I lived in Japan for 2 years. Their culture is way different than ours. Let's give him an opportunity to adjust before we start b****in.
Very true. He’s probably shocked by all the road rage, careless drivers, self entitled, gluttonous attitude of our people. Surprised he hasn’t gone back yet tbh. Money talks though.
Lol, I'm an ol' 99er and love that the Astros forum usually has a more sane take on our teams, but I do understand we're all frustrated after last year and how we've started this year. I loved that we signed a Japanese pitcher and I truly hope he adjusts, adapts, and turns it around this season and then resigns with us. Oh, btw yes I'm a dreamer.
Having lived in the Philippines, Japan, and Germany you adapt to what you have there. If anything, I miss little spots that were our favs in those countries.
It isn't an Astros specific problem - it is happening to a number of teams actually. The Braves, Dodgers, Astros and Cubs are the teams that come to mind. I think the Astros and Braves need to realize that they cannot "just sign someone else" to correct problems like the Dodgers and even Cubs can. The Dodgers don't make the playoffs last year without the huge bankroll to fix problems.
I honestly think that a lot of this is cultural and being taken out of context. He is a professional, he wanted to experience MLB and the USA. He will do everything he can to adjust - and if I remember correctly, he said as much as well. It just may take him awhile to get used to it all -- he isn't the first Japanese player to take a bit to get used to it. As long as his arm is healthy, I believe that he will improve and get the job done - because he is talented and he actually has pride in pitching and wants to do well. Give me a guy like that over some of the other guys that have zero pride. He is getting it harder than usual because he was viewed as the replacement for Valdez, and Brown is out and the Astros currently have a worse pitching staff than the 1995 Bellaire high school baseball team had.
Yeah I am being too harsh on him. I’m actually more annoyed with the Astros PR team than Imai. They should be doing a better job of managing Imai and how things get messaged.
There are a number of small issues I have with the Astros, and they are adding up to be a potentially big issue. I don't think that something like this would have gotten out under Luhnow and probably not Click. There need to be some structural changes made by the Astros IMO.
Id appreciate if the “structural changes” start with reallocating Joe Espada to the position of unemployed.
