Cardinals' Nootbaar, Boston's Yoshida In Japan's WBC Staff

TOKYO (AP) — Japan accomplished naming its 30-male roster on Thursday for the Planet Baseball Conventional, which incorporates outfielders Lars Nootbaar of the St. Louis Cardinals and Masataka Yoshida of the Boston Crimson Sox.

Nootbaar has a Japanese mother however grew up in California and doesn’t converse Japanese. He’s the to start out with to play for Japan within the WBC who qualifies given that of his ancestry.

Japan introduced its preliminary 12 members final thirty day interval. They incorporate MLB gamers this form of as Los Angeles Angels’ Shohei Ohtani, San Diego Padres pitcher Yu Darvish, and Chicago Cubs outfielder Seiya Suzuki.

Japan has gained the WBC 2 instances, however not contemplating the truth that 2009, and is managed by Hideki Kuriyama. Japan gained the opening social gathering in 2006. The Dominican Republic was the winner in 2013, and the USA acquired the previous time it was carried out in 2017.

The Complete world Baseball Widespread shall be performed in Japan, Taiwan and United States from March 8-21. It choices 20 nationwide groups, and the powers from Asia shall be Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Australia.

Latin The usa will attribute the best contingent with Colombia, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Panama and Nicaragua.

America and Canada are additionally entered.

Japan will have interaction in its initially sport on March 9 in opposition to China in Pool B on the Tokyo Dome. The prime two teams in Pool A and B will carry out solitary-elimination quarterfinals on March 15-16 in Tokyo. The winners further on to the semifinals in Miami on March 19-20.

The ultimate is March 21 in Miami.

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Japan players with uniform quantity:

Pitchers:

Yu Darvish (San Diego Padres) 11 Shota Imanaga (DeNA BayStars) 21 Hiromi Ito (Nippon Ham Fighters) 17 Ryoji Kuribayashi (Hiroshima Carp) 20 Yuki Matsui (Rakuten Eagles) 13 Hiroya Miyagi (Orix Buffaloes) 29 Shohei Ohtani (Los Angeles Angels) 16 Taisei Ota (Yomiuri Giants) 15 Roki Sasaki (Lotte Marines) 14 Hiroto Takahashi (Chunichi Dragons) 28 Keiji Takahashi (Yakult Swallows) 47 Shosei Togo (Yomiuri Giants) 12 Yuki Udagawa (Orix Buffaloes) 26 Yoshinobu Yamamoto (Orix Buffaloes) 18 Atsuki Yuasa (Hanshin Tigers) 22.

Catchers:

Takuya Kai (SoftBank Hawks) 10 Yuhei Nakamura (Yakult Swallows) 27 Takumi Oshiro (Yomiuri Giants) 24.

Infielders:

Sosuke Genda (Seibu Lions) 2 Shugo Maki (DeNA BayStars) 3 Munetaka Murakami (Yakult Swallows) 55 Takumu Nakano (Hanshin Tigers) 7 Kazuma Okamoto (Yomiuri Giants) 25 Tetsuto Yamada (Yakult Swallows) 1 Hotaka Yamakawa (Seibu Lions) 33.

Outfielders:

Kensuke Kondo (SoftBank Hawks) 8 Lars Nootbaar (St. Louis Cardinals) 23 Ukyo Shuto (SoftBank Hawks) 9 Seiya Suzuki (Chicago Cubs) 51 Masataka Yoshida (Boston Crimson Sox) 34.