After two late callups to the majors (Clayton Richard to the White Sox and Gino Espinelli to the Giants), USA Baseball finalized its 24-man roster for the Beijing Olympics, which will begin on 8/8/08.
There was already one empty spot, which was a wild card of sorts, and that went to Jayson Nix from the Rockies organization. Colby Rasmus of the Cardinals got hurt, so there were three other spots to fill and they went to Jeremy Cummings (Rays), Brian Duensing (Twins), and Nate Schierholtz (Giants).
In addition to quadrennial favorite Cuba, Japan is sending a strong team made up of players from its major leagues, including Nippon Ham pitching sensation Yu Darvish.
That's what the Japanese did in 2004. Didn't help them much. They try not to take too many players from one team.
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