Shohei Otani joins Angels

SharoneWright · Post #81 » by **SharoneWright** » Mon Dec 4, 2017 1:12 am

Would've been presumptuous to assume the Jays had a realistic chance.

More than happy that the Yankees and the Red Sox did not get him.

polo007 · Post #82 » by **polo007** » Mon Dec 4, 2017 5:56 am

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Lateral Quicks · Post #83 » by **Lateral Quicks** » Mon Dec 4, 2017 2:26 pm

Best outcome would have been getting him. Second best outcome would be no team in the AL getting him. It looks like he wants to play on the west coast, so hopefully it's one of SF, SDP or LAD that get him.

flatjacket1 · Post #84 » by **flatjacket1** » Mon Dec 4, 2017 2:31 pm

SharoneWright wrote:Would've been presumptuous to assume the Jays had a realistic chance.

More than happy that the Yankees and the Red Sox did not get him.

The way I look at it, nobody had a realistic chance. The competitive advantages of any and all teams went out the window when he declared as an IFA. It's like if you were offered a chance to transfer with a huge raise to any of the 30 MLB cities. Really depends on your own experiences/biases and nothing else. In his circumstances every team had a pretty similar offer, it's not like anybody would have said he couldn't pitch and hit when paying 3M for a 200-250M type talent. IFA pool money is all fairly comparable as well, I highly doubt after turning down hundreds of millions in 2 years he would get all weird about 200K.

I don't terribly mind missing out as much as some of the other teams, we tend to have huge influence in DR and will likely sign a top 3 IFA this year anyways. Obviously a plus that he is outside the division as well.

polo007 · Post #85 » by **polo007** » Mon Dec 4, 2017 3:41 pm

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wazabifuzz · Post #86 » by **wazabifuzz** » Mon Dec 4, 2017 5:30 pm

Japanese players love the Giants for some reason. So they are a very strong candidate for him.

LLJ · Post #87 » by **LLJ** » Mon Dec 4, 2017 5:56 pm

wazabifuzz wrote:Japanese players love the Giants for some reason. So they are a very strong candidate for him.

Probably because it reminds them of the Yomiuri Giants I bet.

polo007 · Post #88 » by **polo007** » Mon Dec 4, 2017 6:29 pm

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For months, Padres officials have privately suggested the same thing many people outside the organization speculated until Sunday: that San Diego is a long shot to sign Japanese megastar Shohei Ohtani.

If that was misdirection, they did a masterful job.

The Padres, sources confirmed Sunday night, are one of seven finalists in a sweepstakes that has kept even semi-informed observers guessing from the start. San Diego, Seattle, San Francisco, both Los Angeles teams, Texas and the Chicago Cubs have been invited to meet with Ohtani and his representatives beginning this week in Los Angeles. The Giants reportedly are up first.

Now that Ohtani has trimmed his list from almost 30 to a handful, the speculation has reached a new level. Some think the enigmatic 23-year-old already knows where he wants to play. And more and more people on both sides of the Pacific Ocean think that place might very well be San Diego.

The Padres, not expected to contend for at least another season, could give Ohtani what the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters afforded him. A half-decade ago, Japan’s best teenage talent was convinced to stay by one of that country’s less prominent teams. The Fighters, knowing how strongly Ohtani desired to test himself in the U.S., pitched him on playing both ways. Ohtani proceeded to do that with unprecedented success, and now would like to continue exploring his two-way potential in the majors.

The non-San Diego finalists are presently constructed to win more games in 2018. If Ohtani is hitting, say, .215 in June, a contending team might propose it’s better for him to focus on pitching. Meanwhile, the Padres, who’ve carried three Rule 5 draftees and auditioned a catcher as a reliever, would not have the same problem.

Should the topic of a winning environment come up, the Padres can tout their farm system, one of the best in the game. Ownership is hopeful for a playoff berth by 2019. (Acquiring a player of Ohtani’s caliber would help.)

Post #89 » by **Schad** » Mon Dec 4, 2017 9:01 pm

Credit to Ohtani if he joins the Padres. He'll have moved stateside at the time when it was least economically advantageous, and signed on with a lower-budget rebuilding club (albeit one with a promising future) in a pretty difficult division because he judges it to be best for his development. Both he and his people appear to have a very good idea of what they're doing, money and profile be damned.

LBJKB24MJ23 · Post #90 » by **LBJKB24MJ23** » Tue Dec 5, 2017 7:41 pm

would love him to go Angels. I feel really bad that the Angels are **** up Trouts prime years.

dagger · Post #91 » by **dagger** » Tue Dec 5, 2017 9:33 pm

LBJKB24MJ23 wrote:would love him to go Angels. I feel really bad that the Angels are **** up Trouts prime years.

Don't cry for them - they just signed the two best Braves prospects liberated by last week's MLB punishment decision, including Maitan.

Ownership there may be waking up, and if they nabbed Ohtani, too, I'm sure Trout would be thrilled.

polo007 · Post #92 » by **polo007** » Thu Dec 7, 2017 10:16 pm

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North_of_Border · Post #93 » by **North_of_Border** » Fri Dec 8, 2017 1:44 am

Let’s go out and get the real Japanese Star.

Yu Darvish.

I think he comes at a slight discount after he playoff fall now. But he is a top tier Ace if you look at the whole picture. A slight buy low chance, if you consider 100 million range buy low that is. He is expensive still no doubt, but he is a star ace at a decent age.

Just the Ads and marketing would make it worth it for Rogers. Just look what happened last year whenever Texas came to town. Or Ichiro’s Mariners. The place was full of Japanese ads.

No?

Post #94 » by **Schad** » Fri Dec 8, 2017 2:36 am

North_of_Border wrote:Let’s go out and get the real Japanese Star.

Yu Darvish.

I think he comes at a slight discount after he playoff fall now. But he is a top tier Ace if you look at the whole picture. A slight buy low chance, if you consider 100 million range buy low that is. He is expensive still no doubt, but he is a star ace at a decent age.

Just the Ads and marketing would make it worth it for Rogers. Just look what happened last year whenever Texas came to town. Or Ichiro’s Mariners. The place was full of Japanese ads.

No?

He won't sign for anything near $100m. MLBTR pegs him for $160m over 6 years, which is an AAV of $26.7m. Even that might end up low, depending on the manner in which the pitching market shakes out.

He's also 31, has missed quite a bit of time over the past three years (TJ and various muscle strains), and owing to their early-career workloads a lot of Japanese pitchers haven't aged that well. It's immaterial because we simply don't have the money in our budget to get him, but he isn't a spectacular bet on his next deal, either.

dagger · Post #95 » by **dagger** » Fri Dec 8, 2017 7:07 pm

He's chosen the Angels!

dagger · Post #96 » by **dagger** » Fri Dec 8, 2017 7:10 pm

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Tanner · Post #97 » by **Tanner** » Fri Dec 8, 2017 7:21 pm

The Angels have a DH who is unmovable, and have Trout, Upton, and Calhoun in the outfield. Ohtani probably will not do much hitting unless they bench Pujols.

Post #98 » by **Schad** » Fri Dec 8, 2017 7:28 pm

Tanner wrote:The Angels have a DH who is unmovable, and have Trout, Upton, and Calhoun in the outfield. Ohtani probably will not do much hitting unless they bench Pujols.

Wouldn't at all be surprised if they either play Pujols at 1B (which, yeah, disaster) or play Calhoun there with some regularity, with Ohtani in the OF. Cron is easily displaced at the position on account of not being particularly good, and would make for unsurprising trade bait.

Tanner · Post #99 » by **Tanner** » Fri Dec 8, 2017 7:36 pm

Schad wrote:
Tanner wrote:The Angels have a DH who is unmovable, and have Trout, Upton, and Calhoun in the outfield. Ohtani probably will not do much hitting unless they bench Pujols.

Wouldn't at all be surprised if they either play Pujols at 1B (which, yeah, disaster) or play Calhoun there with some regularity, with Ohtani in the OF. Cron is easily displaced at the position on account of not being particularly good, and would make for unsurprising trade bait.

I don't know if I would risk having Ohtani make throws from the outfield in between starts. That seems like a really bad idea.

Post #100 » by **Schad** » Fri Dec 8, 2017 7:37 pm

Tanner wrote:I don't know if I would risk having Ohtani make throws from the outfield in between starts. That seems like a really bad idea.

And yet half of the finalists were NL teams, where he'd be making throws from the outfield in between starts.

There's no chance that he joined the Angels unless they had a detailed plan to get his bat in the lineup several times a week, so it's a given that he'll either be DHing or playing the outfield.