ChiSox_Sonix Posted January 20, 2014 Share Posted January 20, 2014 QUOTE (oldsox @ Jan 20, 2014 -> 07:58 AM) I had a bunch of guys over for the football games yesterday, including a couple of zealots from Boston. The word they got from their contacts there is Tanaka will go to either Scrubs, Yanks, or Dodgers. All FWIW. Decision Day is Friday. That's quite the limb they went out on there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chisoxfn Posted January 20, 2014 Share Posted January 20, 2014 QUOTE (Brentmd2 @ Jan 20, 2014 -> 06:27 AM) Hey guys just wanted to introduce myself. I have been a long time lurker. I have been a White Sox fan since 1994 when my brother told me he was a Cubs fan I decided the exact opposite would work for me. Im soooo glad that I trusted my gut! I really hope we can get Tanaka I think he would put our pitching staff over the top and jumpstart our "Rebuilding" to a win now like we are all used to. Welcome aboard. Hopefully we are all celebrating a Tanaka signing at the end of the week!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Ultimate Champion Posted January 20, 2014 Share Posted January 20, 2014 QUOTE (ChiSox_Sonix @ Jan 20, 2014 -> 08:42 AM) That's quite the limb they went out on there. lol Sounds like a couple of ham-n-eggers to me. If I was oldsox I'd have pointed em to the nearest salad bar & sent them on their way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Ultimate Champion Posted January 20, 2014 Share Posted January 20, 2014 QUOTE (bucket-of-suck @ Jan 20, 2014 -> 01:33 AM) FWIW, ...told "anyone that calls the Sox longshots in this Tanaka thing are just wrong". All of your posts should appear like this Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jose Abreu Posted January 20, 2014 Share Posted January 20, 2014 QUOTE (oldsox @ Jan 20, 2014 -> 06:58 AM) I had a bunch of guys over for the football games yesterday, including a couple of zealots from Boston. The word they got from their contacts there is Tanaka will go to either Scrubs, Yanks, or Dodgers. All FWIW. Decision Day is Friday. It can't be. There wouldn't be enough time for him to get his physical. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chicago White Sox Posted January 20, 2014 Share Posted January 20, 2014 QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jan 20, 2014 -> 08:25 AM) There is no lead. I will let you know when pen hits paper. I think I've said that 5+ times. Anything beyond that is wild conjecture and speculation. Frankly, there is smoke blowing and misdirection right now. You likely have teams leaking information that they are "done and out of it," "longshots," and "favored to get him." Reading too much into anything right now is just not the right move. Yeah, I don't really trust anything that's being reported by the US media right now. How dozens and dozens of reporters have sources with insider info on a Japanese free agent's thinking is beyond me. I'm guessing everything is real close to the chest right now with Tanaka and his agent. All the reports coming out of the US about teams "leading" the race, proposed terms, and even his preferences (including his wife) are likely speculation by reporters or misdirection created by MLB front offices. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Balta1701 Posted January 20, 2014 Share Posted January 20, 2014 Considering the success of Yu Darvish, Hisashi Iwakuma and Hiroki Kuroda -- Darvish and Iwakuma finished second and third in the AL Cy Young voting last season -- expectations will certainly be high once he does sign. What kind of pitcher is Tanaka? Thanks to this magical thing called the Internet it's pretty easy to head over to YouTube and watch some highlights. Here is a quick clip of Tanaka pitching against Cuba in the World Baseball Classic last spring -- he pitched two innings and gave up a run but recorded all six outs via strikeouts. From that clip, we see Tanaka's main weapons: He got strikeouts with a fastball, slider and splitter. At 6-foot-2, 205 pounds, he's not as physically imposing as the 6-foot-5 Darvish but is built more along the lines of Iwakuma. He has an unusual hook or wrap with the ball at the back of his delivery, although not as severe as, say, Tommy Hanson's. It looks like he hides the ball well behind his body with the delivery, however, and his Japan statistics certainly point to a pitcher who has been successful at limiting hits. Like a lot of the Japanese pitchers, he has a hesitation in his delivery from the full wind-up. In watching other highlights of Tanaka -- here and here, for example, and here's the final out of the Japan Series here -- one thing is clear: He's not Darvish. But that's not really fair. Darvish has as good as stuff as any starter in the majors. What Tanaka has, however, is a full arsenal of pitches. Fastball: 91 to 94 mph, although it can look straight at times. Splitter: 85 to 89 mph, with excellent downward bite and the ability to command it to both sides of the plate. It appears Tanaka throws his a little harder than Iwakuma or Kuroda, both of whom have made a nice living with their splitters. Iwakuma runs his from 81 to 89 mph, averaging 85.3. Kuroda averaged 86.3 mph on his splitter in 2013. You can see how effective that pitch was for those two: Iwakuma: .184/.210/.268, 4 HR Kuroda: .178/.195/.227, 0 HR What makes the splitter such a great pitch is that it serves as an equalizer against left-handed batters. Iwakuma and Kuroda both locate it down or down and away from lefties. Unless you hang one, there just isn't much a lefty batter can do against it. That's what Tanaka will have to do as well. Slider: 83 to 86 mph. This looks like another plus offering, a potential put-away pitch against right-handed batters. Again, we compare to Iwakuma and Kuroda. Kuroda uses his slider more than Iwakuma -- he threw it 853 times in 2013 to 557 for Iwakuma -- and since Tanaka's slider is harder and compares favorably to Kuroda, I would expect him to feature it quite regularly. When Michael Eder looked at some Pitchf/x data on Tanaka, in terms of movement and velocity he compared his slider to Zack Greinke's. OK, that's pretty good. Curveball: I saw some big, slow hooks in the 72-mph range. Not sure how often he throws this pitch, but it's really more of a change of pace than anything, and also changes the eye level of the batter since his other pitches are usually down in the zone. Iwakuma possesses a similar curve and threw it about six times a game, mostly to left-handed batters. Cutter: Upper 80s. Darvish throws one as well, although it was his least effective pitch in 2013 as batters hit .271 and slugged .500 off it. You can see that Tanaka has a pretty typical Japanese repertoire of pitches -- in other words, just about everything. U.S. pitching coaches like to see their pitches consolidate their pitches, so I could see Tanaka junking the cutter. I think you can certainly understand the anticipation of his arrival: He's kind of a younger version of Kuroda, but with maybe a little better command. Or, he matches the command of Iwakuma while throwing a little harder. There are a couple red flags on Tanaka. His strikeout rate dipped from 9.6 per nine innings in 2011 to 7.8 in 2013. I'm not sure if he consciously pitched to more contact or not, but it's worth noting. He did suffer from an undisclosed injury in the spring of 2012 and missed a few starts and also threw 186 innings at age 18 and 172 at age 19, so even with the shorter Japanese seasons he's logged over 1,300 career innings through age 24. (Darvish, who came over at the same age, had 1,268.) Compare that to, say, Clayton Kershaw, who had 1,164 innings in the minors and majors through age 24. One last note....... More at link. Someone asked for actual scouting on the guy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jose Abreu Posted January 20, 2014 Share Posted January 20, 2014 He has a Twitter. I did not know this. https://twitter.com/t_masahiro18 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
witesoxfan Posted January 20, 2014 Share Posted January 20, 2014 QUOTE (Jose Abreu @ Jan 20, 2014 -> 09:56 AM) He has a Twitter. I did not know this. https://twitter.com/t_masahiro18 Good thing I can read Japanese. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kyyle23 Posted January 20, 2014 Share Posted January 20, 2014 QUOTE (Jose Abreu @ Jan 20, 2014 -> 09:56 AM) He has a Twitter. I did not know this. https://twitter.com/t_masahiro18 Begin Stalking Protocol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jose Abreu Posted January 20, 2014 Share Posted January 20, 2014 I translated all his tweets, it's all random stuff like, "I'm hungry." "It's a challenge." "Had a great dinner with the wife tonight." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kyyle23 Posted January 20, 2014 Share Posted January 20, 2014 Stalking Protocol: Engaged Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iamshack Posted January 20, 2014 Share Posted January 20, 2014 I'm hungry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brian310 Posted January 20, 2014 Share Posted January 20, 2014 QUOTE (iamshack @ Jan 20, 2014 -> 10:18 AM) I'm hungry For Tanaka in the rotation Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve9347 Posted January 20, 2014 Share Posted January 20, 2014 QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jan 20, 2014 -> 09:58 AM) Good thing I can read Japanese. That's why you use Google Chrome and let it translate. It works so well, that you can now comprehend tweets such as this beauty. Masahiro Tanaka / MASAHIRO TANAKA @ T_masahiro18 Jan 19 Nagoya bullet today. And has attended the party of Mr. Takeshi Yamazaki! (^ ^) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve9347 Posted January 20, 2014 Share Posted January 20, 2014 Masahiro Tanaka / MASAHIRO TANAKA @ T_masahiro18 Jan 19 Theater of SKE also cry ~ ... I wonder wanted to go For some reason, these poorly translated tweets make me want him more. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kyyle23 Posted January 20, 2014 Share Posted January 20, 2014 QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Jan 20, 2014 -> 10:23 AM) Masahiro Tanaka / MASAHIRO TANAKA @ T_masahiro18 Jan 19 Theater of SKE also cry ~ ... I wonder wanted to go For some reason, these poorly translated tweets make me want him more. I want the white sox equivalent of this http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1652622...-walkoff-double Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iamshack Posted January 20, 2014 Share Posted January 20, 2014 QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Jan 20, 2014 -> 08:23 AM) That's why you use Google Chrome and let it translate. It works so well, that you can now comprehend tweets such as this beauty. Masahiro Tanaka / MASAHIRO TANAKA @ T_masahiro18 Jan 19 Nagoya bullet today. And has attended the party of Mr. Takeshi Yamazaki! (^ ^) s***, I was at that same party! I should have asked him! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Ultimate Champion Posted January 20, 2014 Share Posted January 20, 2014 100% serious, no bulls***, if the Sox sign Tanaka they should definitely acquire Kawasaki for their bench. Leury can play in Charlotte. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jose Abreu Posted January 20, 2014 Share Posted January 20, 2014 QUOTE (The Ultimate Champion @ Jan 20, 2014 -> 10:32 AM) 100% serious, no bulls***, if the Sox sign Tanaka they should definitely acquire Kawasaki for their bench. Leury can play in Charlotte. Why? We don't need that scrub. Sure, he's funny and whatever but he doesn't help the team in any way. I'm sure if Tanaka signs with any other team, they don't plan on acquiring another Japanese player to make him feel good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pettie4sox Posted January 20, 2014 Share Posted January 20, 2014 I speak Japanese so you guys can ask me questions regarding that. =) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jose Abreu Posted January 20, 2014 Share Posted January 20, 2014 Masahiro Tanaka / MASAHIRO TANAKA @ T_masahiro18 Jan 19 It can not also be proficient Nagoya gourmet ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jose Abreu Posted January 20, 2014 Share Posted January 20, 2014 QUOTE (pettie4sox @ Jan 20, 2014 -> 10:42 AM) I speak Japanese so you guys can ask me questions regarding that. =) Translate this. 田中将大/MASAHIRO TANAKA @t_masahiro18 Jan 19 もちろん知ってますよ〜。それでも名古屋に行ったからにはやっぱり行きたかった。RT @joh_show_420: @t_masahiro18 今日は休館日ですねー Expand Reply Retweet Favorite More 田中将大/MASAHIRO TANAKA @t_masahiro18 Jan 19 SKEの劇場も行きたかったなぁ〜…泣 Expand Reply Retweet Favorite More 田中将大/MASAHIRO TANAKA @t_masahiro18 Jan 19 名古屋グルメを堪能することも出来ず… Expand Reply Retweet Favorite More 田中将大/MASAHIRO TANAKA @t_masahiro18 Jan 19 今日は弾丸で名古屋へ。 山﨑武司さんのパーティーに出席してきました！(^^) Expand Reply Retweet Favorite More 田中将大/MASAHIRO TANAKA @t_masahiro18 Jan 19 一応Twitterには公認いただいております(._.)笑RT @AnneNakamura: ホンモノ⁇RT @t_masahiro18: クダサイ（＾ω＾）RT @AnneNakamura: 一目惚れ〜♡ http://simplog.jp/pub/tw/11556913/49 … View photo Reply Retweet Favorite More 田中将大/MASAHIRO TANAKA @t_masahiro18 Jan 19 クダサイ（＾ω＾）RT @AnneNakamura: 一目惚れ〜♡ http://simplog.jp/pub/tw/11556913/49 … View photo Reply Retweet Favorite More ファンキー加藤 @fmb_funkykato Jan 19 どの会場よりも大きな『あとひとつ』の合唱は、きっとマーくんへの愛！こちらこそありがとう！ RT @t_masahiro18: 昨日はありがとうございました。聴きたかったです(´･_･`)RT @fmb_funkykato: 『インストアライブツアー ～原点回帰～』＠泉パークタウン Retweeted by 田中将大/MASAHIRO TANAKA Expand Reply Retweet Favorite More 田中将大/MASAHIRO TANAKA @t_masahiro18 Jan 19 昨日はありがとうございました。聴きたかったです(´･_･`)RT @fmb_funkykato: 『インストアライブツアー ～原点回帰～』＠泉パークタウン。外は雪なのにステージは灼熱。半端ない密集感ｗ。そして… この地で歌う『あとひとつhttp://p.twipple.jp/rsOB1 View summary Reply Retweet Favorite More 田中将大/MASAHIRO TANAKA @t_masahiro18 Jan 18 ご馳走さまでした！最幸の時間をありがとうございました‼︎RT @fmb_funkykato: 先程のTwitterでのやり取りから急転直下。シーズン中からずっと約束していた『焼肉を奢る』を達成することができました。http://p.twipple.jp/sC8UJ View summary Reply Retweet Favorite More ファンキー加藤 @fmb_funkykato Jan 18 先程のTwitterでのやり取りから急転直下。シーズン中からずっと約束していた『焼肉を奢る』を達成することができました。2014年は二人共に新しい船出。お互いの飛躍を誓い合って、“あとひとつ”のポーズを。ありがとう､マーくん！ http://p.twipple.jp/sC8UJ Retweeted by 田中将大/MASAHIRO TANAKA View summary Reply Retweet Favorite More 田中将大/MASAHIRO TANAKA @t_masahiro18 Jan 18 どちらに伺えばよろしいでしょうか？^ - ^RT @fmb_funkykato: 焼肉食べようぜー！ RT @t_masahiro18: いらっしゃいませ！RT @fmb_funkykato: 仙台に到着。そんなに寒くないね。今から恥ずかしながら牛タン食べてくるよ。 Expand Reply Retweet Favorite More 田中将大/MASAHIRO TANAKA @t_masahiro18 Jan 18 いらっしゃいませ！RT @fmb_funkykato: 仙台に到着。そんなに寒くないね。今から恥ずかしながら牛タン食べてくるよ。 Expand Reply Retweet Favorite More 田中将大/MASAHIRO TANAKA @t_masahiro18 Jan 13 こちらこそありがとうございます(^-^)RT @Dream__LDH: お返事まで！(◎_◎ありがとうございます！Shizuka RT @t_masahiro18: どうもです！(^^)RT @Dream__LDH: 田中将大選手が！！！！DreamのTwitterをフォロー Expand Reply Retweet Favorite More 田中将大/MASAHIRO TANAKA @t_masahiro18 Jan 13 どうもです！(^^)RT @Dream__LDH: 田中将大選手が！！！！DreamのTwitterをフォローしてくださっている！！！やややややばいです！！！一大事です！！今Shizukaちゃんから聞いて興奮しております笑！Aya Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pettie4sox Posted January 20, 2014 Share Posted January 20, 2014 Yeah I'm at work but I'll get to it. You want me to translate his entire twitter haha?!?!? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kyyle23 Posted January 20, 2014 Share Posted January 20, 2014 im going to go out on a limb and say nothing on Tanaka's twitter feed will tell us what he is thinking about this free agency period Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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