NEW YORK ? (AP) ? The World Baseball Classic set its pitch limits and mercy rules Thursday, designed to protect pitchers in the early stages of spring training and cut short one-sided games.

 

Pitchers in the first round of games, scheduled from March 3-10, will be limited to 65 pitches. The amount rises to 80 pitches for the second round, set for March 12-16, and 95 for the semifinals on March 18 and the championship March 20.

 

A 30-pitch outing must be followed by one day off, and a 50-pitch outing must be followed by four days off. No one will be allowed to pitch on three consecutive days.

 

Pitchers who reach the limit will be allowed to complete the current plate appearance. The usual rule that a starting pitcher must throw at least five innings to get credit for a win will be waived.

 

All games will use designated hitters. Games will be stopped after five innings when a team is ahead by 15 or more runs and after seven innings when a team is ahead by at least 10 runs. A game can be stopped in the middle of an inning if a team reaches the threshold.

 

Limits also were set on players in the tournament from any major league team: 14 from an organization and 10 from its active 25-man roster or disabled list last Aug. 31. A major league team is allowed to waive the limit for its players. The tournament organizers ? the commissioner's office and the players' association ? also may block "players whose participation would otherwise impose an undue hardship'' on their major

league team. The rules gave the examples of "too many starting pitchers, too many catchers.''

 

The 16 teams in the WBC must submit final 30-man rosters five days before their openers. Teams can replace disabled players from names on their preliminary 60-man rosters, but only for following rounds.

 

The tiebreakers in the standings used for advancement will be head-to-head record, followed by fewest runs allowed per inning, fewest earned runs allowed per inning, highest batting average in head-to-head games and a drawing of lots. The tiebreakers are based on International Baseball Federation rules.

 

The WBC also stated its previously discussed rules on eligibility. A player can represent a country if he is a citizen, qualifies for citizenship, holds a passport or is qualified to hold a passport, is a legal resident, was born in the country, has a parent who is or was a citizen and has a parent who was born there.

Going to need that mercy rule for some of the first round games. Also good to see that they extended pitch counts for the later rounds (understandable, since pitch counts usually go up anyways as ST progresses normally).

 

Almost there.

Honestly, the existence of pitch counts simply undermines the seriousness of this whole thing.

 

Makes it easier for a team like the Mets to let Pedro go, but this makes a tournament struggling to be taken seriously struggle a little more, at least in my eyes.

After the game, the kids can pick up their free cokes at the concession stand, but only after meeting the other team at the pitchers mound and saying "good game." At least thats the way my little league team did

Honestly, the existence of pitch counts simply undermines the seriousness of this whole thing.

 

Makes it easier for a team like the Mets to let Pedro go, but this makes a tournament struggling to be taken seriously struggle a little more, at least in my eyes.

 

agreed

Just because this thing isn't being taken seriously in the US doesn't mean it isn't being taken seriously in other countries. After all Matsui saying he wasn't playing was front page news in Japan.

Honestly, the existence of pitch counts simply undermines the seriousness of this whole thing.

 

Makes it easier for a team like the Mets to let Pedro go, but this makes a tournament struggling to be taken seriously struggle a little more, at least in my eyes.

 

How would you feel if Dontrelle blew out his arm because he was left in too long?

If some big name pitcher blows out his arm, there won't be another WBC...

These are nothing more than a bunch of exhibition games...they have these pitch counts for the same reason why they only have a three inning limit for pitchers in the all star game (and pitchers never pitch more than one, except for the starters)....you have to be especially careful this time of the year

They are exhibition games only to the US.....sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but Hispanic players (along with I'm sure some Asians and a few Americans like Clemens as well) have been waiting a while to be able to represent their country. Tell Pedro, David Ortiz, Vlad, Miguel Tejada, or anybody else on that DR team these are just "exhibition" games. I wouldn't be surprised if some of these players hold this closer to themselves than winning the World Series.

Just because this thing isn't being taken seriously in the US doesn't mean it isn't being taken seriously in other countries. After all Matsui saying he wasn't playing was front page news in Japan.

 

 

Agreed.

 

They are exhibition games only to the US.....sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but Hispanic players (along with I'm sure some Asians and a few Americans like Clemens as well) have been waiting a while to be able to represent their country. Tell Pedro, David Ortiz, Vlad, Miguel Tejada, or anybody else on that DR team these are just "exhibition" games. I wouldn't be surprised if some of these players hold this closer to themselves than winning the World Series.

 

 

And agreed.

 

Conclusion: the US will probably not win this thing.