"It's just an overly confident statement on 'Hot Stove,' period, the end. And it's my fault. I felt good about where we were after Mexico. New lease on life for the boys, certainly. I put ourselves in a tough spot. Tip our hat to Vinnie Pasquantino and Italy, truly. Went into that game a little overly confident and got a huge wake-up call."
"DeRosa had made that remark on MLB Network's "Hot Stove" before the 8-6 loss to Italy on Tuesday that caused the U.S. to lose control of its WBC fate. The U.S. still advanced to a Friday quarterfinal matchup with Canada thanks to Italy's 9-1 win over Mexico on Wednesday."
"DeRosa said he wanted to give starts to Ernie Clement and Paul Goldschmidt because they could end up playing major roles off the bench at some point. He also said he was limited in which pitchers he could use because of "guardrails" set by MLB teams, who typically restrict how much their players throw at the WBC due to injury concerns."
Manager Mark DeRosa addressed his premature comment on MLB Network's "Hot Stove" claiming the United States had already secured a World Baseball Classic quarterfinal spot before facing Italy. The U.S. lost 8-6 to Italy on Tuesday, forcing the team to rely on tiebreakers for advancement. DeRosa characterized his statement as an "overly confident" mistake and acknowledged the team entered the Italy game with excessive confidence after defeating Mexico. Despite the loss, the U.S. advanced to face Canada in the quarterfinals after Italy defeated Mexico 9-1. DeRosa explained his lineup decisions, including benching star players like Bryce Harper and Alex Bregman, were made to give other players opportunities and were constrained by MLB team restrictions on pitcher usage.
#world-baseball-classic #manager-accountability #team-strategy-and-lineup-decisions #sports-confidence-and-performance
Read at ESPN.com
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]