Ultimate USA WBC lineup

[krispoulin]

Over in the Sox Clubhouse there was much debate about not only whether White Sox players should be playing in the WBC, but whether the WBC should exist in the first place. One poster who opposed to the WBC argued something like "We're (USA) not fielding our best team anyway, so who cares?"

That got me thinking, what would be the best starting 9 for team USA?

Kinda quickly, off the top of my head:

C Mauer
1B Fielder
2B Utley
3B Wright
SS A-Rod (I'd move him to make room for Wright or Longoria)
OF Holliday
OF Sizemore
OF Dye
SP Halladay
CP Jenks


What do you think?

[getonbckthr]

C- Mauer
1B- Texiera
2B- Utley
SS- Rollins
3B- Longoria
LF- Crawford
CF- Sizemore
RF- BJ Upton
SP- Webb or Peavy
CL- Papelbon

[areilly]

Interesting exercise. I'll bite:

SS - Jimmy Rollins
OF - Grady Sizemore
C- Joe Mauer
3B - Alex Rodriguez
OF - Carlos Quentin
1B - Mark Teixeira
2B - Chase Utley
OF - Ryan Braun

SP - Brandon Webb, C.C. Sabathia, Cole Hamels, Tim Lincecum, Roy Halladay
CL - Brad Lidge

[DumpJerry]

Just use the Twins' 25 man roster as much as possible. That way, they'll be worn out by the September playoff run.

[RKMeibalane]

SS- Jimmy Rollins
2B- Chase Utley
1B- Albert Pujols
DH- Ryan Howard
LF- Ryan Braun
3B- Alex Rodriguez
CF- Grady Sizemore
RF- Jermaine Dye
C- Joe Mauer

P- Tim Lincecum
P- C.C. Sabathia
P- Cole Hamels
P- Brandon Webb
P- Jake Peavy

CP- Brad Lidge

[krispoulin]

C- Mauer
1B- Texiera
2B- Utley
SS- Rollins
3B- Longoria
LF- Crawford
CF- Sizemore
RF- BJ Upton
SP- Webb or Peavy
CL- Papelbon


Oops. How'd I forget about Texiera?! I like this lineup, too, though it might be a little lacking in power. Power is one of the things the American teams generally have as an advantage over lots of the other countries' teams, especially the teams from Asia. Might want to make sure there are a couple more big sticks in there...

[krispoulin]

SS- Jimmy Rollins
2B- Chase Utley
1B- Albert Pujols
DH- Ryan Howard
LF- Ryan Braun
3B- Alex Rodriguez
CF- Grady Sizemore
RF- Jermaine Dye
C- Joe Mauer

P- Tim Lincecum
P- C.C. Sabathia
P- Cole Hamels
P- Brandon Webb
P- Jake Peavy

CP- Brad Lidge


I don't think Pujols is eligible to play for the US, is he? He's of the Dominican Republic.

[JermaineDye05]

I would think Josh Hamilton has to be somewhere in the outfield for the US, that is what I think would help to make it "Ultimate"

[DSpivack]

I don't think Pujols is eligible to play for the US, is he? He's of the Dominican Republic.

Just looked on wiki, he became a US citizen in 2007, so I would think he could play for either team [as A-Rod has decided to play for the Dominican, so it seems].

[Domeshot17]

C- Mauer
1B- Texiera
2B- Utley
SS- Rollins
3B- Longoria
LF- Ryan Braun
CF- Sizemore
RF- Josh Hamilton
SP- Lincecum
CP- (hate the guy but he is really good) Paplebon