Arrivederci, Italia, Predicting the Headlines from the WBC Final & Britt's Breakouts
Rates & Barrels: A show about Baseball
The Athletic
4.7 • 874 Ratings
🗓️ 18 March 2026
⏱️ 56 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Eno, Britt, and DVR say goodbye to Team Italy after their fun run in the World Baseball Classic came to an end Monday night against Venezuela, before attempting to predict the headlines that will come from Tuesday's Final between Venezuela and the United States, and wondering if it's time for the Fox booth to move on from John Smoltz . Plus, they discuss a trio of players that Britt expects to break out in 2026, and wonder if the Padres' rotation will be a problem throughout the season with Joe Musgrove headed to the IL to begin the year.
Rundown
1:05 Venezuela Defeats Italy in Semifinals; Reaches First WBC Final
6:42 What Will We Be Talking About Tomorrow From the WBC Final?
15:05 John Smoltz Doesn’t Sound Like He’s Enjoying the Tournament
22:39 Britt’s Breakouts for 2026
40:55 Joe Musgrove to Open the Season on the IL
47:43 Are the Padres Playoff-Bound This Season?
Follow Eno on Bluesky: @enosarris.bsky.social
Follow DVR on Bluesky: @DVR.bsky.social
Follow Britt on Bluesky: @brittghiroli.bsky.social
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Hosts: Derek VanRiper & Eno Sarris
With: Britt Ghiroli
Editor: Jason Potere
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to Rates and Beryl, St. Patrick's Day edition. It is Tuesday, March 17th. Derek Van Riper, Enos, Briceroli here. |
| 0:19.8 | Britt, I think, sporting the most prominent green with the green cap today. |
| 0:23.9 | Eno, getting the silver with the green t-shirt, and I will take the bronze with the |
| 0:28.5 | auto-new baseball diamond logo, making it just barely into the shot if you're watching us on |
| 0:33.4 | YouTube. |
| 0:34.4 | A lot of ground to cover today. |
| 0:35.8 | We have a World Baseball Classic Final on Tuesday night, and we're not going to cover today. We have a world baseball classic final on Tuesday night. |
| 0:39.3 | And we're not going to talk a lot about the specific matchup because this episode will drop around the time the game starts. |
| 0:45.7 | So there's not really a whole lot of value in us talking about what we think is going to happen when it's just going to be happening as you begin listening to and watching this episode. |
| 0:55.6 | We are going to get some of Brits breakout picks for 2026. |
| 0:58.7 | We're going to catch up on some spring news. |
| 1:00.8 | And yeah, we'll try to predict what we're talking about tomorrow. |
| 1:03.9 | That's as much as we're going to talk about what's happening in the matchup between Team USA and Venezuela. |
| 1:10.5 | Guys, let's start with the happenings from Monday night for six innings. |
| 1:15.3 | It looked like Italy's run was going to continue, Brit. |
| 1:17.9 | It looked like they were going to find a way between Aaron Nola and Michael Lorenzen |
| 1:22.6 | to string it together to keep the Venezuelan lineup quiet and to push all the way to the championship game. |
| 1:30.4 | But it was a huge, huge inning, a three-run inning for Venezuela that ultimately put them on top for good. |
| 1:37.8 | And there were a few points where that Venezuelan bullpen had to work out of some tight jams, most notably, |
| 1:42.8 | Anhele Zerpa getting out with a strikeout, two runners on in the six. |
| 1:45.9 | That was really the last time Italy threatened in that one. |
| 1:49.4 | Just your overall takeaways from Italy's performance in this tournament, |
... |
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