He has made a decision. Dutch shortstop Jurickson Profar has informed the Texas Rangers that he isn’t playing for the Netherlands in the 2013 World Baseball Classic. He instead will spend the whole six weeks in Spring Training with the Rangers, trying to make the opening day roster as a utility man. He will turn 20 on Wednesday and certainly would been a reinforcement for the team of manager Hensley Meulens.
Profar’s teammate with the Rangers, Adrian Beltre meanwhile is probably sitting out at least the first round of the Classic. He hurt his right calf and therefore is unlikely to commit to play for the Dominican Republic in San Juan next month. He left the option open to join the Dominican squad for the second round.
After a 5-6 loss in the opener of Cuba’s warm-up schedule against Chinese Taipei, the record world champion defeated Australia 5-3 in the second game in Taiwan. Three runs in the seventh helped Cuba to take the lead en route to the win. Alfredo Despaigne hit a solo home run. Freddy Alvarez, Danny Betancourt and Vladimir Garcia pitched against the Aussies. Clayton Tanner, Adam Bright, Steve Kent, Dushan Ruzic, Andrew Russell and Tim Kennelly took the mound for Australia. Cuba is facing a CBPL team, Chinese Taipei again and the Netherlands in Taiwan before traveling to Japan. Australia has an open date against a Taichung University All Star Team before traveling to Japan.