He’ll only be 33!

there was some consternation in the media about the number of pitchers in the WBC who had bad years / injuries. It did seem like there were a disproportionate number of these “star pitchers” who had problems during the regular season. Brad Lidge was sometimes used as one of the “examples.” He was coming off a long post season (World Series) and he was used as the USA team’s main closer. He followed that up with his only really bad season in 06. Lidge isn’t participating in the WBC this year, and I notice that other USA pitchers are reluctant to do it. That past experience could have been just coincidence. But some people theorized that the Classic screwed up pitchers’ off-season preparation patterns. The WBC obviously is far more “competitive” than the average spring training game.