Havana Cuba. — Although the Cuban team that will participate in the World Baseball Classic 2023 They are not among the favorites to lift the trophy, what has been seen during the preparation stops leaves much to be desired and sows legitimate doubts about whether those led by Armando Johnson will be able to overcome the qualifying phase.
The Cuban team exhibits more defeats than victories in their last appearances and it becomes evident that the evil continues to reside in the same place: poor offensive production, uncontrolled pitching, childish mistakes and lousy decisions about which players should start in the contest.
Some consider that getting entangled in this type of conjecture during a preparatory phase is anticipating events, however, the placement of Alfredo Despaigne at first base has drawn attention —in the absence of a natural first baseman—, as well as the insistence on keeping Yurisbel Gracial in the line up, despite his poor performance in recent games. This, together with not having summoned the slugger Yasmani Tomás, suggests that the coaches of the island’s team are improvising and following the same criteria as always, which have more to do with the ideological factor than with sporting quality.
Worse yet, many fans of the national sport have expressed their doubts as to whether the leadership of the team really corresponds to Johnson, or if he is just a second in command to Germán Mesa, who allegedly would be making all the decisions from his responsibility as head coach.
On this suspicion that makes its way on social networks, the page by the rubber released a post titled: “The fan’s advice for “Profe” Johnson.” The brief message reminds the manager that, as far as the V World Baseball Classic is concerned, it will be his name that will appear in the books, “either for glory or for disaster”; and closes with a forceful phrase: “…you have to listen to each of the coaches, but the final decision (…) is yours and no one else’s”.
Judging by the tone of the post and the comments, the discrepancies in the directive are being as damaging as any of the technical problems that weigh down Cuban baseball. The Antillean squad has lost on two consecutive occasions, against teams from Japan and Taiwan, demonstrating that the game system of these teams has nothing to do with the jungle baseball that is played in the National Series and in the so-called Elite League.
Many Cuban baseball lovers have subordinated the long-awaited success to the presence of the Major League players who were called up, but that, in addition to detracting from the merit of the others, is to pretend that four or five professionals will solve the problem.
There is still a lot to learn, considering that the MLB athletes who agreed to play for Cuba are far ahead of their colleagues cast in domestic championships. It is imperative to create a game system that manages to get the best out of each one; otherwise, this rice will have been cooked from the first clash against the powerful ninth from the Netherlands.
