San Francisco Giants: Posey, Crawford and Cueto to Play in WBC

The San Francisco Giants will have at least 4 members of their 25 man roster playing in the World Baseball Classic. Catcher Buster Posey, shortstop Brandon Crawford and pitchers Johnny Cueto and Albert Suarez have all agreed to play in the tournament.

The Giants had seven members of their 2013 team play in the WBC. Jeremy Affeldt and Ryan Vogelsong made the US team in 2013, Pablo Sandoval and Marco Scutaro played for Venezuela, Sergio Romo played for Mexico, Santiago Casilla played for the Dominican Republic and Angel Pagan played for Puerto Rico.

Many of those players struggled to begin the 2013 season. The team was coming off of their second World Series in three seasons and the extra work in October combined with the pressure games played in March contributed to the struggles.

March is usually a time to ease into the season, pitching an inning or two and playing a few innings. This leads many fans to worry that having Posey, Cueto and Crawford along with Suarez participating could impact how they perform during the regular season.

Bruce Bochy told Alex Pavlovic of CSN Bay Area that Posey playing doesn’t concern him.

“I’m fine with it,” Bruce Bochy said of Posey playing. “Buster wants to do it and I’m good with it.”

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General Manager Bobby Evans also spoke with Pavlovic about any health concerns.

“Major League Baseball is doing everything it can to help us protect them in terms of the quantity of players on the roster and pitch counts and innings,” general manager Bobby Evans said. “We feel MLB is working carefully to help all of us manage guys while they’re away from camp. We feel as confident as ever that they’ll be protected. Lessons have been learned, and everyone involved will try to find ways to avoid issues.”

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