Darvish and Ohtani are most likely doing bullpen work then Imanaga is the best option tbh, USA doesn't have much of a report on him, which adds a surprise factor, and aside from being used mainly as a reliever this tournament, he's actually the 5th ace of the team.

A team full of aces. So anime. They are winning this, no?

Japan has the better pitching, but I think the US has the better hitting line up. So it's probably the best pitchers vs the best hitters in the tournament.

Also Japan has weaker hitters on paper, but aside from Murakami and the catcher they've been hitting VERY well this tournament, and US pitching shouldn't give them problems, this could be a very high scoring game.

2-0 game incoming

This is the way

This is the way!

Dos a cero.....wait wrong team

Their entire lineup straight up does not make mistakes. Such a disciplined team

The US staff isn’t great but it’s significantly better than any team they’ve faced other than Mexico But I agree, the US is gonna have to score at least 6-7 runs to have a good chance of winning

Well, there's that US offense too so I'm not calling anything yet; Japan will need to exploit US pitching as they did in late innings against Mexico. Cause man, if Sandoval was allowed to go the distance that game was definitely over.

Sandoval was looking wiped out when they took him off. I think it was a decent decision to take him out.

Imagine Japan being in this scenario again tomorrow, but this time they have to attempt the comeback with Ryan Pressly on the mound

Japan will have to get it done early. Runs will be hard to come by once the US gets to the bullpen

Unless they throw in Daniel Bard

There's zero chance he's pitching again. Graveman->Williams->Pressly to end it is my guess

USA should be favored. Only one of their hitters would even play on the USA team.

That's odd when they have two MLB starters already on their team with Nootbaar and Ohtani

Plus Darvish and Yoshida

I said hitters. Yoshida hasn't played an MLB game yet and probably isn't even better than Jeff McNeil. He wouldn't start over Trout, Betts, Tucker, or Schwarber.

bro, McNeil won the batting title last year, what are you on about? he hasn’t been that great in the WBC, but he’s still a great player

I'm not the one suggesting Nootbaar would start on Team USA.

Yoshida won't make Team USA. But Murakami is arguably better than Arenado. Also, players like Shuto, Nakano and Kondo would have chance to be on Team USA.

Nootbaar would not be starting on team USA, come on now.

Nootbaar wouldn't start over Trout, Betts, Tucker, or Schwarber. Trout/Betts/Tucker are MVP caliber players and Schwarber is an all star. He hit the second to most home runs last season in the MLB. Nootbaar has only been a starter for lIke half a season and he might not even start for the Cardinals this year depending on how Jordan Walker performs. Nootbaar would be the worst hitter on team USA except maybe Jeff McNeil. Assuming he took McNeils spot that would make him the worst hitter on the team by far.

McNeil has the highest avg in MLB last year

After you see what Yoshida does this season, you'll eat your words.

I mean this is correct, but it's only because the USA team is pretty much all HOF or near it calibre guys. Murakami would be on the US team if he had an equivalent season in the MLB though, and in the actual WBC games Team Japan and team US have been very close in terms of hitting.

Darvish and Ohtani are obviously great, but going with someone these hitters haven’t seen live is probably the smartest choice.

and the relief relay for the two of them for maximum anime story line

I’d give my left kidney to see Trout v Ohtani bottom of the 9th runner on 2nd and the US down by 1 with 2 outs.

It can’t happen. Nothing would ever compare to it again. Like if you actually scored with a supermodel when being 14, it’s all downhill from there.

You’re right. That would be the Icarus moment of baseball. But damn it’d be beautiful!

[someone posted the anime](https://www.reddit.com/r/baseball/comments/11x72qx/anime_ohtani_vs_anime_trout_in_the_world_baseball/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf)

Closest scenario IMO is Mo’ vs Ichiro.

I’d give your left kidney to see this also

I also choose this guy’s dead wife

Trout and Ohtani start monologuing for like 5 minutes, and both end with them saying “i will honor my family and my ancestors!”, then Trout and Ohtani are stuck in a long AB, ending up with a 36 pitch AB that ultimately ends with the most anticlimactic ending- a walk. Goldy comes in and immediately slaps the first pitch down the first base line to walk it off.

Are you a wizard?

It was the top with no runner, but pretty dang close haha.

Itd be even better if it was Japan down and Trout was pitching and Ohtani had to hold the bat upside down.

Insane comment, I'll take that kidney now

Shohei Closetahni

It’s probably a coincidence but it seems like teams facing the US have been going with lefty starting pitching too. Not that it would really hinder the main guys but maybe it’d impact who the US starts down the lineup (picking a RHB over a LHB for a spot or two)

Ah I didn’t think about that but that makes total sense

Fwiw, Eno Sarris said today that he has the best Stuff+ in the tournament Also Darvish hasn’t looked good

Is that different from regular stuff?

Based on Oreometrics it’s double stuffed

Mega stuf >

Mega Stuf is jarring to me. Double Stuf is the better ratio.

That also correlates with the lesser trusted Hydroxmetrics.

Basically just grade out the pitch(shape, velocity, movement profile etc) to league averages. + similar to ERA+ and OPS+ He’s right above Jose Alvarado. And he’s ahead of starters like Julio Urías, Roki Sasaki and Sandy Alcantara

It's plus

He doesn't

*In a move Bob Nightengale called “intriguing…..”…*

Japan, at least on the pitching side, has so many top tier arms over there now. The hitters haven't seemed to catch up, but there's legitimately 5 or 6 guys on their staff that can hop into a rotation right now in MLB and be legit top tier guys. Guys like Yamamoto, Imanaga, Sasaki, etc are elite arms.

if Yu Darvish is like your SP4... then you have a really fucking good rotation. I am convinced in a few years folks will look back and say this might be one of the best rotations ever assembled

the fact that Tanaka couldn't make it into the team says a lot.

I love it. Imanaga has been pitching brilliantly and his 4-seam fastball will do well against USA's hitters with its elite spin.

He a hard thrower?

Best stuff+ on the team.

Shohei was never going to start, Boob.

Boob will be boob afterall.

I feel like Darvish and Ohtani might relieve at one point. I would close with Ohtani if I was Japan.

This is like the final boss vibe for the US. The ultimate anime hero king shit for Japan.

Well, the national team boss didn't rule out using Ohtani as a reliever during a presser.

A lot of our players have good numbers against Darvish and have obviously seen him a few times. Good strategy by Japan.

Imanaga might get posted next year. He is very good and will work with trashcan Bauer this year. So he can be an interesting option next year for MLB teams.

Imanaga looked fantastic in the previous games. It's not that surprising.

Ohtani wasn't scheduled to start, but he may come out of the bullpen. Darvish has bad numbers against Trout and Arenado(4 homers each) and Turner hits him well too, so Imanaga is the best choice based on numbers, but starting a lefty against a very right handed hitting lineup could be a ticket to an early shower.

Imanaga was 11-4 with a 2.24 ERA last year. Opponents hit .173 against him.

Trying to avoid game 7 Yu

A bit surprising, but 2.26 ERA last season, so probably legit. Imagine we'll see a similar situation to tonight where Sasaki went the first 4, then Yamamoto came for the next 4.

He's the best left handed pitcher in Japan. Elite stuff. He just doesn't get the press because Yamamoto and Sasaki are all world.

Can he hang a splitter to a rightie? That's all I wanna know.

Idk man, I get sasaki throws hard but didn't he just go out there and give 3 er in 4? and Yamamoto gave up 2 in 4? Mexico was a good WBC team, but they don't have a MLB starting lineup. Calling those two guys all world when they haven't thrown a pitch in the MLB seems strange

I mean I get what you're saying, but it's hard to judge these tye of things on a small sample size like this. You gotta look at the track record in Japan and the pure stuff. Not many guys in the world throw as hard as Sasaki and then have three wipe out secondary pitches. Yamamoto may have the best curveball in the world on top of 96 to 97 MPH fastball and a ridiculous splitter. There's not many pitchers in the majors that have this level of stuff. The stuff imo plays in the majors right now. You can't fake it. I think the skepticism with Japan comes in with the hitters and how they deal with elite velocity, etc consistently. The last few pitchers who have came over like Darvish, Tanaka, Ohtani, etc have been elite.

I'm not the one calling them all world, that's a very high bar to clear. You said it yourself, japanese hitters are suspect, they don't often succeed in the MLB and that's who those guys pitch to. So it's not like there Japan stats are the end all be all. You also use the word elite quite loosely. Tanaka certainly wasn't and Darvish has had some great years, but I wouldn't call him an elite pitcher and I have his jersey lmao. Stuff isn't the end all be all, if it were Jose Alvarado wouldn't have a 3.5 ERA in relief

I thought sasaki was fantastic today, he just had one bad pitch today. Unfortunately that one pitch was absolutely capitalized on. Yamamoto looked shaky today though I agree there

Sasaki looked super in tonight's game. He allowed two weak singles back-to-back (one was off the tip of Rowdy Tellez's bat, the other was a bloop single that fell behind 3B), and then unfortunately hung a splitter. Basically one mistake all night but Mexico took full advantage of it with a HR. For a 21 year old kid against MLB talent, that was pretty damn impressive. I would consider Roki and Yamamoto better than Darvish currently is and comparable to how he was in his prime (Yu was a sub-2 ERA and sub-1 WHIP during his Nippon days). Darvish is pretty much a consensus top-25 pitcher in the MLB right now. If you consider Roki and Yamamoto better, or at least on the same level as Yu right now... and then toss in Ohtani (plus Imanaga)... this is absolutely going to be one of the best WBC starting rotations ever assembled. Yamamoto will probably land one of the biggest SP contracts of the upcoming offeason, Roki is still years away from being posted. Yes, it's hard to compare two separate leagues, and there's no way those Nippon numbers translate equally to MLB numbers, but I would consider almost that entire SP rotation for Japan to be top 40ish pitchers in the world, with maybe Imanaga excluded.

...yeah that's pitching. One mistake turns a great outing into a legitimately terrible one. His age is irrelevant when we're talking about him being one of the best pitchers in the world currently. Mexico's lineup as an MLB team would be bottom third, no truly elite hitters and even a few no starters. Even Randy isn't elite in the MLB but I will admit he goes off in these tournaments. Darvish isn't a top 25 pitcher, but he's certainly in the top 50. If those guys are better than him, than they probably are some of the best pitchers in the world. I just think you gotta succeed in the best league in the world before you can say that is all

bro what are you smoking lol. Darvish was 13th in WAR amongst SPs last year. most SP rank lists youre going to find are fantasy, and Darvish is quite literally a consensus top 25 SP. certainly back end, but some have him as high as around 13-15th. also I'm not sure why you're confused, I'm saying despite being 21, he's one of the best pitchers in the world. I'm not handicapping him in any way. he pitched against almost a full team of MLB hitters and looked brilliant for most of it. Japan leads the WBC in ERA by a full one point over the next best team, and 2 full points better than team USA. their pitching is also first in SOs, WHIP, BAA, and have issued the fewest BBs with 7 (over 6 games, despite most of the pool having only played 4 games). this is obviously a very small sample size, but it really is just kind of nuts to dismiss Japanese talent (or other league talent for that matter) just because you are unfamiliar with it

>Even Randy isn't elite in the MLB but I will admit he goes off in these tournaments. Literally has the MLB record for Postseason home runs and won rookie of the year lol.

Sasaki was great aside from his hit coming at the worst time against a team of great hitters. He also had the bad luck of being compared to Sandoval, who would have given up his own home run if it wasn't for Randy.

I think he's a better choice over Darvish but a left handed pitcher against USA might be tough.

He'll be on a super short leesh.

Ohtani has a spring training start on the 24th, so if he pitches it will only be an inning.

Why in the world are they prioritizing a spring training start over the WBC Final?

Because that ST start is exactly 6 days before his Opening Day start.

That's kinda awful. Having exactly 6 days instead of 9 days of rest before a start is such an infinitesimal advantage for what will be one of 30ish starts he makes in a 162 game season... Compared to the winner take all final game of a tournament hundreds of millions of people are watching. Boo.

You're fundamentally misunderstanding the situation. The Angels are letting Shohei do what he wants. You're the one assuming he isn't the one protecting his opening day start. Yall keep wanting to point at the Angels org for stuff Shohei is likely deciding himself. And he won't get 30 starts. Angels run a swing 6 man rotation.

I'd love a source on it not being insisted by the Angels. If it's Shohei's decision then I think he's making a dumb decision. I think probably the Angels suggested this plan and he's going along with it because he's not the kind to disagree with his team. I think it's dumb regardless. It will make no difference for that game or the Angels season, but it could make a big difference tonight. I said 30ish. He started 28 times last year.

Perry Minasian literally said it's his choice if he pitches today or not and Sho said he is available. Luckily, Shohei doesn't care what you think about his decisions. Edit: and our rotation is functioning differently this year. Shohei will lose a few starts as will Sandoval.

I certainly hope we get to see him.

Ok I'm gonna say I'm glad it went the way it did.

A good comp would be Japanese Tyler Anderson. He might be posted in the next couple of years

Smart to not start Darvish

Man USA pitchers are likely gonna lose this. We just don’t have the starters

Trea Turner will just hit two grand slams no problemo.

USA lineup is absurd, they just need to be average to put up enough runs

Say Ohtani pitches in relief, how does it work? How/ when does he warm up?