caulfield12

Sasaki and Murakami would be Top 25-30 players in MLB right now. A number of Japanese high leverage relievers are going to get the St. Louis/Red Sox offers that predominated over the last two decades. Was also impressed by Okamoto at 1B and Kondoh in the OF. And that doesn't even count Yoshida, who was on of the three best players on the field throughout the entire tournament and who was almost universally-questioned as a bad contract. Of course, the Cubs' Japanese phenom wasn't even on their roster, too. Same with Senga/NYM and Maeda/Tanaka.

Really impressed with the overall competitiveness of Australia, Italy, Colombia, Panama, etc. Venezuela still is highly-competitive despite all the political/economic issues surrounded with their country, same with Puerto Rico. Korea and Taiwan under-performed a bit...but expectations were sky high with home games so close. Cuba just doesn't have the pitching talent anymore, and Moncada/Robert alone are not enough.

https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/japanese-home-run-champion-munetaka-murakami-hopes-to-make-jump-to-mlb-soon/ Would have to wait three more years for the massive payday...

How has Murakami looked defensively? He's pretty darned big for that spot.

Or save Ohtani for later in the game? Takahashi RHP

Betts Trout Goldschmidt vs. Ohtani???

Or Okamoto. Of course we already have 4-5 1B. Vaughn Sheets Jimenez Burger Grandal etc.

Yoshida and some Japanese relief pitchers would have worked. Now we are stuck with Benintendi. At any rate, Murakami's posting/bidding and contract will be unreal. We'd be lucky to get Kondoh at this point as a fourth outfielder.

Rain delay of course? South Florida. Just says delay at MLB.com.

Makes a lot of sense that you try to go with the unfamiliar pitcher and sneak 2+ innings in. A different version of going to Crochet early in Game 3 against the A's. Or even Ohtani depending on matchup/situations. Then bring in Darvish as the brudge to get to the last 2-3 innings of the game.

Hard to feel too sorry for Astros and Mets with their injuries compared to a small market star like a Jose Ramirez going down. That said...if the US doesn't win against Japan, how many owners will be willing to potentially sacrifice their $30+ million starting pitchers? Not many will think it's as important as the Asian and Latin American players do to win the WBC no matter what.

Colas is the answer to many questions involving the White Sox during Spring Training because the rookie might be an important component to their lineup and defense. Chicago's No. 2 prospect figured to have the edge in right field entering Pedro Grifol’s first camp as manager, although nobody has said it on record nor will do so until the Opening Day lineups are officially announced. But Colas has earned his spot with a strong work ethic in Arizona, along with solid production overall. Has the left-handed power bat in a right-handed heavy lineup been perfect? No, but he has a willingness to learn from his mistakes and improve on such things as hitting the cutoff man and secondary leads. Colas doesn’t need to be a featured player in this veteran lineup but could end up being a significant producer. -- Scott Merkin https://www.mlb.com/news/biggest-impressions-spring-training-2023

In a pinch but not on an everyday basis for too long...if he could hit at least 675ish you could tolerate it. He won't hurt you out there.

mobile.twitter.com › status 7 hours ago · The starting pitching matchup will be Yu Darvish vs. Merrill Kelly if Japan advances to face USA in the WBC championship, per... Should have done it with two outs instead for more drama lol.

Great game....now it all comes down to pitching tmrw night. Mexico overachieved a bit to get to this spot. The matchup of styles that we have all been waiting for...and Murakami finally came through after being relatively disappointing for most of the WBC.

Is there anyone at this point that wouldn't prefer to have Yoshida instead?

Cojones getting that bunt down for the catcher and Nootbaar to drive tying runs in.

Kondoh would look nice in the Sox outfield but tapped out budget-wise. Same with Roel Santos of Cuba.

Sasaki would have the fastest average heater of every big leaguer last year other than Hunter Greene...all this at ages19-20-21. Beat Ohtani's high school record for fastest pitch as well.

https://www.mlb.com/world-baseball-classic/news/who-is-roki-sasaki

Or Haseley. Or Roel Santos LF on the Cuban national team.

no oblique please!

Can even fit in production time for new reggaeton video "Mr .450." https://www.mlb.com/gameday/mexico-vs-japan/2023/03/20/719499/preview Sasaki vs. Patrick Sandoval tmrw night Mexico vs. Japan A loss by JPN here would be shocking. Would have personally preferred Venezuela vs. Japan...but Mexico City being a future major league expansion city much more likely and better for the sport worldwide.

patented pull hook from TA7

Slight pro Venezuela crowd...perfect location for this game to make it pretty fair and ratchet up the atmosphere like in Asian and Latin American stadiums.