Why the WBC Gets More Blame For Seattle Mariners' Star's Poor Season
Manny Acta of the Mariners coaching staff confirmed the World Baseball Classic contributed to Cal Raleigh's oblique injury.
Video Transcript
Yeah.
Vladi hit his fifth on Wednesday.
Okay, fifth finally.
I mean, think about that.
Eight home runs, eight home runs in all in the postseason last year.
Totally dominant.
He was great.
I, I What I've come to believe, and I've had this conversation with a number of people, is that there are a lot of players who were affected by the WBC.
Their preparation, you know, before the season started.
And the more people I talk to, the more that I believe that that was a, a huge factor for the Mariners, for the Kansas City Royals, for the Boston Red Sox, for the Toronto Blue Jays, who had a number of players.
And I mean, it comes down to a- as one pr- evaluator said to me the other day, "Look, hitters are creatures of habit."
You know, they go into spring training and they're used to having, you know, you show up at, 7:00 in morning, you have your breakfast, you go out, you, you take some rounds of hitting, maybe do some defense, then you take some more swings and you more swings, and you gradually work your way in.
What changed this spring in the WBC is that the hours available to players to prepare.
Cal was affected by that.
I'm absolutely convinced of that.
I think Vladi was affected by that.
And no one can say it out loud because it's, it's for the same reason that, you know, you don't hear players complain about travel, which is real.
Like, the impact of, you know, getting into hotel at 4:00 or 5:00 in the morning is real, but no one says it out loud because they understand fans don't want to hear whining, complaining.
But that doesn't mean the impact is not real.
And I do think that Cal, you know, and, and some of the other players on the Mariners have been affected by how their season started
