We would like to say congratualations to Derrek Lee on being named to the provisional US roster for the World Baseball Classic! This is a great accomplishment for D. Lee. He has a great year last year and we sure hope he continues it this year with the Chicago Cubs. Some other notable players on the roster are Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Chipper Jones, Ken Griffey Jr. , Derek Jeter, and Lance Berkman to name a few. Right now the lineup is looking similar to this:

• LF Damon
• SS Jeter
• 1B Lee or Teixeira
• DH Bonds
• CF Griffey
• RF Berkman or Vernon Wells
• 3B Jones
• C Jason Varitek
• 2B Chase Utley

The starting staff might include Clemens, Willis, Halladay, Pettitte, Hudson and Jake Peavy, while the bullpen could feature Wagner, Lidge, Huston Street, Chad Cordero and Joe Nathan.

The teams in the Classic will be divided into four pools and feature round-robin play in each of the first two rounds. From March 3-6, Japan will host the opening round in Pool A, which also includes Korea, China and Chinese Taipei.

The top two finishers will travel to the United States for the second round to face the qualifiers from Pool B, which includes Team USA, beginning March 13.

Pool B also consists of Canada, Mexico and South Africa and will be held in Arizona.

Puerto Rico will host Pool C, which also includes teams from the Netherlands and Panama. Cuba also is scheduled to compete in Pool C, although its status is still up in the air.

The U.S. government has banned the Cubans from participating, citing an embargo on the communist nation. However, Major League Baseball and the Players Association have petitioned to include Cuba, which boasts many major league players.

Pool D will be occupied by Australia, the Dominican Republic, Italy and Venezuela and play in Florida.

The top two teams from each second-round pool advance to the single-elimination semifinals and finals, which will be held at Petco Park in San Diego from March 18-20.

The WBC will be held again in 2009 and every four years thereafter.