caulfield12

Erick Gonzalez having camp of a lifetime but no spot and not a prospect… Still think Haseley has a 50/50 shot at last roster spot.

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/sports/2023/03/22/baseball/wbc-us-japan-final/ For Japan, the WBC isn't just meaningful — it's everything “I think it was a very precious experience for the Japanese pitchers and also all the kids in Japan who are watching that might think, ‘oh, that’s really cool,’ and they might want to make up their mind to want to be baseball players,” Kuriyama said. “So I think that was a very great thing to do.” Kyle Schwarber homered off Darvish in the eighth to cut Japan’s lead to one run. Ohtani walked the first batter of the ninth, but a double play set up a showdown against Trout — giving one of the most exciting and dramatic World Baseball Classics a storybook matchup in the championship game. The scenes in Miami that accompanied Ohtani vs. Trout was the best answer as to how much the event meant to baseball fans. “I can’t even imagine being in that moment, the two best players on the planet locking horns as teammates in that spot,” DeRosa said. “The fans won tonight. I’m just — I’m chapped we didn’t win.” Before the final, Ohtani gave a pep talk where he urged his teammates not to be in awe of the MLB stars on the U.S. team, but to see them as equals in order to surpass them. “All the players know them,” Ohtani said. “I didn’t want them to be passive. Show respect, but at the same time, stay aggressive, stay confident.” “I think many great pitchers that represent Japan came here, and many starting pitchers started pitching in the middle of the innings,” Ohtani said. “So I think that all the pitchers, they were able to do their best, and I really appreciate their effort.” It is not easy to sum up what the WBC means to Japan. The nation approaches the tournament with a zeal that is almost unmatched around the globe. Japan installed manager Hideki Kuriyama in Dec. 2021 — U.S. manager Mark DeRosa, for instance, was not named until Aug. 2022. The Japanese held their first training camp for the tournament in the middle of February, long before many teams, and practiced — not played, simply practiced — in front of packed stands in Miyazaki. “I think baseball is great and it kind of describes life, I think,” Kuriyama said during his postgame news conference after the final. “Not just only Shohei, all the Japanese players, and I imagine that the last scene was created by everybody.”

Tanaka was the closest…but we’re essentially looking at 7x the biggest single contract the Sox have ever handed out. Way too risky for a mid tier franchise

He’s exactly the problem at that salary and 625ish OPS and lack of payroll flexibility attached to him. He, Grandal, Jimenez, Robert, Benintendi and TA7 have to produce with how much they’re making. There’s no way around that harsh reality.

https://www.sportsinfosolutions.com/2019/10/02/scouting-some-of-japans-top-potential-mlb-pitchers/ obviously a bit out of date…Senga just signed with the Mets and Pierce Johnson with the Padres out of Japan also Nick Martinez who was on Team USA “Nicholas Andres Martinez is an American professional baseball pitcher for the San Diego Padres of Major League Baseball. He has previously played in MLB for the Texas Rangers and San Diego Padres, and for the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters and Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks of Nippon Professional Baseball. Wikipedia”

https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=yamada000tet Tetsudo Yamada Yamada, 28, is one of the best hitters in Japan, is an excellent defensive second baseman, and could wind up posted this offseason if his NPB team feels like his price tag will be reasonably high. The rubs there are both the pandemic (we have no idea what teams are going to be willing to pay for guys like Kim and Yamada this offseason) and the change to the posting system that made payments to NPB teams much lower. Even if Yamada landed a $40+ million contract – no sure thing in this environment – his team might receive only $10 million, or half what a major posted player would’ve netted them just a couple years ago. His club might simply decide it is worth it to keep a superstar. But let’s say Yamada’s team decides to post him, or he strenuously asks for it and they oblige. Like Kim, Tetsuto can be an international free agent after next season, so maybe his team decides something now is better than nothing next year. Is he a guy the Cubs should be in on? Well, I mean, he’s a 28-year-old second baseman who plays good defense, has great speed, and has been one of the best bats in the competitive NPB for a half-decade now, so … obviously yes? Right? We can’t translate stats perfectly, and he’s obviously seen a blip here in the shortened 2020 season, but generally, Yamada rakes: https://www.bleachernation.com/cubs/2020/10/21/if-japanese-star-second-baseman-tetsuto-yamada-is-posted-should-cubs-go-that-route/

Roki Sasaki MLB posting timeline Sasaki wants to play for an MLB team. According to the Associated Press, when he was asked about playing in MLB, he called it "my dream." But while it's easy to dream on Sasaki reaching the majors, the reality is that it could be a little while. If he waits until 2027, when he will be 25, he can leave for MLB as an international free agent and would not be impacted by the posting system. There is the possibility that he could come over earlier, however. If he requests to be posted by his Japanese team Chiba Lotte, and the team agrees to his request, an MLB team can try and negotiate a deal with the team first to acquire the rights to negotiate with him. If that happens, Sasaki can reach the majors much sooner. But that would require him to go through the posting process, which is complicated, to say the least. https://www.sportingnews.com/us/mlb/news/roki-sasaki-posting-mlb-japan-timeline/ljewldo00sktps0q22iuaslh

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?