With the Dominican Republic as the banner, Group D is considered the group of death in the World Baseball Classic, whose competition will begin this Saturday at 1:00 in the afternoon with a clash between Nicaragua versus Puerto Rico.
Three of the countries with the best baseball in America are in the same group, since the Dominican Republic is joined by Venezuela and Puerto Rico.
This will be the third time that the quisqueyanos will act against the Venezuelans in the same key, while against the Puerto Ricans they will do so for opportunity number three.
Despite the fact that the Dominicans have suffered some significant casualties in their initial roster in recent hours, they remain favorites to lead the roster, but without ever neglecting their staunch contenders from America.
But, what are the players that Venezuelans and Puerto Ricans have, who would seek to leave the Dominicans on the road, as quickly as in the first round?
Venezuela, great team
With Miguel Cabrera, their player with the longest history at the forefront, the Venezuelans have a very talented roster, where figures like José Altuve, a three-time winner of the Major League batting title and who has a .307 batting average, stands out. for life in a space of 12 seasons.
Bats like those of Ronald Acuña Jr, one of the best in the business, Anthony Santander, who comes from averaging .240 with 33 home runs and 89 RBIs with the Orioles, Salvador Pérez, a star in all lines, Luis Arraez, batting champion last season with .316, as well as a proven slugger like Eugenio Suarez, who hit 31 home runs last year, and a stable bat like the one exhibited by Gleiber Torres give BolÃvar’s men a stable lineup.
Andrés Giménez, Eduardo Escobar, David Peralta, Omar Narvaez are proven players at the Major League level.
Their pitching is superb with personnel like Pablo López, Luis GarcÃa, Jesús Luzardo, Ranger Suarez, José Alvarado, while this group is seconded by Erick Leal, Jhoulys Chacin, Anthony Vizcaya among others, they are good arms.
Team Rubio
Francisco Lindor and Javier Báez lead the offense of Puerto Rico, an island that has reached the finals in the last two events, but without achieving success.
They lead some Puerto Ricans who this time will not have Carlos Correa, who from the first days said that he would not be there due to the birth of a son. Yadier Molina is already out of baseball.
Along with the two Puerto Rican stars, Eddie Rosario is a good bat, Kike Hernández, two good catchers like MartÃn Maldonado and Cristhian Vázquez among others.
José Berrios and Marcus Stroman are two high-status arms among starters, while Edwin DÃaz is a closer with good All-Star status.
Unlike Venezuela, Puerto Rico does know how to get very far in the classics. They wait for this time to be the charm.