Will LaPorta help Baseball Team USA to capture a gold meda..

2008 Summer Olympic Games Preview - Baseball

It has been eight years since the United States captured the Gold
Medal at
the Sydney Olympics. If it does not do so here in Beijing, it may be
awhile before it gets a chance again.

Baseball, along with softball, has been voted out of the 2012 Summer
Games in London, England, making them
the first sports voted out of the Olympics since Polo was eliminated
from the 1936 Olympics.

However, the two slots left available by the International Olympic
Committee's elimination were not filled by new
sports, so both baseball and softball can reemerge as events in the
2016 Olympics, provided no new sports are
adopted into the games and both receive enough votes to be included.

Former major league manager Davey Johnson has been tabbed as the man
to bring Team USA back to glory
following its disappointment in 2004 when the team failed to qualify
in Athens, denying them the chance to
defend the Gold Medal they won in 2000 in Australia with Tommy Lasorda
at the helm.

Early indications have shown that USA Baseball is back on track
following a Gold Medal win over powerhouse
Cuba at Americas Olympic Qualifier in Panama in 2006, as well as a
2007 World Cup win.

Team USA will be led by power-hitting outfielder Matt LaPorta, who was
recently traded to the Cleveland Indians
as part of the CC Sabathia deal. LaPorta, the seventh overall pick in
the 2007 draft by the Milwaukee Brewers,
was also a member of the 2005 collegiate USA Baseball National Team.

"We had heard a lot of good things and we have a number of scouts that
join conference calls and talk about
players and we look at numbers. The main thing I liked once I saw him
is that he is an aggressive hitter," said
Johnson.

On the hill, the team will count on San Diego State right-hander
Stephen Strasburg, who recently gained
notoriety with a 23-strikeout performance.

"We got our reports (on Strasburg) from (USA Baseball Director of
National Teams) Eric Campbell on what he
has done and he was on our radar before he pitched for the (U.S.
National Team) over in Europe." said
Johnson. "He did a great job against the teams he pitched against. Hes
a power pitcher. He is in the high 90s
and he throws strikes. That is kind of a rarity for even Triple-A type
guys. Heres a guy who pounds the strike
zone awfully good and he was lights out in the tournament. He is one
of my starters."

The roster is comprised of 14 players currently at the Triple-A level,
seven at Double-A and one each at
Single-A and at the collegiate level. Any athlete not on a 25-man
roster at the time of selection was eligible to
compete.

Johnson's bunch will have the unenviable task of wrestling the Gold
away from Cuba, which has won this event
three times since it was granted sport medal status at the 1992
Barcelona Olympics.

Cuba, which has lost twice to the United States over the past three
years, enters this eight-team tournament as
the prohibitive favorites, thanks in part to its three Gold Medals and
one Silver in four Olympic Games and 25
World Cup Medals.

Of course, Cuba won the Silver in 2000 when Team USA took home the
Gold, backed by current Milwaukee
Brewer right-hander Ben Sheets' three-hit shutout.

The player to watch for Cuba is third baseman Yulieski Gourriel,
widely regarded as the best player in the
country. He can play just about every position in the infield and
played second for Cuba at the World Baseball
Calssic, hitting .273 in the tournament, with a .342 on base
percentage and a .515 slugging percentage.

If there is one sleeper out there it is Canada, despite the fact that
it was the last team to qualify for the Games.
Canada's roster is littered with former major leaguers and current
minor leaguers, including recent No. 1 pick of
the Milwaukee Brewers, infielder Brett Lawrie.

Lawrie, selected 16th overall in this past June's Major League
Baseball draft, is perhaps the best
Canadian-born player since Larry Walker and has been compared to Craig
Biggio.

Also participating in the event, which gets underway on August 13,
will be China, Chinese-Taipei, Japan, South
Korea and the Netherlands. As the host country, China did not have to
go through the qualification process like
the seven other countires.

The Gold Medal game will take place on August 23.

(Sports Network, July 17, 2008)


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