![\"\"](\"http:\/\/totfc.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/skubal_wtf.gif\")
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But the first one that comes to mind is when Amazon announced the first-ever Prime Day, they were boasting that it was going to basically be the Brack Friday of the summer, that there were going to be all sorts of incredible deals, massive savings, and that it was going to be the greatest shopping event of the year outside of the holidays.\u00a0 But when Prime Day began, it became quickly apparent that it really was Amazon\u2019s cleverly-named attempt to clean out their warehouses, because for every one marquee item they had that sold out in two seconds, there were at least a million listings for dumb bullshit like USB cables, electrical outlet covers, dish towels, and all sorts of small, inane crap that nobody really needed.<\/span><\/p>\n Anyway, that\u2019s kind of what it feels like to find out that reigning AL Cy Young winner and vocal proponent of USA Baseball, Tarik Skubal revealed that he was only planning on making one start in the World Baseball Classic<\/a>, and then returning to Spring Training.<\/span><\/p>\n Skubal was one of the first players announced for Team USA, and an easy guy to hitch the wagon to, as someone whose incredible arm could easily carry the squad deep into the tournament, and most importantly, potentially neutralize the potent lineups of Japan, Venezuela and the Dominican Republic.<\/span><\/p>\n Considering the United States has only won the tournament they basically invented in order to pad their global athletic standing once out of five times, it\u2019s got to be like a sour grape for USA Baseball, and something they always want to wash the taste out of their mouths, by winning again, and closing that lead held by Japan, who has won 3 of 5, and a guy like Skubal committing is a giant boon, especially since he was shortly followed by NL Cy Young winner, Paul Skenes, creating an incredibly unfair-sounding 1-2 pitching duo in a short tournament format.<\/span><\/p>\n But now Skubal reveals that he\u2019s only planning to make a single start, against Great Britain of all teams in the tournament; unsurprising, once such intel was absorbed by baseball fans, it quickly turned into snarky vitriol towards the talented lefty, with people accusing him of unpatriotically going into body protect mode, since it\u2019s clear that he\u2019s going to be seeking out a gabillion dollar contract after the 2026 season, as he\u2019s set to become an unrestricted free agent for the first time.<\/span><\/p>\n Like, in one hand, I get the importance of protecting one\u2019s self, especially considering the last WBC saw closer Edwin Diaz blow out his knee in 2022 and miss an entire season, and injury is always on the backs of the minds of nearly every participating major leaguer.<\/span><\/p>\n But in the other hand, if Skubal knew that he wasn\u2019t going to commit more than a single fucking start for Team USA, I feel like it probably would\u2019ve been best had he just not committed to the team in the first place.\u00a0 Free up the spot to someone who really wanted to put their balls on the line for the country, and is willing to make three starts if needed, which should encapsulate a group, knockout and potential final in a best-case scenario.<\/span><\/p>\n In a way, joining the squad but then only committing to a single appearance, against possibly the worst team in the entire tournament is tantamount to being a part of a group project in school, doing the very first assignment, but then not doing anything at all for the remainder of the project.<\/span><\/p>\n Look, I know my analogy game is terribly off right now, but the point is, Skubal\u2019s shenanigans is like a shitty rug pull that gave US baseball hope, but then took it all back.\u00a0 If anything, if Skubal was only going to commit to a single game, it would be best served if it were saved to be against Japan or any of the other expected powerhouses of the tournament, and save appearances against scrubs like Great Britain, Brazil or Italy for guys like the retired Clayton Kershaw or Logan Webb.<\/span><\/p>\n Obviously, I\u2019d love to see Team USA win another WBC, because I don\u2019t think Korea is going to make the runs they did like they did in 2006 and 2009 ever again, but it\u2019s times like this where the greed and body-protect logic of professional athletes gets really fucking old.\u00a0 There\u2019s a reason why Japan has won three of the five WBCs, and there\u2019s very little reason to believe that they\u2019re not going to be knocking on the door of a fourth one in coming weeks.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" But the first one that comes to mind is when Amazon announced the first-ever Prime Day, they were boasting that it was going to basically be the Brack Friday of the summer, that there were going to be all sorts of incredible deals, massive savings, and that it was going to be the greatest shopping … Continue reading There are probably way better analogies for Tarik Skubal\u2019s WBC participation<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[176,62,79,100,191,205,103,83,58,190],"class_list":["post-51084","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-brog","tag-murica","tag-baseball","tag-cashmoney","tag-comparison","tag-greed","tag-mlb","tag-motherland","tag-observations","tag-sports","tag-white-people"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51084","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=51084"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51084\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51086,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51084\/revisions\/51086"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=51084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=51084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=51084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}