Preliminary WBC Qualifying Rosters

The third and fourth qualifiers of the World Baseball Classic start tomorrow in Panama City, Panama and New Taipei City, Taiwan. The qualifying rosters have been slow to come out for the eight teams involved which include Brazil, Colombia, Nicaragua and Panama (third qualifier) and New Zealand, Phillipines, Thailand and Chinese Taipei (fourth qualifier). So far, the preliminary rosters show Astros representation on the Nicaraguan and Colombian teams:

Team Nicaragua
Manager Dennis Martinez (Astros new bullpen coach)
Marlon Avea (listed as a coach)
RHP Wilton Lopez - not listed on WBC site roster
OF Mesac Laguna - not listed on WBC site roster

Team Colombia
Eduardo Perez (Astros new bench coach)
RHP Dayan Diaz

Team Brazil
RHP Murilo Gouvea (according to the Astros twitter feed)

I will update if/when I find additional Astros representation on any of the teams.

World Baseball Classic Qualifying Rounds Update

RHP Josh Zeid saw his first action in the World Baseball Classic qualifiers last night as his Team Israel prevailed over South Africa 7-3. Zeid came in in the sixth inning with two on and one out and struck out one batter before issuing an intentional walk and inducing a pop out for the third out to end the threat. He went on to pitch the seventh for Team Israel and allowed no hits and no runs and three strikeouts to go with the intentional walk. Manager Brad Ausmus had this to say about Zeid's performance.

"Huge difference. Not only is it a big difference in terms of the scoreboard, it could be a big momentum shift," Ausmus said. "Zeid's inning-plus there was probably the turning point of the game for us."

Ben Orloff did not get in to the first game for Team Israel. Their next game will be on Friday at 12:00 CST. The full schedule and results can be found here.