Going in to the World Baseball Classic Finals against Puerto Rico, there was controversy. For one, Chris Archer had expected to pitch in the final game, should the U.S. get there, but he was told not to come out to LA, and that the U.S. would roll with his good friend Marcus Stroman, who had been with the team through the whole tournament (while Archer had returned to Rays camp). Archer was disappointed.
Then there was Ian Kinsler coming awfully close to saying that the U.S. plays the game the right way—without too much obvious emotion—and that players from the Caribbean do not.