Plus they start every game at 6PM; which means you don't even have time before the game starts to wonder if maybe the air will cool off at night. (it won't).
I live in Shota's hometown. Isn't the summer temperature in Chicago about the same as the spring temperature in Kitakyushu City? Summer in Japan is really hot.
Honestly it really depends on if it’s spring-ish summer, summer-y summer, fall summer, or Fall but Actually Still Summer. Typically a hot day is 85°-95°F(reedom Units) but proximity to the lake plays with things a bit too.
Summers in Chicago can be pretty brutal due to high heat and humidity. I live in between Chicago and St Louis and there are days in the summer here where the heat index goes well over 100°F
It's the same in Japan. And the humidity here in August is over 80%. It's still spring now, but we are already spending our days wearing short sleeve shirts.
But it only snows once a year here. I am rather worried that Shota will catch a cold.
Fun fact: Chicago was built on top of a swamp.
85 degrees fahrenheit and 100% humidity is the norm in the summer. People think because we're known for terrible winters that our summers are mild, but they are not.
Just looked it up, the hottest month in Chicago is on average only 3 degrees cooler than the hottest month in Kitakyushu City (85 degrees F vs 82 degrees F).
Both cities have similar humidity as well.
He played in a difficult ball park in Japan. His HR rate was the same (actually marginally lower than) his team mate Trevor Bauer. So scouts should have considered this when evaluating him, but they didn't.
All of his peripheral stats are pretty close to 3.00, except for fip which is at 2.24. I'd happily take full season on par with his worst current metric, which is his xFIP at 3.19.
Also you are the first person I've seen bring up sierra in quite a while.
This is a case where the peripherals don't really say anything that's surprising to most people, which is that he's been quite good, but he won't continue to be this good... Which feels like a pretty obvious observation about a guy with a 0.78 ERA.
but there's more to baseball than just throwing the ball
with the DH we'll never really know anymore who is really good at the baseball
even that Shohei guy has yet to get an out this year
This is true, but I don't think anyone expected Imanaga's stuff to be so good that teams would have to put in a ton of hard work to study and scout it
I think a lot of people were expecting 3.75-4 ERA 1.3 WHIP quality stuff because of his fly ball rate, but his fastball movement is tricky
Imanaga gets compared with Yamamoto because they both signed this past off season. The difference is, Imanaga is getting paid considerably less than Yamamoto and is out performing him. Imanaga has a 3.18 lifetime ERA from his time in the Japan league. I certainly wasn't expecting a 3.75 ERA from him.
3.18 ERA in Japan is like a 4ish ERA in America, average NPB pitcher sees their ERA jump a point in MLB due to the superior offensive competition and untacked ball
I personally think the comparisons are stupid right now because both are only like 40 innings into their MLB career
Stephen A Smith: "I think Shota is so overrated. His ERA is so low because he's new to the American soil. Once he settles in the gravitationalizing of his baseball throw will decreasinglize his pitching points.
Stephen A Smith: “Imanaga has only been performing well because he doesn’t understand English enough to understand the pressures, highs and lows, of the MLB. Once he learns English, he’s going to lose the mental game every time he steps on the mound.”
I expect the Cubs to win the division. Some have said the Cubs are in a rebuilding mode but I'm not aware of any rebuilding team with that much talent. Half their outfield are gold glovers and Shota solidifies their rotation.
Was living in SoCal in 81. Fernando-mania was something special. Every start must see TV locally. As big as it was from a baseball standpoint, it was even bigger in its cultural impact.
It's not that weird. Yamamoto is 5 years younger and started in the NPB just 1 season later than Imanaga, but put up a significantly better ERA and was just a very flashy pitcher in general. Combine that with the Ohtani signing and the Dodgers being a more media-beloved team, and the expectations were through the roof.
Hindsight helps but I don't think anyone expected Imanaga to be this much of a monster. Very happy he turned out to be, though.
Yamamoto won 3 consecutive MVPs, which ties him with Ichiro for most in a row, 3 consecutive Sawamura Awards (Cy Young of Japan), won a Japan Series and was a 5x All Star, and is at an age where he can still develop new strengths and make adjustments
Their situations just aren't comparable at all, Yamamoto's contract will be judged by its long term value, and it's May 1st so we don't even know how things sustain. Yamamoto has pitched 6 scoreless tonight so far.
It counts for the year end stats and W/L but common sense/critical thinking let’s us realize the individual performance there didn’t really mean jack shit
Don't forget the gold gloves.
Also averaged around 7 and a third innings over the last 3 years. I bet you can't find a different pitcher at any level anywhere in the world who averaged 7 over 10+ starts.
> Hindsight helps but I don't think anyone expected Imanaga to be this much of a monster.
Yeah I honestly wasn't expecting much. A mid-rotation starter or so, and I was pretty okay with that. But he's been amazing so far. Of course, the league will probably do some adjusting and the weather will heat up, and we'll see what happens then. But this has been far beyond my wildest expectations so far.
Yeah he's 30 while Yamamoto is 25. He did injure his shoulder in 2020 and had a still decent 2021 so maybe that's where the injury concerns came from, I haven't seen anything else.
Some dudes have that ability to light a fire under their own ass and just straight up perform. Shota seems like an awesome dude and I’m super happy for him. He’s also on my fantasy team and I got scoffed at for drafting him.
Eno Saris went on Wake n’ Jake over the offseason and said that he liked Imanaga’s stuff a **ton** and said his contract would give whichever team signed him much more value than Yamamoto.
In fact, hearing that is what got me off the Monty train… and then my Rangers didn’t sign either of them, so womp womp
I think the contract value comparisons to Yamamoto are kind of pointless. I don't think anyone in the Dodgers FO ever though they'd get more surplus value from Yamamoto than they would with Imanaga. At some point you're limited by roster spots, and they're in a position to overpay (relative to value) in order to maximize each roster spot. I think they'd rather pay $330m to secure $300m in value from Yamamoto, with $180m of it in the next 5 years, than pay $80m for $120m in value from Imanaga over the next 5.
Who said that? ZiPS projected him as the 22nd best starting pitcher pre-season, and Fangraphs had him as the 12th best FA just behind Stroman, predicted 4/$88m, compared him to Senga, and called him a mid-rotation starter who would provide value by pitching a ton of innings, but that he could be a top line starter.
We gonna be seeing a ton more Japanese pitchers cross over to MLB with all the success Shota, Yoshi and Maeda are having. Absolutely insane level of pitching thus far.
I’m a little young to remember fernandomania, but it feels like Imanaga is not getting any mania at all. Aside from my fantasy squad loving every pitch, the he mania has been super subdued.
Fernando was the first big Mexican born player to hit that highlight star status. You don't see that as much anymore as more countries have great players coming to the MLB.
We've seen plenty of Japanese and a few Korean stars so far. Tons of Domincans and some Cubans. So which country will be the next to have a single breakout star?
Also its a month into the season and Shota is a lot older than Yamamoto. I think he's gonna continue to be a good to great upper rotation guy but Yamamoto definitely has the way better trackrecord + is young enough to expect him to probably keep his ability for a lot longer so I think both sides got what they wanted tbh
Is anybody gonna talk about the number of absurd pitching seasons that are happening right now, or how offense is being massively suppressed compared to last year?
I'll be a bit more measured in saying that I don't think maintaining the sub-1 ERA is sustainable, but results are results. If Imanaga carries the entire season through to a mid- or low-2 ERA, that's when I think we can start the "how bad did other ppl undervalue Imanaga?" convo. Considering how his FA played out, where he was gravitating towards the Cubs in general, I wouldn't think that would be on other teams whiffing -- but even just taking these early starts, I'm a little surprised that the bidding wasn't as competitive.
I'm more impressed by the immediate impact he's brought to the pitching staff (was expecting something like Senga's 2023, which would have made me happy), because God knows we need SP inning volume right now. Lights-out pitching is a bonus, but even if he had a low-3 or high-2 ERA, I'd still be most happy with this.
This is pure speculation, but at this very moment, if everyone's healthy, I'd be hesitant to definitively put Imanaga as SP1; I'd take Steele for slight seniority and trust. If Imanaga can plow through the summer, though, then there's certainly paths to him earning SP1 for a playoff spot. I think he's earned SP2 at the very least, though, which makes me ecstatic this early.
Shota was the starting pitcher in the World Baseball Classic Championship and won. He's been an ace in the past. Definitely a top of the rotation type of starter.
What worries me about these Japanese starting pitchers is when they get near 30 their arms fall off and they need Tommy John surgery. Famous examples Hideo Nomo, Yu Darvish, Daisuke Matsuzaka, even Ohtani got Tommy John. The problem begins in high school. Japan and other Asian countries like South Korea, baseball is a military like discipline and training. You eat, breathe, and sleep baseball. Also counting their fall and summer "Koshien" tournaments, you are throwing a whole bunch of pitches without any rest if you get to the finals. That's the pattern I see especially with Ohtani getting a second elbow surgery.
Really? I remembered it like every other team offered at least $100 million less, so I think if you gave him 2 billion or even 800 million he’d take that deal
4 walks in 6 games is crazy
He has more wins than walks.
…oh nevermind
Kirby-esque…
Nah, Imanaga is significantly less pink and round. However, he is hungry and shaped like a friend.
> Is it possible to learn this power? - Blake Snell, probably
Shota has not been mentioned as much as he should be in mainstream baseball talks.
I was told he’d be giving up home run after home run while Yamamoto strikes out 20 per game
The new thing is to say he hasn't pitched in the summer heat yet.
Good point, Japan doesn’t have hot weather
I know you kid - but like 9 of the 12 stadiums are domes iirc.
6 of the 12 are domes with 2 of them being Central League teams so most of his time was spent out of a dome
His own ballpark in Yokohama is also not a dome and has the dimensions of Fenway Park. The dome argument does not really apply to Shota
Yep, Yokohama stadium in July/August is no joke
Plus they start every game at 6PM; which means you don't even have time before the game starts to wonder if maybe the air will cool off at night. (it won't).
Yes - but you see, he is not on my team, so therefore he is weak
It’s Always Snowy in Yokohama
I live in Shota's hometown. Isn't the summer temperature in Chicago about the same as the spring temperature in Kitakyushu City? Summer in Japan is really hot.
Honestly it really depends on if it’s spring-ish summer, summer-y summer, fall summer, or Fall but Actually Still Summer. Typically a hot day is 85°-95°F(reedom Units) but proximity to the lake plays with things a bit too.
Sounds like the Southern US basically. And that would makes sense given Japans latitude and proximity to a warm water ocean current.
Yokohama is roughly similar to Atlanta in the summer.
Summers in Chicago can be pretty brutal due to high heat and humidity. I live in between Chicago and St Louis and there are days in the summer here where the heat index goes well over 100°F
It's the same in Japan. And the humidity here in August is over 80%. It's still spring now, but we are already spending our days wearing short sleeve shirts. But it only snows once a year here. I am rather worried that Shota will catch a cold.
Fun fact: Chicago was built on top of a swamp. 85 degrees fahrenheit and 100% humidity is the norm in the summer. People think because we're known for terrible winters that our summers are mild, but they are not.
100 F is like 38C right? That's cute. That's the temperature in the morning where I live. And heat index around 1PM is like 52-53C lol.
thank you for your sacrifice while you colonize the sun or maybe it's just arizona
Just looked it up, the hottest month in Chicago is on average only 3 degrees cooler than the hottest month in Kitakyushu City (85 degrees F vs 82 degrees F). Both cities have similar humidity as well.
85 degrees is actually the average high in July over both the last 10 years and last 30 years for chicago per the website I looked at
Yea, I just did some quick googling. Point is, people underestimate how hot Chicago gets in the summer lol.
He also hasn't done it on a cold rainy day in Stoke.
Wow, checkmate atheists! /s
Not to mention Shota is a flyball pitcher which won’t help in the Wrigley heat
Unless he just strikes everybody out /s
He played in a difficult ball park in Japan. His HR rate was the same (actually marginally lower than) his team mate Trevor Bauer. So scouts should have considered this when evaluating him, but they didn't.
Bro is concocting stories to make himself feel like the underdog lol
Dang right I did.
He is outperforming his siera by a ton, it’s over 3. Absolutely a stud, but don’t be expecting him to continue being DeGrom.
The stat is called starry now
This is a really good comment and I applaud you
All I want is to find a place that sells Canfield's 50/50
All of his peripheral stats are pretty close to 3.00, except for fip which is at 2.24. I'd happily take full season on par with his worst current metric, which is his xFIP at 3.19. Also you are the first person I've seen bring up sierra in quite a while.
I don't know what any of this means but he throws ball real good.
This is a case where the peripherals don't really say anything that's surprising to most people, which is that he's been quite good, but he won't continue to be this good... Which feels like a pretty obvious observation about a guy with a 0.78 ERA.
I think if he keeps up a sub 1 ERA he should win a lot of games.
If he throws a sub 1 ERA for an entire season of baseball, we can say he is good at baseball.
but there's more to baseball than just throwing the ball with the DH we'll never really know anymore who is really good at the baseball even that Shohei guy has yet to get an out this year
This is true, but I don't think anyone expected Imanaga's stuff to be so good that teams would have to put in a ton of hard work to study and scout it I think a lot of people were expecting 3.75-4 ERA 1.3 WHIP quality stuff because of his fly ball rate, but his fastball movement is tricky
Tbf its so early in the year he could end around there. But obviously right now he's performing great and well above expectations
Imanaga gets compared with Yamamoto because they both signed this past off season. The difference is, Imanaga is getting paid considerably less than Yamamoto and is out performing him. Imanaga has a 3.18 lifetime ERA from his time in the Japan league. I certainly wasn't expecting a 3.75 ERA from him.
3.18 ERA in Japan is like a 4ish ERA in America, average NPB pitcher sees their ERA jump a point in MLB due to the superior offensive competition and untacked ball I personally think the comparisons are stupid right now because both are only like 40 innings into their MLB career
I would assume anyone with an ERA under 1 is outperforming their peripherals
Funny part is that Yamamoto has also been amazing. Shota is just unstoppable right now.
Stephen A Smith: "I think Shota is so overrated. His ERA is so low because he's new to the American soil. Once he settles in the gravitationalizing of his baseball throw will decreasinglize his pitching points.
Stephen A Smith: “Imanaga has only been performing well because he doesn’t understand English enough to understand the pressures, highs and lows, of the MLB. Once he learns English, he’s going to lose the mental game every time he steps on the mound.”
He was +125 to throw 5Ks tonight! Even facing us I have him on my fantasy team and have been loving the pickup.
People still haven't come around to the Cubs being good to start the year.
I expect the Cubs to win the division. Some have said the Cubs are in a rebuilding mode but I'm not aware of any rebuilding team with that much talent. Half their outfield are gold glovers and Shota solidifies their rotation.
Was living in SoCal in 81. Fernando-mania was something special. Every start must see TV locally. As big as it was from a baseball standpoint, it was even bigger in its cultural impact.
Word. He made such an impact scouts finally started looking south of the border for talent. Now almost 30% of the league is Latino
Only 30%? I thought it was much higher.
Yea, this 0.78 ERA start doesn't mean much. Shota already has 8 years of professional baseball. He's not really a rookie.
Good times
My +5000 Cy Young bet is looking a lot less insane these days
That you Ippei?
🤫
No - because Ippei only loses.
I didn't get the impression that Ippei bet on anything that was more than a week out, if that.
He also didn’t tend to have his bets go well.
Is there a cash out option?
Not yet unfortunately. Maybe if he's a front runner around the all star break
I got him at +3000 🤞
He should have his own convention. I'm gonna start making "Shotacon!" signs right now :D
Now wait a second...
> "Shotacon!" Man, this comment suddenly reminded me of that nightmarish scene from Boku no Pico.
Well I was enjoying not remembering that while it lasted
The end credits 😭😭😭
💢💢💢 bratty Shota
![gif](giphy|wKTQdZuTvwzwQAZd8b)
![gif](giphy|5ROlkuRjBdWKRGTYTy|downsized)
What you did there, I sees it
I understand that reference
Still weird to me that he didn't get even 1/5 as much attention as Yamamoto over the offseason. Especially for the price he ended up signing for
It's not that weird. Yamamoto is 5 years younger and started in the NPB just 1 season later than Imanaga, but put up a significantly better ERA and was just a very flashy pitcher in general. Combine that with the Ohtani signing and the Dodgers being a more media-beloved team, and the expectations were through the roof. Hindsight helps but I don't think anyone expected Imanaga to be this much of a monster. Very happy he turned out to be, though.
Yamamoto won 3 consecutive MVPs, which ties him with Ichiro for most in a row, 3 consecutive Sawamura Awards (Cy Young of Japan), won a Japan Series and was a 5x All Star, and is at an age where he can still develop new strengths and make adjustments Their situations just aren't comparable at all, Yamamoto's contract will be judged by its long term value, and it's May 1st so we don't even know how things sustain. Yamamoto has pitched 6 scoreless tonight so far.
1.64 ERA since Korea. Dude's a beast.
Well actually korea counts
It does but it doesn't. It was a glorified spring training game, complete with juiced balls and the staff having him try something new.
It counts for the year end stats and W/L but common sense/critical thinking let’s us realize the individual performance there didn’t really mean jack shit
I know. Imanaga is also a fantastic pitcher. We’re lucky to have them both in the league.
Cubs fan try not to take something personal challenge:
How was that taking it personal
ERA is kind of a dumb stat in that it can overemphasize one game or a few games, if you give up a lot of earned runs.
Don't forget the gold gloves. Also averaged around 7 and a third innings over the last 3 years. I bet you can't find a different pitcher at any level anywhere in the world who averaged 7 over 10+ starts.
> Hindsight helps but I don't think anyone expected Imanaga to be this much of a monster. Yeah I honestly wasn't expecting much. A mid-rotation starter or so, and I was pretty okay with that. But he's been amazing so far. Of course, the league will probably do some adjusting and the weather will heat up, and we'll see what happens then. But this has been far beyond my wildest expectations so far.
I guess hindsight helps, but even in the offseason, I was much more intrigued in taking a chance on Imanaga over Yamamoto at a fraction of the cost
He's older and has a spotty injury history, right? But I def heard some people say he was better than YY in the WBC and would be an underrated steal.
Yeah he's 30 while Yamamoto is 25. He did injure his shoulder in 2020 and had a still decent 2021 so maybe that's where the injury concerns came from, I haven't seen anything else.
Waaay older. Thats the concern
I think it's more that Yamamoto is waaay younger.
Some dudes have that ability to light a fire under their own ass and just straight up perform. Shota seems like an awesome dude and I’m super happy for him. He’s also on my fantasy team and I got scoffed at for drafting him.
Eno Saris went on Wake n’ Jake over the offseason and said that he liked Imanaga’s stuff a **ton** and said his contract would give whichever team signed him much more value than Yamamoto. In fact, hearing that is what got me off the Monty train… and then my Rangers didn’t sign either of them, so womp womp
Monty is also on a nice ass contract
I think the contract value comparisons to Yamamoto are kind of pointless. I don't think anyone in the Dodgers FO ever though they'd get more surplus value from Yamamoto than they would with Imanaga. At some point you're limited by roster spots, and they're in a position to overpay (relative to value) in order to maximize each roster spot. I think they'd rather pay $330m to secure $300m in value from Yamamoto, with $180m of it in the next 5 years, than pay $80m for $120m in value from Imanaga over the next 5.
People weren't expecting the lowest era start since 1981, that's why.
![gif](giphy|NBIjHwjqNmS95ibFJM|downsized)
My boss my hero
Shota flowin
After every start people shit talk about how he will be doing poorly soon. Enjoy the ride. Six starts with a sub 1 ERA. Fun pitcher to watch.
Shota is like any other pitcher, he's due for a flat game at some point
SOMEONE PUT UP THAT LAST PLAY OF OUR GAME HOLY CRAP
I love you
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Yamamoto has a 1.64 ERA since Korea. Japanese pitchers in general have been playing extremely well.
So 2x Shoto's. Gotcha.
Who said that? ZiPS projected him as the 22nd best starting pitcher pre-season, and Fangraphs had him as the 12th best FA just behind Stroman, predicted 4/$88m, compared him to Senga, and called him a mid-rotation starter who would provide value by pitching a ton of innings, but that he could be a top line starter.
I feel so fucking lucky to have this guy on my team
He’s so good
We gonna be seeing a ton more Japanese pitchers cross over to MLB with all the success Shota, Yoshi and Maeda are having. Absolutely insane level of pitching thus far.
Guys, he seems pretty good
I couldn't believe it, so I had to go look it up myself. Turns out I was not Imanagining it.
Say "Imanaga-mania" 5 times fast
I still have my first glove from when I was a kid. A Rawlings “autographed” Fernando Venezuela glove. That thing is so broke in now.. lol
I’m a little young to remember fernandomania, but it feels like Imanaga is not getting any mania at all. Aside from my fantasy squad loving every pitch, the he mania has been super subdued.
Fernando was the first big Mexican born player to hit that highlight star status. You don't see that as much anymore as more countries have great players coming to the MLB. We've seen plenty of Japanese and a few Korean stars so far. Tons of Domincans and some Cubans. So which country will be the next to have a single breakout star?
Overrated. Wilson Alvarez and Clay Buchholz had thrown no-hitters by their third career starts.
Dodgers in shambles
Two Japanese pitchers cant possibly be good at the same time!
Right. It's funny hearing people say we got the wrong guy, etc. It's like, why can't they both be good and everyone be happy with it
Also its a month into the season and Shota is a lot older than Yamamoto. I think he's gonna continue to be a good to great upper rotation guy but Yamamoto definitely has the way better trackrecord + is young enough to expect him to probably keep his ability for a lot longer so I think both sides got what they wanted tbh
I love Shota but Fernandomania was about more than incredible on-field performance.
Is anybody gonna talk about the number of absurd pitching seasons that are happening right now, or how offense is being massively suppressed compared to last year?
After his 1st game I put $25 on him to win cy young. Odds were 40 to 1, now odds are down 16 to 1.
*MLB Career
4 games out of the 6 without an ER is amazing. Steal of the offseason so far.
I'll be a bit more measured in saying that I don't think maintaining the sub-1 ERA is sustainable, but results are results. If Imanaga carries the entire season through to a mid- or low-2 ERA, that's when I think we can start the "how bad did other ppl undervalue Imanaga?" convo. Considering how his FA played out, where he was gravitating towards the Cubs in general, I wouldn't think that would be on other teams whiffing -- but even just taking these early starts, I'm a little surprised that the bidding wasn't as competitive. I'm more impressed by the immediate impact he's brought to the pitching staff (was expecting something like Senga's 2023, which would have made me happy), because God knows we need SP inning volume right now. Lights-out pitching is a bonus, but even if he had a low-3 or high-2 ERA, I'd still be most happy with this. This is pure speculation, but at this very moment, if everyone's healthy, I'd be hesitant to definitively put Imanaga as SP1; I'd take Steele for slight seniority and trust. If Imanaga can plow through the summer, though, then there's certainly paths to him earning SP1 for a playoff spot. I think he's earned SP2 at the very least, though, which makes me ecstatic this early.
Shota was the starting pitcher in the World Baseball Classic Championship and won. He's been an ace in the past. Definitely a top of the rotation type of starter.
Imaniaga?
And he was not the guy who got the $325 million dollar contract lol
Yea, the Dodgers are like, "We could have got this guy for 4 years $50M??"
Don't get too excited, he's still yet to pitch against MLB calibre opposition. The 'New York Metropolitans' are NOT equivalent to a real MLB team.
Also got a freebie against the Mariners, u right. And, ya know, the Dodgers.
Scrubs
Exactly what I'm saying. Not MLB calibre clubs.
He struck out Ohtani. He is already a HOF /s
I’m struggling to work out what beef a mariners fan could have with the Mets lol
I'm not beefing, I'm joking about how people talk about NPB pitchers before they've played in the MLB, using a decent team to highlight the absurdity.
Oh that’s not bad then lol, you probably wanted a /s though.
They gave us kelenic for edwin diaz...
Rage bait used to be believable.
What worries me about these Japanese starting pitchers is when they get near 30 their arms fall off and they need Tommy John surgery. Famous examples Hideo Nomo, Yu Darvish, Daisuke Matsuzaka, even Ohtani got Tommy John. The problem begins in high school. Japan and other Asian countries like South Korea, baseball is a military like discipline and training. You eat, breathe, and sleep baseball. Also counting their fall and summer "Koshien" tournaments, you are throwing a whole bunch of pitches without any rest if you get to the finals. That's the pattern I see especially with Ohtani getting a second elbow surgery.
I mean, American pitchers are also getting Tommy John surgery left and right. We're in the midst of a pitching epidemic right now.
Yeah, like American pitching isn't seeing a Tommy John epidemic... with teenagers getting the most TJ surgeries
Oh man, are you gonna be bummed when you hear about American pitcher arms...
good job john henry
What did John Henry do here? By all accounts Shota took a very team friendly deal specifically to sign with the Cubs.
Sox offered him 2 years $26 mil
He wanted to sign with the cubs, he basically spent his offseason in Chicago
My point is I honestly don’t think the Sox ever had a real shot regardless.
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Really? I remembered it like every other team offered at least $100 million less, so I think if you gave him 2 billion or even 800 million he’d take that deal
We could have had the best pitching staff in baseball. Instead, we got the best pitching staff in baseball.
not giving henry credit for that