As the 2024 regular season continues, here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world throughout the day today:
1. World Baseball Classic first-round reveal:
Per a report from ESPN’s Enrique Rojas, organizers for the 2026 World Baseball Classic will announce the brackets for the first round of the tournament today. Sixteen of the 20 participants have already been determined, as the United States, Japan, the Dominican Republic, Cuba, Puerto Rico, South Korea, Mexico, Venezuela, the Netherlands, Israel, Italy, Australia, Canada, Panama, Great Britain, and the Czech Republic all qualified automatically thanks to their performance in last year’s tournament. The final four spots in the tournament won’t be determined until next year’s qualifiers. The 2026 WBC will play out across four venues: Houston’s Minute Maid Park, Miami’s loanDepot Park, Japan’s Tokyo Dome, and Puerto Rico’s Hiram Bithorn Stadium in San Juan.
2. Verlander to return to action:
One of the league’s most decorated pitchers is returning from the injured list today, as the Astros are poised to hand the ball to Justin Verlander for his first start since June. The future Hall of Famer is on the 15-day IL, meaning the club will only need to make a corresponding move that clears space on the active roster to accommodate his return. He’ll square off against Red Sox righty Cooper Criswell (4.56 ERA) in Houston.
In ten starts prior to the injury, Verlander had been solid but didn’t look quite like himself, with a 3.95 ERA and 4.99 FIP. The 41-year-old’s return to the Astros rotation should supply the club with some much-needed reinforcement, given each of J.P. France, Cristian Javier, Jose Urquidy, Luis Garcia, and Lance McCullers Jr. have all been lost for the season to injury.
3. Robles injured:
For all of their offensive struggles this year, the Mariners have been extremely pleased with the performance of midseason acquisition Victor Robles. The center fielder signed with Seattle back in June after being released by the Nationals, the only club he had previously known. The change of scenery has served the 27-year-old extremely well. In 50 games with the M’s, he has slashed .280/.340/.413 (120 wRC+) while delivering quality defense in the outfield. The former top prospect’s success impressed Mariners brass enough to earn him a two-year extension that runs through the end of the 2026 season with a club option for 2027.
Unfortunately, the struggling Mariners will be losing that spark at the top of their lineup — for at least the time being. As noted by Ryan Divish of The Seattle Times, Robles suffered a hip injury when he crashed into a wall during last night’s loss to the Dodgers and is expected to miss at least tonight’s game. The loss of Robles leaves Seattle in a bit of a pickle regarding center field, as almost all of the club’s innings in center have gone to Robles or Julio Rodriguez this season. Rodriguez only recently came off the injured list and has not played the field at all since his return. If Rodriguez is unable to return to center field duties, the club could turn to Luke Raley or Dominic Canzone in center, though neither has much experience there. Raley has just 341 career innings there to Canzone’s 231 (big leagues and minors combined).
Just saw the Kia Tigers beat the Lotte Giants and Hyeon-Jong Yang set the KBO career strikeout record.
Was at an NPB game a few weeks ago.
International baseball is awesome.
Both KBO and NPB games are so much fun. I prefer the atmosphere to MLB.
MLB games exist so people can spend all their money on tickets and beer to then feel entitled to scream obscenities at the players. It’s great.
Is there any way to see these games in the US ?
You know ow Colorado would have a better pitching staff if their pitchers were any good? Same concept with Seattle’s hitters. JD was freely available to sign. Teoscar would not have been as bad as he was last year. They supposedly have great pitching prospects and Baltimore has needed pitching since before Covid. Your move, Seattle. Stop blaming the park for your team’s shortfalls.
Teoscar and his agent have said a million times over that he didn’t enjoy hitting in Seattle and had no intention of resigning there.
Why is it when I think of the M’s this year, I want to tug at one earlobe and sing, “I’m so glad we had this time together…”
That’s going way back.
I have never fully understood how players qualify for certain teams but I have seriously wondered with Israel what would constitute qualifying. I mean very few players families are actually from Israel if I’m not mistaken. Do you qualify simply by being Jewish? And why is that? No other team works that way. I guess I see it’s similar to a player with Italian heritage claiming that but “Jewish” designates a religion technically. And Italians have been living in Italy for 1000s of years so people can point there and say “my ancestors came from there in the 1930s or whatever”. Are we going on some biblical history and claiming the ancestors lived there forever ago? But anyone can convert to Judaism so my family could be Jewish for 200 years and have no roots in Israel imaginative or real. Could a person be Jewish for 20 years and qualify for the team? If not why is that any different? Please!!! don’t think I mean this in a disrespectful way. It’s fascinating to me. I’ve never understood it. Shalom.
Rishi – Players are eligible based on citizenship or family lineage.
For instance ARod was born in NYC and grew up in Miami, but because his parents are from the Dominican he had the option of playing for either the US or Dominican.
Thanks my point specifically is, based on the small amount of research I’ve done, it doesn’t seem that team Israel is held to those same rules. It may be mistakes in the articles but most articles I’ve read specify players of “Jewish descent”, which, technically, shouldn’t necessarily have anything to do with representing a country unless they have relatives from that country (especially considering that country is not exclusively Jewish anyway, and wasn’t at all until recently). My point is, as far as I’m aware, archaeological evidence doesn’t actually point to Israel being some really long lived place of ancestry for the Jewish people. I don’t claim to be an expert but most of this seems based on assumptions based on biblical writings. We can find a pharoahs used tissue practically but we cannot find evidence of these biblical Jewish settlements as far as I’ve read. So are we talking the last 70 years or so since they took the country? Because as I said most players don’t seem to have family ties to the country.
From recent memory, U.S.-born skier Eileen Gu won two gold and a silver medals for China. If the IOC allows it, I’d imagine the qualification criterias are even less stringent for a lesser event like the WBC. Some players are also motivated financially by sponsorship deals that they receive from respective countries.
@Rishi Jews have lived on that land for around 3000 years. I think in this case you would have to be ethnically Jewish and not just a casual convert. Judaism is not like Islam or Christianity where their mission is to convert the heathens. Judaism isn’t trying to win souls for salvation.
I know Judaism doesn’t get converts in the same way or degree of Christianity/Islam (to say the least). My understanding has been, perhaps wrong, that, yes, Jews have lived there for a long time which we do have evidence for but that the idea that it has been primarily Jewish throughout history was incorrect. That, when they lived there, much of the time, there were districts that were Jewish and were not Jewish (Greek, etc). Not to mention the other empires that ruled there. So my point was that they have identified it as the homeland when that may be somewhat historically accurate it is perhaps also just a matter of their perspective. Every group used to live somewhere else. Supposedly “Indo-Europeans” are from a specific area. But they migrated throughout Europe and elsewhere (Just like Jews). They don’t identify as coming from the Caspian Steppes. We can trace back Semitic languages elsewhere. Why not call those places home? Is it because Judaism was developed there supposedly. Well again that’s going strictly by religion. They identify with a certain story from a certain part of their history that gives meaning to their culture. Idk. The more I talk about this the more off topic it gets. Idk everything obviously. I am nearly pointing out that other countries don’t get to have everyone from a religio-cultural group play for their team. Again I mean no disrespect whatsoever to you or Jewish people. I view you as my friend on this site.
Rishi: I agree. I have a friend who is Jewish but he’s not an Israeli. He’s Latvian and Lithuanian. I doubt those countries even play baseball, so he could play for Israel instead just because he’s Jewish. I suppose all Catholics could form a team representing the Vatican.
He’s Latvian/Lithuanian because his Jewish ancestors were denied a homeland for so long, they were “forced to wander the earth.” After 1948, there was finally a State of Israel that Jews could call home. (What was left of them anyway after Hitler did his thing.)
As a race or ethnic group nobody is entitled to any spot of land just because their ancestors once lived on it. Other cultures have the same thing happen. It’s happened repeatedly throughout history. It practically is the story of history itself. They assimilate to other cultures. This is where the modern world comes from. But to say, we once lived here and we have connections with the Brits who somehow own this land (if I understand this correctly) and they said we can have it so now it’s called israel. I mean, how do you think they originally came upon the land if they did live there 3000 years ago. They took it over. That’s history. So do the thing you didn’t like that was done to you and that makes it right. It’s nonsense to me.
I’m not saying it’s right that that’s how history is. In many ways it’s a testament to their culture that they haven’t merely given up their culture entirely to assimilate. I mean the Greeks just took over a place and enslaved the entire population that’s not dead (some estimate half of all Greeks were enslaved). Many tribes and even modern army platoons have raaaapd the women of villages to punish and/or force assimilation.
Son: It’s called the Jewish state, but that’s not an ethnicity, it’s an religion. But you’re right about everything else in your post.
When was the last time a player was released and later signed to a multiyear extension by his new team in the same season? Has that happened before?
St Louis needs to host some of these games. That crowd would be packed and the city would shut down for it.
The city of St. Louis has been “shut down” for years now. Slowly dying, it is.
the birds: I think that would be fantastic. St. Louis is the heart of baseball. They do things other fans wouldn’t think of, like applauding Skenes when he was taken out of a game in St. Louis. The fans know and appreciate great talent.
“St. Louis is the heart of baseball. ‘
Then baseball needs a heart transplant.
The “BFIB” are only a self-proclaimed, self-perpetuating bunch of homers.
Besides the logistics not making sense, smallest non Covid crowd in Busch 3 history last night.
And yet they still had 30k fans there last night and are 7th in attendance this year despite a second consecutive disappointing season. Higher attendance than the Orioles, who are (arguably) the most exciting team in the league and have the best record in the AL
Context matters!
Considering the average high is mid 50s and the average low is in the 30s in March, St. Louis is off the board, especially at the early part of the month when the games will be played.
Can’t wait for all the spicy talk on here in 2026 when some guy injures himself during the WBC and the calls to end the WBC are everywhere. Only for those same users to turn around and be silent when another player gets injured in the regular season. Maybe we should shut down the regular season, given that so many pitchers have been injured due to it, this year.
Memo to Edwin Díaz: You’re sitting this one out, Papi.
Maybe just no jumping during any celebrations?
Well, yeah. Definitely try to jump on a flat surface.
Roll out a giant bouncy house for the players. I don’t even trust trampolines.
YBC – Considering the recent bounce house tragedy at a Maryland ballpark, I’d say that’s not a good option.
nytimes.com/2024/08/04/us/boy-killed-bounce-house.…
Dave Meltzer will probably give the games held at the Tokyo Dome seven stars.