Reese Kaplan -- Suppose Your Best Employees Left for Over 2 Weeks

Manager Buck Showalter has been vocal about his concern regarding the upcoming World Baseball Classic with already a dozen Mets players committed to participate. Instead of showing gratitude for civic and national pride for the players representing the countries of their ancestral origin, he's more agitated about the loss of personnel from his spring training rosters.

This year the World Baseball Classic will begin its own version of a preseason on March 5th for pairs of warm up games against an assortment of competitors prior the actual beginning of the tournament which will commence on March 8th.

Now anyone with a calendar and a functioning brain will immediately conclude with exasperation, "Hey! That's right in the middle of spring training!"

Now you too have had your own Buck Showalter moment.

So what is the purpose of this tournament and why does it take place while including known major league ballplayers?

In a word, marketing.

Huh?

Well, back up and ask why this tournament exists? Other sports like soccer and hockey have similar global gatherings to put their best of the best on display. They accomplish two things with this approach.

First, putting a household name with premium skills on display lets otherwise ill-served market of prospective baseball fans a once-in-a-lifetime chance to enjoy and respect the best arms, bats and gloves available anywhere in the world. This appreciation will help fortify the efforts of MLB to market itself to a wider audience.

Wait, won't that mean more demand for teams and leagues places further afield than Toronto (and at one time Montreal)? Wouldn't more teams mean more revenue from paying fans who demand seats, snacks and souvenirs?

Second, when aspiring ballplayers in these offshore locations see that they may not have to uproot themselves to play in Peoria working their way towards a hopeful career in the major leagues, you may find inexpensive athletes readily honing their skills with the avenue of playing closer to home. That approach swells the pool of talent for future draft picks and again helps market the game not only for today but also for the future.

There is a third issue with the WBC which people seem almost afraid to discuss openly. Given that real spring training begins in about a week from now, that gives a winter of lack of formal training and exercise not a whole lot of time to prepare for the more than 200 days that follow it for the marathon duration of the rest of preparatory work and the season that follows.

So what happens when you take a prematurely briefly prepared ballplayer and ask him to give his 100% all running, throwing and swinging at maximum effort when the now allowed warm up schedule is only about three weeks? The risk of injury would surely seem to increase just as most of the rest of us know that doing a strenuous activity after not having used those muscles for awhile know they will be in for pain and discomfort for quite awhile.

Anyone of us who has stretched a ligament, torn a muscle, broken a bone or placed such undue strain on a body part that requires total isolation from repeated activity in that area for an extended period of time.

Now if you are an accountant and have a support brace on a part of your body it won't really stop you from participating in your career. If, however, you are a professional athlete and cannot engage in athletics then you are an expensive paperweight on a team's payroll rather than an active participant in trying to win games.

So aside from the "Who cares?" attitude about the whole World Baseball Classic, is this monstrosity that has existed since 2017 and interfered with MLB spring training mean it is a good thing for the teams that populate the North American major leagues or is it only a good thing for the people who profit from the business of baseball?

Well, the non-roster invitees, minor league blue chippers and other MLB wannabes who wear baseball uniforms get a much bigger opportunity to show what they are capable of doing while playing far more innings than they would normally get the chance to do. While it's a good thing the team can get an extended up front and personal look at them, let's just hope it's not at the expense of a long term absence from an injured WBC participant.