No Brewers made the Team USA final roster, but three players and a coach will be involved with teams from other countries in the World Baseball Classic.

Outfielder Carlos Lee will play for his native Panama. Newly acquired third baseman Corey Koskie will play on the Canadian team, and left-handed pitcher Jorge De Le Rosa is on the Mexico team. Bullpen coach Bill Castro also is serving as the pitching coach for the Dominican team.

Ben Sheets, Bill Hall and Chad Moeller were selected to the USA team's 52-man provisional roster, but none are on the final 30-man team. They could be called up if the team suffers injuries.

The WBC starts Thursday night, with games at the Tokyo Dome. It actually will be Friday in Japan. Games will start Friday in Anaheim, San Diego, Phoenix, Orlando and San Juan, Puerto Rico.

"I think it's going to be great," Lee said at the Brewers spring training camp. "I think people will love to see the competition at that level from countries around the world. It's going to be exciting."

Lee will fly to San Juan where his Panama team is playing. Castro's team will play in Orlando. Koskie and De La Rosa will remain in Phoenix, where their respective teams are playing.

"It's an honor to be picked to play for your country's team," said Koskie, who was born in Manitoba. "I wish it was in mid-season, so you would have time to get your timing down and that, but Major League Baseball would never take time out in the middle of the year.

"The one thing you worry about a little is an injury, but that can happen during an exhibition game too."

Castro, who has worked for the Brewers going back to his playing days, also said he was honored to serve as the Dominican pitching coach. The Dominican Republic has produced an extraordinary amount of major league players for its size.

Hall said he hopes he is called if the USA team does suffer injuries. Sheets is probably the least likely to be called up.

The Brewers actually protested the pitcher's inclusion on the 52-man provisional roster because Sheets is coming off a season-ending injury.

"I support the whole idea of the tournament and think it will be great for baseball," GM Doug Melvin said. "Our main concern though had to be getting Ben in shape for the season."

Sheets likely was included on the provisional roster because he was the star of the last major international baseball competition, when the U.S. beat Cuba for the Gold Medal at the Sydney Olympics in 2000.

"I could have done it," Sheets said. "There's no doubt I could. You tell me the [regular] season starts in March, and I would have been ready.

"But would I have been the right chance to take for Team USA? The Great Unknown? I wouldn't think so. They need the healthiest arms they've got."

Manager Ned Yost said he does not think the absence of the three players will disrupt the Brewers' preparations during spring training. Exhibition games were scheduled to start Thursday and run until April 1. The WBC runs until March 20, so even if their teams went to the championship game the players would return to their MLB teams' camps for a couple weeks.

"Carlos came into camp ready to start the season. He's in great shape," Yost said. "Koskie is a veteran who knows how to get ready.

"You'd like to have De La Rose here because we're still trying to determine some things with him for the season, but at the same time he's going to get some great experience. This is going to be playoff intensity competition during spring training."

Another player with Brewers' ties, former catcher David Nilsson, will play for the Australian team. Nilsson is coming out of retirement to play in the WBC.

Led by the Cardinals' Albert Pujols, the Dominican might have the most superstars in the WBC. A dream Final Four would include the Dominicans against Cuba and the U.S. against Japan, but Puerto Rico, Mexico and other countries will also field strong teams.

The USA 10-man relief corps is perhaps the deepest bullpen ever put together in the game, featuring no fewer than five top-shelf closers. Billy Wagner, Brad Lidge, Joe Nathan, Chad Cordero, Huston Street, etc., should make it difficult for any team to mount a major offense against the U.S. from the middle innings on.

There is quality in the rotation as well, with a group that bridges at least two pitching generations, from Roger Clemens down to pitchers barely half his age: Jake Peavy, Dontrelle Willis and C.C. Sabathia. The starters won't be pulling long innings due to the tournament's pitch count limits, but this is clearly a group that should give the U.S. quality innings and chances to win.

The intangible factors will be interesting to observe. Conventional wisdom has it that other teams will be more motivated than the American players, because of this first, glorious opportunity to knock off the big baseball power. The U.S. players deny that they will lack motivation.

"Frankly, I'm very excited about the prospects," said Paul Archey, Major League Baseball's senior vice president of international business operations. "As we get closer and closer, you see the interest level. I couldn't be happier about the exposure and we haven't even thrown a pitch. It's the first time we've had this event and we'll sell as many tickets as the Winter Olympics this year. That's a phenomenal accomplishment, as far as I'm concerned."

MLB, in conjunction with the Players Association and the International Baseball Federation, is staging the first international tournament to include Major League players.

Tournament directors Archey and Gene Orza, the chief operating officer of the union, expect MLB to sell 800,000 tickets for the 39 games. In San Diego, where all the tickets at 42,000-seat PETCO Park have been long sold out for the two semifinal games on March 18 and the final on March 20, ticket requests came in from 40 states and 21 countries, said Sandy Alderson, the Padres chief executive and the former MLB vice president.

Nearly 4,000 credential requests have come in from around the world, and the games will be available on television and radio worldwide to the largest audience ever to witness this type of baseball event.

"It should be a good show," Lee said. "Fans from around the world will see it and get excited about the game."

Note: UW-Milwaukee professor Larry Baldassaro has been tapped to translate for the Italian team in the Baseball Classic. Baldassaro is the author of numerous books and articles on Ted Williams and on Italian-American sports figures.