00:00Tell me who Team Italy is.
00:02I mean, they've been one of the surprises in this tournament.
00:04No, I mean, really a great showing.
00:07Obviously, the upset over the American team.
00:10Who's Team Italy?
00:12You know, it's funny.
00:13It's kind of a ragtap group, but they play very hard for their manager.
00:17He's making a push to be the Yankees manager one day, I think, Cervelli.
00:21But, you know, with Italy and this game against Puerto Rico,
00:25I wouldn't count out Italy here.
00:27They have a young lefty on the mound.
00:29He's in the Angels minor league system.
00:30But Puerto Rico really hasn't hit much.
00:32I don't think they've exceeded four runs in their last few games.
00:35So, you know, their bats are kind of asleep right now.
00:38And if they're not careful, Italy could, you know, with a couple of errors
00:41or something that, you know, goes sideways,
00:44there could be a little pressure on them.
00:45I would expect Puerto Rico to win.
00:47They do have, you know, higher pedigree, obviously, than Italy.
00:49But I would not be completely shocked if Italy gives them a good game
00:52and maybe pulls off a surprise.
00:55How good is Team Italy?
00:56Or, excuse me, how good is Team Japan here?
00:59With Otani, you just mentioned them, you know, Yamamoto and all those dudes.
01:03I mean, that's just a great-looking baseball team now.
01:06Are they the team to beat, in your opinion, one of the top three teams,
01:10Dominican, USA, and this Japan team?
01:12How good?
01:14Yeah, I think they are.
01:16But interestingly enough, the odds on them, I think they're the third choice,
01:20three and a half, four to one, which was pretty interesting to me.
01:24And I think a lot of that has to do with once they clear Yamamoto, you know,
01:27he's pitching next.
01:28I think they have the pitching advantage, you know, today.
01:32Ranger Suarez is not a guy I'm very confident in,
01:36in terms of shutting down Team Japan.
01:38I think this will come down to the bullpens like a lot of these games do.
01:41But, you know, Japan's going to be very tough to beat.
01:43But if you get the right pitcher up there to, you know,
01:46quell those hitters a little bit, Japan's very beatable.
01:49So, again, it's going to be very interesting how all this pans out.
01:53You've got the big three, Dominican, USA, Japan.
01:56But don't count out Venezuela either.
01:57I think Venezuela, you know, they've got some good hitters on that team.
02:01They can pull a surprise as well.
02:03So it's going to be very fun to see how this ends up.
02:05Who do you think has been the MVP in this tournament so far?
02:09I mean, if you look at, you know, the guys that have performed in this,
02:13I saw Soto with a really nice play at the plate.
02:15You know, I've seen some really great players.
02:17I'll tell you what, the guy who got out to a great start,
02:19I know it was exhibition against the Tigers and it was Junior Caminero,
02:23but there's so many good players in this tournament.
02:26In your opinion, who is the MVP so far?
02:29Yeah, I think you probably have to lean Soto.
02:31But I think that's obviously, Dan, that's going to be determined here
02:35over the next, you know, couple games here in the semis and the final, I think.
02:39But right now, Soto would be the one.
02:41But again, you know, Shohei hits another bomb or two.
02:44He's going to, you know, crank right back up.
02:46You know, a lot of people are thinking Aaron Judge, you know, is waiting to explode.
02:50So I think the MVP race, given the odds right now,
02:54it's a fun thing to get involved in because, you know,
02:57you're at five to one or higher with a bunch of these guys.
02:59And really, what you're going to look at is the performance over the next couple games.
03:03Because right now, it's, you know, all the horses are heading to the finish line,
03:07five, six in a row.
03:08So we'll see at the end who comes out on top.
03:11But I don't think you could go wrong with Shohei, Aaron Judge, or Soto at the odds right now.
03:15But anyone could pop.
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