"Korean baseball" Korea shock assessment, "Does it make sense that it is worse than Taiwan?" The U.S. is No. 1 and Japan is No. 2 [MLB.com]

*This content was translated by AI.

With the opening of the 2026 World Baseball Classic (WBC), a cold assessment has been made that the Korean baseball team's chances of winning will remain ninth out of 20 countries.

MLB.COM, the official website of the U.S. Major League Baseball (MLB), analyzed the power of participating countries ahead of the WBC tournament on the 20th (Korea time)? According to Werank 'em, 1-20), South Korea ranked ninth among the 20 teams with a championship probability.

Regarding Korea, the media diagnosed, "While other countries' power has improved since the 2009 competition (which won the runner-up), Korea's power has been somewhat bent."

"However, we still have quality players. Along with the stars of the KBO League, active major leaguers with Korean descent, including Germay Jones (Detroit Tigers), Dane Dunning (Seattle Mariners), and Shay Witcom (Houston Astros), added.

The 2026 WBC championship rankings selected by MLB.com were followed by the No. 1 U.S., No. 2 Japan, No. 3 Dominican Republic, No. 4 Venezuela, No. 5 Puerto Rico, No. 6 Mexico, No. 7 Canada, No. 8 Taiwan, No. 9 Korea, No. 10 Italy, No. 11 Colombia, No. 12 Netherlands, No. 13 Panama, No. 14 Britain, No. 15 Cuba, No. 16 Australia, No. 17 Israel, No. 18 Czech Republic, No. 19 Nicaragua, and No. 20 Brazil.

Most noticeable of all is that Taiwan, a rival destined to compete for a ticket to the quarterfinals in the upcoming first round of WBC Tokyo, ranked eighth, one step higher than South Korea.

The media highly appreciated Taiwan's ability to lift the trophy by defeating South Korea and Japan in succession at the 2024 World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) Premier 12 tournament.

MLB.com explained why it rated higher than Korea, noting, "In particular, there are many talented young pitchers such as Lin Yu-min (Arizona Diamondbacks) and Shirooshi (Softbank)."

The U.S., which knelt down to Japan in the final of the 2023 WBC tournament, has built an all-time squad with the will to take back the throne.

For the second consecutive year, American League (AL) MVP Aaron Judge (New York Yankees), MLB home run king Carl Raleigh (Seattle), "twice NL MVP" Bryce Harper, and Kyle Schwarber (Philadelphia Phillies), who hit as many as 56 home runs in the 2025 season, were selected.

The mound will also be led by Tarik Skubal (Detroit) and "Genius Pitcher" Paul Skins (Pittsburg Pirates), the main characters of the Cy Young Award in the two leagues.

Japan, the "defending champion," ranked second in the championship, one step lower than the U.S., but is aiming for its second consecutive victory.

As many as nine active big leaguers, including Yoshinobu Yamamoto (L.A. Dodgers), Masataka Yoshida (Boston Red Sox), Munetaka Murakami (Chicago White Sox), Tomoyuki Sugano (Colorado), were named, centering on "Superstar" Shohei Ohtani.

Meanwhile, the Korean WBC team will play an exhibition game against the Hanshin Tigers on March 2 and an exhibition game against the Orix Buffaloes on March 3.

After two days off, he will play the first game against the Czech Republic at 7 p.m. on the 5th. After taking a day off, the national team will play a fateful Korea-Japan match at 7 p.m. on the 7th. After the Korea-Japan match, they will face Taiwan at noon on the 8th, the next day after taking a short break. In fact, it is expected that South Korea's advance to the second round will be determined in the match against Taiwan. And on the 9th, he will play in the final round of the first round against Australia at 7 p.m.

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*This content was translated by AI.