World Baseball Classic is not good for The Red Sox!

Can someone explain to me why the World Baseball Classic is played before the start of the regular season instead of playing it after the season is over?

The Red Sox have now lost 6 players to the classic and they will not report back to Spring training unitl there is one week left before opening day.

That means Terry Francona has to play all of these exhibition games (extra this year because of the classic) without Dustin Pedroia and Kevin Youkilis (Team USA), Dice K (Japan), Jason Bay (Canada), David Ortiz (Dominican) and Javier Loprez (Puerto Rico).

How do you properly prepare your team for the rigors of the regular season when you are missing all of your core players for such a long period of time?

Additionaly, lets hope that this classic does not cause these palyers to fatigue before the season is over. What about injuries?

I enjoy the idea of the classic but move it to after the season is over!!!!