00:00vibe check on team USA compared to everybody else and also are the criticisms even fair at this
00:05point yeah I mean look a little bit Donnie of it I think is overblown uh and and by the
00:10way I think
00:11it's actually less business for team USA it seems like the other team's emotions have really carried
00:16them throughout this especially when you see how Dominican Republic and team Venezuela have fared
00:21thus far uh look I don't think it's something to be overly concerned with but I think it's been
00:25very obvious even before that the United States came up short against Italy that they just simply
00:31aren't as good I think as the other two teams two of those teams Venezuela and Dominican Republic
00:36I was surprised how big of a favorite they were against Canada and certainly it's very different
00:41from a sports betting perspective when you're seeing minus four and a half runs minus seven
00:45and a half runs it's not something that normally people see that they have those betting options
00:50during the regular season of Major League Baseball but team USA has not covered any of those like
00:55football lines so to speak and uh the fortunate part for them going into Sunday night is they have
01:02arguably the best pitcher or the second best pitcher of baseball in Paul Skeen so that certainly
01:06uh could be the equalizer but as of right now I think the Ozmakers are a little short on how
01:12they feel
01:12about team USA I definitely think the Dominican Republic is alive uh tonight and I think Venezuela
01:18definitely live against Italy and it just seems to me that probably team USA has a
01:25chance to win it all but I I definitely do not think that they are the favorite right now Donnie
01:30I
01:30I mean I know the odds tell us that but I don't think so I'll tell you the interesting point
01:34about
01:34this too Craig because if we flip it over as you mentioned like Paul Skeens has been spectacular just
01:38as we anticipated but the the allure of team USA heading in was once you got to the knockout stages
01:44how you gonna deal with Skeens and also Tarek Scoble who Scoble technically would have been in line to
01:49start the final if USA makes it there but as we know Scoble goes back to Detroit throw 61 pitches
01:54I'm gonna ask you this question Craig because it comes up a lot like I could see if Scoble left
01:58it's like I'm not pitching until opening day which we know is not going to happen you ramp up in
02:02spring
02:02training but seeing Skeens out here pitching on the mound and then knowing Scoble went back to the
02:07Grapefruit League and threw 61 pitches as opposed to doing that here in the WBC did you have any issue
02:12with that or just the perception of what's going on yeah I personally did not because again it's very
02:18hard for me to put myself in someone's shoes that's eight months away from breaking the all-time
02:23record for the highest contract in a pitcher for a pitcher in Major League Baseball and listen you
02:27can like Scott Boris Donnie or not like him it just that really doesn't make a difference there's no
02:32question that he sat down with Scoble and said hey look you know I'm not going to stop you from
02:36doing anything you want that's what you do for the client but the client in the end had to look
02:41at
02:41this and say hey is there some inherent risk we saw what happened with Suzuki he got hurt in this
02:46we saw
02:47Kyle Teal the catcher he got hurt in this too and then you know to some degree others as well
02:51but
02:51Donnie my overall takeaway for people on that would be as follows does anybody remember the last world
02:58baseball classic or the one before that where we had to beg to get anybody to even participate in this
03:04thing I don't know it seems to me as far as that is concerned Team USA should have on paper
03:11enough
03:11pitching to get through this I mean Venezuela asked Jesus Lozardo to come pitch in the semis he's not
03:17going to do it either so I personally don't have an indictment on it the problem was is that Scoble
03:23after his last start of the WBC was asked about it and I don't think that he was fully prepared
03:28to
03:28answer the question but that was predetermined even going in
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