The United States advanced to the semifinals of the World Baseball Classic after beating Canada 5-3 Friday night in the quarterfinals of the international tournament and despite the victory manager Mark DeRosa continued to expose how incompetent he is.
There was a debate early on in the World Baseball Classic in Team USA as some fans were pounding the table to see Pete Crow-Armstrong as the starting center fielder over the veteran Byron Buxton. Both players are deserving, but after Buxton was hit by a pitch early on in pool play DeRosa has stuck with Crow-Armstrong in center.
The Cubs center fielder is the best defender at his position and one of the top players on defense period in MLB, so it was quite perplexing to see DeRosa move Crow-Armstrong from center field over to left field late in Friday night’s game against Canada.
The United States was leading 5-3, heading into the bottom of the eighth inning and for some reason DeRosa thought the best defensive setup in the outfield would be Crow-Armstrong in left field, Buxton in center and Aaron Judge in right. There is no reason, no justification whatsoever that DeRosa can spew out to make this move make any sense. He moved his best defensive outfielder to left field and put Buxton in the most important position in the outfield, giving the United States a disadvantage.
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It was pure stupidity by DeRosa, who at this point is more known by not knowing the WBC rules and then failing to take any accountability rather than by his managing skills on Team USA. Luckily, moving Crow-Armstrong to left field didn’t end up mattering as Canada struck out four times in the final two innings of play.
As for the rest of the game Crow-Armstrong once again was in the middle of the action as he delivered an RBI-single in the sixth inning that gave the United States a comfortable 5-0 lead. Crow-Armstrong finished the game 2-for-4, with an RBI and has been the offensive leader for Team USA since becoming the starter in center field.
The United States will now play against the Dominican Republic in the semifinals of the World Baseball Classic.
