With the World Baseball Classic officially having their first game last night, baseball is back. Yes, finally, it’s back. That game saw the Netherlands beat Cuba 4-2. 

The top three teams favored to win are within .7 odds. The Dominican Republic is favored 2.1-1, USA is 2.6-1, and Japan has 2.8-1 odds to win. Venezuela, Korea, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Cuba fill out the rest of the top 8 odds. 

This year will see a battle of the best. Multiple high-profile MLB players have declared for this. The players range from Ronald Acuna Jr., Jose Altuve, Mookie Betts, Pete Alonso, Xander Bogaerts, Nolan Arenado, Shohei Ohtani and many more. 

So many stars, but there’s only one winner. As much as I’m pulling for the USA, I predict that Japan will be crowned champions this year. And I will tell you how they get there. Cuba and Panama win and are runner-ups in Pool A. Pool B will see Japan win while Korea will be the runners-up. Pool C is USA and Mexico. Pool D is Dominican Republic and Venezuela. 

Quarterfinals will have Korea beat Cuba, Panama lose to Japan, Mexico lose to Dominican Republic, and Venezuela lose to the USA. The semifinals will see Korea lose to Dominican Republic and Japan beating the USA.  The championship is Japan beating the Dominican Republic to be crowned champions for the third time.