Email a copy of 'International Notes: Otani, Padres, Ona, Morejon, Lazarito, Cards' to a friend
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By Jeff Todd | at
Email a copy of 'International Notes: Otani, Padres, Ona, Morejon, Lazarito, Cards' to a friend
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amac
As a Padres fan who has had to endure 0 results in the international market for many years, this excites me beyond belief. For so long the team the Padres have rolled onto the field has seemed like lower talent level white dudes with no diversity. Preller changed that in somewhat in 2015, but hope to see Latin talent in the near future. Awesome news.
willreily
Cards will get penalized, it’s just a question of how much? I feel like either way, they’ll exceed their pool in the international market. They almost have to, it’s where they get their bread and butter. While competing, Cardinals won’t get top-tier first round talent from the June draft. They’ll get the occasional Wacha/Wong, but not the Correa or Bryant. To get those, they must use the international market. That’s how they got Oscar Taveras, Carlos Martinez, Alex Reyes.
They’ve had a lot of success at both, so no matter what, at the end of the day, they’ll find a way to get high-end prospects. At least until the international market is structured into a draft.
tim815
If the Cardinals fight to oppose an international draft, there might not be one. It only takes eight dissenters.
sigurd 2
Quick delivery…impressive. Average change. He seems to pin the zone impressively with that fastball moving all around.
#4 starter material in the MLB for sure.
mperezbball
I’ve seen a ton of Otani games. He’s easily a #1 or a #2. Way off on a #4.
mike-5
But for how long? We know how Japanese pitchers are. They dominate over there, come here and have a few good years, then fall off the table. If Otani can come here, and be a solid #1 or #2 pitcher for, 10ish years, then great! But look at past Japanese pitchers. Dice-K was really good for a few years, Tanaka was good last year, he may be good another year or so.
cards2WS
I mean, you gave only one example of a Japanese bust. What about Kuroda? What about Iwakuma? What about Wei-Yen Chen? Darvish? Hideo Nomo? Takashi Saito? Koji Uehara?
Otani has a repertoire that generally carries over well to the Majors. Mid-upper nineties will translate to any league.
EndinStealth72
I really don’t see him as a #1 or 2 in the mlb. The competition he’s facing now isn’t close to what he’d face in AAA let alone in the mlb pros.
sigurd 2
A #2 ceiling for sure, but that high fastball won’t work the same here.
His off speed stuff is average and his pitch sequencing is suspect. Saying he is a guaranteed #4 starter isn’t a bad thing, they go for 60-100MM now.
JSappington
If Badler has him above a pitcherlike Giolito… Don’t you think he’s ace material
RonTrauma 2
This guy is gonna look awesome slated in between Arrieta and Lester every 5 days. Get her done Theo!