The past few weeks, we heard from several American Major League players, if they accept an invitation for the World Baseball Classic next March or not. Now on Friday, January 9th, a week before participating teams has to submit a preliminary roster of 45 players to the organizers; USA Baseball announced the names of 22, who committed to play in the tournament for the American squad.
Despite missing all stars like Alex Rodriguez (Yankees, will play for Dominican Republic), Josh Beckett (Red Sox), CC Sabathia, Mark Teixeira (both Yankees), Brad Lidge, Ryan Howard (both Phillies) among others, the team still features some of the best players in Baseball. The pitching staff will be led by the trio of Roy Oswalt, Jake Peavy and John Lackey, Curtis Granderson and Grady Sizemore patrol the outfield, Derek Jeter, Dustin Pedroia and David Wright form the infield.
In addition pitching coach Marcel Lachemann and hitting coach Reggie Smith were added to the coaching staff of manager Davey Johnson. The final roster will be set on February 24 with a mandatory 13 pitchers. The 28 players will report to training camp at Clearwater, Florida on March 2nd and are going to play three exhibitions against the Yankees, Blue Jays and World Series champion Phillies before their first Classic game on March 7th against Canada. Italy and Venezuela are also opponents of Team USA in Pool C at the Rogers Centre in Toronto.
MLB.com: Team USA roster taking shape (including 22-man preliminary roster)