Initial World Baseball Classic Roster Announced

Major League Baseball announced the 60-man US World Baseball Classic roster yesterday with several players on the Mets and Yankees named as possible team members. The US list includes Johnny Damon, Derek Jeter, Al Leiter, and Alex Rodriguez. The Mets have Paul Lo Duca, Billy Wagner and David Wright on the US players listed. While the 60-person list is a list of players that can play in the tournament, the eventual roster must be trimmed to 30 players the day before tournament play.

In addition to the local players on the US team, some are current and former players are on the teams of other nations. Some notable players include Chien-Ming Wang is on the Chinese Taipei team, Robinson Cano, Victor Diaz, Pedro Martinez, Jose Reyes, and Alex Rodriguez on the Domican Republic team, Mike Piazza on Italy, Carlos Beltran, Carlos Delgado, Ruben Sierra, and Bernie Williams for Puerto Rico.

It might be surprising that A-Rod turns up on both the United States and Dominican Republic teams, but until yesterday, neither team knew if Rodriguez would play, and if he did which team he would play for. After MLB pressured him to make a decision, he finally announced that he would play and he would represent the United States.

A look at the rosters for a few of the teams and you see that there are some obvious favorites. With Cuba excluded (George Vescey says it's no Classic without them), the United States, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic look like the best teams so far.