A-Rod strikes again. He shouldn’t be so concerned with how things look. He should just do what he wants to do. If his first inclination was to play for the U.S., then he should have stuck with it.

Having said all that, the WBC is a joke. I know fans in other countries will be excited about it but at the end of the day – it doesn’t count. There are pitch counts – pitchers shouldn’t be getting ready early so they can start snapping off breaking pitches in this tournament and risk running out of gas in August. Pitchers should treat this as usual spring training, working in their pitches gradually. It’s difficult to get (I would think) paid professionals to play above a certain level for an exhibition. It’s why All-Star games are usually bad (although I admit that for baseball, it is the closest thing to the actual sport).

Oh, and I don’t want to hear Bud Selig or anyone else critical of the Yankees for voting against this tournament or not sending any pitchers. The League spends most of its time trying to design “anti-Yankee” rules like the luxury tax, revenue sharing and the fact that all of the teams try to “fleece” the Yankees out of talent. Now, when the League needs to promote something to increase foreign market streams of revenue, the Yankees have to help everyone out. NO THANKS! WE’LL KEEP OUR PLAYERS HEALTHY! You can bet if a Yankee comes up with an injury in this WBC, the other teams in the league won’t be helping us out.

And, you can bet if Pedro Martinez hurts his arm in this tournament Fred Wilpon would be justified in calling up Selig and saying: “Hey Bud, I spent 4 four years and over $40 million on a pitcher who now can’t help get to the playoffs after I spent ridiculous amounts of money this off season for other talent. From now on, I’m putting a clause in all of my contracts which prohibits participation in the WBC. Moron.”

I don’t want to see Jeter or A-Rod doing anything other than swinging the bat and fielding a few ground balls.