The 2023 World Baseball Classic Pool A was the first of four pools of the 2023 World Baseball Classic that took place from March 8–12 at Taichung Stadium in Taichung, Taiwan. The top two teams automatically qualified for the top eight knockout stage, beginning with the quarterfinals in Tokyo and the remaining of the bracket in Miami. The teams in this pool consisted of hosts Chinese Taipei, Cuba, Italy, Netherlands, and Panama.

After all games were completed, the five teams tied at 2–2. This resulted in the standings being determined by the fewest runs allowed per defensive out recorded. Cuba won the pool and advanced to the quarterfinals, along with Italy as runners-up, and Chinese Taipei fell to last place and was relegated to the qualifiers for the 2026 World Baseball Classic, despite scoring the most in the pool.

Yu Chang of Chinese Taipei was named the most valuable player of Pool A.

Teams Drawposition Team Pot Confederation Method ofqualification Date ofqualification Finalsappearance Lastappearance Previous bestperformance WBSCRankings A1 1 WBSC Asia Hosts + 2017 participants 5th 2017 (2013) 2 A2 2 WBSC Europe 2017 participants 5th 2017 (2013, 2017) 7 A3 3 WBSC Americas 2017 participants 5th 2017 (2006) 8 A4 4 WBSC Europe 2017 participants 5th 2017 (2013) 16 A5 5 WBSC Americas Qualifiers Pool B winners 3rd 2009 (2006, 2009) 12

Standings

Tiebreaker As all five teams tied at 2–2, WBC's tiebreakers went into effect. The first tiebreaker, head-to-head record, was unnecessary because all five teams were tied. The final standings were determined by the fewest runs allowed per defensive out recorded. Based on the calculation, Cuba won the pool, while Italy advanced as the runner-up.

Pool A TiebreakerCuba – 15 runs allowed / 108 outs recorded = .139 runs/out Italy – 17 runs allowed / 108 outs recorded = .157 runs/out Netherlands – 19 runs allowed / 102 outs recorded = .186 runs/out Panama – 21 runs allowed / 105 outs recorded = .200 runs/out Chinese Taipei – 31 runs allowed / 105 outs recorded = .295 runs/out

Summary

Games

Cuba vs Netherlands

Panama vs Chinese Taipei

Panama vs Netherlands

Italy vs Cuba

Cuba vs Panama

Italy vs Chinese Taipei

Panama vs Italy

Netherlands vs Chinese Taipei

Chinese Taipei vs Cuba

Netherlands vs Italy

Statistics

Source:

Leading hitters

Power

Team .504 7 2 5 139 .454 11 1 2 141 .377 9 2 0 138 .370 7 0 2 135 .328 1 0 4 125

Efficiency

Team .392 44 14 4 139 1 .390 45 15 2 141 1 .372 37 18 3 135 0 .359 39 16 1 138 1 .331 28 15 5 125 0

Leading pitchers

Team 1.14 10 31 36 38 1.42 13 38 36 26 1.53 19 33 34 19 1.77 15 47 35 24 1.86 21 44 35 29

References