Yoshinobu Yamamoto reportedly agrees to join Dodgers on record 12-year, $325 million
 

Man, first Ohtani and now Yamamoto? Dodgers are on a signing roll.

12 year contract for a pitcher is kind of odd.

The Dodgers are putting together an All-Star team. Meanwhile, my favorite team, the Red Sox, have added their targets Tyler O'Neil and Cooper Criswell. I have that feeling it's going to be a long, losing year again.

Hard to believe they signed him for 12 years, although since the money is around was people were guessing, the long length helps decrease the average value that is used toward the luxury tax. Considering he's used to pitching once a week and is around the same size as Tim Lincecum, it will be interesting to see how he does when he has to pitch every fifth day and how long he lasts. Lincecum was 28 when he fell apart.

Hope they both blow up in the Dodgers' face. Tell me again about all the World Series championships the Angels won with Trout and Ohtani.

Unlike the Angels, the Dodgers have other good players, though...

Unfortunately that’s an understatement. Mets are in trouble for 2024. Nothing new.

How many pitchers from Japan have proved to be first rate starters in MLB for more than, say, 4 years?

I'd say maybe only Hideo Nomo, but even he had a roller coaster of a career.

Darvish for talent, but have to say overall he has to almost be considered a bust. Not really....but in the sense of the expectations for him he has fallen well short.

Yah these 2 contracts they handed out. I feel for Dodgers fans. They may get a World Series, maybe 2......but can't wait to see the price of tickets, concessions and parking......next couple years, gonna be threw the roof. Will be by far the highest in baseball. Glad I don't live there.

How long until we might see Roki Sasaki, he of the 13+ SO9 and 0.7 WHIP?

Darvish may have suffered from unreasonable expectations but when his career is over he’ll likely have had the most impressive of any Japanese starter in MLB so far.

He’s got 11 seasons as a quality starter under his belt and he has mostly avoided Nomo’s roller coaster type career. His best seasons have been on a par with Nomo’s or better, while his worst have been nowhere near as bad. His resume has slowly piled up (5 time all star, twice CY runner up, etc) and he is still pitching well in his late 30s.

He doesn’t have HOF numbers but he might fall into Hall of Very Good territory, which is impressive for a guy who spent the first 8 years of his career outside of MLB.

I understand the Japanese league is second to MLB in terms of talent but it’s a distant second. The contract dollars are built around mystique. I don’t think there’s any reason an MLB team would draft a pitcher first overall and pay them 25 mil. Why do it on the international stage?

I think it has partially to do with the fact that the NPB has closed the gap somewhat in terms of talent to the Major Leagues, the seasoning that Yammamoto has, and the fact that he's been so dominant in the NPB.

That being said, 12 years 325 million for a guy that has never thrown a single major league pitch is ridiculous. I'm all for the players being paid fairly, but the salaries have completely jumped the shark. Hell quite frankly everything has when it comes to money, with our national pastime.

I hear you on the gap closing lately. Paul Skenes had probably the most dominant season of college baseball ever. He was drafted first overall and signed for a 9.2 million dollar bonus. He will make the minimum after.

Nobody is forcing anyone to pay the obscene prices for tickets and merchandise, or to watch the games.

Hiroki Kuroda might have only been a .500 pitcher, but he had a sneaky good (and pretty durable) 7 year run from his mid to late 30's in the MLB.

...and he wasn't a really highly touted phenom coming out of Japan. Just a solid pitcher.

Maybe not always perennial Cy Young contenders, but a lot of these Japanese pitchers are considered seasoned and reliable enough to plug right into a rotation or bullpen somewhere.

We've come a long way in scouting and evaluating these guys (both physically and mentally) since the unmitigated disaster that was Hideki Irabu. A heartbreaking story in retrospect, of a guy who never really wanted to leave his country.

Yup. I'm a Yankee fan and I even cut the cord for the YES Channel several years ago.

I still follow them and are invested in how they do, but have no interest in doing it at any cost. We are not powerless in this. We have choices.

I get out to minor league games (both baseball & hockey) whenever I get the chance. Still a reasonable night/day out.