No question.LAAAA should be in GFIN mode and try to get either Darvish or Stanton, right?
He will mainly be a DH which is a significant penalty of about -1.5 WAR per 600 PA. Hard to accumulate WAR as DH unless you are elite like Papi. Of course, teams likely know that WAR for DH is BS and disregard or discount the position adjustmentOhtani would be accumulating WAR as a hitter and a pitcher, although I guess little on defense. Still, 9-10 is hard to get to.
The differency from LA-Tokyo and NY-Tokyo is about 90 minutes. Thats in first class, sleeper beds, all the booze you can drink, etc. Talking 1 flight every 6 months.Wait, what? If travel distance doesn’t make a difference why does spring training site make a difference? We’re going to compare weather in LA vs NYC/Boston?
Maybe he/his SO/his family has a fear of flight issue and that 4 hrs difference makes a big deal?
The character and makeup judgments/projections being made, purely because ‘he didn’t pick my team and why wouldn’t he if he wasn’t mentally soft’ are Johnny from Burger King - esque. String work guys and gals.
Shigetoshi Hasegawa (pretty decent MLB career, also pitched for Seattle and others) says hello.Rough break for Seattle, not only do they lose him but he goes to another team in their division. I think maybe the rumors that he wanted a team who hadn't had Japanese players before ended up being true.
I'm sorry he didn't pick your favorite team.The differency from LA-Tokyo and NY-Tokyo is about 90 minutes. Thats in first class, sleeper beds, all the booze you can drink, etc. Talking 1 flight every 6 months.
ST in Florida requires many long bus rides, hours in seats not all that comfortable by comparison, no booze to relieve anxiety, etc. Miami to Tokyo is also hours further away than Phoenix to Tokyo. Maybe 3-4 hrs difference
Every team he considered does ST in Arizona. Discount that if you will
I think so, yeah. Unless he's atrocious in ST and the Angels can justify starting him in AAA to make some adjustments. And I think that's incredibly unlikely.Maybe a dumb question - but he definitely breaks spring training with the major league team right?
My wife is a designer from Tokyo, and we have both always been amused by this, so a few years ago I got her to design a logo if they were really the Ham Fighters. Someday I will make 100 hats with this, I will definitely let people here know if I do:I love how at the introduction conference, his NPB team was constantly called the "Ham Fighters." Common misperception, the team is the Fighters, the corporate sponsor is Nippon Ham. Thank god we still use city names, I dread the day that the Prudential Red Sox take on the Molson Blue Jays.
That's the Japanese percentage of city population, not the actual Japanese population.I think the answer is actually pretty simple. He's looking for as close a proximity to his home as possible while also weighing Japanese population within those cities.Here's a map from the 2010 census showing the density of Japanese ethnic populations:
Edit: Posted the wrong map and don't have time to dig it up again at work. The list of top cities for Japenese population when you pull out non-baseball cities is Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles. Chicago was high on the list in 2000 (9th), so is likely still near the top, too.
Put me in the "disaster" camp. Even if Richards can come back and throw ~150 innings, LAA would be relying on too many JAG type pitchers for the 3/4/5 slots. None have ever thrown 200 IP.Garrett Richards
Shohei Ohtani
Parker Bridwell
Tyler Skaggs
Andrew Heaney
Alex Meyer
Matt Shoemaker
JC Ramirez
Somewhere in that list of injury prone and project pitchers is an intriguing rotation that could be anywhere from pretty good to a disaster. I'm not sure whether signing Darvish or some other better known quantity is illogical or their best bet.
*
The Dunkin’ Patriots vs. the Trump, Inc. Jets would be fun though.I love how at the introduction conference, his NPB team was constantly called the "Ham Fighters." Common misperception, the team is the Fighters, the corporate sponsor is Nippon Ham. Thank god we still use city names, I dread the day that the Prudential Red Sox take on the Molson Blue Jays.
You also have to look at the demographics of Orange County, which is where the Angels are actually located. It’s Asian population is ranked as the third largest in the nation after LA county and Santa Clara and it’s growing. I think that was a big reason why the Angels went after him and a reason why he went with them.That's the Japanese percentage of city population, not the actual Japanese population.
For Japanese population among baseball cities, New York (44,000) is #2 after Los Angeles (135,000). San Francisco (39,000), Seattle (27,000), San Diego (19,000), Chicago (16,000), DC (11,000), Boston (8,000), Detroit (7,000), and Denver (7,000) round out the top 10.
http://proximityone.com/asian_demographics.htm
Figures. I drafted him this morning.Jeff PassanVerified account @JeffPassan
There have been more 90s and 91s on scouts’ radar guns for Shohei Ohtani’s fastball today than 95s. He has allowed six runs in three innings to the Tijuana Toros.
Yu Darvish has done pretty well for himself.So glad the Sox didn’t wind up with this guy. Save Ichiro, none of these guys have worked out even close to their hype.
Tanaka has been pretty good too. Certainly not a disappointment.Yu Darvish has done pretty well for himself.
I'm assuming posted players.What is the definition of "these guys" anyway? Pitchers who started their careers on another continent?
Is it lumping all Japanese players together or is it comparing the Nippon league to the MLB? One is valid, one isn't.And Matsui and Ichiro did pretty well for themselves also.
Honestly as long as we're trying to become a better site, the lumping all Japanese players together would be a great thing to try to eradicate. That has bugged me for years (not just here) and I almost called out the post above last night but didn't, so I'm glad others kind of did. It's as lazy as comparing white NBA players only to other white NBA players, each player is different and sometimes those comparisons are valid, but sometimes they are not at all.
I heard that call on the first homer, has he done it on the next two? Because it was pretty damned annoying the first time. No one would ever call him that in any kind of a game or announcing situation. It sounds really stupid.That's some easy looking power.
Man, that announcer is really locking himself into his Ohtani-san thing, huh?
Yup. So forced and contrived.I heard that call on the first homer, has he done it on the next two? Because it was pretty damned annoying the first time. No one would ever call him that in any kind of a game or announcing situation. It sounds really stupid.