Japan World Baseball Classic Players

Japan comes into the 2013 edition of the World Baseball Classic as the reigning champion two times over. Having won the WBC in both 2006 and 2009, the Japanese will have every other country in the tournament looking to dethrone them and win the gold medal. When you look at their roster, I’m fairly certain most here in the U.S. have not heard of any of the players, but I can bet that we may see at least a few them make their way over to Major League Baseball given the exposure the WBC brings to international talent.

Led by Koji Yamamoto as the manager, Japan will play in Pool A along with Brazil, China and Cuba. Their first round game action will take place on March 2 versus Brazil, March 3 versus China and March 6 versus Cuba. All games will take place at Fukuoka Yahoo! Japan Dome in Fukuoka, Japan.

Japan World Baseball Classic Roster

Pitchers

Takeru Imamura
Kenta Maeda
Kazuhisa Makita
Masahiko Morifuku
Atsushi Nohmi
Kenji Otonari
Hirokazu Sawamura
Tadashi Settsu
Toshiya Sugiuchi
Masahiro Tanaka
Tetsuya Utsumi
Hideaki Wakui
Tetsuya Yamaguchi

Catchers

Shinnosuke Abe
Ryoji Aikawa
Ginjiro Sumitani

Infielders

Yuichi Honda
Hirokazu Ibata
Nobuhiro Matsuda
Kazuo Matsui
Hayato Sakamoto
Takashi Toritani

Outfielders

Hisayoshi Chono
Atsunori Inaba
Yoshio Itoi
Katsuya Kakunaka
Sho Nakata
Seiichi Uchikawa

World Baseball Classic Tickets

World Baseball Classic Ticket Prices

Below is a list of ticket prices for the American based games of the WBC.

City State Venue Name Date Avg. Price
Phoenix AZ Chase Field 3/8/2013 $46.80
Scottsdale AZ Scottsdale Stadium 3/14/2013 $42.10
San Francisco CA AT&T Park 3/17/2013 $77.63
San Francisco CA AT&T Park 3/18/2013 $100.40
San Francisco CA AT&T Park 3/19/2013 $143.39

World Baseball Classic Schedule

You can find the full detailed slate of games of the WBC schedule at the official website for the tournament right here.

Image courtesy of Flickr user ilovemypit