Most major league teams cringe at the thought of their young players going off to play in the MLB dogma called the World Baseball Classic. The WBC was the marketing brainchild of Selig's crew in order to grow the game of baseball internationally. If they believed it would turn into a World Cup Soccer for Baseball, they were mistaken. The WBC has the impact of a splinter on a pitcher's non-throwing hand.
And how the teams are made shows the lack of pure international sport. Anthony Rizzo was born and raised in the United States. But because a grandparent lived in Italy or his last name is Italian, he was offered a position on the Italy squad. And he took it. Manager Dale Sveum said it would be a good experience for him.
The Cubs have invested a lot in Rizzo to be the cornerstone of the team for the next decade. As a power hitting first baseman who will bat in the middle of the order, it is important that Rizzo be successful or the rebuilding house of cards fall. The only organizational competition for his position is Dan Vogelbach, the power hitting Class A first baseman. So there is little internal pressure on Rizzo's job security.
Most teams do not want their players to play in the WBC because even though it is a glorified exhibition series, the intensity level is ramped up a notch. Players are under the control of non-team managers and trainers. Players may push themselves to play more or harder. It disrupts the rhythm and training for a player's regular season.
The Cubs gave Rizzo the opportunity to join team Italy. Rizzo played well in his 5 WBC games. He finished without an injury. At the plate he went 4-for-17, including a couple of doubles, scored 4 runs, drove in some clutch RBI (6) and walked 5 times vs. 3 strikeouts. His five walks led the team. His 6 RBI and .409 on-base percentage ranked second-best on the squad.
But more important was that Rizzo was on an underdog team that overachieved during the tournament. The Italians unexpectly won their first two games in round 1 defeating Mexico 6-5 and Canada 14-4. Then they nearly won both their games in round 2 against better teams, but eventually fell in thrilling one-run losses to the Dominican 5-4 and Puerto Rico 4-3.
The experience of "winning" was the valuable lesson that Rizzo received by playing in this year's WBC. Players still need to learn "how" to win as a team. Teams that have year after year of losing seasons don't know how to win; they subconsciously accept losing as a way of life. It creates a permanent downward spiral of losing seasons (i.e. Kansas City). The WBC at least gave Rizzo a taste of success to tell his young teammates about during the course of another losing Cub season.
