Team USA has a Mark DeRosa problem

Aaron Judge and Paul Skenes were really good, Matt Boyd and Bryce Harper weren't, Bryce Turang proved he's no Nico Hoerner, and Randy Arozarena told Cal Raleigh to shove something "up his ass" as the US held on to a 5-0 lead to beat Mexico for the first time their last four World Baseball Classic matchups.

Boyd struggling (five hits, two homers, a hit batsmen and three runs allowed in 2.1 innings) wasn't that alarming, but Team USA manager Mark DeRosa apparently forgetting he has SIXTEEN pitchers on his roster was. Boyd struggled in his first inning and just because he was scheduled to go three didn't mean he had to go back out for his second, and certainly not his third inning of work. And Griffin Jax needed to induce Alejandro Kirk to ground into a double play (something a grounder to any fielder, including the outfielders, will do) to get out of a jam in the seventh.

As for Harper, he's 3-for-14 so far (all singles), which shouldn't that alarming since it's just 14 at bats, but it's the quality of those at bats. He's just swinging from his ass on every pitch and has struck out five times, which leads the US by a lot. I'm not saying they should bench him (and even if they did, his backup is Paul Goldschmidt for some unknown reason), but he probably shouldn't still be batting second when they roll into the quarterfinals later this week. But that's not something DeRosa will even entertain.

This is either a series of exhibitions of all-star teams, or a tournament you are really trying to win, it can't be both. And it should be the second one. If DeRosa just wants to hang out with a bunch of his old baseball buddies ...

...that's one thing. But at some point he's going to have to actually manage his team. Or it's going to end the way four of the five previous WBCs have.

There's a lot of stuff Fox misses during these games. It's kind of incredible, really. Last night when Mexico's (and Seattke's) Randy Arozarena came up for his first at bat he stopped to shake the hand of his big league teammate Cal Raleigh, who refused.

After the game, Raleigh apparently saw Randy on the field and said, "Good to see you." To which Randy told the media, "He can take that 'good to see you' and shove it up his ass."

Now, that's the good stuff.

Just a few days after Dr. Keith Dudemeister cleared Justin Steele to...uh...keep pitching, I guess?...he was handing out some more cryptic news to second-time-around-Cub reliever Shelby Miller.