Did you know? Facts on Pool B of WBC '17

Japanese baseball fans were confronted with an unfamiliar feeling in 2013, when their national team fell short of claiming the World Baseball Classic title for the first time.
Eight years without a WBC trophy is an eternity for Japan, winners of the first two Classics in 2006 and '09. And if that pressure isn't enough, all eyes will be on them when they enter as the heavy favorites to win Pool B of this year's tournament on home soil.
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Pool B will not be a cakewalk for Japan, however, as it faces tough competition from always-potent Cuba and up-and-comers Australia and China. Before the first pitch is thrown March 7 in Tokyo, here are some things you should know about these four clubs:
• Japan is the only nation to have made it to at least the semifinal round in each of the first three Classics. The country's 16 total wins are the most of any nation in Classic history, ahead of second-place Dominican Republic and South Korea, who are tied with 14 wins apiece.
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• Japanese ace Tomoyuki Sugano finished with a 2.01 ERA with the Yomiuri Giants last season, the lowest mark of any Nippon Professional Baseball League pitcher with at least 150 innings pitched. Sugano is pitching in his first Classic this year, but the 27-year old righty led Japan to a win in the bronze medal game of the the 2015 Premier 12 tournament, the most recent international baseball competition.
• Sugano will try to uphold Japan's impeccable history of pitching dominance in this tournament. Four of the top-five all-time strikeout leaders in WBC history are from Japan: Daisuke Matsuzaka, Yu Darvish, Kenta Maeda and Masahiro Tanaka, along with the Dominican Republic's Samuel Deduno.

Furthermore, a Japanese pitcher has compiled the most strikeouts in each of the first three WBC tournaments, beginning with Koji Uehara in 2006 and continuing with Darvish in '09 and Maeda in '13.
• In 2015, second baseman Tetsuto Yamada of the Yakult Swallows became only the 10th player in the history of the NPB to complete a "Triple Three," which consists of hitting .300, slugging 30 home runs and stealing 30 bases in a single season. Yamada then repeated the feat last year to become the first player in the 67-year history of the league to record a Triple Three in back-to-back seasons.
Yamada is expected to anchor Team Japan's lineup in his first Classic appearance this year.
• Outfielder Frederich Cepeda owns the distinction of hitting the most home runs -- six -- of any player in the history of the Classic. Cepeda's teammate Alfredo Despaigne is tied for third all-time with four round-trippers in WBC play.

• Despaigne finished the 2013 WBC tied atop the leaderboard tied with three home runs. Over two previous appearances in this tournament (2009, '13), Despaigne has hit a combined .314 and driven in 10 runs in 11 total games.
• Outfielder Victor Mesa Jr., the son of the legendary Cuban player and manager of the same name, might be Cuba's hottest hitter at the moment after batting .500 with a 1.100 OPS for Alzanes de Granma in February's Caribbean Series tournament. Other Team Cuba players coming off stellar performances for Alzanes include infielders Carlos Benitez (.438 in the Caribbean Series) and William Saaverda (.316) and outfielder Yoelkis Cespedes (.313), the younger brother of Mets superstar Yoenis Céspedes.
• Orioles prospect Gui Yuan Xu, slated to play the infield for Team China in this year's Classic, is the first player from Major League Baseball's three development centers in China to sign with a big league club. If Xu rises it all the way to the big leagues, he will become the first Chinese player by birth and ancestry to appear on a Major League roster.
• Longtime MLB starter Bruce Chen is coming out of retirement to lead China's rotation, but he has a good deal of prior WBC experience. Chen started games for his native Panama in the 2006 and '09 Classics, but will pay homage to his parents by playing for Team China this year. In his prior two World Baseball Classic starts for Panama, Chen went 0-1 with a 4.00 ERA, striking out six batters in nine total innings.
• Team Australia's major advantage should lie in its pitching staff, which boasts 11 pitchers who are currently members of Major League organizations. Despite going winless in the opening round of the 2013 WBC, the Aussies allowed half as many runs (14) in that tournament than they did in 2009 (28).
• Four of the 10 winningest Major League pitchers from Australia -- Travis Blackley, Liam Hendriks, Peter Moylan and Ryan Rowland-Smith -- are slated to pitch for their home country in Tokyo. Moylan, who pitched out of the bullpen for the Royals in 2016, earned both a win and a save in helping Australia advance out of the qualifying round last year.
• Infielder Stefan Welch, a former minor leaguer, went 3-for-10 with a home run in the 2013 WBC for Australia, and he'll be a name to watch in the Aussie lineup this year. Welch posted a stellar .417/.462/.500 slash line and drove in three runs to help his nation advance out of the WBC qualifiers last year.
The World Baseball Classic runs from March 6-22. In the U.S., games will air live exclusively in English on MLB Network and on an authenticated basis via MLBNetwork.com/watch, while ESPN Deportes and WatchESPN will provide the exclusive Spanish-language coverage. MLB.TV Premium subscribers in the U.S. will have access to watch every tournament game live on any of the streaming service's 400-plus supported devices. Internationally, the tournament will be distributed across all forms of television, internet, mobile and radio in territories excluding the U.S., Puerto Rico and Japan. Get tickets for games at Marlins Park, Tokyo Dome, Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul, Estadio Charros de Jalisco in Mexico, Petco Park, as well as the Championship Round at Dodger Stadium, while complete coverage -- including schedules, video, stats and gear -- is available at WorldBaseballClassic.com.