Red Sox sign Masataka Yoshida
- Thread starter RedOctober3829
- Start date
Not Asian myself, but it sounds like the standard white supremacist approach of emasculating Asian men. Never mind the fact that Yoshida's ancestors would have cut Shaughnessy in half with their long sword. I don't know if Shaughnessy is straight-up racist, or whether the 75+ year old angry white guy demographic is just the most reliable print subscriber base now, but the brand of sub-moronic outrage he sells gets more disgusting by the day.
Anyway, are we done projecting Yoshida? It's pretty rare that a guy comes along and after a few adjustments we can say with confidence that we know exactly who he is going forward, but somehow his MLB profile has already caught up to his NPB one.
Among the high-waisted baseball-knowers, "soft" players don't break things while their asses turn crimson.
It seems unlikely that Yoshida will hit as well in the MLB as he did in the Japanese league. The pitchers are generally better over here, which is why they often migrate to make more money. I suspect there will eventually be a solid book on him and he'll settle in slightly worse that in Japan, but after adjusting for Fenway, his numbers might look similar. According to the article below, hitting in MLB parks is easier than Pacific League parks... The dimensions are similar, but the walls are higher in Japan, so Yoshida might actually hit more homers in MLB and fewer doubles? I think overall, the slightly better pitchers in MLB will find better ways to get him out than they have found right now.
If I'm wrong, him hitting for a 145 OPS+ on his contract would make him among the very best values in baseball.
https://jhockey.wordpress.com/2008/01/10/japanese-ballparks-are-bandboxes-truth-or-myth/
Tiny sample size obviously, but per OAA, Yoshida is bad at going to his left and going back on balls, which matches the eye test. Just one example: He had a liner in the first game against Toronto that he came in on initially before having to backpedal furiously to stab at. His reads and angles aren't very good. Being in LF will minimize that hopefully, and maybe this is something where he just needs time to get acclimated, but I think it's safe to say that his ceiling as a defender is probably average and he's more likely than not to be a negative with the glove.
Said probably too many times before, but having the DH spot as a rotating/rest position is so much more preferable than as an Ortiz/Edgar Martinez type. As long as Yoshida isn't terrible out there and there's a good enough late inning replacement for those types when they are starting in the field.
It's basically working out that way this year with Turner getting plenty of time at 1B, and resting Devers.... DH going generally to Masa when Turner is playing, etc....
It's basically working out that way this year with Turner getting plenty of time at 1B, and resting Devers.... DH going generally to Masa when Turner is playing, etc....
He may be better than that even? He's clearly on a hot streak right now, but his season so far splits really cleanly: 13 games through 4/18 with a WRC+ in the 60s, where absolutely everything was a weak grounder to 2nd, and 12 games after with a WRC+ in the 240s where it wasn't.
For a post condemning Shaughnessy as racist (which there's certainly enough of a track record to do), the bolded isn't the most progressive/enlightened statement.
I've long been a proponent of this idea as it also is a bit of a bench extender. We also need to consider Valdez' future with the team if we're looking at Yoshida as a strict DH type. Perhaps Rafaela in center helps both Yoshida and Verdugo on the defensive end.
Yeah, that really didn't present itself well given the suggestion being made.
I'm unable to view what he said, but did the article project that sort of vibe?
Suggesting he has samurai roots is bad? I lived in Japan for a year, I'm not speaking as some random manga fan. Maybe it would be more egalitarian to suggest he came from merchant stock, but sword strokes and baseball swings have a bit in common.
or just say you think CHB is racist and not need to include anything about Yoshida nor his ancestors
Or I can speak with my own voice, thank you, and make a more specific point about him calling Yoshida soft.
I don't think suggesting that CHB pedals some soft racism is saying anything that crazy. I haven't read him in years (probably over 10?) but he was always pedaling shit about lazy/hardworking/naturally talented/intuitive/intellectual stereotypes that I still hear repeated. The worst recently (not by CHB) was suggesting that JBJ was "incredibly fast" while Benintendi was hardworking and smart. Just insane bullshit.
It hasn't gotten any better. The comments to all of his articles are a cesspool. I try not to ever give him clicks, though occasionally my morbid curiosity gets the best of me. Also as a child of the 80s I feel kind of outraged about just how the Globe just lets him soil their once-proud reputation.
This is getting this thread way the fuck off thread.... but it was just a friend I grew up with that still listens to EEI, reads CHB, etc.... it's still not uncommon to hear these tropes repeated by people who really aren't "racist" per se but continue to think using those sorts of racist stereotypes. As a fan of the 80's Celtics.... I grew up hearing all that stuff and it took a lot of time and education and introspection to see how racist all that language that surrounded those teams during that era was.
Sorry.... major sidetrack.
Yoshida is awesome. I hope and think he will.... continue to play well on offense and think his defense will improve enough to not have to be exclusively a DH. I also worry about the studies that have shown that positional players tend to hit worse when they're just DH'ing... which made what Ortiz and Martinez and others done even more impressive in a way
No problem. I assumed you were talking about another Globe reporter. I love Yoshida.
The term CHB as a derogatory has past, unless you also think "gay" or "homo" are insulting.
Shank is good enough, imo
I'd say that it's not necessarily bad, per se, but it's a bit lazy and is stereotyping. It'd be like assuming that an American's ancestors were cowboys, Southern aristocrats, etc. Like, if you have specific knowledge that Yoshida is descended from a Samurai family then fair enough but I suspect you don't (otherwise you'd have mentioned it already). Feel free to express yourself how you want, just know that when you say things like this it's going to induce some cringing.
Re: baseball swings and sword strokes -- they are both long objects moved through a plane to achieve a desired outcome, but beyond that the similarities are pretty limited!
Given that in 1870, after the Samurai ceased to be a privileged class that primarily intermarried, there were a total of about 1.95 million Samurai class (Shizoku, Sotsuzoku, and Chishi) out of a total population of 32.77 million in Japan, normal patterns of descendancy would make an extremely high probability that any person born in the last 50 years of full or near full Japanese ancestry has some Samurai ancestors.
I'm curious whether common names are more or less likely to be connected to samurai ancestry. Can't find an answer. "Yoshida" is one of the most common names in Japan, but it means "fragrant rice field" - "-da" is the classic kanji for rice paddy, the four squares, which may suggest more agrarian lineage. But then again, that's just his dad's side.
Glenn Ordway's enduring contribution to the Boston sports scene.(I think he gave the nickname).
His first 13 games: 58 PA, 8 r, 1 2b, 1 hr, 6 rbi, .167/.310/.250/.560, .167 babip - hits in 5 games, multiple hits in 3 games
His last 13 games: 57 PA, 10 r, 5 2b, 4 hr, 15 rbi, .431/.474/.765/1.238, .429 babip - hits in all 13 games, multiple hits in 8 games
Like night and day.
That .310 OBP during a miserable streak is very encouraging. Even when he's not right and the hits aren't falling the approach will be solid.
He's currently on a 162-game pace of 112 r, 37 2b, 31 hr, 131 rbi, and a .906 ops.
He'll slow down and I suspect his final slash line will be lower than it is now, but even at that....it would be a heck of a first MLB season.
He'll slow down and I suspect his final slash line will be lower than it is now, but even at that....it would be a heck of a first MLB season.
The thing that’s so encouraging is that he did have that slow start that required adjustment.
The fact a book came out on him - velocity high and away - and he was so quickly able to change that is so incredibly impressive. It’s not that easy.
I know he’ll have ups and downs but the reality is he doesn’t swing at balls, he makes a ton of contact, he pulls inside pitches and goes with outside pitches, he’s hitting soft stuff, he’s hitting velocity.
There isn’t anything within his profile that causes concern. He’s such a professional.
The fact a book came out on him - velocity high and away - and he was so quickly able to change that is so incredibly impressive. It’s not that easy.
I know he’ll have ups and downs but the reality is he doesn’t swing at balls, he makes a ton of contact, he pulls inside pitches and goes with outside pitches, he’s hitting soft stuff, he’s hitting velocity.
There isn’t anything within his profile that causes concern. He’s such a professional.
Where did you see that Yoshi's ancestors were samurai? They accounted for only 5 to 8 percent of the total number of families. If you did not belong to this group, owning a sword was illegal during the Tokugawa Period. (1603 to 1867)
Statistically it is likely that at least one of his ancestors of the ~2000 he would have between now and then would have been a samurai. Most of us on the board descend from Charlemagne and/or Ghengis Khan. Go back far enough...
....and just those of us on the board. Rebrand it.... Great Great Great Great x30 Sons of Ghengis Khan
Looks like he made a mechanical adjustment:
View: https://twitter.com/redsoxstats/status/1653938993078083585?s=20
View: https://twitter.com/redsoxstats/status/1653938993078083585?s=20
Scroll up. It was a bit of a cheeky thing -- I can't literally tell who is or isn't descended from samurai (although I know in Japan this is something people care about, possibly too much). I likened sword technique to his ability to swing a bat, and then some people got mad about the whole thing, so let's move on.
Nothing but central Italian shepherds in my background, probably. Maybe the odd centurion turned farmer.
That's my furry adopted son of Icelandic ancestry. Although he has cousins all over Scandinavia and down into Germany too.
Was the mechanical adjustment pulling his pants up even higher? He's going to run out of torso pretty soon.
If they get any higher, he's going to have to cut eye holes in them.
With Yoshida's performance, Ohtani being the modern day Bullet Rogan, and the three WBC wins, I think we can say that Japanese baseball is the closest thing to MLB quality play out there.
With Yoshida's performance, Ohtani being the modern day Bullet Rogan, and the three WBC wins, I think we can say that Japanese baseball is the closest thing to MLB quality play out there.
I see:
Shin guard;
Bat more vertical
Stance a few inches more open (half the length of his front foot)
A bit further from the plate
Anything else? Anyone around here know enough to know what those changes are intended to do?
The biggest difference is his hand position, but it’s hard to tell what that does for him without seeing where they end when they’re loaded. His hands may end up in the exact same spot when he reaches his launch position. It’s impossible to see that in these pics.
It’s likely that he made these adjustments to simplify his pre-swing movements. Tough to really know without hearing from him though.
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I agree that the hand positioning is a noticeable difference and it is hard to tell if that is just a set up adjustment (seems likely) or a change to his swing mechanics (which I think is unlikely). I think the potentially bigger change is the slightly open stance. As the ball is delivered, Yoshida steps in to even his feet. To my eye, one of his biggest challenges is avoiding having his front shoulder fly open too soon and have his weight pulling toward first too early. I'd call that pulling off the ball. Earlier in the year, a lot of those weak ground balls to the pitcher or 2B were on fastballs that he opened up on too soon. And, even when he is hitting well, his front shoulder opens early (the still from a video clip above is from his line drive down the 3rd base line last night on a well placed fastball right on the outside corner). Having the open stance and then closing as part of the pre-swing load can help with that front shoulder and weight/balance. That's my guess on the adjustment.
