The final rosters for the 2009 World Baseball Classic have been announced, and eight players from the Detroit Tigers organization made the cut.
Here's who will be representing their countries, beginning March 5:
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USA
Curtis Granderson
Venezuela
Armando Galarraga
Magglio Ordonez
Carlos Guillen
Miguel Cabrera
Chinese Taipei
Fu-Te Ni
Australia
Andrew Graham
Brendan Wise
That leaves Justin Verlander and Fernando Rodney, two players who had been named to provisional WBC rosters, free to stay with the Tigers throughout Spring Training, contemplate the Tao of Knapp, and prepare for the regular season. (I was concerned about Verlander's participation, until MacRae pointed out that his workload wouldn't have been that large.) Placido Polanco, Cale Iorg, Juan Rincon, and Max St. Pierre were also on the initial squads, but opted out of consideration last week.
Graham played with Toledo in 2007 (missing all of last season) and Wise ended his year in Erie.
By the way, how do you think Jim Leyland feels about his entire starting outfield being potentially unavailable until March 23? (Okay, that's not exactly true since the USA and Venezuela are in the same pool and one could eliminate the other during the tournament.)