WBC 2013 qualifier roster

[island slugger]

So it's about 5-6months until the WBC qualifier begins! Recently, I found an interesting blog in Japanese, about the player and the country(of course about baseball)profile for each nation participating in the WBC qualifier. I'll try to update it as soon as possible, to introduce it in English.

I'm just translating this blog so credits to http://www.plus-blog.sportsnavi.com/sekainokakyu/

[island slugger]

First up, NEW ZEALAND!
General Knowledge about baseball in New Zealand

Firstly, the most important thing to keep in mind is that they have never participated in any major international baseball tournament. New Zealand may have participated in a small baseball tournament long time ago, but that doesn't show anything.

So why not? there's two reasons for this.
First of all, Australia is too STRONG!
Oceania countries can not even compete against amateur players in Australia(Guam can sometimes show a decent fight)
Oceania championship has been abolished since the 2003 Athens olympics qualifier. What people are trying to imply is that, Australia would never lose! Therefore, there are barely any oceania baseball tournament. However, in the Beijing olympics qualifier New Zealand was scheduled to play against Australia. Unfortunately New Zealand didn't participate in this tournament...

Another reason is "Adult"
They are not college students, they work like other adults. It is widely known that even in FIFA worldcup, people with ordinary jobs participated as players. Baseball is a minor sport in New Zealand and, "adults" can't leave their work for several days to absolutely get crushed by Australia.

Moreover, New Zealand is one of the leading nation in male softball, it is just like the All Blacks in rugby. Of course, Rugby,which is the national sport, is way more popular than softball, but still softball receives more financial support, and has more player's population than baseball.

It is really difficult to translate Japanese to English(google translate doesn't help at ALL) so I apologize for any mistakes!
Next, all talk about it's domestic league(though, they have none), and a brief player profile!

[titorondon]

Thank you for your effort. Very interesting!

[island slugger]

New Zealand baseball

I'll continue on talking about the domestic league and players profile.

Domestic league
So first of all, in New Zealand, there are no national "domestic league" like Europe. There's probably each league in each region. According to a Japanese woman working with baseball in New Zealand, she states that only in Auckland(largest city in NZ) a decent league is present. In other region, it is rumored that teams divide into two. However, a national baseball tournament is held annually during summer(around february in the US). Baseball teams from around NZ participate to decide the strongest club. Still, there are a lot of teams from Auckland, and ever since the start of this tournament, teams from Auckland has always came home with the trophy. Nevertheless, this year the favorites, West city Metro(Auckland) lost against Wellington, which was a big surprise as NZ baseball website covered the story.
Though, it is better if there's less regional disparity...

There are also gap between teams in Auckland. West City metro, mentioned earlier, and this year's champion, Howick-Pakuranga are the two strongest teams existing in Auckland. During the WBC qualifier, talented players from these teams would definitely fill in the roster.

NZ players from overseas

Alexander Dawson Dawn Uni(US)
Nick Dawson Dawn Uni(US)
Nick Maronde Angels farm-system
Te Wera Bishop Redsox farm-system
Dewald de Klerk Belleview Uni(US)
Duncan Izaaks Colby Community Uni(US)
Daniel Devonshire Colby Community Uni(US)
Boss Moanaroa Redsox farm-system
Daniel Lamb-Hunt Bonn Capitals(Germany)
Pita Rona Orioles farm-system
Moko Moanaroa Redsox farm-system
Andrew Marck Brisbane Bandits(Australia)

It is a fine list of players.
National team line-up can be sorted out with all the players from overseas. Lamb-hunt has also experienced playing in Minor league in the US.
Moanaroa brothers, playing in the Redsox farm-system, are Australian, but their parents are Maori from NZ. In addition, along with Andrew Marck, a young pitcher named James Wilson were under contract with Brisbane. However, he didn't appear in any game, most likely because of injury.

Thanks for reading this long post!
In few days, I'll talk about NZ's performance in the classic, and NZ's future in the world of baseball!