What Baseball Classic?

Yeah, it's still going on....

• ...and Sue's will be there! OBJ will be live from Chavez Ravine liveblogging the game between two-smoke cigarette breaks and bi-inning trips to the beer kiosks. Expect the recap to appear on this here site somewhere around Easter.
  

• With Japan and Korea on some international baseball domination shit, their translators are working overtime. That's the only explanation I can muster up as to why they can't issue smoother translations than these doozies:

"I have very high respect for American baseball," (Japanese manager) Hara said. "There is a great opportunity in front of us."

"Is there a rule?" Hara said when asked to name his starter against the Americans. "I'd like to refrain from reciting it and give them an advantage."

"Today, we didn't put that great of meaning toward winning or losing," South Korean manager Kim In-sik said.

"It was a tense moment," (Japaneese pinch hitter) Ogasawara said. "I was getting ready and the one opportunity was there and I walked right into it. I was tenacious. I was able to produce something."

Plaschke would have a field day with those guys.

• Jake Peavy has been lit up in two starts against Canada and Puerto Rico. Ergo, he has been scratched from starting tomorrow night's semifinal against Japan in favor of the more effective thus-far Roy Oswalt. Oswalt will square off against Dice-K, who is the f'n MJ of the WBC, apparantly. Peavy in all likelihood will start the Championship Game, should the U.S. get past Japan.
  

• So Chipper Jones, Kevin Youkilis, Dustin Pedroia and Matt Lindstrom have to leave the U.S. team with injuries, David Wright and Ryan Braun are banged up, so the U.S. responds by adding Evan Longoria and Brian Roberts in response. What the hell kind of replacement system is this?
  

• In their last game against the Venezuelans, Team U.S.A. was undone by a couple of Adam Dunn errors (ESPN headline writers woulda had a field day with that one) at first base. Dunn was filling in at first due to Yook's injury, and Mark DeRosa will work at first from here on out. This was the exact same situation that the Dominicans found themselves facing in Round 1, and it cost them a game against the Netherlands. Where the hell are all the first basemen? Since when did this become a position that a GM putting together a team would forget? When did playing first become an injury risk? Bah. The U.S. downgrading at first from Youkilis to DeRosa in a matter of two games hurts.
  

• I love Chipper and the fact he's played in both WBC's, but I found these comments amusing. If he thinks he'll be a part of the 2013 U.S. team as a 41-year-old, he won't have to worry about sticking around in one city too long, because that team will be bounced pretty early.
  

• My pick to win it all (as if that matters): Venezuela. A lineup that's straight mashing, and Felix Hernandez is already pitching at his pre-June best. If Carlos Silva can hold fort against a surprisingly strong Korean squad led by former Mr. I-gotta-Get-His-Jersey Brave Jung Bong, the Venezuelans should win it all, as their lineup is outslugging everyone's right now.