WBC Provisional Roster; Hawks Well-Represented

Last Sunday, the World Baseball Classic preliminary roster was released. While not final, I think we can expect Hara-kantoku to shave the roster a bit down to the required number. Here are the SoftBank representatives for Team Japan.

PITCHERS
LHP Toshiya Sugiuchi (10-8, 2.66)
LHP Tsuyoshi Wada (8-8, 3.61)
RHP Takahiro Mahara (0-2, 2.79, 11 SV)

POSITION PLAYERS
SS Munenori Kawasaki (.321, 1 HR, 34 RBI)
1B Nobuhiko Matsunaka (.290, 25 HR, 92 RBI)

The Hawks have no outfielders representing their team, and I'm frankly not surprised. Everybody was hurt, especially CF Tamura, who led Team Japan in home runs in the 2006 tournament with 3.

With 5 players (and one other former player in Johjima), the only other teams that have as many players as SoftBank are the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters and the Nepotism Crew, Hara's own Giants (Yomiuri has 6 representatives total if one includes Lee Seung-Yeop on Korea).

As stated before, this is the provisional roster, so it's not final. If Hara is smart, he'll let Mahara stay home with the team since he's still not 100%, and a couple starters will be used in the bullpen. Also, who knows if Kawasaki will opt out because he was hurt for the final month of last season. We will know in time.