Today brought news that 21 Mariners have been added to the provisional rosters of ten different WBC teams. The organization has filed objections to the participation of Felix Hernandez and Travis Blackley, one of whom is an injury risk while the other has already had his labrum die on him once. That's about the extent of the relevant information in the linked article.
So what's this WBC all about, anyway? We already have a pretty good idea of who's going to challenge for the title, but what about the other end of the spectrum? Who's going to suck so bad that the country they represent has to change its name in an effort to avoid being associated with such a sorry group of losers?
Well, under the assumption that the worst teams in the WBC select more of their players from the worst teams in the Majors, here's a list of national participants with the highest percentage of players from the five worst teams in baseball (Kansas City, Tampa Bay, Pittsburgh, Colorado, Seattle):
Canada (15.7%)
Netherlands (13.3%)
Venezuela (11.7%)
Dominican Republic (10.0%)
Mexico (9.8%)
What have we learned? That, more than anything else, that was a pretty crappy analysis. Let's try it again, this time assuming that the worst teams in the WBC have the fewest players who belong to any Major League organizations:
China (0%)
Japan (3.7%)
South Africa (10.0%)
Chinese Taipei (12.1%)
Korea (13.3%)
Japan's kind of a special case, but even if you leave them out, you're looking at four potential cellar-dwellars. And at the other end, you've got the US, Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, and Canada, none of whom come as much of a surprise.
Good times. Except for China, I guess, but a little national pride heals all wounds. Or something.