2017 World Baseball Classic


The 2017 World Baseball Classic was an international professional baseball competition, composed of 16 competing nations, held from March 6 to March 22, 2017. It was the fourth iteration of the World Baseball Classic. The first-round hosts were Seoul, Tokyo, Miami and Zapopan. The second-round hosts were Tokyo and San Diego, and the championship round was played in Los Angeles.
Twelve of the sixteen competing nations qualified based on their performance during the first round of the 2013 tournament; the remaining four nations are the winners of four qualification tournaments that took place in February, March and September 2016. Two of the four qualifiers, Colombia and Israel, each made their first appearance in the WBC, and both have secured their positions for the 2021 World Baseball Classic.
The Netherlands, Japan, Puerto Rico, and the United States advanced to the championship round. Defending champion Dominican Republic was eliminated in the second round. The United States defeated Puerto Rico to win the championship game, 8–0. Marcus Stroman was named tournament MVP. He made three starts for the U.S. and posted a 2.35 ERA in 15 total innings, including six shutout innings in the championship game.

Qualification

The top three teams from each pool of the first round of the 2013 World Baseball Classic automatically qualified.
TeamMethod of qualificationClassic appearancePrevious best position
2013 World Baseball Classic4thRound 1
2013 World Baseball Classic4thRound 1
2013 World Baseball Classic4thRound 2
2013 World Baseball Classic4thRunners-up
2013 World Baseball Classic4thChampions
2013 World Baseball Classic4thRound 2
2013 World Baseball Classic4thChampions
2013 World Baseball Classic4thFourth place
2013 World Baseball Classic4thRunners-up
2013 World Baseball Classic4thRunners-up
2013 World Baseball Classic4thFourth place
2013 World Baseball Classic4thThird place
Qualifier 14thRound 1
Qualifier 24thRound 2
Qualifier 31st—
Qualifier 41st—

Format

The first and second rounds of the tournament were played in round-robin format, with each team playing each other team in their pool once, as was the case in 2006. However, in an effort to reduce the likelihood that a team would be eliminated on statistical tiebreakers, the tournament schedule allowed for a seventh game at each pool-play site.
In either of the latter cases, the statistics used to rank the tied teams were:
  1. Fewest runs allowed per inning of defense in head-to-head games
  2. Fewest earned runs allowed per inning of defense in head-to-head games
  3. Highest batting average in head-to-head games
  4. Drawing of lots

    Rosters

Venues

Six stadiums were used during the main tournament:
Pool APool B & EPool C
Seoul, South Korea Tokyo, Japan Miami, United States
Gocheok Sky DomeTokyo DomeMarlins Park
Capacity: 16,813Capacity: 42,000Capacity: 36,742

Pool DPool FChampionship
Zapopan, Mexico San Diego, United States Los Angeles, United States
Estadio Charros de JaliscoPetco ParkDodger Stadium
Capacity: 16,000Capacity: 40,162Capacity: 56,000

Pools composition

First round

Pool A

Pool B

Pool C

Pool D

Second round

Pool E

Pool F

Championship round

Semifinals

Final

Final standings

Organizer WBCI had no interest in the final standings so did not compute them. Instead, they were calculated by WBSC for inclusion in the WBSC Men's Baseball World Rankings system.
In the final standings, ties were to be broken in the following order of priority:
  1. The team with the highest Team's Quality Balance –) in all games;
  2. The team with the highest Earned Runs Team's Quality Balance –) in all games;
  3. The team with the highest batting average in all games;
When the 2017 WBC was played, it was assumed that the field for the following 2021 WBC would remain 16 teams. Under the qualification format in use at the time, the bottom four finishers from 2017 would've been forced to re-qualify for 2021. However, in January 2020, MLB announced it was expanding the field for the 2021 WBC from 16 teams to 20 and that all 16 participants from 2017 would receive automatic bids for 2021, thus sparing the bottom four nations from relegation to the qualifiers.

2017 All-World Baseball Classic team

Source:

Attendance

973,699

First round

508,830
354,977
109,892

Batting

* Minimum 2.7 plate appearances per game

Pitching

* Minimum 0.8 innings pitched per game
** Zeid is tied with 12 others with a 0.00 ERA but he has pitched the most innings

Most Valuable Players

First round

Television

Radio