The 2013 World Baseball classic is an international tournament which will be held between March 2nd and 19th, 2013. The host countries for this year’s edition are Japan, Puerto Rico, Taiwan and the United States of America. The tournament was expanded from 16 to 28 teams this time around, with a qualification round being played for the first time ever over the second half of 2012. With the final line up settled for the 2013 World Baseball Classic, there will be sixteen teams battling it out for supremacy. This is just the third edition of the 2013 World Baseball Classic, with Japan going as holders after winning the first two editions. Naturally that will put them in great standings to have another shot at the title. Teams from four federations will be putting in appearances.
Japan are in a group alongside China, Cuba and Brazil to start things off with and realistically shouldn’t have too much trouble progressing to the knockout stages. They will also be helped by the fact that all of the pool matches they play will be on home soil at the Fukuoka Dome as well. Japan will take a lot of coverage in the outright winner market of the 2013 World Baseball Classic as well as being favourites to top their pool. Pool betting at the tournament should offer a lot of value for baseball betting especially when looking at Pool B which is arguably the weakest and the most evenly matched. You have South Korea, Netherlands, Australia and Chinese Taipei in there. Seeing any of those make it to the final is unlikely, but South Korea perhaps look the best shot to take the group. They lost the final of the 2009 World Baseball Classic against Japan.
Pool C should be a tight battle between Venezuela and Puerto Rico. They will have home advantage all the way through their group as well at the Hiram Bithorn Stadium. They could well be one of the best outside shots alongside Cuba, but in the group, Puerto Rico should pushed hard though by Venezuela, who finished third in the 2009 edition. The United States will be hot favourites to take control of Pool D,where they will face Mexico, Italy and Canada. They will take home advantage in Arizona for the pool stage and they are also the favourites in the outright winner market. They could only make it to the semi finals last year, where they were hammered 9-4 by eventual winners Japan. With the power of their MLB representatives, the USA should be strong.
The top two teams from pools A and B will progress to the second stage and join together in Pool 1. The top two teams from pools C and D will come together in the second stage in Pool 2. Both Pool 1 and Pool 2 will be ran over a double-elimination tournament. Eventually there will be a seeding game from each pool which will determine the places of the nations for the straight knockout semi finals. The semi finals will be held on March 17th and 18th, with the final itself on the 19th at AT&T Park in San Francisco.
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Japan are in a group alongside China, Cuba and Brazil to start things off with and realistically shouldn’t have too much trouble progressing to the knockout stages. They will also be helped by the fact that all of the pool matches they play will be on home soil at the Fukuoka Dome as well. Japan will take a lot of coverage in the outright winner market of the 2013 World Baseball Classic as well as being favourites to top their pool. Pool betting at the tournament should offer a lot of value for baseball betting especially when looking at Pool B which is arguably the weakest and the most evenly matched. You have South Korea, Netherlands, Australia and Chinese Taipei in there. Seeing any of those make it to the final is unlikely, but South Korea perhaps look the best shot to take the group. They lost the final of the 2009 World Baseball Classic against Japan.
Pool C should be a tight battle between Venezuela and Puerto Rico. They will have home advantage all the way through their group as well at the Hiram Bithorn Stadium. They could well be one of the best outside shots alongside Cuba, but in the group, Puerto Rico should pushed hard though by Venezuela, who finished third in the 2009 edition. The United States will be hot favourites to take control of Pool D,where they will face Mexico, Italy and Canada. They will take home advantage in Arizona for the pool stage and they are also the favourites in the outright winner market. They could only make it to the semi finals last year, where they were hammered 9-4 by eventual winners Japan. With the power of their MLB representatives, the USA should be strong.
The top two teams from pools A and B will progress to the second stage and join together in Pool 1. The top two teams from pools C and D will come together in the second stage in Pool 2. Both Pool 1 and Pool 2 will be ran over a double-elimination tournament. Eventually there will be a seeding game from each pool which will determine the places of the nations for the straight knockout semi finals. The semi finals will be held on March 17th and 18th, with the final itself on the 19th at AT&T Park in San Francisco.
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