White Sox Send 2 to WBC

The final, 28-man rosters for all 16 teams participating in the World Baseball Classic were released today and much to the joy of the tournament's haters, the White Sox will only be sending two representatives; tied with Oakland and San Francisco for the least participation amongst MLB organizations.

The first name you know by now; Matt Thornton has been a rock in the White Sox bullpen since being acquired from Seattle just before the start of the 2006 season. In those three years, he has appeared in 205 games, pitching 177.2 innings with a cumulative 3.55 ERA. Considering how well Thornton's pitched for the Sox and the fact they have no 2nd lefty in the bullpen right now, I'm less than thrilled by his presence. However, Team USA has three other left-handed relievers; J.P. Howell, J.J. Putz, and Brian Fuentes, so it's unlikely Thornton will be called on to pitch more than a couple of innings.

Javier Castillo, however, likely is under the radar. The 25-year-old Panamanian third baseman has spent his entire 5-year minor league career with the White Sox, but is pretty well blocked by Josh Fields and Dayan Viciedo. Castillo has played in 505 minor league games, but only 31 of them have come at the AAA level and he's still just a .266/.332/.399 career hitter. His likelihood to have ever made an impact at the Major League level seemed pretty remote, but hey, he'll always be an organizational trivia question now. Q: Who was the first White Sox player to represent Panama at the WBC? A: Javier Castillo, of course. You weren't going to say Carlos Lee, were you?

It's a bummer for AJ Pierzynski, who expressed interest in representing Team USA this year, but was passed over for Brian McCann and Chris Iannetta. While it's no surprise (everyone knew those would be the American catchers two weeks ago), it's still disappointing. I would have splurged for a Pierzynski Team USA jersey, plus it would have been nice to give the young catchers on our roster more work with the pitching staff.

At any rate, the World Baseball Classic kicks off a week from Thursday. Both Team USA and Panama kick off their tournaments on March 7; versus Canada in Toronto and Puerto Rico in San Juan respectively.