Why the World Baseball Classic Makes MLB Spring Training Better
Many are big fans of the World Baseball Classic, which kicked off early Monday morning, but there are other things about the WBC that makes spring training great for the rest of MLB
As a Braves fan, it has been difficult to find the team thus far in the spring, with just a pair of the 10 games that the Braves have played being televised, even on MLB.tv or MLB.com.
So, when a game was broadcast on Sunday, many Braves fans jumped at the opportunity to watch, and then noticed that there was a significantly different group of guys wearing the Braves jersey.
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While starter Mike Foltynewicz is a guy that many expect to see in Atlanta this season, on the field this day was more an example of the Rome Braves team that was selected as Baseball America’s minor league team of the year for 2016 rather than the team that is expected in Atlanta in 2017.
In fact, players like Patrick Weigel, Ronald Acuna, Jonathan Morales and Ray-Patrick Didder played the majority of their seasons in Rome in 2016. So these guys appearing in Sunday’s major league spring training game played mostly low-A baseball in 2016.
Why is this happening?
The Braves are not alone. The Braves had a number of players who left their camp over the weekend to join with their respective World Baseball Classic teams, as did many teams.
This has led to a lot of minor league players who weren’t originally part of that over-emphasized “non-roster invitee” list that began spring training joining in major league camps right now.
For a prospect hound like me, this is awesome stuff as it’s a chance to see a prospect like Ronald Acuna face off against legitimate major league pitchers that are still in camp or a prospect like Weigel face off against a major league hitter.
It did lead to sloppy baseball in this particular game, as it seemed Braves third baseman Collin Walsh had a hole in his glove. Multiple balls were tipped or misplayed, leading to an eight-run inning for the Red Sox on a number of what ended up being scored as hits, but really were fielding misplays by the defense.
However, this “sloppy” baseball is nothing new to spring training baseball. Even the best major leaguers make plenty of sloppy plays in the spring, and prospects coming up and doing similar is no different.
Next: Top Prospects Open Spring
So take this opportunity to see some of the future of the game over the next week or so while your favorite team’s players are with their WBC teams. It’s a rare opportunity to see that sort of prospect/MLB interaction that makes it so fun to realize the level of performance required for those prospects to end up making their MLB clubs.