USA (and Andrew Miller) Advances to WBC Final; will face Puerto Rico (and Francisco Lindor)

Andrew Miller pitched two thirds of a scoreless inning last night to help the USA advance to the final round of the World Baseball Classic. He walked a batter (Nori Aoki) and struck one out (Yoshitomo Tsutsugoh).

Brandon Crawford scored the winning run on an error to give the USA a 2–1 over Japan.

Tribe News and Notes

• Carlos Carrasco is one of the most likeable people on the planet. Here, he tells the story of how his mother taught him about baseball and about ordering pizza 90 days in a row, but there's a lot more to it than that. You'll want to read this one, if you haven't already.

• The Great Communicator: The Ringer profiles Terry "Tito" Francona. Too bad this one couldn't get its own day, but it can't compete with the Carrasco link.

• SI has chosen the Dodgers to beat us in the World Series. Can we take another one of those? Will there be a movie about that horrific week, too? Will there be any above-ground structures left to play it in?

Around baseball

• The Rays have lots of starting pitchers, so Erasmo Ramirez could be on the move. We could probably use a depth guy like that, even though FIP hates him.

• The White Sox signed Tim Anderson to a long-term deal. He could net over $50M if the option years are picked up. "Additionally, the $25 million guarantee will make it the largest ever handed to a player with less than a year of major league service time."

• There exists a bizarre Cole Hamels figurine that is more "old man who likes to wear his Cole Hamels jersey struggles to get up the stairs" than anything else.

• Sports illustration used to be much better than it is now, except for a few exceptions.

• The Twins added Craig Breslow to their 40-man. Seems a bit early for that type of move; he must have had an early opt-out. They also allowed Ryan Vogelsong out of his contract.

• Texas is willing to discuss an extension with Yu Darvish during the season.

• The Giants hired Barry Bonds. I wonder what Tom Hamilton would jokingly say his role will be........

• I think we'll refrain from discussing TradeValueRankingsGate for now.

• Have not read this, but "Robinson Cano and Jose Bautista saw something with Gregory Polanco’s swing. They put him to work in the WBC"

Carlos Santana and his dance moves are back in camp. He'll return to lineup Wed: https://t.co/S53CYus1NB pic.twitter.com/qtE74y38Ft

— Jordan Bastian (@MLBastian) March 21, 2017