The mothership is back, after just a week this time, and Kristina Airdo, Hannah LaMotta, Melissa Sage-Bollenbach and Malachi Hayes meet up with Brett Ballantini to discuss the good and bad of Spring Training 2023, plus some thoughts on the spectacular World Baseball Classic. A rundown of the goods and bads about halfway through Spring Training sees Jake Burger and Yasmani Grandal singled out for plaudits — and the White Sox offense and basepaths-burning Billy Hamilton getting a tsk-tsk On to the World Baseball Classic, and when we aren’t applauding Italy for their crackerjack club of homegrown talents, we’re citing the otherworldly Shohei Ohtani and the killer Japan club. It is shaping up to be a barnburner of an Elite 8 The lost sleep crew is headed by our WBC scribe Kristina, as well as spring-breaking Hannah If not because Team USA is not the favorite, then will our U.S.-centric eyes be opened by the outstanding play of other countries in overall play? In the next week or so, we’ll have Melissa on the ground in Arizona, checking out both White Sox Spring Training and the WBC game vs. Colombia, while right as time ran out Hannah confessed considering a jaunt to Miami to catch WBC play there. Stay tuned Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices