Japan opened up action early this morning against the always unpredictable team Netherlands. This time, things worked out a little closer to what would normally be expected with Japan forcing a mercy rule against the Kingdom. What was surprising was that Japan scored the majority of their 16 runs with the long ball, including a home run to lead off the game by Takashi Toritani. This makes Japan the first team to qualify for the semi-finals in San Francisco. The Netherlands will get one more chance as they will face Cuba in the final elimination game of round two. Unlike the first two rounds, the semi-finals are one game playoffs, with the winner moving on and the loser going home. Japan will have a week off before their next game.

In the biggest game of the day, the United States crushed Canada late, winning by a final score of 9 to 4. Adam Jones was the hero today for hitting the two run double that gave the US the lead in the 8th inning. Michael Saunders had another good game for the Canadians and won the Pool D MVP after batting .727 over the three games with 7 RBI. He leads all players in the World Baseball Classic so far in batting average and his ridiculous 2.042 OPS.

In the meaningless Venezuela vs. Spain game, Asdrubal Cabrera went one for two before being lifted for a pinch hitter. Venezuela came back from a three run deficit after the first inning to win 11-6. Cabrera will be the first Indian to return to Goodyear after playing in the WBC. In the other unimportant Pool C game, Mike Aviles hit a two run home run scoring the first two runs for team Puerto Rico against the Dominican Republic. Carlos Santana started at catcher for the third consecutive game and singled and scored in the sixth inning. The Dominican Republic won out in the end 4-2. This means team USA will play Puerto Rico going into round two.

Team USA used small ball early on, trying to take advantage of Canada's poor defense while Justin Morneau and Canada brought the big sticks.

Today was probably the most exciting day so far in this year's World Baseball Classic. Puerto Rico, Italy and the Dominican Republic clinched spots in the second round, Mexico, Chinese Taipei, Spain and Venezuela were eliminated and a hockey fight broke out at a baseball game.

First are the Indian updates. Carlos Santana started at catcher again for the Dominican Republic, who clinched a second round birth by defeating Spain 6-3. Santana did something other than walk in this game as hit a solo home run and knocked in another while going 1 for 5. In other Pool C news, Asdrubal Cabrera will be returning to Goodyear after an 0-3 showing during Venezuela's loss to Puerto Rico. Mike Aviles had another good game on the other side of the field, knocking in three of Puerto Rico's six runs with a sac fly and a single. Akron Aeros pitcher Giovanni Soto also playing, pitching in his first game of the tournament. He went three scoreless, hitless innings and struck out two. Former Indians Juan Rincon and Fernando Cabrera were featured in this game as well.

In International relations news, team Mexico decided to take out their self pity on the Canadian national team when they were on the verge of elimination. After catcher Chris Robinson singled on a bunt with a six run lead in the ninth inning, team Mexico pitcher Arnold Leon retaliated with two very inside balls and finally hit the next batter, Rene Tosoni. As Tosoni was walking to first, Mexican catcher, Sebastian Valle grabbed Tosoni and the fight ensued. Seven players were ejected as were at least two team Mexico fans (one of whom threw a baseball at Canada's first base coach, Larry Walker). 

The fault for the entire incident has to fall completely on team Mexico and pitcher Arnold Leon as WBC tie-breaking rules force teams to run up the score. If team USA had lost the next game against Italy, but won against team Canada, run differential would be the difference between which team advanced and which went home (or back to Spring Training). With a ten run loss looming behind them, team Canada needed to score as much as possible against Mexico to make up for this possibility. They were not trying to show up the home team.

In the final game of the night, team USA recorded their first win against the 2-0 team Italia. David Wright provided all the runs necessary with a towering grand slam to left in the fifth inning. The United States pitching was much improved over last night, and Ross Detwiler was especially worth note as he threw the final four innings without allowing a run, earning himself a save in the process.

Sunday will see the final games of round one for the Western countries and the continuation of round two in Japan. Team Japan will face the Netherlands with the winner moving on to San Francisco while the loser will need to play one last game against Cuba to try and make the finals. Pool C will wrap up with two meaningless games featuring Spain against Venezuela and Puerto Rico against the Dominican Republic. The most interesting match-up will be the win or go home battle between the recently vicious team Canada and your own team USA. Vinnie Pestano was not needed in the game against Italy so he should be fresh and ready to go as Derek Holland will get the start for the Americans.

I though that Canadians were supposed to be a peaceful people. Here's my view of the fight.

The team with the most Indian presence, Puerto Rico, opened up action on Friday against Spain with Mike Aviles starting at shortstop.In the first inning, Aviles knocked in team Puerto Rico's second run with a sacrifice fly that scored Alex Rios. He also later walked and stole a base in the game that Puerto Rico won 3-0.

Although their were no Indians involved, a few other games took place including another Pool D surprise. This time team Italy destroyed Canada, forcing a 10 run mercy in the 8th inning. Nick Punto had a big day at lead off for Italy and the previously unknown Chris Colabello provided all the power, hitting the games only home run and knocking in four of their 14 runs. Colabello is currently a AA player in the Twins organization. With the win, team Italy is just one win away from advancing to the next round.

On the other side of the world, the second round of play has begun, with Japan beating Chinese Taipei in extra innings and the Netherlands getting an unexpected win against the heavily favorited team Cuba. The second round of the WBC is a double elimination round so Cuba will have to win their next two games to advance.

Saturday will see another full slate of games with five matches scheduled. Chinese Taipei will take on Cuba in a loser goes home match in Japan. The powerful Dominican Republic team will face off against newcomer Spain as Puerto Rico will play Venezeula, rounding out Pool C. Canada will be playing Mexico and the United States will face off against the upstart Italians.

Sergio Romo and Adrian Gonzalez look to lead Mexico to the next round against Canada.

Approximately 44,000 screaming Mexicans packed Chase field as the United States took on team Mexico in round one of the 2013 World Baseball Classic. All the star power (with the exception of Adrian Gonzalez and Sergio Romo) was on the American side, but the fans and final score went to Mexico. 

US starter R.A. Dickey struggled early, especially when trying to throw his knuckleball. The choice for the team USA ace was an odd one after all, considering all the first round games will be played in a dome, where there is little wind to make the knuckler dance. Mexican starter Yovani Gallardo had no such problems and was dominant through three innings.

Overall, almost every pitcher struggled with control and impatience is what really killed team USA. On separate occasions, both Brandon Phillips and Joe Mauer swung at balls far out of the strike zone while in a hitter's count. Situations like these went far to kill many chances at a rally as the Americans stranded eight runners while scoring just twice.

The Indians lone representative in the game was dynamic reliever, Vinnie Pestano. He was forced to warm up early as Dickey struggled and was ready in the bullpen by the fourth inning. After Dickey recovered, Twins reliever Glen Perkins threw the fifth and Pestano was used in the sixth. Vinnie threw the first perfect inning of the game for the US and struck out a batter, using just nine pitches after throwing considerably more than that warming up in the bullpen. Luke Gregerson (San Diego) continued his trend and retired team Mexico in order during the next inning as well.

As a team, the United States roster looked great defensively, average on the mound and a little behind at the plate. They will face upstart team Italy in tomorrow night's game and will need to improve significantly over tonight's effort if they want to win that game and move on to the next round.

One of the more exciting moments for team USA was when ex-Indian Karim Garcia missed two consecutive plays in the outfield.

The video is terrible, but if you turn your speakers up you can get an idea of the crowd noise. This was the final at bat of the game. This was the loudest sporting event I've ever been to.

Tonight, the American World Baseball Classic team will take on Mexico in their first game (and the third game overall) of round one in Pool D. First baseman, Adrian Gonzalez is Mexico's lone superstar setting up what should be a fairly easy win for team USA. The timing of the game will aid the U.S. even more as the American's ace, knuckle-baller, R.A. Dickey will be going against the second best starter for Mexico. Mexico already lost their first game in a surprise finish against team Italy.

Mark Teixeira was a late scratch for the tournament, but even without him team USA is offensively stacked with perennial All-Stars Brandon Phillips, David Wright, Jimmy Rollins, Joe Mauer and former NL MVP Ryan Braun. Ben Zobrist and Giancarlo Stanton may not have been around as long as some of those other players, but will likely be two of the best offensive producers on the team.

With Chris Perez out with shoulder soreness, Vinnie Pestano will remain the only representive from the Cleveland Indians on team USA. He should be considered the set-up man as Craig Kimbrel is expected to close. Heath Bell and Glen Perkins round out the big names in the bullpen.

Today saw the first games of the Western side of the World Baseball Classic with Mexico taking a surprising loss against team Italia and the Dominican Republic showing their dominance against team Venezuela. The latter match featured the first two Indians to play in this year's classic. The wildness inherent in these early round games featuring low level pitchers was evident in the two Tribesmen's results. Carlos Santana and Asdrubal Cabrera combined for six walks and two runs scored. Santana had the lion's share of the walks and now leads all WBC players (including those from the Eastern series that have already played three games) with four.

Santana played the entire game as the Dominican Republic's starting catcher while Cabrera played DH with Elvis Andrus taking the start at short. Andrus and Cabrera will likely split time in the field for the rest of the series while Santana will probably get a day off against either Puerto Rico or Spain. This game marks the first time this Spring either player has stayed in a game past the 5th inning so some care is warranted by their country teams.

Tomorrow, Mike Aviles and Giovanny Soto will play their first game for team Puerto Rico against Spain while Canada and the USA will open up against Italy and Mexico respectively. Puerto Rico is essentially in a must win situation to start the series as both the Dominican Republic and Venezuela are expected to get at least 2 wins, meaning Puerto Rico must win against Spain and one of the other two juggernauts just to hope for tie.

The Indians second week (2/28-3/5) started out a little less impressively than the first with a 10-0 loss to the Texas Rangers. More bad news came shortly after as Chris Perez hurt his shoulder and will miss the rest of Spring Training (for the second season in a row). Frank Herrmann is also out for the remainder of the Spring, virtually eliminating him from bullpen consideration. He may miss the entire season if surgery is needed to repair his elbow.

The next few games saw the Indians offense return scoring 35 runs over the next five games. Mike McDade deserves another mention this week as he has outplayed all his competition for the corner infield bench spot. So far in March he has batted .455 in five games, knocking in three runs. If the competition for the last bench spot is truly a fair competition, McDade should easily beat out Jason Giambi (0/11 this Spring) and Chris McGuiness (.111 AVG in ten games). His 9 RBI this Spring lead the team.

The Indians should also be excited about the known starters heating up as well. Nick Swisher (.875 AVG in March) has caught on fire this past week with 6 RBI in his last 8 at bats as has Lonnie Chisenhall with 5 RBI of his own. Jason Kipnis started off slow this Spring bat has batted over .300 the past week and looks to be getting into regular season form.

Five starting pitchers have made their third appearance this Spring with Trevor Bauer standing out as best right now. He has given up just four hits in seven innings and only two earned runs. It probably won't matter how he performs this Spring overall as Terry Francona likely has already decided where he will start the regular season. Scott Kazmir and Daisuke Matsuzaka have also both pitched well to this point, leading to a stiff competition for the Indians final open rotation spot.

The next week will see Vinnie Pestano, Carlos Santana, Asdrubal Cabrera, Mike Aviles, Giovanni Soto, special instructor Carlos Baerga and MiLB manager Edwin Rodriguez leave camp for the World Baseball Classic. All except Pestano will be traveling to Puerto Rico to compete in division C where Venezuela, the Dominican Republic, Spain and the home club, Puerto Rico. The first round in Japan has already ended with team Brazil (sans Yan Gomes) finished 0-3. These players leaving will allow the Indians to give more at bats to players like Gomes and Lou Marson to help decide the final positional battles.

Asdrubal is leaving, but McDade is still here.

According to Yahoo! sports, Tribe closer Chris Perez could be sidelined anywhere between 3-4 weeks because of a strained shoulder. He will not throw for the next week to 10 days. 

Perez pitched an inning Tuesday during a 4-1 loss to Kansas City and felt pain in the shoulder Thursday. He said the injury is not as serious as the strain he suffered last spring to a muscle on his left side in his first bullpen session on Feb 23.

Dale Mitchell had one of the best timed careers of any Indian, joining the team in 1946, just in time to have the prime of his career line up with the Indians last World Series win in 1948. He then joined Larry Doby, Jim Hegan and Al Rosen as the only hitters to play in both the 1948 and 1954 Series.

During his prime (1948-1953), Mitchell was among the best in the league, making multiple All-Star teams and garnering MVP votes year after year. In 1949 he had an especially good year, leading the league in hits (his second straight year with 200 hits) and triples. His 23 triples that year remain among the top five seasons ever for an Indians hitter. In total, Mitchell played over a decade with the team and ranks among the Indians greatest left fielders of all time.

Mitchell was a call-back to former Indians short stop Joe Sewell, as he was almost impossible to strike out. In his worst season, Mitchell struck out 21 times in 1950 and never had more strike outs than doubles in any season. In his 11 year career, he struck out just 119 times a number that Indians strike out king Jim Thome broke in each of his last seven seasons in Cleveland. Overall, Mitchell ranks 15th all time in hits for the Indians, while ranking 183rd in total strike outs. In all of baseball history, he ranks 14th in AB/SO behind two other former Indians, Sewell and Homer Summa.

After two poor seasons in 1954 and 1955 and the start to another in 1956, the Indians sold the left fielder to the Brooklyn Dodgers. After spending his only 19 games played for another team, Mitchell retired. After retirement, he moved back to his home state of Oklahoma where he died in 1987 at the age of 65.

The 2013 Cleveland Indians outfield will be the most different part of the team when compared to 2012. Shin-Soo Choo, who has been the starting right fielder since 2008 has been traded to Cincinnati, making Asdrubal Cabrera the longest tenured starter on the Indians (at shortstop since 2009). The left fielder will also be new as the three main left fielders from 2012 (Johnny Damon [retired], Shelley Duncan [Rays] and Aaron Cunningham [Rangers]) have all been released.

This makes the only remaining outfielder Michael Brantley, but he will not be returning to center field. The Indians made a huge splash in the free agent market just before camp opened, signing former Atlanta Brave centerfielder Michael Bourne to be the new centerfielder. Also in the Choo trade the Indians acquired new outfielder Drew Stubbs from the Reds. Stubbs will be playing his fifth season and has never played anywhere but centerfield. He has a tendency to strike out (leading the NL in 2011), but provides a constant steal threat.

Brantley had his best season in 2012, knocking in 60 and batting .288, both far above his previous career highs. For defensive purposes, the Indians would probably be best suited to use Brantley in left with Stubbs in right because of the difference in arm strength. All three outfielders are similar players but they do have significant differences. Stubbs has the most power, but the worst average and the highest tendency to strike out. Brantley is in the middle as far as power goes, but is the only one of the three who doesn't strike out constantly and knows how to take a walk. Bourne is the best baserunner and the only one of the three to ever win a Gold Glove or attend an All-Star game. 

The biggest improvement in the outfield this year will be speed. Replacing the old and slow left fielders with Stubbs is essentially adding 30 steals a season and Bourne can be expected to steal at least 40 more bases than Choo would have. Defensively the outfield will look completely different as well with no more bumbling and stumbling in left. With these three speedsters in the outfield there should be a significant decrease in fly balls hitting the ground.

The reserve outfielder is likely to be the same as in 2011 and 2012, Ezequiel Carrera. He is incredibly fast and generally good with the glove, although he does have a tendency to lose himself from time to time. While the Indians have a few other outfield options, none are as ready as Carrera. One other intriguing option is former Indian Ben Francisco, who is returning as a Spring Training invitee. Rule five pick Chris McGuiness is another possibility although he hasn't actually played outfield yet. The Tribe could carry two outfielders, using Mike Aviles as the back-up at every infield position, especially if they keep a corner outfielder/infielder like McGuiness. The team flexibility will be as good as it gets with four outfielders on the roster who can play any outfield position and another who can play first base as well as right field. Even Mike Aviles, who will be the utility infielder can play outfield in a pinch. This will leave Terry Francona free to maneuver in game with pinch hitters/runners without worrying about a defensive replacement being available.

Brantley will have to get used to a new position and new teammates in 2013.