Cuba is ready to play ball

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The powerful Cuban national team, among the favorites to strike gold in what could be the Olympics’ final baseball tournament, trimmed 11 players from its roster last week and will make one more cut before leaving the island to start its pre-Olympic tour in the Netherlands this weekend.

The team will leave Cuba on Friday. Missing from the Olympic roster, however, is Pan Am Games second baseman Alexei Ramirez, at left, who defected last fall and is now playing for the Chicago White Sox.

The only real surprises were on the pitching staff, where Aroldis Chapman, named the outstanding left-hander in last fall’s World Cup tournament, was sent home in favor of veteran Vicyohandri Odelin.

Neither pitcher performed well in Cuban play this winter, with Chapman going 6-7 with a 3.89 ERA (despite striking out 79 in 74 innings and holding opponents to a .200 batting average) while Odelin was 6-6 with 3.92 ERA. But Odelin survived the preliminary cut because of his extensive international experience.

Also surviving the cut was 38-year-old pitcher Adiel Palma, who beat the U.S. in the gold medal game of last summer’s Pan American Games.

The U.S. Olympic team, which will be composed mainly of minor league prospects, will be named in mid-July.

Get a look at the full Olympic baseball schedule. Play begins Aug. 13, the first week of the Beijing Summer Games.

-- Kevin Baxter