The U.S. roster for the World Baseball Classic was announced today and there will be no Astros on team U.S. However, Houston will feature 6 players in the classic this year.
Fernando Martinez and Rhiner Cruz will both play for team Spain, and Xavier Cedeno will represent team Puerto Rico.
3 minor leaguers are also participating in the classic: Murilo Gouvea will play for team Brazil, and Che-Hsuan Lin and Chia-Jen Lo will both play for Chinese Taipei.
Jeff Luhnow said he isn't against players playing in the WBC but says it may hurt the chances of players trying to make the team out of spring training. From astros.com, "The big challenge is ... a guy like Fernando Martinez, who's trying to make our club, [being] gone for an extended period of time. I think that potentially hurts him, even if he does well in the Classic," Not to worry F Mart, Luhnow says he doesn't think it is likely team Spain makes it past the 1st round.
I was surprised to see Lo participating after coming off of TJ surgery and only 10 appearances last season. Luhnow says he doesn't think it is a concern as the amount of relievers on each roster should keep any individual from being overworked.
In 2009 the Astros sent 7 to the WBC:
TJ Burton
Chia-Jen Lo
Chris Barnwell
LaTroy Hawkins
Roy Oswalt
Miguel Tejada
Carlos Lee
Lo is the only of the 7 still in the organization and the only Astros' repeat member on a WBC roster.
We didn't come out here to play tiddlywinks, son.
-Hal Smith
