00:00I think there's another roster that's pretty darn good and can make a move in this tournament.
00:05I don't know if they can win it because of just how strong the U.S. and the D.R. and Japan are.
00:10But have you seen Venezuela's roster at this point?
00:14Venezuela is absolutely loaded.
00:18And I want to start with the lineup.
00:20William Contreras is going to catch for them.
00:23Salvador Perez, the royal, is going to D.H. for them.
00:26And then you've got William's brother, Wilson, playing first base.
00:30Gleyber Torres at second.
00:31Andres Jimenez at short.
00:33And Michael Garcia, the newly extended Kansas City Royal, just got about $80 million at the hot corner.
00:39And the outfield being Acuna, Jack Centurio, and Willier Abreu seems unfair.
00:46And oh, by the way, their bench is ridiculous.
00:49Luisa Ryes coming off the bench.
00:51Eugenio Suarez, if you need a seventh inning bomb.
00:54Ezekiel Tovar coming off the bench to play shortstop if you need.
00:57And then Javier Sonoha won the utility gold glove for the Miami Marlins this past year.
01:03That offense is superb.
01:05And then the rotation of Ranger Suarez, Pablo Lopez, Eduardo Rodriguez, and Herman Marquez.
01:10It drops off a little bit after Erod.
01:13Or it drops off a little bit after Pablo Lopez and then a lot of it after Erod.
01:17But I mean, you've got enough firepower here, I think, to make some serious noise.
01:21And in a baseball tournament, there's a lot more chance here than football.
01:25There's, I think, some more chance than basketball.
01:28You get a good start from an Erod, and he just carves up a bunch of left-handed hitters.
01:33Venezuela can make some serious noise.
01:35They absolutely can.
01:36And just because I said the United States has the best roster I've ever seen does not mean that they have now locked in to win it.
01:42When I said I think the probability they win the world baseball class is at 60%, I didn't say 100% because of teams like Venezuela who are deep throughout, even defensively.
01:54Look at this roster right now with Andres Jimenez and Michael Garcia and William Contreras and Willier Abreu and Jackson Chorio.
02:01And if Ronald Acuna Jr. buys in, we know he has the tools to be one of the better defenders in baseball.
02:06On the mound with Suarez and Lopez, it's an excellent front two.
02:11And they have a lot of guys in the bullpen who have closed or have been in a bunch of high-leverage innings in Major League Baseball.
02:17And then the bench is really, really solid.
02:19Again, I keep going back to the same point.
02:22This is why I am so excited.
02:24Venezuela is the fourth roster that we brought up so far, and they're probably a top-10 roster ever fielded in the history of baseball.
02:32That's where we're at.
02:33Look how good these teams are.
02:35I cannot wait.
02:36It's going to be so much fun.
02:38We've got about a minute left in this segment.
02:40If this team has an Achilles heel, is it their bullpen?
02:45You know, they've obviously got some guys like Daniel Palencia throwing fireballs, but it just seems like they lack the depth of the U.S. and the DR.
02:51Yes.
02:51I would say after Ranger Suarez and Pablo Lopez come in and give you their four solid innings, who's going to be covering five through seven?
02:59Because once we get to the eighth and ninth inning, I feel good about guys like Angel Zerpa or Daniel Palencia, you know, or a couple other guys back there that can manage those high-leverage innings.
03:10But how do they operate in the middle?
03:11Well, you've got to bridge.
03:12Yeah, you have to bridge there, and I don't know if they have the bridge pieces that are required, while the U.S. has Brad Keller and Matthew Boyd and Gary Clevenger if they need them, and that's awesome.
03:24And then you've got Mondi Theralta sitting there and Waskar Brazaban for the DR.
03:28So we'll see if the pitching stacks up, but I think when you look at that lineup, it's pretty darn close to what the U.S. and the Dominican Republic are rolling out.
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