WORLD BASEBALL CLASSIC: POOL A - CUBA VS NETHERLANDS

March 8, 2023

Hensley Meulens

Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium

Team Netherlands

Pregame Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: We start out pregame press conference schedule today with Netherlands manager, Hensley Muelins.

Hensley, thanks for joining us, and we can start now with questions.

Q. So I just had a question about the infield alignment. You've got a bunch of good talent there on the defense in the infield, three shortstops at different positions. How did that shake out? How did the guys move to the positions they are at, how did that all come about?

HENSLEY MEULENS: That's a good question. I think in the past, with Simmons being the gold glover, four Gold Gloves, everybody moved him to shortstop. This time I asked him and dd to honor Bogaerts this time because of where he's at in his career, where they are at in their careers. He won the Silver Slugger last year, his fifth. He was nominated for the gold golf. He was an All-Star. He was a big deal for the Padres, and they tipped their hat to him and moved Stamos to third.

Initially I moved Didi to second and Jonathan to first and we flip flopped it a couple weeks ago to have Jonathan play at second where he's one of the better ones in the big leagues and Didi move to first where he's creating value for himself to continue to play in his career.

Q. How does a defense like that, an experienced defense, help you against Cuba today, and throughout the tournament, having that?

HENSLEY MEULENS: Well, the trust in the guys, I believe we made zero errors in this tournament last time. That's why that trust factor is there. These guys can catch the ball and they make accurate throws most of the time. And the guys in the outfield, pro far played center field last time. He's vastly improved in left field now. His arm is completely back.

Bernadina is a true center fielder and today we have Palacios in right who also gave us some speed and a good arm.

So our pitchers are comfortable that they are going to pitch to contact, so they can use the great defensive players behind them.

Q. (Is there an advantage to playing in the day first)?

HENSLEY MEULENS: Very good question. I think it's in our advantage because we are still kind of jet-lagged a little bit with the guys still waking up somewhat early.

So the early game is in our advantage right now, and as we are getting used to the time difference here, I think the later games at night, we'll be fully adjusted to the time difference. You know, I feel like that's an advantage for us.

Also, the day off in pen the first two games and the last two, we can use our pitching right and also give them a day off in the middle and use some high-leverage guys again the last two games.

Q. (What do you think about the balance of players in this pool)?

HENSLEY MEULENS: Well, I think it's a very balanced pool. I keep telling people this is the most balanced out of all four, with Panama bringing a lot of professional players on their team.

Team Italy, same thing. They bring a lot of guys that play in the U.S. in the major leagues to kind of be even with what we have in our roster.

Obviously Cuba is always a strong team, very competitive. They have some major league players now and some ex-major league players on their roster, so made them better.

And the Chinese Taipei team is younger, but a lot of guys playing professional baseball all over the place.

In my opinion, it's one of the most balanced pools and we have to play really well to beat every country in this tournament.

Q. (No translation).

HENSLEY MEULENS: You know, batting was our strength last tournament and we have some of the same players here, experienced, very, very good hitters. We've had a training camp behind us that some of them were just starting to play this year.

We always hope that once the game starts that these guys are at their best so they can help us win the games. Our pitching and defense have been really, really good but what makes us win is our offense. So hopefully those guys starting today start clicking and putting the good at-bats together and scoring sufficient runs for us to win games.

Q. (No translation).

HENSLEY MEULENS: So at the time we had to put out the roster on February 7th, Kenley (Jansen) was not ready to throw at that time. He choose to get in shape first and join us later on if we get there. So we honor that decision. He switched teams, as well, but the last two times, also, he never came over here, so he always joined us in the last round.

So hopefully we'll get there to Miami so he can join us from Fort Myers for the final round.

Q. (No translation).

HENSLEY MEULENS: Tommy is one of our best pitchers. I'd like to say, like in the qualifying tournament in México a couple of years ago, he pitched very well. Actually the best game I've seen him pitch. He's had some arm problems here over the last year and a half, but he's fit now. I think the reason why we started him is we think he can beat Cuba and give us a chance to win the first game and be 1-0 in the tournament.

So very aggressive pitcher and I think we need that against a very potent lineup like the Cubans are bringing to the game today.