Lots of Astros have sucked this season without traveling halfway around the world, and the idea of faking an injury is just conjecture on your part. Your logic is not very sound.
I believe the community support and cultural differences are real. But in Imai’s case, that is peripheral. He is just not good at baseball. His command of the zone is bad. His mental toughness is bad His adaptability/coach ability is bad. His raw stuff is decent to good. Plenty of ability to throw with enough velo, seems to get good movement on pitches. But it doesn’t matter when the rest of your game is bad to terrible.
Imai is resetting the Japanese market for the Astros. Will be quite some time before they go back there again
Seriously? Imai himself may not have faked an injury but no smart fan believes it’s arm fatigue and it’s no secret. Sparky eluded to it on the radio. List it however, his butt is hurt not his arm. They had to come up with something at the time that spared him the embarrassment of looking mentally soft which he appears to be. Dinner is at an off time The mound is too hard The ball is larger It’s too cold in Seattle I’m not used to a pitch clock Thankfully someone got to him and his interpreter and told him to STFU with the “it’s not the same” talk and he did, Immediately,
Except, you know, everyone thinks he's mentally soft. Your argument might make more sense if they ILed him before he said anything. Several pitchers around the league have already gone on the IL this season with arm fatigue - it's not a cumulative thing like the name suggests that would only happen later in the season.
Either the Astros failed to properly vet Imai, or they failed to properly ease the transition. Regardless, it's a yet another organizational screw up, which seems to be much more the rule than the exception nowadays.
Walker struggled last year in moving from the NL to AL and/or from Arizona to Houston. Sometimes it just takes time to adjust.
I mean we get the only mentally weak pitcher from Japan? Maybe the org should not try to change the way he pitched over there, let him be himself. DD
Damn straight. Too much evidence that supports it. Personally, I think the pitching coaches that have burned arm after arm are up to their old tricks.
Brown is obviously the leader of the rotation. Arrighetti, Lambert, Teng, and Burrows have all pitched well enough to keep their rotation spots. Alexander pitched well in his replacement start and McCullers while not being good, has been better than Imai and when healthy has at least as good an argument to be in the rotation. If Imai continues to only use 2 pitches, put him in the bullpen. He will almost certainly opt out and is very unlikely to get the 80 innings needed to trigger his salary bonus. His stuff should be very good in the bullpen even if he can't be trusted in leverage spots due to his control issues. Maybe he becomes the next Bryan Abreu but worst case scenario he opts out because he wants to be a starter
Imai is not going to opt out of $40MM deal unless he has a better contract lined up, and that's unlikely if his role is as a middle reliever. He'll just opt in and force the Astros to decide whether to spend $20MM on a middle reliever or trade him somewhere else. It would also likely end any future hopes the Astros might have of getting any Japanese players.
I disagree. Maybe I'm being Naive. He will be a 29 year old with a history of All Star level performance in the 2nd best league in the world. Inarguably one of the top 1% pitchers in the world ( as every MLB pitcher is). Scott Boras is his agent who will be selling him that he will still be an All Star starter in MLB. He just needs to find the right team. And he will be selling him to every GM besides Dana Brown. Opting in is bad for Scott Boras' brand. You know he promised Imai a $100M+ deal and his future Japanese clients know it too. Even if he can get Imai a 3yr $45M deal as a 29 year old with a chance to start it would be better for both Imai and Boras. He is owed $36M over the next 2 seasons which is not insignificant but also not life changing when you have already made $24M+ There is also a huge difference in legacy being a SP vs a middle reliever. I think he has been mediocre enough that the Astros have 6 better options and his stuff fits better as a RP which is a perfectly reasonable action based on the situation and all contexts. The Astros would be doing nothing wrong with putting the 6 best SP in the rotation and moving Imai to the bullpen. And it would solve a problem because Imai would never want to stay. He is young enough and has good enough stuff and Japanese resume that some team will take a chance on him. And he has Boras selling him and telling him to opt out. Just my opinion.
All of those things were true last year except he was 28 and hadn't failed in MLB and wasn't able to get a bigger deal. Having one of the best-known pitcher-improvement organizations in MLB be unable to fix you and give up on you is not a selling point for another team either. To clarify, I'm suggesting he knows there's no scenario the Astros are going to pay him $17MM to be a middle reliever next year again. So he has the leverage - he can get his guaranteed money and still know the Astros will start him or move him.
In any way stumping for McCullers to be a viable rotation piece just shows a stunning amount of ignorance.
All I said was that Imai has not been than McCullers so if healthy choosing Lance over him is a legitimate decision. I actually think watching them both pitch so far this season and saying it is ignorant to choose Lance over Imai shows quite a bit of ignorance.
Starting pitching is extremely valuable right now. We both should know that GMs are desperate to find it. There are some right now who see his 5.2 IP of shutout baseball vs a good A's offense in an extreme hitters park and his 25% K rate and still see potential. He will get a chance if he opts out. All the Astros need to do is help him get to a point where he wants to. Of course, him making 20+ starts averaging 5 innings and cutting his walks in half is how I would prefer that happens, but if throwing him in the bullpen and him dominating an inning at a time with his slider like pre2026 Bryan Abreu works too. Either way if he's healthy he will opt out. The only way he doesn't is if he's injured or continues pitching like he has. And if he keeps pitching like he has - he needs to be in the bullpen. And I absolutely think the Astros kerp him in the bullpen no matter hiw much they ate paying him if they have 6 better rotation options. If any 6 of: Brown, Arrighetti, Lambert, Burrows, Teng, Blanco, Wesneski, and Walter are healthy then Imai can easily not be among the 6 best starters on the roster and need to be in the bullpen.
It is still early yall forget that Yusei was terrible that year early in the season with the Jays before he was traded to us. When contract season is up these Japanese wisely plays lights out.
