2019 WBSC Premier12

2019 WBSC Premier12

Tournament details
Host countries	Japan Mexico South Korea Taiwan
Dates	November 2–17
Teams	12 (from 5 continents)
Defending champions	South Korea (2015)
Final positions
Champions	Japan (1st title)
Runner-up	South Korea
Third place	Mexico
Fourth place	United States
Tournament statistics
Games played	32
Attendance	312,565 (9,768 per game)
Most Valuable Player	Seiya Suzuki

File:Gocheok Sky Dome inside WBSC Premier 12 2019.jpg

Gocheok Sky Dome inside WBSC Premier 12 2019

File:Kim Kwang-hyun 2019 Premier 12.jpg

Kim Kwang-hyun 2019 Premier 12

The 2019 WBSC Premier12 was an international baseball championship featuring the 12 highest-ranked national teams in the world, held by the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC). It was the second WBSC Premier12 event. The championship was held from November 2 to 17, 2019, in Mexico, South Korea, Taiwan, and Japan.

The tournament served as a qualifier for baseball at the 2020 Summer Olympics. Two quota spots were allocated, with Team Mexico as the top finisher from the Americas earning one spot, and Team South Korea as the top-finishing team from the Asia/Oceania region (excluding Team Japan, which already qualified as host) earning the other.

Japan defeated South Korea in the championship game, and the bronze medal game was won by Mexico over Team USA.

Teams

Top 12 Rankings as of December 17, 2018
Rank	Team	Points	Confederation
1	Japan	5796	BFA
2	United States	5565	COPABE
3	South Korea	4987	BFA
4	Chinese Taipei	3569	BFA
5	Cuba	3516	COPABE
6	Mexico	3393	COPABE
7	Australia	2440	BCO
8	Netherlands	2421	CEB
9	Venezuela	2348	COPABE
10	Canada	2186	COPABE
11	Puerto Rico	2105	COPABE
12	Dominican Republic	1920	COPABE

The 12 highest-ranked national teams qualified to participate in the 2019 WBSC Premier 12, based on the then-most-recent WBSC World Rankings, which were as of December 17, 2018.

Format

Opening Round

The tournament began with three groups of four teams each playing in the 12-team Opening Round. Each team played three games, in a round robin format against the other three teams in its group.

Super Round

The top two teams from each group then advanced to the six-team Super Round, which was hosted at ZOZO Marine Stadium and the Tokyo Dome in Japan.

In the Super Round, the top two teams that advanced from each of the three groups competed in a round robin format against the top two teams that advanced from the other two groups, for a total of four games played per team.

Finals

Following the conclusion of the Super Round, four teams advanced to the Finals. The four teams were selected based on a combination of the results of the Opening Round game contested between the two teams in the same group that qualified for the Super Round (1 game), plus the teams' results in the Super Round (4 games).

The 3rd- and 4th-place teams competed in a Bronze Medal Game, while the 1st- and 2nd-place teams faced each other in the Championship Final at the Tokyo Dome.

Venues

Six stadiums were used during the tournament:

Group A	Group B	Group B
Zapopan, Mexico	Taichung, Taiwan	Taoyuan, Taiwan
Estadio de Béisbol Charros de Jalisco	Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium	Taoyuan International Baseball Stadium
Capacity: 16,000	Capacity: 20,000	Capacity: 20,000
200px

Group C	Super Round	Super Round and Finals
Seoul, South Korea	Chiba, Japan	Tokyo, Japan
Gocheok Sky Dome	ZOZO Marine Stadium	Tokyo Dome
Capacity: 16,813	Capacity: 30,000	Capacity: 46,000
		200px

Opening round

Group A

Date	Local Time	Road Team	Score	Home Team	Inn.	Venue	Game Time	Attendance	Boxscore
November 2	12:00	Netherlands	0 – 9	United States		Estadio Charros de Jalisco	2:17	3,015	[1]
November 2	19:00	Dominican Republic	1 – 6	Mexico	6	Estadio Charros de Jalisco	2:00	8,000	[2]
November 3	12:00	Dominican Republic	14 – 40	Netherlands	7	Estadio Charros de Jalisco	2:59	5,132	[3]
November 3	19:00	Mexico	8 – 2	United States		Estadio Charros de Jalisco	3:03	10,123	[4]
November 4	19:00	United States	10 – 80	Dominican Republic		Estadio Charros de Jalisco	3:20	3,102	[5]
November 5	19:00	Netherlands	02 – 10	Mexico		Estadio Charros de Jalisco	3:17	6,895	[6]

Group B

Date	Local Time	Road Team	Score	Home Team	Inn.	Venue	Game Time	Attendance	Boxscore
November 5	18:00	Venezuela	4 – 8	Japan		Taoyuan International Stadium	3:39	3,868	[7]
November 5	18:30	Puerto Rico	1 – 6	Chinese Taipei		Taichung Intercontinental Stadium	2:58	11,852	[8]
November 6	18:00	Puerto Rico	0 – 4	Japan		Taoyuan International Stadium	2:35	4,209	[9]
November 6	18:30	Chinese Taipei	3 – 0	Venezuela		Taichung Intercontinental Stadium	3:56	10,983	[10]
November 7	12:00	Venezuela	7 – 1	Puerto Rico		Taichung Intercontinental Stadium	2:48	618	[11]
November 7	18:30	Japan	8 – 1	Chinese Taipei		Taichung Intercontinental Stadium	3:37	20,465	[12]

Group C

Date	Local Time	Road Team	Score	Home Team	Inn.	Venue	Game Time	Attendance	Boxscore
November 6	12:00	Canada	3 – 0	Cuba		Gocheok Sky Dome	3:16	250	[13]
November 6	19:00	Australia	0 – 5	South Korea		Gocheok Sky Dome	2:50	5,899	[14]
November 7	12:00	Australia	2 – 3	Cuba	10	Gocheok Sky Dome	3:15	252	[15]
November 7	19:00	South Korea	3 – 1	Canada		Gocheok Sky Dome	3:15	6,000	[16]
November 8	12:00	Canada	1 – 3	Australia		Gocheok Sky Dome	2:50	200	[17]
November 8	19:00	Cuba	0 – 7	South Korea		Gocheok Sky Dome	3:05	13,600	[18]

Super Round

Date	Local Time	Road Team	Score	Home Team	Inn.	Venue	Game Time	Attendance	Boxscore
November 11	12:00	Chinese Taipei	0 – 2	Mexico		Zozo Marine Stadium	2:49	2,803	[19]
November 11	19:00	Australia	2 – 3	Japan		Zozo Marine Stadium	2:39	17,819	[20]
November 11	19:00	United States	1 – 5	South Korea		Tokyo Dome	3:21	3,012	[21]
November 12	12:00	Australia	0 – 3	Mexico		Tokyo Dome	2:36	2,089	[22]
November 12	19:00	Chinese Taipei	7 – 0	South Korea		Zozo Marine Stadium	3:32	4,056	[23]
November 12	19:00	United States	4 – 3	Japan		Tokyo Dome	3:27	27,827	[24]
November 13	12:00	Australia	2 – 1	United States		Tokyo Dome	2:45	2,149	[25]
November 13	19:00	Mexico	1 – 3	Japan		Tokyo Dome	3:01	31,776	[26]
November 15	12:00	Chinese Taipei	2 – 3	United States		Tokyo Dome	2:37	4,967	[27]
November 15	19:00	Mexico	3 – 7	South Korea		Tokyo Dome	3:34	5,121	[28]
November 16	12:00	Australia	1 – 5	Chinese Taipei		Tokyo Dome	2:57	7,299	[29]
November 16	19:00	South Korea	08 – 10	Japan		Tokyo Dome	3:40	44,224	[30]

Finals

Bronze medal game

Date	Local Time	Road Team	Score	Home Team	Inn.	Venue	Game Time	Attendance	Boxscore
November 17	12:00	United States	2 – 3	Mexico	10	Tokyo Dome	3:15	N/A	[31]

Championship final

Date	Local Time	Road Team	Score	Home Team	Inn.	Venue	Game Time	Attendance	Boxscore
November 17	19:00	South Korea	3 – 5	Japan		Tokyo Dome	3:00	44,960	[32]

Final standings

Rk	Team	W	L
1	Japan	7	1
2	South Korea	5	3
bronze medal game
3	Mexico	6	2
4	United States	4	4
Eliminated in Super Round
5	Chinese Taipei	4	3
6	Australia	2	5
Eliminated in Group stage
7	Canada	1	2
7	Dominican Republic	1	2
7	Venezuela	1	2
10	Cuba	1	2
10	Netherlands	0	3
10	Puerto Rico	0	3

2019 WBSC Premier 12
Japan 1st title

Awards

Following the conclusion of the tournament, the WBSC announced the Premier12 All-World Team. WBSC also announced the individual awards winners.

All-World Team

Position	Player
Starting Pitcher	Chang Yi
Relief Pitcher	Brandon Dickson
Catcher	Erik Kratz
First Baseman	Bobby Dalbec
Second Baseman	Ryosuke Kikuchi
Third Baseman	Wang Wei-chen
Shortstop	Kim Ha-seong
Outfielders	Lee Jung-hoo Jonathan Jones Seiya Suzuki
Designated Hitter	Brent Rooker

Individual Awards

Award	Player	Value
Most Valuable Player	Seiya Suzuki
Best Batting Average	Seiya Suzuki	.478
Pitcher with Best ERA	Chang Yi	0.00
Pitcher with Best Win/Loss Average	Chang Yi	2–0
Most Runs Batted In	Seiya Suzuki	12
Home Run King	Brent Rooker	3
Most Stolen Bases	Ukyo Shuto	4
Most Runs Scored	Seiya Suzuki	9
Outstanding Defensive Player	Ryosuke Kikuchi

Prize money

The WBSC gave $5.2 million in prize money to participants, distributed as follows, with a minimum of half of a team's prize money to be distributed equally among its players:

• Winner: US$1,500,000 (Japan)
• 2nd Place: US$750,000 (South Korea)
• 3rd Place: US$500,000 (Mexico)
• 4th Place: US$350,000 (United States)
• 5th Place: US$300,000 (Chinese Taipei)
• 6th Place: US$250,000 (Australia)
• 7–12th Place: US$180,000 each
• Each win in Opening Round: US$10,000
• Each win in Super Round: US$20,000
• 1st Place in Opening Round: US$20,000

Controversies

The super-round game between South Korea and the United States played on November 11, which South Korea won 5–1, became a topic of debate due to an alleged misjudgment by an umpire, Tetsuya Shibata, against South Korea in the third inning. Baserunner Kim Ha-seong slid back to home plate before catcher Eric Kratz in the eyes of some was able to tag him out, but Tetsuya ruled it as an out instead. Team Korea's coach, Kim Kyung-moon immediately requested a VAR check, but was refused. Slowed-down television footage was available online, and some criticized the call claiming it was wrong and that South Korea lost a run due to the call. The Korea Baseball Organization held a meeting after the match with the tournament's technical directors and filed an appeal, additionally stating that Kratz physically obstructed Kim's path to home plate in violation of WBSC playing regulations. WBSC responded by saying that they respected Team Korea's perspective and would seek to make improvements in the future. The Japanese media initially kept this incident quiet on the news, and many ridiculed the controversy in Japan due to the pre-existing anti-Korean sentiment in the country.

See also

• List of sporting events in Taiwan

External links

• Premier12 WBSC 2019 homepage