World Baseball Classic Rosters are out, and 5 Angels will be playing

Many of you have probably seen the rosters by now, and there have been several links to them on HH. Here are the five Angels players that will be in the WBC:

1. Andrelton Simmons - The Netherlands
2. Deolis Guerra - Venezuela
3. Yusmeiro Petit - Venezuela
4. Jose Alvarez - Venezuela
5. Sam Holland - Australia

Some of you might be saying “Simmons is from the Netherlands?” Well, he’s from Curacao, a Dutch Caribbean island. MOST of you are probably also asking “who is Sam Holland?” Holland is 22 and played A ball (regular and high) last year and had a 0.83 ERA in 43.1 total innings with a .151 BAA and 0.67 WHIP. Holland has a career 2.51 ERA in the minors though 4 seasons and 172 innings.

Some thoughts on the teams at the WBC and MLB players (since I don’t know most of the Cuban, Japanese, Korean, etc. players):

Best Catcher
USA - Buster Posey

Best First Baseman
USA - Paul Goldschmidt

Best Second Baseman
Venezuela - Jose Altuve

Best Shortstop
The Netherlands - Andrelton Simmons
USA - Brandon Crawford

Best Third Baseman
USA - Nolan Arenado
Dominican Republic - Manny Machado

Best Outfield
USA - Adam Jones, Christian Yelich, Giancarlo Stanton, Andrew McCutchen
Dominican Republic - Starling Marte, Jose Bautista, Gregory Polanco, Nelson Cruz

Best Pitching Staff
Dominican Republic - Johnny Cueto, Carlos Martinez, Jeurys Familia, Dellin Betances
USA - Chris Archer, Marcus Stroman, Andrew Miller, David Roberston

The USA has a pretty stacked team, but I think the Dominican Republic has a better pitching staff, and probably the edge as well. Even though I don’t know many of the players on the teams like Japan, China, etc., you can’t count out Japan either since they won in 2006 and 2009. The Dominican Republic won in 2013. Runner-ups have included Cuba (2006), South Korea (2009), and Puerto Rico (2013).

Who do you all think has the best team at the WBC?