00:00I want to talk about the pen for a moment because I think people going into this tournament may underestimate the value of the bullpen in this.
00:08These starting pitchers, given where it sits on the baseball calendar, are not going to go six innings.
00:14They're going to go four or five innings.
00:16This is just a way more intense spring training.
00:19The pen is really important.
00:21If you've got a seventh, eighth, and ninth, when you get to the quarters, the semis, the championship of Griffin Jacks, David Bednar, Garrett Whitlock, Mason Miller, Gary Clevenger, Brad Keller, pick your poison there.
00:35You can play some matchups.
00:37The Reaper finishing games for Team USA feels heavenly to me.
00:44There are so many incredible facets of this team.
00:48Gunnar Henderson plays second.
00:50Yeah.
00:50Gunnar Henderson, a top 18 player in Major League Baseball, just off the top of my head, is playing second base because the best shortstop in baseball, the greatest shortstop in the world, the third best overall player in the world, Bobby Wood Jr. is playing shortstop.
01:05I mean, it's really difficult to even fathom.
01:10And when you look at the betting odds, BetMGM gives Team USA about a 49% chance to win the World Baseball Classic.
01:19So it's really U.S. versus the field.
01:2224% for Japan, to put that in perspective, and Japan is number two.
01:27And then you work down the line, and it's a lot of like 15% to 10% when we're looking at the betting odds and looking at the implied probability of said betting odds.
01:35You're looking at one of the greatest bullpens to ever take the field, probably the best, right?
01:41You're looking at the greatest starting rotation, looking at the greatest one through nine in the lineup, and their bench is filled with guys that would be one of the best players on any other team in the World Baseball Classic.
01:57If they don't win this tournament, this feels like the dream team in the late 90s, the redeemed team, where they are so otherworldly loaded that anything less than a championship is a failure.
02:14That's how good the team is.
Comments