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Last night's World Baseball Classic offered a familiar scene to it. Japan once again edging out the world with their pitching as Daisuke Matsuzaka was named the WBC's Most Valuable Player. Today, we take a look at the best of the WBC. Some of these players are already major leaguers, some you might see someday soon in America. Here's our list:
NOTE: There is a minimum 10 at-bats and 9 innings pitched to be eligible.
OF - Frederich Cepeda, Cuba - Are you kidding me? You could not ask for a better performance than 3 HRs, 10 RBIs and batting .500 in 6 games.
OF - Yoennis Cespedes, Cuba - He was 11/24 with 2 homers and drove in 5 runs in 6 games. OF - Karim Garcia, Mexico - Actually had more HR/AB than Cepeda. He hit 3 homeruns in 5 games. SS - Jimmy Rollins, USA - In 8 games, Rollins stole 4 bags, had 4 RBI and one HR. Oh, he also batted .400. 3B - Bum Ho Lee, Korea - Before the championship, he was 8 for 20 with 3 HRs and 7 RBIs in 8 Games. 2B - Jose Lopez, Venezuela - In 7 games, he batted .400 with 2 HRs and 4 RBIs.
1B - Carlos Delgado, Puerto Rico - So much for starting slow, Delgado hit 2 HRs for 5 RBIs and even stole a base in 6 games.
C - Ivan Rodriguez, Puerto Rico - In an audition for some MLB teams, I-Rod hit 2 HRs for 6 RBIs and had 6 runs scored while batting .500 in 6 games. Congratulations Astros!
P - Jung Keun Bong, Korea - Hard to give him credit with the 6 walks compared to 4 strikeouts, but you cannot ignore the 2-0 record with 0.51 ERA in 17.2 innings of work.
P - Suk-min Yoon, Korea - There is a reason Japan and Korea were in the final, and that is pitching. Suk-min was 2-0 with 1.13 ERA in 16 innings with 13 Ks.
P - Daisuke Matsuzaka, Japan - Would not be the All-WBC Team without the MVP? Daisuke was 3-0 with a 2.45 ERA before the championship with 13 strikeouts to boot in 14.2 innings. P - Yu Darvish, Japan - One of the most highly touted international players deserves every bit of hype. He is 22 years old and now is 2-1 in the WBC with 2.08 ERA and here is the best part...20 Ks through 13 innings of work. P - Norge Vera, Cuba - This guy looked good and he proved good with a 2-0 record with a 1.69 ERA with 11 punchouts in 10.2 innings in the WBC.
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