Good morning, Mets fans! On Friday, it was announced that Roki Sasaki, the 22-year-old Japanese superstar pitcher, agreed to a contract with his current Pacific League team, the Chiba Lotte Marines, for the 2024 season. There have been rumors in the past that Sasaki was interested in being posted for MLB teams as soon as possible, but his current team might be interested in holding on to him...
Jon Heyman of the New York Post reports that both the New York Mets and the New York Yankees could be looking at Japanese starter Shōta Imanaga as a backup plan to missing out on fellow Japanese starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto. The 25-year-old Yamamoto continued his free agency tour on Thursday by meeting with the Philadelphia Phillies. He previously met with the Yankees, Mets, San Francisco Giants,...
Good morning, Mets fans! On Friday, Japanese pitcher Shota Imanaga officially got his posting request approved by the DeNA Baystars of Nippon Professional Baseball, meaning he will be allowed to sign with an MLB team this winter. The 30-year-old lefty has a career 2.96 ERA across eight seasons in Japan and figures to be in for a big pay day. MLB Trade Rumors predicts that he will sign a...
Good morning, Mets fans! The World Baseball Classic came to a close on Tuesday, and crowned Team Japan as they went on to beat the U.S. 3-2. The U.S. opened the second inning with a Trea Turner solos shot that went 405 feet. Japan then responded in the bottom half of the inning with two runs of their own. Munetaka Murakami answered with a solo shot of his own and Lars Nootbaar grounded into a...
It was a winner takes all night at Loan Depot Park in Miami as Mike Trout, Trea Turner, and the United States took on Shohei Ohtani of team Japan. Arizona Diamondbacks’ right-handed pitcher Merrill Kelly who got the ball for the U.S. against Shoto Imanaga, the left-handed pitcher from Japan. The United States got off to an early lead, but two home runs by Japan were enough to give Japan the...
Mike Trout vs. Shohei Ohtani. That’s the billing of Tuesday night’s 2023 World Baseball Classic Final. The United States and Japan—two of the best teams throughout the whole tournament—face off for the WBC title. Japan made the final after winning a thrilling game against Mexico. Down 3-0, new Red Sox outfielder Masataka Yoshida launched a three-run home run to tie the game in the...
It’s time for the semifinals. Team Mexico takes on Team Hapan at loanDepot park in Miami, Florida. Team Mexico defeated Team Puerto Rico in the fourth quarterfinal game 5-4. The Pool C winners hope to continue the trend against the undefeated Japanese team. Japan defeated Team Italy 9-3 in their quarterfinal game. Japan has yet to lose a game during the tournament going 4-0 in Pool B. Can...
The 2023 World Baseball Classic opened up play on Wednesday morning, and now would be a great time to take an in-depth look at Pool B as they are set to begin action later tonight. The five teams in this pool will battle it out in Tokyo, Japan. A few of these teams are unproven at this level, which should make for some very intriguing matchups, while others have experienced groups with big-name...
Baseball fans across the globe are gearing up for the biggest stage for international play. Even with some big names recently opting-out of the World Baseball Classic (WBC), the tournament is set to begin on March 7. Clayton Kershaw, Jhoan Duran, Paolo Espino, Ramón Urías are among the names who opted out for various reasons, the most interesting reason being due to not gaining clearance by...
Now that the rosters for all 20 countries in next month’s World Baseball Classic are out, it’s time to examine the teams in-depth. Today, we will take a look at the position-player pool. Obviously, we can’t go too deep in terms of how each manager is going to set up their lineup in pool play, but we can go position-by-position to determine some of the stronger lineup in this year’s tournament....
The Samurai Japan roster is set for the upcoming 2023 World Baseball Classic. Headlined by MLB-superstar Shohei Ohtani, the Samurai are the favorites to come out on top of Pool B. This not only due to their past success in the WBC, but they will also be playing in front of their home country. They will be competing with Korea, China, Australia and Czech Republic in the play-in round. Japan won...
With the World Baseball Classic a little more than a month away, a lot of attention at Port St. Lucie will be on who isn’t at Mets spring training compared to who is once the tournament begins. One player who will be there, at least for right now, is new right-handed pitcher Kodai Senga. Team Japan released its 30-man preliminary roster for the WBC in late January and Senga was not on the list....
