Let Cuba Play

The provisional rosters for the World Baseball Classic have been announced, and boy is this thing going to be awesome. The Dominican starting lineup is, man for man, possibly the most formidable murderer's row ever assembled. I think Team U.S.A. has more depth and generally better pitching, but of course, anything can happen in a short series (remember the U.S.'s ignominious knockout from the 2004 Olympics at the hands of Mexico?)

But at this point, we still don't know if Cuba will be allowed to play, and if they can't, what will happen with the tournament.

Jim Caple has a concise article outlining the idiocy of this U.S. Treasury Department policy. Of course, the biggest opportunity if Cuba plays is that we'll get to see the look on Castro's face when Cuba get its ass handed to it in an international competition where they have to compete against real players instead of chumps.