Worth It?

The good news about the WBC is it can serve as a continuation of spring training, with a dash of regular-season pressure thrown in. Produce here, and you have a chance of producing in the bigs come June. Bad news? Injuries. Kyle Teel homered and doubled Tuesday night for Team Italy, only to suffer a hamstring injury running to second; he’s expected to be out four-six weeks. The hamstring’s a hamstring, and it could just as easily have been pulled in Arizona. Still, what happens when an MLB player suffers a knee injury for Team Whatever? Which leads me to Bryce Harper’s stated desire to play baseball in the Summer Olympics one day for Team USA. Yeah, the injuries won’t count, right? And MLB won’t be tempted to switch the World Series to a neutral site because the season shuts down for two weeks. Game Seven on Thanksgiving, anyone? But, like I said, at least the WBC offers a plus-version of spring training. Sam Antonacci, Teel’s teammate on Team Italy, has a homerun to go with three RBIs. He also performed an Oscar-worthy deek last night at shortstop, diving for a flyball that centerfielder Jakob Marsee made an easy catch on. Baserunner Joey Ortiz was off with the pitch, and the deek convinced Ortiz to keep running to third. Marsee threw the ball back in for an easy double play. White Sox GM Chris Getz said he was proud of how well Teel and Antonacci have done, but I wonder. Getz keeps saying Antonacci won’t make the Opening Day roster. Why not? Because starting him at second would constitute an admission that he overvalued Chase Meidroth’s talent in the Garrett Crochet deal? Perish the thought.