2023 World Baseball Classic

barclay

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Jan 27, 2006
1,333
if the Japan-US game is half this good we are in for a delightful Tuesday evening
 

mauidano

Mai Tais for everyone!
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Aug 21, 2006
35,627
Maui
I am soooo glad I have nothing else to do tomorrow except watch baseball. I love baseball so much.
 

Bigpupp

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Jun 8, 2008
2,390
New Mexico
Incredibly exciting - but was anyone else taken out of the fun the second Smoltz started talking? He really is terrible...
 

Blizzard of 1978

@drballs
Sep 12, 2022
503
New Hampshire
The more I see of Yoshida, the more I'm puzzled about the apparent lack of interest in him as a FA. I don't understand why I heard so much about Seiya Suzuki and so little (nothing at all!) about Yoshida before the Sox signed him.
Most likely was his height. Than again Mookie and Dustin won MVPs at that height.
 

BigSoxFan

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May 31, 2007
47,094
This tournament has done wonders for Yoshida. Like when a college hoops player blows up before the draft in the NCAA tournament.
 

Tokyo Sox

Baka Gaijin
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Feb 16, 2006
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There
Murakami can be posted after 2025. Sasaki looks like a future Cy Young winner. Get it done, Theo.
Again, he could be posted anytime. While he may wait to make the move for money reasons, if he wants to go earlier and the team lets him, there's no rule against it.
 

BigSoxFan

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May 31, 2007
47,094
Again, he could be posted anytime. While he may wait to make the move for money reasons, if he wants to go earlier and the team lets him, there's no rule against it.
I’m going to be interested in seeing if playing on a bigger world stage against MLB players is going to entice more Japanese stars to come sooner. Obviously, the financial incentive is significant. It’s tough because I don’t want NPB gutted of its top stars but I also like watching them against the elite world players.
 

InstaFace

The Ultimate One
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Sep 27, 2016
21,766
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Why isn’t Pedro the Sox pitching coach? He has amazing insight on pitchers.
His marginal utility of making an extra $60-100k is functionally equal to zero. And that's a job that involves, like, real work. His alternative is "hanging out and being Pedro Martinez", which occasionally involves working a little bit with the Red Sox pitchers, giving some tips, getting a lot of thank-yous, and then going back to enjoying being Pedro.

But yeah, he does have amazing insight.
 

Tokyo Sox

Baka Gaijin
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I’m going to be interested in seeing if playing on a bigger world stage against MLB players is going to entice more Japanese stars to come sooner. Obviously, the financial incentive is significant. It’s tough because I don’t want NPB gutted of its top stars but I also like watching them against the elite world players.
I'm the same. It would/will suck not seeing Murakami at Jingu in person ~20 times a year and on my TV another 100 or so but if he and guys like him want to make the move, I get it and will be rooting for them to succeed at the highest level. Murakami, Sasaki, Yamamoto -- these guys have nothing left to prove here. I'll be rooting for them anywhere but the Yankees.

Interesting. Will wait for the Tokyo Sox scouting report but wonder if Yu has a minor injury or something. I remember reading that the Padres are kind of concerned about his participation in the WBC.
I don't think Darvish is hurt at all, but he hasn't been particularly effective thus far in the tournament, and MLB hitters will have as much scouting on him as on anyone. That said I think we probably still see him -- I can't see anyone going more than 2-3 IP against this USA lineup.

Imanaga has always been pretty solid, but turned it up a notch after the ASB last year. In ten 2nd half starts he went 70 IP, 1.54 ERA/0.91 WHIP.

He may be starting but my expectation is that he goes 2-3 IP, Darvish goes 1-2, and then a bunch of bullpen arms that no one has seen much of (Miyagi, Togo, Udagawa) bridge the gap until Ohtani comes in to close, a la Darvish in 2009.
 

SoxinSeattle

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Mar 6, 2003
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Just unbelievable. First game I've watched of the tournament and it just happens to be one of the best baseball games I've ever seen. Yoshida!!
 

Tokyo Sox

Baka Gaijin
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Feb 16, 2006
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re Imanaga, here's someone who knows better than me:

View: https://twitter.com/yakyucosmo/status/1638043401743667203?s=20


text of two tweets:
I actually prefer Imanaga over Darvish at this point in time. It isn’t ideal that he has to face a US lineup stacked with right-handed hitters but Imanaga has done very well against righties during his career. Last year righties hit just .186 against him and struck out 29.1%.

On the surface, he doesn’t have wicked stuff but he can run the fastball up to 96 and it plays up very well. He also has very good secondaries, especially the slider. But perhaps most importantly, MLB hitters are not familiar with him.
 

Fishercat

Svelte and sexy!
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May 18, 2007
8,266
Manchester, N.H.
Just watched the highlights of this on Youtube (credit to MLB's Youtube account for uploading great 10-12 minute highlight reels of these games), man...that seems like the kind of game that makes someone love baseball.
 

InstaFace

The Ultimate One
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Sep 27, 2016
21,766
Pittsburgh, PA
Posts on SoSH about the World Baseball Classic:

2017: 431
2023: 946 and counting

(I can't find 2013 or 2009 threads about the WBC, nevermind 2006, so I assume they've been lost to the all-consuming XenForo monster unless @SumnerH has some tricks up his sleeve somehow, like there are archives I can't see or something)
 

Max Power

thai good. you like shirt?
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Jul 20, 2005
7,878
Boston, MA
Posts on SoSH about the World Baseball Classic:

2017: 431
2023: 946 and counting

(I can't find 2013 or 2009 threads about the WBC, nevermind 2006, so I assume they've been lost to the all-consuming XenForo monster unless @SumnerH has some tricks up his sleeve somehow, like there are archives I can't see or something)
The smartest thing they did this year was putting the Latin American group in prime time. Their players and fans were going crazy from the start of the game to the end. It was impossible for anyone watching not to get sucked in. Flipping over to the 10pm Team USA game after those was like taking a sleeping pill.
 

singaporesoxfan

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Jul 21, 2004
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Between Munetaka Murakami in baseball, Haruki Murakami in books, and Takashi Murakami in art, the Murakami contributions in different fields of human endeavor is very impressive