Every four years the world of baseball has a tournament called the World Baseball Classic (WBC), and the tournament is organized by the World Baseball Classic Inc. (WBCI). WBCI is a partnership between Major League Baseball (MLB) and the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA).
20 countries are chosen to play. For a country to play, they are looked at by their previous qualifying tournament performances (top 16) or winning regional qualifiers. Each country chooses their players that are ethical to the country, players that are picked are looked at for their high-level performance, positional versatility, international eligibility and willingness to compete.
Each team must have great players that can do their job and work together. The US team is full of All-Stars.
The pitchers include: Paul Skenes of the Pittsburgh Pirates, Tarik Skubal of the Detroit Tigers, Logan Webb of the San Francisco Giants, Clayton Kershaw who’s retired from the Dodgers, Mason Miller of the San Diego Padres, David Bednar of the New York Yankees, Clay Holmes of the New York Mets, Griffin Jax of the Tampa Bay Rays, Joe Ryan of the Minnesota Twins, Michael Wacha of the Kansas City Royals, Matthew Boyd of the Chicago Cubs, Garrett Whitlock of the Boston Red Sox, Nolan McLean of the New York Mets, Garrett Cleavinger of the Tampa Bay Rays, Gabe Speier of the Seattle Mariners, Brad Keller of the Philadelphia Phillies and Ryan Yarbrough of the New York Yankees.
Catchers are Cal Raleigh from the Seattle Mariners and Will Smith from the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Infielders include: Bryce Harper (1B) of the Philadelphia Phillies, Paul Goldschmidt (1B) of the New York Yankees, Bobby Witt Jr. (SS) of the Kansas City Royals, Gunnar Henderson (3B/SS) of the Baltimore Orioles, Alex Bregman (3B) of the Chicago Cubs, Brice Turang (2B) of the Milwaukee Brewers and Ernie Clement (INF) of the Toronto Blue Jays.
Outfielders include: Aaron Judge, Captain, from the New York Yankees, Byron Buxton from the Minnesota Twins, Pete Crow-Armstrong from the Chicago Cubs, Roman Anthony from Boston Red Sox and Kyle Schwarber from the Philadelphia Phillies.
Team USA was on a winning streak with their record being three to zero. The team went against Brazil as their first game on March 6, winning with a 15 to five final score. The USA then went against Great Britain and Mexico on March 7 and 9, beating both teams with a final score of nine to one against Great Britain and five to three against Mexico. March 10, USA then lost to team Italy with the final score being six to eight. Starting the tournament strong with a three-to-zero record now a three-to-one record.
Though Team USA lost, they still advanced in the quarterfinals after Italy and beat Mexico with a final score of nine to one on March 11. Now, Friday, March 13, Team USA will have a chance to go against Team Canada at 8 p.m. EST on Fox, and possibly have a chance to redeem themselves against Italy or even win it all.
