Eight MLB teams sent representatives to watch NPB ace Roki Sasaki’s latest start, according to articles from Sports Hochi and Yahoo Japan, as relayed by Dylan Hernández of The Los Angeles Times and Andy Martino of SNY, respectively. Among those teams were the Yankees, Mets, Dodgers, and Cardinals.
Sasaki is just 22 years old and already one of the best pitchers in Japan. Over three NPB seasons, he has thrown 283 2/3 innings with 376 strikeouts and a 2.00 ERA. The ace made headlines last winter when he reportedly asked to be posted for MLB teams well ahead of the typical timeline – MLB does not allow players under 25 years old and with fewer than six professional seasons to sign anything more than a minor league contract. Ultimately, Sasaski re-signed with the Chiba Lotte Marines, temporarily putting a stop to any talk of his being posted. Still, he could make the same request this coming offseason. While he might be forfeiting a massive free agent payday if he is posted before his 25th birthday, he has made no secret of his desire to pitch in MLB.
It’s no surprise, then, that several MLB teams are showing interest in Sasaski. However, the two-time NPB All-Star might have already decided where he wants to pitch in 2025 and beyond. According to Bob Nightengale of USA Today, “several GMs” are under the impression that Sasaki “already has plans to sign with the Dodgers” during the 2024-25 offseason.
According to one general manager, “There’s no way he’s going anywhere else but the Dodgers. We all know it.” While that particular comment was spoken in no uncertain terms, it also sounds more like conjecture than insider knowledge. Indeed, this entire report may be more speculation on the part of the executives than anything else. After all, at least seven teams besides the Dodgers are actively scouting Sasaski, and they wouldn’t be doing so if they didn’t think they had a chance to secure his services in the future. Moreover, even if Sasaki truly does have his sights set on the Dodgers, the rest of the league will still have an opportunity to change his mind.
He’ll be a Dodger
For you Giants fans – how is the Dodgers luxury cap different than the Dubs/Durant?
Not only will the Dodgers eventually sign Sasaski, they will also trade for Kenga, Maeda, Suzuki, Fujinami, Kiku hi and some other Japanese born players I can’t think of at the moment. Ichiro will be player/manager and Salary Oh will coach 3b. It does seem as if the top Japanese players gravitate to the Dodgers.
Don’t forget Noot! Team Samuri Japan baby!
Ok, so the Dodgers.
Dodgers gotta be the most insecure team in baseball. Still won’t win a WS…
They’ll always have that fake one in 2020.
it’s amazing how many dodger fans call that a world series lol
I’m not even a dodgers fan, and that counts just like any other world series in the record book. But keep acting salty, clown
Lol no — 60 games is not a real season. The whole point of baseball is the slog of 162. Imagine the NBA or NFL only playing 37% of a season…
It’s amazing how much people are trying to fight over a series 4 years ago. Dodger fans don’t hold it like the holy grail and know they need another this era. But it counts for the records. Teams literally count championships from before WW1. 2020 doesn’t count but stone age baseball does? Lmao
“Dodgers fans call that a World Series”..It’s in the MLB record books as a World Series win, so maybe the Dodger fans are right.
Here we go.
@Neon Cop
I don’t see how the shortened season means anything for the Dodgers’ title. They’ve made the post season 11 years running. Them getting to the playoffs was never in doubt. The whole fly in the ointment was them failing to get it done in the playoffs. The playoff series were still playoff series.
No asterisk required.
So is Bonds HRs. Doesn’t mean it’s real.
Anyone who thinks one side is good and the other is bad is a sheep eating right out of their hands. You parrot the talking points perfectly. David Koresh would be proud.
I myself am just ready for change! Our current leader cant even open his eyes all the way! Heck neither can his challenger lol
Not a Dodger fan but that title still counts in the books just like any other.
@Deez: But neither candidate represents change.
@sfes: But only one side resorted to lies and illegality to try to remain in power.
That I don’t argue with. I was talking to the guy you responded to.
They almost did that in the NFL in 1982. 9 game season. Expanded playoffs. Still beats the replacements games of 1987. Yet despite that MLB gets more crap for the 1981 strike. I understand the 1994 strike resentment. No WS. Baseball trying to win fans back by turning their heads to increasing PED use.
There’s only one side that thinks an orange face man is the second coming of Christ. Democrats have some problems but they haven’t gone completely insane
Well Republicans have good teachers who have wined about their elections being stolen in Hillary and Tons of Fun Abrams….they still think and preach they really won, but as a true Democrat don’t ever let facts get in the way of your thinking……just point your finger the other way and blame everyone else for what you do….
Change would mean to elect someone who has not held the job
Clinton called him that night to concede. He’s still crying like a baby that it was stolen cause his wittle feewlings were hurt. Oh yeah, and incited a riot to attempt to illegally turn an election. What if he wins this year? Why wouldn’t they have “stolen” it again while in power? Grow up.
But your team tried to win it also…and failed
At least the Dodgers won that “fake one” legitimately, unlike the Astros.
What about the fake Astros World Series? That should be retracted before the 2020 series!
The most insecure team? You sound like a bitter woman neon cop. 90% of your comments are literally about the dodgers bro
Sexism much? Classy.
Well, you’re still bitter nonetheless. About what? Who knows? I guess you’ll carry that to the grave….
found “amk1920”s burner account…
Apparently, the Dodgers ran a train on your mom back in the day. They your daddy….
More sexism. Classy…
Sad little puppy Neon Cop is.
Pointing out women and men have natural differences isn’t sexiest neon cop. It’s observant.
You’re pathetic and you’ve spent years here complaining about a sports team. Only one sports team too.
Just admit you’re obsessed with the dodgers you clown. It’s gross
BlueBludd
Neon Cop is a long time Dodger troll who makes those comments even in threads where there are irrelevant.
But BlueBludd, your misogynist responses are more likely to gain support for the troll than the other way around.
NeonCop is a clown troll.
But even a brocken analog clock is correct twice per day. It is sexist to use a trope that “women are bitter and men are not”.
Not a troll at all. Just pointing out the endless Dodger hype is stupid, especially when they always fall short.
@Manny: Taking Trump and the GOP to task for being unable to handle losing the election is misogynistic?
I am guilty as charged.
My first reply says it is to BlueBludd and my second reply quotes the language offensive to me.
Maybe you read too fast and misconstued BlueBludd and Blue Baron. I have plnty of typos but usually not that egregious
@Manny: Sorry, my bad. I was unaware of BlueBludd’s existence until a few seconds ago.
Reading his posts, I wish that was still the case.
The projecting is strong with you. That 4-0 late comeback had you shaking with rage. Now going for the best players possible is ‘insecure’. Just say you hate the Dodgers. It would be a lot more respectable than swearing every move they make is bad
Shaking with rage? Sounds like you’re projecting. You’re one of my biggest fans on here. Sorry your team can’t win a real ring, despite all the money, free agents, etc. Enjoy another incoming choke job…
I usually reply to people who don’t know ball and you are the ultimate champion of that here.
That’s funny bc pretty much everything I’ve said about LAD each year has come true. Maybe look in the mirror first?
Your comments are always “choke in playoffs durr” or some ridiculous statement like above. “most insecure team in baseball” for wanting to sign the top IFA even though every team trys to do that. Then you move the goalposts from your original insane take. So let’s hear it. How is it insecure to go for a player the whole leauge and literally 2 other teams named in this post want?
Insecurity: LAD got brutally swept by Arizona & wildly overspent in the off-season. Overcompensation. This is obvious.
Every team tries to sign the top free agent? Lol what sport are you watching? It’s the same handful every year.
It’s a waste of time responding to people like you because you clearly have no idea what you’re talking about. #NeverAgain
LMAO they sat out 2022 free agency to wait for Ohtani. They actually plan things out but that goes way beyond what you could comprehend. And Roki (you know the guy on the very article you are commenting on) is an INTERNATIONAL free agent. Yes, pretty much every team will make some attempt to sign him. Literally proving that you don’t know ball and just trolling
Then don’t respond teenager.
My question is who are the 19 people who gave the troll Neon Cop a thumbs up for his pathetic hatred of the Dodgers.
Dodgers will get him to replace their soon to be suspended gambler.
Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! I’m a hater…..whaaaaaaaaaaaa.
Time to put these guys in the draft if they’re under 30.
No
Why?
Because it’s not fair if all the best young Japanese talent will only sign on the west coast. This isn’t Latin America where hundreds of guys are available as amateurs every year. I’m sure it won’t happen but a guy can dream.
California has punitive State taxes. Every place has its benefits and hinderance.
Chicago (Suzuki), Boston (Yoshida), and New York (Senga) arent on the West Coast.
They are all 2nd tier talent compared to Ohtani, Yamamoto, and now Sasaki. As I said my ask is unlikely to come true so…
both matsuis… tanaka … irabu actually forced a trade out of the west coast … nomo .. dice-k etc etc were all east coast. top players (well irabu was supposed to be one)
the reason they choose the west coast more though is because like many players they want to play closer to home and not add an additional 5 hours across the country. Also west coast is more predominantly eastern culture so they have a comfort level where spanish is pretty much nationwide.
Yes agreed to all of the above. It seems like a recent trend but if Sasaki ends up on the Dodgers on a rookie contract no less it’s going to be a travesty. Perhaps the answer is treating Japanese players the same way they treat American players there. Cap each team at only 2 contracts for Japanese guys.
“California has punitive State taxes.”
Not if you defer almost all of your salary ten years into the future like Ohtani. You give up money via inflation but save a lot on taxes.
Lol that you the California Franchise Tax Board has put laws on the books that get them their money. Death & Taxes bro. Professional athletes have to pay tax to every state they play in. Everyone pays income tax to California, a pro-rated portion of their salary, when they play in a game here. Unsurprisingly there isn’t a work-around. The Dodgers deferring is to game the CBT, not to help the player screw the State.
Though in reality you don’t accomplish either one. You aren’t avoiding taxation because the state expects you to pay based on when you earned the money not when you were paid. You also don’t give up any money via inflation because it’s built into the deferral as represented by the present value.
California’s high income taxes for the wealthy are offset by its low property taxes, which are less than half of what they are in Texas and cannot be raised as the value of your home increases. Of course that’s offset by California’s incredibly high housing prices, which are partly the result of its low property taxes.
Kodai Senga, Seiya Suzuki, Masataka Yoshida, just to name a few that signed somewhere other than a west coast team recently.
Those guys were also true free agents and went to the teams that offered them the most money. They would never of been apart of a draft because they were true free agents.
It’s pretty clear if all things are equal most of them would prefer the west coast to play closer to home.
Dodgers are basically the Yankees of the west coast now. Heck they maybe viewed as even ahead of the Yankees since the Yankees aren’t the same as they were a decade ago.
I do think Yoki will sign with one of the dodgers, mariners or padres.
Texas has a higher property tax RATE but because their average housing costs are a lot lower (about half), the property tax cost is lower, on average.
That was before Ohtani joined the dodgers and decided to build a superteam. Now all the best Japanese players will want to join the overpaying Dodgers with him. I’ve been loving in Japan for a while now and all the young players idolize him.
I don’t believe the “play closer to home” thing is a huge factor. What I do think is a factor is that pacific time means games are played at a better time for viewers in Japan.
@LarsMacDonald Right, and part of what I’m saying is Texas’ high property rate helps keep the home values lower, including the fact that the tax rises as the home value rises. In California your property tax does not rise with the value of the home.
Inflation is a form of taxation, and all taxation is theft.
Have you looked at what they pay in property taxes? I live in a house that was recently appraised at $2.7 million in Bonsall CA and pay less in property taxes than we do for our 2 bdr, $378k vacation condo on South Padre Island. BTW, the condo is for sale if anyone is interested.
Where are all of these economics-deniers? They should be happy if Sasaki signs for low dollars because it will help keep lower ticket prices and lower parking/concessions costs. You can’t have it both ways. And no way to capping a team to two Japanese players, two Dominicans, two Puerto Ricans, etc.
With Proposition 13, Callfornia voters – a historically pretty progressive group – chose to protect the elderly from getting pushed out of their home by basing taxes in part of when you purchased your home. As a result, when real estate prices go up, new owners can pay double the taxes than a next door neighbor with an indentical home. That i the trade off – and this is not the forum to discuss if it is a good one or not – or whether the increase in limits should only apply to the first $800,000 in value, etc.
Not too long ago most posters thought Yamamoto was a massive overpay. So no advantage. Ohtani was market price deferred but no advantage.
If Sadaki can seek 300million there is no advantage. There is only an advantage if his salary is kept artificially low.
Put differently, if Dodgers did not get Ohtani and Yamamoto, they could have signed Snell, Monty, Hader and then Soto and Sasaki the next year.
Manny,
Player salaries and ticket/parking/concession prices are not well correlated. Ticket prices are based on supply and demand.
GBS
Of course they are not as I have said many times. Read my precise words here more carefully. People whine that signing Ohtani to a big contract ruins the game and increases prices To be consistent, those same posters should be ringing Town square bells and signing praise if Sasaki signs a below market contract like Ohtani initially did. I am drawing an extension of others’ logic, not adopting it as my own
Manny,
My apologies, I did read your comments too quickly.
@Pads Fans Do you have beachfront property in Arizona for sale too?
I feel that’s fair. Either the MLB draft or the international draft. It’s really the only way to keep the richest teams (especially the Dodgers) from hoarding the Asian talent pool.
@Pads Fans Do you have beachfront property in Arizona for sale too?
Roki’s dogs name is Dodger
Don’t tell MLB social media that or we’ll get posts every day about it after he joins the Dodgers…
Collusion! Collusion!
The media will relish that
Given his ties to Antonio Inoki it comes as little surprise the situation would play out this way. Howard Brody made some allusions to this in his book which is an excellent read.
Given his ties to honorary Japanese legend Tony KhanOki ???!!!
He’s going to be a Dodger; Japan has become a minor leagues for them.
Kuroda (2008)
Maeda (2016)
Yamamoto (2024)
The 3 most recent players to go from the NPB to the Dodgers
Correction, the Dodgers signed Kuroda as a free agent in 2007, so you can take him off your list. Before Yamamoto the only other postings from NPB to the Dodgers were Maeda in 2015, the totally forgettable Norihiro Nakamura in 2005, and the more memorable Kaz Ishii in 2002.
That’s not a correction…
Kuroda went from NPB to the Dodgers, which is what I said.
Okay, I thought this discussion was about postings. NPB teams get no compensation for free agents who sign for other teams or leagues, so except for postings, it makes no sense to claim that Japan is becoming the minor leagues for anyone, let alone, for the Dodgers.
Between NPB and MLB, Ishii has 180+ wins, 2500+ strikeouts, was later a NPB manager. Most impressive stat for him is that he only had one error in four seasons – 564 innings – of MLB pitching.
With the posting system being tailored for the large markets, that’s no surprise.
Bingo. The posting system is specifically constructed to filter out all the medium and small market teams. Only rich teams will ever have a chance to land Japanese talent.
Someone should tell the Padres that the posting system has filtered them out
Padres are weird. They can be a big market team and big spenders when they want. Signing Darvish, Machado, Hosmer, etc. proves that. They have the California money but cut costs because of the TV deal fiasco (at least that’s their excuse). In the end the Padres have the money to compete with rich teams but usually don’t want to use all of it.
Also the Rays. They’ve sign three players posted from NPB, one more than the Padres. The Rangers and Mariners have also both signed two. In reality there isn’t much difference between posting and MLB free agents. The high-ticket players tends to go to large-market teams. This is the result of the financial system created by MLB collectively, not a system specially deigned to divert posted players to large market teams.
The market size of San Diego doesn’t magically become larger. It’s one of the smallest markets and spending doesn’t change that.
When their owner was trying to win a World Series before he died. Alas that did not happen. I’m not sure they even really figured out who the new owner is. They also got boned by Bally’s going bankrupt and their tv money going poof. They have their own $20 a month streaming thing but that doesn’t appear to be anything close to what their regular tv money was.
I can only recall Yoshitomo Tsutsugi in recent history. Perhaps the Rays if the last were more bold in their strategy but have an awful track record and (now) too much data to risk that much money. It drives me crazy. But now there’s no way they will pay a posting fee. Stu’s too cheap now. They even let Uwasawa walk for no good reason.
You’re not wrong. Signing Ohtani and Yamamoto opens a direct pipeline for them.
This seems to be the best point worth making, as far as giving the Dodgers a serious edge on future NPB posting.
Finally, someone who gets it.
Ohtani is a LeBron. Due to LeBron, NBA stars have signed for league minimum or lower salaries to join the Lakers.
With Ohtani as a Dodger, unless the interpreter scandal grows in scope, some Japanese players may be more interested in the Dodgers. Here is a link showing Sasaki in Padres gear gifted to him by Yu Darvish.
instagram.com/dodgersnation/p/C3BQAgcydPG/?img_ind…
I don’t think it’s such a fait accompli. Walker Buehler is a free agent after this season and they have to sign Max Fried next season too. Then there’s the dudes that took short term contracts this year. I think Gerrit Cole can opt out to and he went to UCLA so…
Cole cannot opt out in the conventional sense. His contract has an opt out cancellation clause, which nullifies his opt out selection if the Yankees add one more year to the end of his contract.
I knew it was something weird like that. Thanks for the clarity. Would be interesting and the Yankees suck this year if they let Cole walk and just burned the roster down.
Suck this year? They are 4-0 lol
A 4 game sample is 100% significant in Major League Baseball. It’s baseball, it could happen. Not I said “if” not would.
Typo’d it
It’s a syntactic-fantastic gem of a typo that made me LOL.
yankees can avoid the opt out by adding 1 more year to his contract. which most likely will happen
$400 mil / 14 yrs
Either NY or LA. Yamamoto might be texting him as we speak
You’re right
If he waits til 2026 then have to assume he’ll top yam’s deal
If he leaves after this season there’s a limit to what he can earn
Waiting just one year to get a quarter of a billion more dollars?
2 years
but hey ohtani left early, and things worked out for him
Since Nightengale said it, we can be 100% sure that Sasaki will not be signing with the Dodgers.
Best part is Preller pretty much has made him a Padre long ago.
Hopefully goes to Dodgers since unlike other cheap billionaires they are willing to spend money. Plus fun to see fans of other teams whine like big babies.
Says a guy with fffbbb as his screen name.
They only get 200 million more in local TV money than other teams, but don’t let facts get in the way.
Dodgers get 250 million each year from att/time warner. then 2 local tv deals. In 2023 the dodgers got over 600 million from tv deal. Then they have added 2 Japan tv deals don’t know the amount My guess is another 200 million from Japan. total800 million to 1 billion dollars per year for next 10 years.
I don’t know where you are getting your numbers, but Spectrum/Charter now owns the Dodgers’ media rights, and the AAV of the contract is $334M over the 25 years ending in 2038. The payments started out below that midpoint and will end higher. Nobody outside of the two companies knows how much is being paid to the Dodgers in any given year. The income from any subsidiary broadcast rights should flow to Charter, since they own them. They also get the ad revenue from SNLA.
He couldn’t be any worse than Jose Leclerc
The Braves will never sign any Japanese player
Kenshin Kawakami
Braden Shewmake
Texas, where he was born is not an Island of Japan. If we’re just throwing out random names of former Braves players – Jung Bong & Deion Sanders.
Fwiw he was/is more highly regarded in Japan than Yamamoto…this is about to heat up big time.
@ DeGrom – Teams can’t do this any longer. There is a hard cap. You are limited to your bonus pool and any amount traded for (you can only trade for like 50 or 60% of your original pool. That’s probably like a max of around 9-12 million for the revenue sharing teams (if they added the extra money.
Red Sox did that for Moncada (paid the penalty), but that isn’t possible now.
Yeah the most any team has is about 6m without trading for any. The dodgers will actually have the lowest amount because they are over the tax and sign Ohtani. So they will have about 4.5m to spend.
So if he goes to the dodgers it’s because that’s where he wants to be. Money won’t be a factor.
@Simm
This is not true; in fact, the Dodgers will have the most money available to sign Sasaki.
What is true, however, is that money won’t be a factor in Sasaki’s signing, because if it was, he would simply wait until he was posted and cash in, Yamamoto-like.
By taking the amateur-status (Ohtani) route, Sasaki is making it clear that he wants to get to MLB now, which suggests that his mind is almost certainly made up already…..
I am shocked and stunned by this news. I would have thought the Brewers or Pirates would have had their scouts camping out on his doorstep. What a way to ruin Easter.
John Fisher is negotiating with the Nevada State Legislature to upfront Sadaki’s contract. Money will be diverted from what’s left out of the education reserve.
ABC, and Sasaki as well??
Hmmm, I see what you did there, moral is never create typo’s at bedtime the night before XD
Notice you don’t see the Tigers. They have at least 8 good starters now
I’ve noticed the inability to reply to certain members. Does that mean they have blocked me or are they in mlb trade rumor jail?
It’s some type of corrupt arrangement they’ve made with the heads of the site so that they can say whatever they want in order to boost page hits, but nobody can call them out or rebutt their remarks. It’s all part of a plan by Anthony Franco to increase revenue.
They blocked you.
I don’t know what I did but I should probably keep doing it.
I think GBS is correct but I want it to be Randor.
Block them back and they cease to exist in your world. Just for this article – “8 comments are hidden because you muted the comment authors”
There needs to be a number limit to how many NPB players can be on any one roster, in the same way the NPB limits the number of foreigners per team. The geographical preference of NPB players due to the number of Japanese residents inside particular city or proximity to Japan is already causing an imbalance that MLB will have to address as a matter of fairness.
So now we’re going to control where players get to play because they have a preference? What the NPB does and how they want to sell talent is their business.
You can always count on large market apologists to want to maintain the imbalance in major league baseball.
There are zero NPB players on MLB rosters. Now *former* NPB players, well, that’s a different story.
The NPB limits the number of foreigners to protect Japanese players, not to ensure that there’s competitive balance. If they all want to play for the Dodgers and the Dodgers can afford all of them, then more power to them. I don’t think there’s enough elite Japanese players out there to warrant pushing draconian limits on how many of them a team can have.
Who was the first Japanese to play in MLB?
Masanori Murakami
Collusion if he signs with Dodgers for minimum, knowing (wink/wink) they’ll give him more once he turns 25. MLB better stay on top of this, though I don’t have any faith in that at all.
That’s not how it works. If he came over before age 25, he would need to accrue six years of service time before he became a free agent (see: Ohtani, Shohei)
That doesn’t mean they couldn’t extend him early. We haven’t seen this done yet but I’m not sure how the mlb would handle a wink wink deal of signing him then extending him.
What prevents him from retiring in Japan, immigrating to the US, and signing with a MLB team?
Don’t think that is an option. Nomo exploited that situation in the NPB rules to come to MLB. Pretty sure the NPB closed that option.
IIRC a player who tries this is locked out of returning to play in Japan for a number of years.
Roki Sasaki is signing with SD if he is able to join MLB as an amateur. Roki has mentioned many times that Yu Darvish is/was his idol.
why not the rangers, cubs or dodgers then? the darvish who has pitched for sd is past his prime
@ACK: Money talks and BS walks. What you said is BS.
Blue, teams have a set amount of money they can spend on Sasaki. He won’t be going to the highest bidder; he will be going where he wants to play.
True, but ACK’s take is still BS.
Baron my guy!!! Jack Malone baby!!! Sends BC to frozen four… I haven’t lost it like that since Eruzione in 80!!!Cornell one hell of a team…but BU and BC looks to be the cream of the crop…
Sasaki has said that Darvish is his idol and mentor. Sasaki is often seen wearing a Padres jersey with Darvish’s number. So what is BS about his post?
Probably, although Cornell beat BU in November FWIW.
But every team in the tournament had a great season.
I know you covered college hockey especially Cornell .. any chance you went to any frozen fours?? When I heard announcer say Malone transferred from Cornell I nearly s(it … I actually saw that BU and Cornell play something of a beanpot.. Jack o Callahan owns a company or did here in Chicago…Beanpot investors i believe.. many years ago I watched MIRACLE with daughter ( explaining why my greatest sports moment ever ) I emailed him telling him what a great moment/ experience it was for all of America and myself back in day .. Very grateful and mentioned that every year they all got together no matter what to be a team again and that , that was the biggest miracle… fast forward and daughter graduated from BC and worked jr/ sr year at BU doing research…make no mistake though.. she hopes if they meet again BC kicks the…. Out of BU!!!!
Never did attend a frozen four.
I have covered games here in NYC and attended them as a student at Cornell and Yale.
Here’s a taste of the craziness of Cornell’s Lynah Faithful:
youtu.be/V63NPy_i4Oc?si=wGbqGf5NEPmOnW6e
Nice… place was rocking!!! Loud!!! Memories of old Chicago stadium when I would watch Hawks in early 90’s
But fans at pro games don’t do the “Sieve, you suck!” and “It’s all your fault!” chants.
Baseball is so flush with cash. Great to see so many high dollar contracts. Hopefully ohtani money will just be the harbinger of huge contracts. As a baseball fan I’d like to attract more youth to choose baseball. Nothing like stars getting paid big , and stiffs making millions to attract best athletes back to baseball.
Who’s the best Japanese mlb pitcher of all time ?
Ohtani, Dice k, Yu, Maeda, Tanaka, Suzuki ( closer) , missing someone I’m sure. Kikuchi nah gotta be tanaka
Nomo is a pretty notable omission from that list, and quite possibly the answer.
Yes. That’s the one I was missing. Terrific pitcher.
Hiroki Kuroda was better than either Kikuchi or Matsuzaka, so you’re definitely missing that one also.
Agreed. Was off the top of my head. Knew I forgot some. Later when i googled realized missed a few very good ones.
Koreans, Chan Ho , Ryu top of the class , dodgers again
I missed ladies favourite Kazuo Fukumori of the Texas rangers.
At some point…it starts getting a little incestuous.
Dodger fans absolutely claim 2020 as the holy grail. More importantly, I’d like to see them win a title without unlimited resources, under a cap.
@GenoSeligPrieb
So not only are you really wrong about 2020, but you’d also like to see the Dodgers win a Super Bowl….?
That’s weird.
One thing for sure he will not be a Cardinal , he could be the greatest thing since sliced bread, but the Cardinals won’t spend the money, hell why do they waste time ans money on scouts.
I feel Roki Sasaki will not be a Japanese bust. Ahem, Ahem Yoshinobu!
I thought teams weren’t allowed to have handshake deals with international players anymore?
Sasaki is the “Yu Darvish will help the Padres lure other Japanese players to San Diego” narrative’s last chance.
You are correct and I hope the narrative proves true this time around.
I hope the Cards jump on him.
The Dodgers are a juggernaut and have made themselves a highly desirable place to be. They are just being what everyone else is trying to be. Kudos to them.
I was ready some comments the other day about the wisdom of the Giants investing in high value 1 year deals when they have no chance of beating the Dodgers. As this article demonstrates, if you are waiting for the Dodgers to be weaker, you are going to be waiting for a long time.
Cardinals??? Why? Because of Nootbaar? I’m a Cardinals fan and even I know it ain’t happening unless he is So Taguchi’s long lost nephew.
The Japanese Dodgers. They figured nobody else could help them win the World Series, but the Japanese so sign them all.
“It’s no surprise, then, that several MLB teams are showing interest in Sasaski.”
Bad syntax. “Then” adds nothing to the sentence and only interrupts it for no reason.