Avert your eyes from Cal Quantrill's first WBC outing for Canada

Canada won its first game of pool play in the 2023 World Baseball Classic with a thumping lineup. Starter Cal Quantrill, on the other hand, struggled, and Cleveland Guardians fans might want to just disregard his line on the day.

Quantrill couldn't make it out of the first inning against Great Britain, issuing four walks and giving up three runs on two hits. Canada's offense certainly bailed out him and the rest of the Canadian pitching staff, as it went on to essentially cruise to an 18-8 victory.

With the Guardians this spring, Quantrill has given up three runs and four hits in 3 1/3 innings of work, but all of this is to say that nobody should be putting much, if any, stock in these stats.

Even with the heightened competition of the World Baseball Classic, guys are still working their way towards being ready for the regular season. Quantrill, like so many other pitchers, had yet to truly ramp up before being dropped right into the tournament.

Of course, would it have been nice to see Quantrill go out and shut down an upstart Great Britain lineup that will ultimately be relegated in the next WBC? Yes, but there's no reason to panic about Cleveland's third starter, who sported a 113 ERA+ last season.

Still, you may not want to watch the highlights from Sunday. That is, unless you want to see a Canadian lineup full of promising young hitters. And speaking of young Canadian hitters, Bo Naylor started at catcher against Great Britain, striking out twice but drawing three walks (Canada drew a whopping 16 total walks, and in only six innings at the plate before the game was called due to the WBC mercy rule). Naylor was recently optioned to Triple-A Columbus, but Guardians fans should see him in Cleveland sometime in 2023.