00:00Let's talk about some other teams here in the WBC as we round it out.
00:03Puerto Rico, stage results here, Craig.
00:063-1 overall, knocked off Colombia 5-0, Panama 4-3, Cuba 4-1,
00:10before taking a loss to Canada here in a 3-2 game.
00:13Puerto Rico did show out.
00:15We'll get to some of those results in the knockout stage.
00:17But their group stage, Craig, pretty good.
00:19Yeah, and this was a team, obviously, that was not playing at full strength,
00:22missing Altuve and Correa, Lindor, and some others.
00:25I think that you've got to give them a lot of credit for the way that they played.
00:28Unfortunately, they just ran into the hot team in Italy.
00:30But as you mentioned, in the pool stage, winning three out of four,
00:33nothing to complain about.
00:35Thought Yadier Molina did a great job as manager.
00:37I would assume that he'll be back for the next one.
00:39And I would guess that Puerto Rico, when we see them next time around in four years,
00:43will be at probably better strength.
00:45I think the only question is that people are bringing up, Donny, this time,
00:48is that, yes, they did not have those players that I mentioned.
00:52Not Altuve. Why did I mention Altuve? He's from Venezuela.
00:54Well, Correa and Lindor, the one thing that's funny is everyone seems to forget
01:01that in four years from now, how old are these guys, right?
01:03Like, it could be a new crop of young players that are playing in this.
01:07But credit to Puerto Rico for getting this far.
01:10Yeah, great fan base as well.
01:12Let's take a look at Italy because I'm just so surprised by this, Craig.
01:15You know, the talk of all season long.
01:17Hey, will Miami of Ohio get into the tournament since they were undefeated?
01:20And you say to yourself, well, they didn't play that good of a schedule here.
01:23You can't say that for Italy, Craig.
01:25It wasn't like they played, you know, the Netherlands four straight games
01:27or Great Britain four straight games.
01:29Yes, they beat Brazil and Great Britain.
01:30But they also beat Team USA and Mexico and handled Mexico handily 9-1.
01:36That's the fascinating part.
01:37The expectations not ultimately high.
01:39It's like, oh, wait till they play a real team.
01:41No, they played two really good teams and beat them both, Craig.
01:45Yeah, my buddy Jazz said Great Britain was going to shock the world.
01:48I think he should have played for Italy then because that's the team that he shocked.
01:52And Mexico is no slouch there either.
01:55So, yeah, look, you're absolutely right.
01:56And, you know, the thing that comes out of this also, I mentioned Yadier Molina,
02:00who was a slam dunk choice, obviously, for Team Puerto Rico anywhere.
02:03But let's also throw some love here to Francisco Cervelli,
02:07who has done an excellent job here for Team Italy as the manager there.
02:11And what happens is, you know, we talk about Mark DeRosa for Team USA.
02:15And I think regardless of, you know, and I love DeRosa as a person,
02:19and I think he was a great player.
02:20He has a lot of fun on TV.
02:21But I think it's probably a foregone conclusion.
02:22We're not going to see him the next time the World Baseball Classic comes in four years.
02:27I mean, you can stamp Francisco Cervelli's name on Italy no matter what happens moving forward.
02:33So, as you said, yes, correct.
02:35They definitely came together as a team.
02:38I know it's cliche, but they're saying that over and over again.
02:41So, I got to buy it every once in a while.
02:42I'll buy it this time.
02:43Great job by Team Italy, obviously.
02:45Hey, you notice we're buying, too.
02:47Getting into the knockout stage in the quarterfinal.
02:49Italy, an 8-6 victory over Puerto Rico.
02:51So, the winning just keeps continuing.
02:53And the one thing that's funny, Craig, if you just look at the highlights,
02:55you think that, you know, Vinny Pasquantino's hitting 800 throwing the WBC.
02:59His power stroke was there, but only hitting 211.
03:01But this team just continuously comes up with big hit after big hit.
03:05And also, they had an 8-2 lead against Puerto Rico.
03:08The four runs in the top of the eighth by Puerto Rico sort of put the gas pedal back on
03:12there.
03:12And they were still able to hold up.
03:14This team is winning at all costs.
03:15And quite frankly, they're a fun team to watch right now.
03:18Yeah.
03:19And look, we'll see what happens moving forward with this.
03:22But again, when you get players, you know, I think, honestly, Donnie, four years ago,
03:28you wouldn't have got the same talent of players on a lot of these teams, Italy included.
03:32And so they just simply would have stayed with their major league teams.
03:36And a lot of these guys, too, Donnie, you have to remember this, younger, playing for a roster spot.
03:42So what did that equate to four years ago?
03:44It equated to why would I go play in the WBC, leave my team?
03:48How are they going to feel about me when I come back?
03:50Am I going to lose playing time?
03:51Is someone going to play better than me?
03:53Credit to them for getting a lot of these guys to participate and play.
03:57I can't wait to see what happens with them on Monday night, too.
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