VLOG: THE JUSTIN STEELE SHOW

I wish Narco was the background music.

Hello Viewers and Non-Viewers! Finally back to back good videos. I hadn’t heard of Justin Steele until recently. But I looked at his stats and said holy shit, he’s Edwin Diaz opposite twin. So I obviously had to jump on a video about him, comparing him to Diaz. This Steele kid could win a Cy Young for real tho, keep an eye on his stats.

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Thanks to Baseball Reference and Baseball Savant for the charts and statistics! 

World Baseball Classic: Amazing Baseball

I hope you watched the World Baseball Classic (WBC) in 2023 because if you missed the past two weeks, then you missed a lot of great baseball. That is my overall takeaway from this tournament. Nearly every was interesting in some way and offered some kind of drama. In terms of upsets, there weren’t too many but Mexico and Australia both made it past previous points they hadn’t been. This post isn’t necessarily a recap, it will be just a few thoughts I have about the WBC. I’ll start with some teams that were impressive in semifinals/finals. Then I’ll move on to the injury and timing controversies. Last, I want to talk about how great this tournament is for baseball.

Japan emerges Victorious!

We’ll start with obviously amazing semifinals and championship game. In the semifinals you had USA vs. Venezuela which featured the Trea Turner show. On the other side you had Japan vs. Mexico which featured the Randy Arozarena show. In the USA vs. Venezuela game, there was drama as it went back and forth. But in the 8th inning down by two, Trea Turner hits go-ahead grand slam to clinch a ticket to the finals. In the Japan vs. Mexico match, Randy makes an amazing catch and clutch hits for Mexico. But Japan’s superior hitting skills overcome, with a walkoff double to punch their ticket to the finals. In the finals, we can get a back and forth homerun competition, with the USA and Japan trading blows. But in the sweetest ending of all, All-World Superstar Pitcher/DH Shohei Ohtani faces his LA Angels teammate, future Hall of Famer Mike Trout in the bottom of the 9th with two outs. In the most incredible at-bat, Ohtani throws a third strike nasty slider to strikeout Trout to end the game. All time moment between the best players to ever play.

Edwin Diaz and Jose Altuve Injured!

After beating the Dominican Republic in the last game of Pool play, Puerto Rico celebrated on the field because they were headed to the quarterfinals. However in an unfortunate and freaky turn of events, Mets star closer Edwin Diaz fell to the ground with a hurt knee. It turn out that while celebrating Diaz tore a tendon in his knee. This was devastating news to Mets fans and Puerto Rico fans. Diaz is out for the season. Another injury occured to Jose Altuve, although less severe. While playing against the USA in the quarterfinal, Altuve was hit in the hand by Rockies closer Daniel Bard. In another unfortunate turn of events, it broke his hand. Altuve’s timeline to return is eight to ten weeks.

The controversy here is that people are arguing these two players may not have gotten injured if they sat out the WBC. However, the counter argument is that you could injured almost anywhere. I think it’s a two part problem, one problem is you can get injured anywhere. You can’t fix that. The second problem is the timing of the WBC. It may seem counter-intuitive but moving it during the All Star break or after the season might be better. I just think that many players coming from a spring training environment (Relaxed) to a adrenaline filled playoff, game 7 of the World Series environment (stressed) is probably a little jarring physically. Plus the fact that pitchers aren’t necessarily built up and stretched out. I just think the level of play could be much higher with better timing. Also in mid-season, there is less chance of over-working injuries.

Conclusion-Great for Baseball!

The WBC was absolutely one of the best two weeks of baseball I’ve ever watched. Trust me, I watched nearly part of every single game. The environment in Pool A, located in Taiwan was electric and exciting. The quarter, semi and finals were all amazing games with huge moments. Even players expressed that WBC was something above even a normal playoff/world series game. I think it would be in the interests of MLB to make this tournament more accessible. They should advertise it and push players to participate. With the right marketing and a large number of MLB, NPB, KBO and other leagues’ stars it could be something similar to the FIFA World Cup. They might even think about expanding the field although I felt like 20 teams was plenty. But overall I just thought was an entertaining and very watchable two weeks of baseball. I’m really looking forward to 2026.

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