasy baseball league does this, but in case yours doesn’t they actually split Ohtani into two players. there’s Ohtani the hitter which was the player I wanted at #9 and then Ohtani the pitcher would be another player. I’m sure if Ohtani was just considered one player, he’d be the first pick in every draft.

So, chime in here for me. Would you have taken Rodriguez or Ohtani the hitter with the 9th pick? Also feel free to let me know how your fantasy league draft is going.

Don’t forget to look me up on Twitter, I’m @Burketime.