Former SJ Giants To Play In World Baseball Classic

Five former San Jose Giants have been included on preliminary rosters for the upcoming World Baseball Classic headlined by World Series Most Valuable Player Pablo Sandoval. Sandoval will suit up for his native country Venezuela while his San Francisco teammates and former San Jose pitchers Ryan Vogelsong and Sergio Romo are on the United States and Mexico rosters respectively.

Other former San Jose Giants on preliminary WBC rosters include catcher Tyler LaTorre for Italy and pitcher Clayton Tanner with Australia.

First round pool play for the World Baseball Classic is scheduled to begin on March 2. The tournament concludes with the semifinals and finals from March 17-19 at AT&T Park in San Francisco.

Vogelsong, Romo and LaTorre are all in Pool D to be played in Phoenix, Arizona. The United States opens their WBC run versus Mexico on Friday, March 8 at Chase Field, the home of the Arizona Diamondbacks. Italy and Canada are the other Pool D participants. Each team is scheduled to play three games in round-robin action with the top two clubs advancing to the second round of the tournament.

Sandoval's Venezuela team is in Pool C with the Dominican Republic, Spain and host Puerto Rico. Venezuela's first game is set for March 7. Meanwhile, the Australian team will begin action in Pool B against host Taiwan on March 2.

All five players were members of the Giants organization in 2012. Sandoval, Vogelsong and Romo were key contributors on San Francisco's World Series championship team. Meanwhile, LaTorre and Tanner both played for the Giants' Triple-A affiliate in Fresno.

Sandoval and Romo were teammates on San Jose's 2007 California League championship team. Sandoval, LaTorre and Tanner then all played together with the SJ Giants in 2008. Tanner also spent the 2009 campaign in the California League while Vogelsong's tenure with the San Jose Giants dates back to the 1998 and 1999 seasons.

Preliminary rosters allow up to 28 players to be listed, creating a pool of players who are eligible to be named to the individual team's final roster. Final rosters must be submitted by February 20.