FanHouse Yulieski Gourriel

The Daily Jolt is a dose of baseball reality every weekday morning.

It will never be the World Cup or the Olympics. We will not rush to a computer every March to print out brackets like we do the minute the NCAA Tournament field is announced. But just because there is little chance of the World Baseball Classic becoming a transcendent international event on par with the most recognized ones on the sports calendar does not mean the event has little intrinsic value.

The WBC has plenty of haters -- no surprise there since it was an idea drummed up by Bud Selig -- but just two days into the North American portion of the tournament, it seems like they just aren't paying attention.

The Daily Jolt is a dose of baseball reality every weekday morning.

Though it is being greeted largely with yawns of indifference, the World Baseball Classic is less than 24 hours away. OK, so maybe it is a far cry from Opening Day. Maybe we aren't sure how to feel about a tournament that's supposed to crown a true world champion, but is unforgiving to the point that two losses equal elimination. Maybe we don't know what to make of a tournament that is supposed to be chock full of national pride and pageantry, but is an afterthought to many of our favorite stars.

Olympic athletes often don't get paid to do anything other than look good. In that vein, Attractive Olympians handicaps which athletes may rake in endorsement deals after the Olympics.

Major League Baseball scouts have salivated over infielder Yulieski Gourriel ever since he joined the Cuban national team in 2003. All he's done since then is lead Cuba to Baseball World Cup championships in 2003 and 2005 (hitting 8 home runs in 11 games in the latter), a gold medal at the Athens Olympics, and a second-place finish at the World Baseball Classic.

Despite all the international travel and the millions of dollars he could make with MLB, Gourriel has so far refused to defect, even refuting an ESPN report that he had done so in 2006.

But can the man with more talent than Derek Jeter pull more talent than Derek Jeter? Let's turn it over to the populace. After the jump, weigh more evidence and vote in the FanHouse Attractive Olympian poll.