So how about that World Baseball Classic?

Javier LopezDaisuke MatsuzakaDavid OrtizGeovany SotoRafael PerezMagglio OrdonezRoy OswaltMike AvilesJose GuillenJoakim SoriaManny CorpasMelvin MoraBrian McCannCarlos DelgadoJJ PutzJose ReyesWilly AybarDavid WrightDerek JeterDamaso MarteJimmy RollinsShane VictorinoAki IwamuraThis is the short list of players who were off to either slow starts, are still struggling, may no longer be in the majors, or were injured at some point already this year. Now, it's pretty subjective since guys like Adrian Gonzalez, Jonathan Broxton and Kevin Youkilis are having the times of their lives despite participating (even if Youk was injured) in the Classic. Still, is it off base to assume at least one of these guys struggling was a result of an unnatural work load so early in the season?Oswalt threw twice the pitches he normally would and now all of a sudden he looks lethargic and his velocity is down. Lopez has always been terrible and now has reached his ceiling of crappiness. Ortiz has a long list of things surrounding his reasons for being one of the fastest drops to mediocrity in sports history, but the Classic could be a minor factor, Aviles, Soto, Corpas and Aybar could be a product of the common struggles of a player in their second full season. Guillen, Delgado, Ordonez, and Mora could be a product of age and Reyes and Wright might have a dropoff in numbers due to their ridiculously stupid layout of a new ball park. Victorino, Rollins, Jeter, and McCann have snapped their slumps and are now reverting back to normalcy in their numbers. Putz is coming off of an injury.That leaves Aybar, Aki, Marte, Soria and the aforementioned Oswalt. With Tampa playing into November, it's not irrational to figure their late play in 2008 and their early play in 2009 are key reasons for their poor numbers and ultimate injury in Aki's case. Marte and Soria are probably a direct result of trying to produce artificially high velocity so early in the year and in Marte's case he tried to pitch injured to begin with and probably further aggravated what ever was wrong with him.It's still early, but I'd be curious to follow these names all season and compare them to who participated in 2006 to see if there are any patterns. Even if there aren't, it's still pretty interesting to follow what guys who were performing in early March are doing in early June.