November 26, 2025 • 9 mins
P Tatsuya Imai does NOT want to play for the Dodgers but is expected to command big money from big name franchises.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Uh, Totsu Totsua Emi. I think it's eme. Your guess
as good as mine.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
He plays in the Thepon Professional League, and he was
posted this past week by the Satama Sebu Lions. So yeah,
I'm pretty sure I'm close on that. He's twenty seven
years old, he's a right handed pitcher, and he wants
to come play baseball in the United States. But he
(00:32):
does not want to play for the Dodgers. Good he
wants to play. He wants to play for someone who
can beat the Dodgers. I want to take them down.
I like that.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
I like the confidence in that one.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Well because like this so maybe he's friends or knows
has a rivalry with Yamamoto and Otani and that group,
and it's like, okay, let's go.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
I want to play against you, not for you.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
Well because also, like the Dodgers have become known as
like the team that take that will take gone, like
the Japanese players, like they have Oshanaba y Alamoto, they
have Shohea Tani. Like you said, there's a speculation that
other Japanese players want to join them. But this guy,
and I'm not gonna try and pronounce his last name,
I'm not gonna do that.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
You you're very braveful for doing that.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
I think the fact that he would like to do that,
Like I don't I don't expect him to not still
want to play for a West Coast team just because
they don't want the family to be able to travel
to a game off and on. But I appreciate the
competitive nature of it because a lot of international players
that I've seen, like they do prefer to play with
their countrymen, if you know, if you notice that, especially
(01:34):
in baseball, like they like to team up with their countrymen,
not so much in basketball, but like in baseball, they
want to be able to play alongside people that they
that they are, they're familiar with in terms of like
a language barrier. So I think the fact that he
would rather like challenge himself in that way, especially going
against the Dodgers, who would become a dynasty. I hate
to say it, but they are a dynasty of like
the last seven years. That is that nothing else says
(01:56):
something more to him than anything else. Again, like I
don't know much about this guy, but I can appreciate
the confidence.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
Yeah, the correct pronunciation is tatsiya emi tatsuya.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
Yes, there you go, so you got it nailed it
first try. We'll call him TATSI. Sounds good to me.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
TOTSI. I can just see like the like. That's the
names that people can't pronounce. They just nickname him, all right.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
I saw this from a baseball standpoint, and it had
me thinking about I haven't really done any research statistically speaking, okay,
but Sonny Gray has been bouncing around the major leagues
for the last ten or fifteen years, and he had
a really good start to his career in Oakland and
then became a free agent, went to the Yankees, then
with the Reds. I think he was the Cardinals and
they just recently traded him to Boston. And I think
(02:42):
that when you pitch on the West Coast, especially in
the old Oakland Alloma Coliseum, where there's tons of foul territory,
or you you do it in Dodger Stadium, San Diego,
San Francisco, UH, Seattle, those those communities especially, the area
is very, very very heavy in the summer, and it's
not a hitter's ballpark.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
There are pitchers ballparks.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
And if you look at the American League East Boston,
New York, Baltimore, Toronto, and Tampa are pretty much launching pads,
and so it's a lot easier to get home runs
and doubles off the wall in those American League East
teams than it is somewhere else. So my question with
this guy, does he want to go play Yankees, Red Sox,
(03:29):
Phillies now Phillies is I think Phillies is probably not
as much, but certainly the American League East baseball parks
are pretty much bandboxes compared to the West Coast situation.
So if you're a pitcher going to the Dodgers, going
to the Giants, all those things, that's an advantage for
you as a pitcher. If you're a hitter, you want
(03:49):
to go to the bandboxes. You want to go someplace
where you can hit home runs. And so I'm wondering
as he chooses to. And I've seen it with a
lot of pitchers who have really good success on the
West Coast and then they go to the American League
East or even the National League East, because uh, Philadelphia
and uh in New Yorker are good places to hit
home runs. They're they're hitters' ballparks. So I'm kind of
(04:11):
curious as to where he chooses to go. Or where
he may be advised to go, because there's a good
chance he could go to a ballpark where his pitching
style does not lend to a good era or a
one loss record.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
What's like his typical that Do you have his numbers
for you that it shows like his typical pitch choice.
I guess he more of a he is he like
strictly a fastball guy. Ors you have like a splitter
in there as well, because some guys like when they
only they only have one pitch.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
Well, he's a starter, so you better have more than one.
Speaker 3 (04:36):
At least a splitter, probably a curveball, maybe a slider
or something like that.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
Yeah, most everybody throws some kind of a splitter and
some kind of a cutter these days, two seam and
four seam fastball. Yeah, and a slider or a slurve
or sweeper or whatever you want.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
To call it.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
It looks like most of his success to your point
has actually been a little more west, whether it was
with Minnesota or with Oakland. And uh So, I I
guess like that kind of lends more to your line
of thinking. So maybe the giants I know right now
they're on they're in the middle of a rebuild that
feel like an option. Uh it's gonna come down obviously,
(05:11):
like to money, like I think right now.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
Well, well, first of all with uh yeah, with EMI,
they're gonna have to they have to give X amount
of dollars to whoever signs him, has to give x
amount of dollars to the team that posted him in
in Asia, and then then they get to negustila. So
like when Yamamoto came to the Dodgers, whatever team he
(05:34):
played for in Japan, the Dodgers had to give them
fifty million and then sign him to whatever they signed
him for. So it's a double whammy. So the Yankees, Yeah,
the Yankees did the same thing with you with Tanaka
a few years ago. So it's it's that's the way
that these uh these especially if you're still under contract. Now,
if you're a free agent in Japan, you can do
(05:56):
whatever you want, but the UH, I think the teams
own your worldwide rights until they relinquish them, and they
usually don't relinq with them for a small amount of money,
maybe twenty millions about as low as they go, and
some of the really good players are upwards of fifty
million dollars, So just to be able to have the
right to have them on your roster, and then you've
(06:17):
got to pay them on top of that. So it's
a lot of teams pass on it. And that's why
the Angels, the Yankees, the Giants, the Dodgers, sometimes Boston
and sometimes a couple other teams are the ones that
are involved in it, because you know, that's just where
we're at.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
Now, here's the other thing.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
And I saw a cut from John Smoltz the other day,
and the biggest I think fear that everybody has when
you invest as much money in these players is how
long are they going to be able to last? How
long are they going to be able to thrive throwing
the ball as hard as they do. And John Smoltz
basically said, listen, this isn't going to change baseball. Pitching
(06:58):
should be about local and change the speed and not
about overpowering the hitter. But if you can't throw at
ninety six coming out of high school, you're never going
to get drafted again. Because the grag meticss of the
world are they're done. They're out out the window from
obscurity and obsolete. So unfortunately, that's not where we're going
(07:18):
with this until we just get so many players. But
here's the deal. I think Dog Garrett put this a
few months ago.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
We talked to him.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
If you told me that you were going to sign
me for a contract for fifty million dollars, but I
had to think it was all guaranteed. But I had
to keep my pitches above ninety six. I'd pitch until
I blow out my ACL. I'd go get the ACL
I pitched, I played two more years. I'd take my
fifty million dollars a year and live happily ever after,
because that's what you're being trained to do in high
(07:45):
school so that you can have that dream job of
playing in the pros and getting paid ridiculous amounts of money.
So we'll see that continue, and we'll see if, if
the if he may can come in there and pitch
any differently than the others. I haven't seen him pitch.
There's yeah, there's not a lot of things on him,
but he's the latest guy to be posted. I just
(08:06):
thought it was funny. I don't want to play for
the Dodgers. I want to beat him.
Speaker 3 (08:08):
I do see that like a team that's expected to
be a heavy suit for him is going to be
the Yankees, just because obviously we heard the news coming
down into the show about Carlos Rodon likely not gonna
be ready for opening Day. They still Cole obviously on
the roster, but his contract expectation for e May is
going to be north of one hundred and.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
Fifty million dollars. Yeah, so that just seems like.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
And that leaves that means there's six teams that can
pay him. Dodgers, the Angels can if they want to,
but they won't.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
H the New York teams. It's it's it's the two
New York teams.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
It might be Philadelphia, could be the Cubs, and it
could be La if he want, if he changes his mind,
or it could be San Francisco.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
Those are the teams that can afford entertain that man.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
Well, Boston can certainly afford him, but John Henry has
not opened up the purse strings very much lately, and
I think they're going with the younger movement. And the
younger movement got in the playoffs this year and in
won a playoff game before singing three to the Yankees.
All right, one more segment to go. We wrap up today.
Next on the Ticket
Uh, Totsu Totsua Emi. I think it's eme. Your guess
as good as mine.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
He plays in the Thepon Professional League, and he was
posted this past week by the Satama Sebu Lions. So yeah,
I'm pretty sure I'm close on that. He's twenty seven
years old, he's a right handed pitcher, and he wants
to come play baseball in the United States. But he
(00:32):
does not want to play for the Dodgers. Good he
wants to play. He wants to play for someone who
can beat the Dodgers. I want to take them down.
I like that.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
I like the confidence in that one.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Well because like this so maybe he's friends or knows
has a rivalry with Yamamoto and Otani and that group,
and it's like, okay, let's go.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
I want to play against you, not for you.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
Well because also, like the Dodgers have become known as
like the team that take that will take gone, like
the Japanese players, like they have Oshanaba y Alamoto, they
have Shohea Tani. Like you said, there's a speculation that
other Japanese players want to join them. But this guy,
and I'm not gonna try and pronounce his last name,
I'm not gonna do that.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
You you're very braveful for doing that.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
I think the fact that he would like to do that,
Like I don't I don't expect him to not still
want to play for a West Coast team just because
they don't want the family to be able to travel
to a game off and on. But I appreciate the
competitive nature of it because a lot of international players
that I've seen, like they do prefer to play with
their countrymen, if you know, if you notice that, especially
(01:34):
in baseball, like they like to team up with their countrymen,
not so much in basketball, but like in baseball, they
want to be able to play alongside people that they
that they are, they're familiar with in terms of like
a language barrier. So I think the fact that he
would rather like challenge himself in that way, especially going
against the Dodgers, who would become a dynasty. I hate
to say it, but they are a dynasty of like
the last seven years. That is that nothing else says
(01:56):
something more to him than anything else. Again, like I
don't know much about this guy, but I can appreciate
the confidence.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
Yeah, the correct pronunciation is tatsiya emi tatsuya.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
Yes, there you go, so you got it nailed it
first try. We'll call him TATSI. Sounds good to me.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
TOTSI. I can just see like the like. That's the
names that people can't pronounce. They just nickname him, all right.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
I saw this from a baseball standpoint, and it had
me thinking about I haven't really done any research statistically speaking, okay,
but Sonny Gray has been bouncing around the major leagues
for the last ten or fifteen years, and he had
a really good start to his career in Oakland and
then became a free agent, went to the Yankees, then
with the Reds. I think he was the Cardinals and
they just recently traded him to Boston. And I think
(02:42):
that when you pitch on the West Coast, especially in
the old Oakland Alloma Coliseum, where there's tons of foul territory,
or you you do it in Dodger Stadium, San Diego,
San Francisco, UH, Seattle, those those communities especially, the area
is very, very very heavy in the summer, and it's
not a hitter's ballpark.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
There are pitchers ballparks.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
And if you look at the American League East Boston,
New York, Baltimore, Toronto, and Tampa are pretty much launching pads,
and so it's a lot easier to get home runs
and doubles off the wall in those American League East
teams than it is somewhere else. So my question with
this guy, does he want to go play Yankees, Red Sox,
(03:29):
Phillies now Phillies is I think Phillies is probably not
as much, but certainly the American League East baseball parks
are pretty much bandboxes compared to the West Coast situation.
So if you're a pitcher going to the Dodgers, going
to the Giants, all those things, that's an advantage for
you as a pitcher. If you're a hitter, you want
(03:49):
to go to the bandboxes. You want to go someplace
where you can hit home runs. And so I'm wondering
as he chooses to. And I've seen it with a
lot of pitchers who have really good success on the
West Coast and then they go to the American League
East or even the National League East, because uh, Philadelphia
and uh in New Yorker are good places to hit
home runs. They're they're hitters' ballparks. So I'm kind of
(04:11):
curious as to where he chooses to go. Or where
he may be advised to go, because there's a good
chance he could go to a ballpark where his pitching
style does not lend to a good era or a
one loss record.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
What's like his typical that Do you have his numbers
for you that it shows like his typical pitch choice.
I guess he more of a he is he like
strictly a fastball guy. Ors you have like a splitter
in there as well, because some guys like when they
only they only have one pitch.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
Well, he's a starter, so you better have more than one.
Speaker 3 (04:36):
At least a splitter, probably a curveball, maybe a slider
or something like that.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
Yeah, most everybody throws some kind of a splitter and
some kind of a cutter these days, two seam and
four seam fastball. Yeah, and a slider or a slurve
or sweeper or whatever you want.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
To call it.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
It looks like most of his success to your point
has actually been a little more west, whether it was
with Minnesota or with Oakland. And uh So, I I
guess like that kind of lends more to your line
of thinking. So maybe the giants I know right now
they're on they're in the middle of a rebuild that
feel like an option. Uh it's gonna come down obviously,
(05:11):
like to money, like I think right now.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
Well, well, first of all with uh yeah, with EMI,
they're gonna have to they have to give X amount
of dollars to whoever signs him, has to give x
amount of dollars to the team that posted him in
in Asia, and then then they get to negustila. So
like when Yamamoto came to the Dodgers, whatever team he
(05:34):
played for in Japan, the Dodgers had to give them
fifty million and then sign him to whatever they signed
him for. So it's a double whammy. So the Yankees, Yeah,
the Yankees did the same thing with you with Tanaka
a few years ago. So it's it's that's the way
that these uh these especially if you're still under contract. Now,
if you're a free agent in Japan, you can do
(05:56):
whatever you want, but the UH, I think the teams
own your worldwide rights until they relinquish them, and they
usually don't relinq with them for a small amount of money,
maybe twenty millions about as low as they go, and
some of the really good players are upwards of fifty
million dollars, So just to be able to have the
right to have them on your roster, and then you've
(06:17):
got to pay them on top of that. So it's
a lot of teams pass on it. And that's why
the Angels, the Yankees, the Giants, the Dodgers, sometimes Boston
and sometimes a couple other teams are the ones that
are involved in it, because you know, that's just where
we're at.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
Now, here's the other thing.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
And I saw a cut from John Smoltz the other day,
and the biggest I think fear that everybody has when
you invest as much money in these players is how
long are they going to be able to last? How
long are they going to be able to thrive throwing
the ball as hard as they do. And John Smoltz
basically said, listen, this isn't going to change baseball. Pitching
(06:58):
should be about local and change the speed and not
about overpowering the hitter. But if you can't throw at
ninety six coming out of high school, you're never going
to get drafted again. Because the grag meticss of the
world are they're done. They're out out the window from
obscurity and obsolete. So unfortunately, that's not where we're going
(07:18):
with this until we just get so many players. But
here's the deal. I think Dog Garrett put this a
few months ago.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
We talked to him.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
If you told me that you were going to sign
me for a contract for fifty million dollars, but I
had to think it was all guaranteed. But I had
to keep my pitches above ninety six. I'd pitch until
I blow out my ACL. I'd go get the ACL
I pitched, I played two more years. I'd take my
fifty million dollars a year and live happily ever after,
because that's what you're being trained to do in high
(07:45):
school so that you can have that dream job of
playing in the pros and getting paid ridiculous amounts of money.
So we'll see that continue, and we'll see if, if
the if he may can come in there and pitch
any differently than the others. I haven't seen him pitch.
There's yeah, there's not a lot of things on him,
but he's the latest guy to be posted. I just
(08:06):
thought it was funny. I don't want to play for
the Dodgers. I want to beat him.
Speaker 3 (08:08):
I do see that like a team that's expected to
be a heavy suit for him is going to be
the Yankees, just because obviously we heard the news coming
down into the show about Carlos Rodon likely not gonna
be ready for opening Day. They still Cole obviously on
the roster, but his contract expectation for e May is
going to be north of one hundred and.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
Fifty million dollars. Yeah, so that just seems like.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
And that leaves that means there's six teams that can
pay him. Dodgers, the Angels can if they want to,
but they won't.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
H the New York teams. It's it's it's the two
New York teams.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
It might be Philadelphia, could be the Cubs, and it
could be La if he want, if he changes his mind,
or it could be San Francisco.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
Those are the teams that can afford entertain that man.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
Well, Boston can certainly afford him, but John Henry has
not opened up the purse strings very much lately, and
I think they're going with the younger movement. And the
younger movement got in the playoffs this year and in
won a playoff game before singing three to the Yankees.
All right, one more segment to go. We wrap up today.
Next on the Ticket
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.