Team USA still waiting for bats to wake up for World Baseball Classic title game

USA has a powerful lineup, on paper, but it hasn't really exploded in the WBC
MIAMI -- Dare I be bold enough to declare that the Team USA offense in the World Baseball Classic has been a bit disappointing?

On the surface level, and if you haven't watched the games and only look at numbers, you could easily call me crazy.

Team USA through six games in the WBC is hitting .272/.393/.461 while averaging seven runs per game.

That's robust.

Let's look deeper, though, at all the context.

Bear in mind, some of the lesser competition in pool play can mean big stat lines.

That USA slash line I listed above looks, as I said, robust.

In the tournament overall, though, USA ranks fifth in batting average and sixth in slugging percentage.

This is a team with Aaron Judge , Cal Raleigh , Kyle Schwarber and on and on we could go.

And yet the team is slugging at a lower clip than five other teams, including Italy.

It's not even close, actually.

Who had Italy outslugging USA by 120 points heading into the WBC?

Roman Anthony , Pete Crow-Armstrong and Gunnar Henderson are the top three in OPS.

They've been great.

Brice Turang has been good.

Schwarber has been great, too, and Judge has overall been fine.

So who are the culprits?

Some of the big names.

Raleigh is 0 for 9 with five strikeouts.

Bryce Harper is 4 for 24 (.167) with a .208 slugging percentage.

Of course, it's only six games.

This entire event deals in small sample sizes.

Fluky things can happen.

There's been good pitching and defense in spots, too, of course.

On the whole, though, I still firmly believe it's fair to say the USA offense has underwhelmed, even if slightly.

USA manager Mark DeRosa seems to agree.

"I'm still waiting for our offense to explode," he said after Sunday's win over the Dominican Republic.

There's a beast lurking underneath this lineup, ready to pounce.

It has a chance to do just that in the finals of the World Baseball Classic Tuesday night in Miami against Venezuela.