As a USA fan it is really annoying to see the energy and excitement from every nation other than the U.S. It's like olympic basketball- you'll get a few stars but nowhere near the top team you could produce. This seems like an important event to 15 countries and a "who gives a ****" to one. (I'm not implying the player's on Team USA aren't trying their best and don't care- it's the ones that aren't there) And no one can say you are more at risk of an injury in the WBC than in spring training games.
Why would it be any different than last year? For every player than improves it stands a reasonable chance that the same amount of players will regress.
My favorite BYTO memories: trolling the Giants ESPN message board by taunting them about Liriano's greatness in 2006 by only typing in Spanish Joining a certain unnamed website using Lion King monikers as user names The day I ran into Pat Neshek while wearing my Avian Flu > Juan Castro shirt and he asked if I wrote for that website and I lied and said yes. The greatness of Haessig (also Haessig being apart of the forum for about four months and still being a top ten poster well into 2010) and Kobs arguing about the Gambler's pinetar/dirt usage StatFreak's mental midget meltdowns Trolpoisms The initial Veteran Presence photo of Castro's dropped pop up in Anaheim And of course the legendary SL--S Rule!!! thread carried over from ESPN. I'm sure I'm missing hundreds of other great moments.
There were a couple other great ones I can't believe aren't on youtube. One where he asked, "What kind of bats does you prefer- maple or wood?" And another where he was carrying on about the peanut free zone then wondered why they still cost money.
Terry has said that was his best trade ever because he didn't think he'd be able to find anyone to take a 27 year old former 20 game winner off his hands.
He did a fine job in 2002 by bringing in Mike Jackson as that final piece and 2006 he basically tried all he could to sabotage the team before it began with Castro, Batista, and RonDL.
Ken Rosenthal @Ken_Rosenthal 5m5 minutes ago Source: Castro deal with #Twins will be for three years, more than $24M. 0 replies 68 retweets 63 likes Ken Rosenthal @Ken_Rosenthal 7m7 minutes ago Source: #Twins to sign free-agent catcher Jason Castro.