Just listened the new Chandler Rome's podcast. Case with Imai might be 10 times worse allthough hard to imagine. This dude wants to be 2 pitch pitcher 4 seam FB & slider which don't tunnel the same and he has no control of either. Astros have tried to make him throw splitter & 2 seam and he does't want that. He did throw both in Japan but apparently just for show and with different kinda ball. 2 pitch pitcher with no control. That's not recipe even for BP arm and also MLB hitters are so great that when they can go 50/50 on SP pitches they can just sit on either one. F***********************k. It seems everybody knows now he's not good enough and Astros being "do what you like or you did in Japan" is just hail mary try.
Yep, disaster. The failure wasn’t in scouting his stuff it was evaluating his makeup. They also underestimated how much collateral damage there’d be by having to accommodate him only pitching on 5 days rest. Colossal ****up by the front office.
I wonder if there is anything else attached to that 100 inning requirement. No raise if he doesn't achieve that number, but is the player option contingent on it?
I think that probably would have already been mentioned in the media if there was a way for Houston to get out of the contract after this season. I think it’s safe to assume the player options are guaranteed.
So under the worst case, he "never gets it", and ends up at 85-90 innings, best option would be he opts-out and returns to Japan, I guess.
As poorly as things are going and assessing Imai’s psyche from what we’ve seen, yeah I think the realistic best case is Imai and the Astros agree to some kind of reduced buyout of his contract that lets him go back to Japan. You never know, things can turn around pretty quickly in these situations, there’s a non-zero chance he turns into an ace soon. It’s closer to zero than 50 but it’s not zero.
Feed him sushi or ramen in the clubhouse? eta: I love that we replaced Framber with this mental midget
Framber Valdez is self destructing in Detroit also. Tatsuya Imai at some point has to listen to Pitching Coach Miller.
Tang pitched well in this start and Tatsuya hasn't even get passed 3 innings. Tatsuya Imai has to realize the more pitches you have, the more the hitters are overthinking on which pitch to hit. Christian Vazquez really needs to talk to Tatsuya Imai and show leadership towards him. Show him your Red Sox and Astros Championship Rings to Tatsuya Imai.
I think a lot of people have little understanding of how difficult it is to move a long distance away from family, friends, culture, etc. Much less around the world where you don’t even speak the language.
Based on the fact that he has consistently sucked **** thru a straw and had to fake an injury because he was so mind****ed by his own failure.
This is one reason many Asian players go to west coast cities and many Latin American players go to places like Miami, NY, and Houston. The cultural part of it is way easier when there's a big community, both of people in the cities and players on the teams.
