Why the WBC is nothing more than a dog and pony show

The World Baseball Classic's second round is underway and, for the most part, I have enjoyed it. Since baseball has no Olympic-level competition, it's great to see national teams with all sorts of crazy players I've never heard of going at it and amped-up fans singing songs. It's much more interesting than regular Spring Training for sure.

But as far as the level of competition goes, the WBC is kind of a joke.

By now, everyone knows the story of the start-up Netherlands knocking out the star-studded Dominicans. And yeah, it was a cool story (but please spare me with "the biggest upset in sports ever!!!" talk), but highlighted the problem with the WBC -- the insanity of a double elimination, March Madness-esque tournament for baseball.

In any other Olympic or national-level competition, there are qualifying rounds. This eliminates (or cuts down on) the chance that some random, shitty team will make it to the big stage and upend a team that, let's be honest, is better.

The truth is, there really aren't that many quality baseball players on about half the WBC teams. They are little more (sometimes, less) than AAA or even AA teams. Take a look at the Netherlands team stats through five games:

25 hits/29 total bases/55 strikeouts/.202 OBP/.182 SLG/.157 BA/.385 OPS/7 RS:13 RA

In a word: barrrrrrrrrf.

"Now wait," you say, "Their pitching must be dirty." And you'd be right:

2.66 ERA/36 hits/33 walks: 27 strikeouts/1.57 WHIP

Just kidding, they're not very good.

If there were qualifying rounds, there is no way the Netherlands would have made it in. And we could still be watching the MLB-studly D.R. team, instead of the no-name, bound to lose N.D. team.

The beauty of March Madness is, that for all the upsets, the best teams usually last. With the WBC's three-round, double-elimination clusterfuck, there is a very good chance the best teams won't even make it beyond the first round, especially considering the time of year.

So I will keep watching and rooting for Cuba (team 1.296 OPS), Puerto Rico (4-0, 32 K:8 BB for the staff) and all the other talented teams to win. Because seriously, name one (other than Ponson) player on the Netherlands.