Italy Rolls Into the WBC Quarterfinals, Can They Win It All?
Rates & Barrels: A show about Baseball
The Athletic
4.7 • 873 Ratings
🗓️ 12 March 2026
⏱️ 49 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Italy's 4-0 run through Pool B propelled Team USA into the quarterfinals of the World Baseball Classic, and Team Canada have reached the quarterfinals for the first time following a decisive win over Cuba. Eno, Trevor, DVR, and Stephen Nesbitt discuss the four quarterfinal matchups on tap, and share their final predictions for the tournament as the knockout stage gets underway.
Rundown
0:18 Italy Sweeps Pool B, Canada Advances to Quarterfinals!
2:31 Korea vs. Dominican Republic (Friday, 6:30p ET)
15:45 USA vs. Canada (Friday, 8:00p ET)
29:10 Puerto Rico vs. Italy (Saturday 3:00p ET)
37:26 Venezuela vs. Japan (Saturday 9:00p ET)
47:10 Final Predictions to Win This Year’s WBC
Follow Eno on Bluesky: @enosarris.bsky.social
Follow DVR on Bluesky: @DVR.bsky.social
Follow Trevor on Bluesky: @iamtrevormay.bsky.social
Follow Stephen on Bluesky: @stephenjnesbitt.bsky.social
e-mail: ratesandbarrels@gmail.com
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Hosts: Derek VanRiper & Eno Sarris
With: Trevor May & Stephen Nesbitt
Editor: Jason Potere
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Three espresso shots in. |
| 0:07.2 | How you feeling? |
| 0:08.3 | I'm caffeinated. |
| 0:09.7 | I'm beamed up right now. |
| 0:18.9 | Welcome to rates and barrels. |
| 0:20.2 | It's Thursday, March 12th, Bases Loaded Edition. Derek Van Riper, |
| 0:24.5 | Eno Seris, Trevor May, and Stephen Nesbit all here as we get ready for the knockout stage of the world baseball classic. Team Italy doing a huge favor for Team USA with their blowout win over Mexico on Wednesday night. |
| 0:40.0 | So a lot to cover from the tournament. |
| 0:42.2 | We're going to kind of break down the remaining eight teams, how they match up, some really, |
| 0:46.0 | really intriguing quarterfinal matchups. |
| 0:48.2 | I mean, Venezuela, Japan immediately jumps off the page as one that we're all going to be excited about. Trevor, how's going for you on this Thursday? It's going well. My mic's working. So we'll say that's a big win. Big win. I'm doing great. I'm glad to be here. All right. Nez, welcome back. You beamed up today? I'm beamed up, man. Yeah, I'm beamed up. The kids back at daycare. Yeah, life is good right now. We're definitely looking into as the Rates and Barrel's merch store comes together, making a dad hat that says beamed up on it knowing that the kids are going to laugh at it. It's inevitable. It seems like it will actually sell, though. So we're excited about that possibility. |
| 1:27.9 | Eno, how's your Thursday going? It's good. I'm going after this to the brewery, to Bear |
| 1:33.5 | Bottle, to smell the new hops for the new version of the Rates and Beryl's beer. |
| 1:39.7 | Why is your life so much more fun than mine? You're going to go smell hops after the show. That's great. |
| 1:44.8 | Yeah, can I, can I, behind the scenes here, the discussion for most of this group here is like, hey, who's got daycare covered today? When can we tape around a sick kid being home? And he knows like, I'm at the stage of parenting where I'm going to a brewery after this. Yeah. It is nice. people lie to you when they say it doesn't get easier. It gets easier. |
| 2:04.0 | Good. |
| 2:04.4 | My kids are laughing. where I'm going to a brewery after this. Yeah. It is nice. People lie to you when they say it doesn't get easier. |
| 2:02.3 | It gets easier. |
| 2:03.9 | Good. |
| 2:04.4 | My kids are 11 and 13. |
| 2:06.0 | Like, they just play video games. |
| 2:09.0 | He just lets them play video games. |
... |
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