2017 World Baseball Classic (USA is WBC Champion, 2021 Bracket on bottom of Page 9)

[RoughRiders99]

Puerto Rico

The runner-ups of the 2013 World Baseball Classic returns once again to host a pool in their country for the fourth straight Classic at Hiram Bithorn Stadium. They always have been one of the strongest teams in the Classic, as their overall record is 13-8. They have never finished lower than fifth place in any of the Classics.

For this uniform set, I decided to go back to their 2006 set with the vests, which I really liked. Plus, it would give the pool some variations.

United States

The United States has always been considered the premier country for baseball, but they’ve never finished higher than fourth in any of the Classics. Due to the lack of motivations from the top stars of MLB, the United States were unable to make any loud noises. They’ve only reached the semi-finals once in 2009, losing to eventual champions, Japan. But in the ’17 Classic, they hope to use their strong pitching to help guide the team to the finals.

I’ve had a lot of fun with this set, mainly because it’s my home country. For the home alternates, I wanted to think outside of the box and borrowing a concept from my fantasy league, they have a “flag jersey” where the USA flag is sprawled across the bottom half of the jersey.

China

A veteran of all three Classics, China has always been on the bottom of the 16 “regular” countries. Their highest finish was 11^th in the 2009 Classic. They managed to beat Chinese Taipei, but lost to the powerhouses Japan and Korea. Their overall record in the Classics is just 2-7. They scored only 18 runs and allowed 78 runs.

Mexico

Another country that is quite MLB-centric, Mexico failed to qualify for the ’17 Classic so they had to go through the Qualifying Rounds. They steamrolled their way though the Qualifying Rounds, easily beating Sweden in the opening game, 13-2. They had a scare in the final play-in game, barely beating Colombia, 6-5. In the finals, Mexico was forced to play a redemption game, as Sweden got revenge and beat them, 2-1. However, in the redemption game, Mexico got back on top by taking a commanding 7-1 victory.

[NewEnglandAmazins]

_{Good work, but I was hoping you would take more chances with the Chinese uniforms; like they did for the Beijing Games...}

_{Yang Yang}

[jaxon#08]

Love the uniforms except for the USA flag jersey

[NewEnglandAmazins]

I would like to see South Africa use different colors for their alternates, especially if your Australian Qualifiers come to fruition. To many teams with green in their uniforms.

[RoughRiders99]

_{Good work, but I was hoping you would take more chances with the Chinese uniforms; like they did for the Beijing Games...}

_{Yang Yang}

While I do respect your opinion, we'll have to agree to disagree because I'm a very traditional guy when it comes to baseball uniforms and that means I'm not a fan of Turn The Clock Ahead type of uniforms, just like the Chinese ones that you showed us. I just want to show respect to the uniform intergity and I really don't want to mess it up.

Love the uniforms except for the USA flag jersey

Yeah, I somewhat agree with you. I tried to think outside of the box and it didn’t really work out. I’ve thought about doing a retro, throwback style for the home alts for USA. With more “pure” blue and red with block font. Just some thoughts that I’m having.

ANYWAY, the next pool should be up later this afternoon! Keep an eye out for it!

[RoughRiders99]

Chinese Taipei

During the 2009 Classic, they couldnt get any wins at all, so they had to be relegated to the Qualifying Rounds for the 2013 Classic. In the qualifiers, they dominated it, sweeping the double elimination tournament to make it to the 2013 Classic. Continuing their supremacy, they won their pool in the first round to advance to the second round. They were the only team who participated in the 2012 Qualifying Rounds to advance to the second round. However, they got swept in the second round, losing to powerhouses Japan and Cuba. As a reward for their run in the 2013 Classic, they will be hosting a pool in the first round with Japan, Venezuela and Panama.

Japan

Arguably the most successful team ever to partake in the World Baseball Classic history, Japan will return once again for the fourth straight year. The 2006 and 2009 champion fell short in the 2013 Classic, finishing third. In the 2013 semi-finals, they lost to eventual runner-ups, Puerto Rico. They also are the only team to make at least the semi-finals all three times. Their overall record is at whopping 17-7, which is good for third best overall record. But they have it where it counts: two WBC titles.

Venezuela

Venezuela has been an up-and-down team in the World Baseball Classic. In the inaugural Classic, they advanced past the first round, but lost in the second round, placing seventh overall with a record of 3-3. However, their highest finish in the Classic came in 2009, making it all the way to the Championship Round, losing in the semi-finals to South Korea. In the 2013, they had an embarrassing showing, as they had a first-round exit. They were eliminated by Puerto Rico, who went on to be the runner-ups for the 2013 Classic. Their placing in the pool as the third team secured themselves an automatic berth for the 2017 Classic.

Panama

Panama has always been a baseball country. The greatest closer in the history of baseball, Mariano Rivera, hails from the country. However, they dont have much to show in the World Baseball Classic. They played in the first two Classics, but they couldnt get any wins at all. They got relegated to the Qualifying Rounds in 2012 and they were the favorite to advance past the qualifying rounds. However, they didnt have much luck, as they were upset by Brazil in the first game. They did advance to the finals by steamrolling past Nicaragua and Colombia in the elimination games, but once again, they fell to Brazil, 1-0, failing to qualify for the 2013 Classic. But in the 2016 Qualifying Round, they lost in the opening game, but easily clinched a berth for the 2017 Classic by beating Spain, Great Britain and Greece.

[jaxon#08]

Love CT and Venezuela but Japan is not working for me. I say to get rid of the pinstripes.

[RoughRiders99]

Love CT and Venezuela but Japan is not working for me. I say to get rid of the pinstripes.

If you don't mind my asking, why you're not a fan of the pinstripes?

It's just my opinion, but I think these works. I based the uniforms off this photo: http://img10.beijing2008.cn/20080815/Img214543306.jpg and http://jto.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/sb20090717w1a-200x200.jpg The second one is kinda small but you can still see the pinstripes tho.

[ThePeam]

Not to be a jerk but... Japan is awful. The Pinstripes are hideous. All the others look great though.

[RoughRiders99]

Wow, looks like the Japan uniform isn't so popular with everybody.

I'll give it another run, see what I can come up with.

[RoughRiders99]

Well, the previous version of the Japan team wasn't too popular, so I decided to give them another run. As I was removing the pinstripes, I couldn't stop thinking about how modern and high-tech Japan can get, so I decided to give them a much more modern-like look, which means removing all kinds of piping and just give them a nice, clean, sleek look. Now I can see what you guys meant when it was "ugly" before.

I really think it looks A LOT better now.

[ThePeam]

Japan=Perfection.

[Link]

Like one or two guys said already, Colombia isn't exactly a "red" country, so I gave them a little more blue based on several google images that I've found.

But I can still see Colombia having some variety of colors in their set, so I gave them a white, gray, red, blue AND yellow tops so they can have some options to work with.

I'm from Colombia and I LOVED the red kit... in Football/soccer, Colombia used to play in red as a first between the mid 80's and early 90's, they even went to a World Cup (1990) playing on that and drawing with Germany, a lot of people want that kit back nowadays; great work, congratulations.

[jaxon#08]

Japan is a lot better now

[jmoe12]

Great work on Japan, it's much improved!

[NewEnglandAmazins]

Thread bump

[RoughRiders99]

Great, thank you, NewEnglandAmazins.

There should be a new update tomorrow, and it will be the FINAL pool that I make. After that, everything will be simmed to see who will be the 2017 WBC Champions!

[RoughRiders99]

Korea

As they officially open their brand new baseball stadium, Seoul Ballpark in Seoul, South Korea, Korea will look to find their 2006 and 2009 magic to make it to the Championship Round as they missed the 2013 version. They got third place in 2006, and lost to Japan in the 2009 finals. In 2013, they scuffled to ninth place, despite having a record of 2-1 as they got eliminated in the first round due to team quality balance.

Huge, HUGE thanks to Jay Jackson, @diamonduniforms, for providing me the logos for the Korean team. I didn’t change too much from their set. However, I did remove the “side piping” that they had in 2013 and moved it to the sleeves to make it a little bit more traditional while keeping the same pattern.

Netherlands

Every time they’ve been in the Classics, they’ve improved their placing each time. In the first classic, they placed 11^th. In 2009, they moved up to 7^th place after upsetting the heavily favored Dominican Republic team not just once, but TWICE in a single round. In the 2013, they went on an amazing run, led by Braves shortstop Andrelton Simmons, and made it to the Championship Round and finished fourth in the 16-team tournament. In 2017, they only have one goal, and that is to win the whole thing.

I wanted to do something a little different for this set, so I gave them a cream-colored home jersey and an orangeish-grayish road uniform as well to emphasize their use of orange and the Dutch as well.

Cuba

Arguably the greatest international baseball team ever assembled, they have yet to win a single Classic yet. Their highest finish was second place in the inaugural Classic, losing to Japan in the finals. They did maintain a solid finish for the next two Classics, finishing fifth and sixth. Their overall record is 13-7.

Once again, huge, HUGE thanks to Jay Jackson, @diamonduniforms, for providing me the logos for the Cuban team. We all know their infamous red pants and to be honest with you guys, I really think it looks ugly so I removed all traces of it and stuck with the traditional white/gray pants. The jerseys and caps are mostly the same from their previous sets.

New Zealand

Per usual, it is not necessary to say much about this, as you’ve already seen it before.

Author’s Note: Well, this is it! The FINAL pool that I will create for this series! Sure, I might post an update to a few uniforms here and there (i.e. the alternate jersey for USA) to “fix” my mistakes or just to upgrade it or whatnot. But for sure, this is the FINAL pool for the 2017 version.

Worry not! I’ll continue to simulate the tournament and we’ll see who will come out on top!

Thank you for all of your feedbacks in this thread. They are what really kept the series going! If it wasn't for you guys, it'd probably fizzle out after the first 2-3 concepts. Again, thanks!

[jaxon#08]

Way to finish the series out. The best baseball thread so far. Do you know if you are going to stop making more uniforms or to continue and do other baseball countries

[RoughRiders99]

Way to finish the series out. The best baseball thread so far. Do you know if you are going to stop making more uniforms or to continue and do other baseball countries

I'm not sure yet, but I know I def want to finish simming out the 2017 Tourney, and I'll post the results here.

And I know I'm definitely interested in doing a simulation for 2021, but I'm not sure yet how I will set up the tournament or if there will be expansions and whatnot. If there are new teams, then I will make a set for them, but I most likely will make a new set for the teams that's already in. I really enjoy running the simulations and working with brackets and stuff like that.