I forgot to mention that the MSN article was written by our good TD friend Ted Schwerzler

Brazil has beautiful weather and an interesting culture.

Minnesota?

55 minutes ago, tony&rodney said:

Brazil has beautiful weather and an interesting culture.

Minnesota?

Each culture has its good points. I also spent some time in northern Ontario, when I was younger, they really love their winter & not crazy about their summers. I really miss Minnesota lakes. Some lakes here you have to worry about piranhas & snakes.

I also like to add that MN has one of highest International bonus pool money. Another positive,

No chance in hell he would go to Minnesota. If he wants mid market, he's going to San Diego. If he wants large market and money, he's going to the Mets. Then there's the Dodgers. 

3 hours ago, NYCTK said:

No chance in hell he would go to Minnesota. If he wants mid market, he's going to San Diego. If he wants large market and money, he's going to the Mets. Then there's the Dodgers. 

You have no idea what's in Roki's head, If he wanted money, he'd stay in Japan another year & get Yokomoto's money. Everybody wants him to go to LAD or SD, it seems to me that Roki's pushing back through his agent is that he wants to explore his options in which city he'd want to play for & it's probably not a big market city like your NYM, no matter how much you want him to. If you are the Twins FO you can't harbor your negative attitude, any chance you may have you need to give it all you have. Sasaki could be a heaven-sent, & some justice that not everything falls NY's or LA's way.

The odds of Sasaki coming to MN are miniscule. And, by the way, he'd have to stay in Japan for 2 more years to get Yamamoto's (show the man some respect and at least get his name close to correct) deal, and the idea that the only way to make money in sports is through your contract is incredibly naive. The difference in endorsement money Sasaki can make depending on the market he goes to is massive.

Comparing your experience in a foreign country to a professional athlete's is also not very useful. Roki will come for spring training and spend the next 9 months with the same group of people traveling the country (and Canada) half the time. And once the season is over he flies back to Japan. Of course the city he goes to matters, but it's not at all the same thing as any of us moving to a new country. 

Sasaki's agent is doing the smart thing and keeping all his options open. He's giving him the entire spread of major league baseball. Japanese and Korean stars have picked a number of different locations across the league. What's really holding the Twins back is that their ownership and thus their organization and front office in general are in flux. There's very little chance he wants to sign with a team that may have an entirely new set of people in charge of it 1 year into his deal. The sales pitch the Twins can put together will not be anywhere near as impressive as any other team's for that reason alone. Sasaki isn't coming here.

1 hour ago, chpettit19 said:

The odds of Sasaki coming to MN are miniscule. And, by the way, he'd have to stay in Japan for 2 more years to get Yamamoto's (show the man some respect and at least get his name close to correct) deal, and the idea that the only way to make money in sports is through your contract is incredibly naive. The difference in endorsement money Sasaki can make depending on the market he goes to is massive.

Comparing your experience in a foreign country to a professional athlete's is also not very useful. Roki will come for spring training and spend the next 9 months with the same group of people traveling the country (and Canada) half the time. And once the season is over he flies back to Japan. Of course the city he goes to matters, but it's not at all the same thing as any of us moving to a new country. 

Sasaki's agent is doing the smart thing and keeping all his options open. He's giving him the entire spread of major league baseball. Japanese and Korean stars have picked a number of different locations across the league. What's really holding the Twins back is that their ownership and thus their organization and front office in general are in flux. There's very little chance he wants to sign with a team that may have an entirely new set of people in charge of it 1 year into his deal. The sales pitch the Twins can put together will not be anywhere near as impressive as any other team's for that reason alone. Sasaki isn't coming here.

My point wasn't that I can spell Yamamoto's (Yokomoto) name correctly off the top of my head or to show any disrespect.

I'm not as stupid as you try to make me out to be. Where do you get the notion that I believe that Sasaki will only receive from his contract? 

Ted quoted Ben Nicholson-Smith in the article:

Sasaki hasn’t closed doors, but possible “it might be beneficial for him to be in a smaller market”

He also stated that money wasn't going to be a primary factor & that MN has a good chance.

You seem to be in lockstep with Falvey. If Falvey has the same attitude as you or waits around for him. Our chances of landing Sasaki would be absolutely ZERO.

22 minutes ago, Doctor Gast said:

I'm not as stupid as you try to make me out to be. Where do you get the notion that I believe that Sasaki will only receive from his contract? 

Ted quoted Ben Nicholson-Smith in the article:

Sasaki hasn’t closed doors, but possible “it might be beneficial for him to be in a smaller market”

He also stated that money wasn't going to be a primary factor & that MN has a good chance.

You seem to be in lockstep with Falvey. If Falvey has the same attitude as you. Our chances of landing Sasaki would be absolutely ZERO.

From the claim that if hes chasing money he'd wait until he can get it in his contract. I mean you directly stated (incorrectly) that if he wanted money he'd stay in Japan another year and get Yamamoto's deal.

Ted doesn't have an inside source with Roki. He can say whatever he wants about him. He has no source with him. He's a blogger. He's you and me who happens to get paid to write things about the Twins. Why would I care what Ted says the chances are of Roki signing here are? And, by the way, he says the chances of him signing here aren't good. "Don’t let me kill your optimsm, but it’s still highly unlikely the Minnesota Twins actually land Roki Sasaki, in the end."

The Twins should talk to Roki. Of course they should. But you should be realistic about the situation. The Pohlads are trying to sell the team. The new owners will want to reassess the entire organization. There's instability up and down the roster and front office from the very top down. People want to know who they're signing up to work with. If Roki doesn't know if Falvey will be in charge next year why would he want to sign on with Falvey? If he doesn't know if Pablo, Correa, Buxton, Royce, and the rest of the squad will even be here next year why would he want to sign here? The instability of the sale of the team is a major hurdle that is nearly impossible to overcome. Then you add in numerous other very nice other options for him and the odds of him coming here are miniscule.

Oh, and Ted also left out all the quotes about Roki not being afraid of big markets and being more than happy to go to New York or LA. His agent just spit out a whole bunch of nice stuff that covered every market in MLB like he should so he didn't close any doors. Falvey should call Roki's agent, but Roki isn't coming here.

39 minutes ago, Doctor Gast said:

My point wasn't that I can spell Yamamoto's (Yokomoto) name correctly off the top of my head or to show any disrespect.

I'm not as stupid as you try to make me out to be. Where do you get the notion that I believe that Sasaki will only receive from his contract? 

Ted quoted Ben Nicholson-Smith in the article:

Sasaki hasn’t closed doors, but possible “it might be beneficial for him to be in a smaller market”

He also stated that money wasn't going to be a primary factor & that MN has a good chance.

You seem to be in lockstep with Falvey. If Falvey has the same attitude as you or waits around for him. Our chances of landing Sasaki would be absolutely ZERO.

"I think that there’s an argument to be made that a smaller, mid-market team might be more beneficial for him as a soft landing coming from Japan, given what he’s been through and not having an enjoyable experience with the media. It might be — I’m not saying it will be — I don’t know how he’s going to view it but it might be beneficial for him to be in a smaller market. I really don’t know how he looks at it yet because I haven’t had a chance to really sit down and discuss it with him in great detail.”

And there's the full quote about the smaller market thing, by the way. Not exactly a ringing endorsement for smaller markets. They haven't even discussed it yet. It's just something people have been saying because the Japanese media has been brutal towards him and his family for leaving at such a young age. 

Emphasis on the word might was from the agent.

The biggest thing from the media scrum with the agent is that he hasn't even had a real discussion with Roki about his thoughts on any of this yet. It's all just agent speak covering all his bases. 

4 hours ago, chpettit19 said:

From the claim that if hes chasing money he'd wait until he can get it in his contract. I mean you directly stated (incorrectly) that if he wanted money he'd stay in Japan another year and get Yamamoto's deal.

Ted doesn't have an inside source with Roki. He can say whatever he wants about him. He has no source with him. He's a blogger. He's you and me who happens to get paid to write things about the Twins. Why would I care what Ted says the chances are of Roki signing here are? And, by the way, he says the chances of him signing here aren't good. "Don’t let me kill your optimsm, but it’s still highly unlikely the Minnesota Twins actually land Roki Sasaki, in the end."

The Twins should talk to Roki. Of course they should. But you should be realistic about the situation. The Pohlads are trying to sell the team. The new owners will want to reassess the entire organization. There's instability up and down the roster and front office from the very top down. People want to know who they're signing up to work with. If Roki doesn't know if Falvey will be in charge next year why would he want to sign on with Falvey? If he doesn't know if Pablo, Correa, Buxton, Royce, and the rest of the squad will even be here next year why would he want to sign here? The instability of the sale of the team is a major hurdle that is nearly impossible to overcome. Then you add in numerous other very nice other options for him and the odds of him coming here are miniscule.

Oh, and Ted also left out all the quotes about Roki not being afraid of big markets and being more than happy to go to New York or LA. His agent just spit out a whole bunch of nice stuff that covered every market in MLB like he should so he didn't close any doors. Falvey should call Roki's agent, but Roki isn't coming here.

Completely agree…….I would say though, the instability you describe in Minnesota’s organization is prevalent in probably 25 or more other organizations. All unstable due to the whims of any local ownership group.

1 hour ago, JD-TWINS said:

Completely agree…….I would say though, the instability you describe in Minnesota’s organization is prevalent in probably 25 or more other organizations. All unstable due to the whims of any local ownership group.

Oh, for sure. But there's usual instability, then there's actively trying to sell the team instability. There's understood risk as a professional athlete that you may be traded, that your teammates may be traded, that any number of your bosses may be fired on a whim, etc. But then there's ownership change mixed with public payroll cutting/concerns instability. That's a different beast that changes the equation for a 23-year-old moving to a new country.

The Twins should present their case to Sasaki and his agent. It can't hurt. Spend a day putting together a brochure and presentation that highlights the organization and everything it can offer to support and develop the young pitcher. The odds are pretty much the same as in the recent draw for draft order. 

On 12/11/2024 at 11:32 AM, tony&rodney said:

Brazil has beautiful weather and an interesting culture.

Minnesota?

You trying to tell us that our current temp of 10 degrees with a real feel of -2 isn’t beautiful? 

You know Minnesota… ROBUST Japanese culture here. Sasaki can hit the ground running doing Sheboygan sausage radio ads and Menards TV commercials. 

They have (tied for) the largest pool of international bonus money, so I would approach Sasaki with a "we want you so much that we will give you our entire allotment of bonus money this year" kind of offer.  A. It's the most money he can get. B. He might be flattered just a little.  C. It can't hurt at all. 

19 hours ago, Rod Carews Birthday said:

They have (tied for) the largest pool of international bonus money, so I would approach Sasaki with a "we want you so much that we will give you our entire allotment of bonus money this year" kind of offer.  A. It's the most money he can get. B. He might be flattered just a little.  C. It can't hurt at all. 

Roki Sasaki is a lottery ticket. One cannot win without a ticket. The Twins just need to put themsleves forward as an interested entity. I would think that around 100 hours of work would be sufficient to prepare a proper introduction (of the opportunities available as a Twin) to the young man and his agent. The meeting itself might only last an hour or two at most. It is winter. The front office has time.  The agent will give everyone Sasaki's decision. Just do it.

33 minutes ago, tony&rodney said:

Roki Sasaki is a lottery ticket. One cannot win without a ticket. The Twins just need to put themsleves forward as an interested entity. I would think that around 100 hours of work would be sufficient to prepare a proper introduction (of the opportunities available as a Twin) to the young man and his agent. The meeting itself might only last an hour or two at most. It is winter. The front office has time.  The agent will give everyone Sasaki's decision. Just do it.

Completely agree with that sentiment.  It is indeed a lottery ticket, but one with only an investment of time and energy.  That time and energy has to be spent on something, and this would seem like an extremely worthy target.  You never know.  Who thought we would get Correa a few years back?

On 12/12/2024 at 5:01 AM, chpettit19 said:

Ted doesn't have an inside source with Roki. He can say whatever he wants about him. He has no source with him. He's a blogger. He's you and me who happens to get paid to write things about the Twins. Why would I care what Ted says the chances are of Roki signing here are? And, by the way, he says the chances of him signing here aren't good. "Don’t let me kill your optimsm, but it’s still highly unlikely the Minnesota Twins actually land Roki Sasaki, in the end."

Oh, and Ted also left out all the quotes about Roki not being afraid of big markets and being more than happy to go to New York or LA. His agent just spit out a whole bunch of nice stuff that covered every market in MLB like he should so he didn't close any doors. Falvey should call Roki's agent, but Roki isn't coming here.

Ted Schwerzler is a professional writer. While with TD he wrote many insightful & memorable articles. During his time at TD, it was also obvious that his sources grew. There are many baseball writers out there who are much more well known, that I think are full of baloney. I hope that Ted is a little prejudiced but in this article, he has brought a more balanced view of this subject, whereas before social media consensus was saying MN has absolutely no chance so trade all your International bonus money to LAD.

There might have been private conversations to big markets that he wasn't afraid of them, to keep negociations open to everybody but Wolfe's press conference, to my knowledge, didn't say that he wasn't afraid of big cities, to the contrary that smaller markets were more beneficial. Odds aren't 100% nor are they 0%, they're somewhere in between. You think it's 0, I like our odds much better than you. IMO MN clicks all the known boxes & maybe some unknown ones like there aren't any earthquakes or tsunamis in MN. It's a crap shoot but MLB has given us the money which is tied for the most, Who has the presentation that Sasaki likes best (IMO has purposely left out a lot of info just to cut the BS) is the winner. So it's in the Twins' best interest to pitch one doozy of a presentation. BTW Twins' pitching program isn't going anywhere no matter who owns the club.

1 hour ago, Doctor Gast said:

Ted Schwerzler is a professional writer. While with TD he wrote many insightful & memorable articles. During his time at TD, it was also obvious that his sources grew. There are many baseball writers out there who are much more well known, that I think are full of baloney. I hope that Ted is a little prejudiced but in this article, he has brought a more balanced view of this subject, whereas before social media consensus was saying MN has absolutely no chance so trade all your International bonus money to LAD.

There might have been private conversations to big markets that he wasn't afraid of them, to keep negociations open to everybody but Wolfe's press conference, to my knowledge, didn't say that he wasn't afraid of big cities, to the contrary that smaller markets were more beneficial. Odds aren't 100% nor are they 0%, they're somewhere in between. You think it's 0, I like our odds much better than you. IMO MN clicks all the known boxes & maybe some unknown ones like there aren't any earthquakes or tsunamis in MN. It's a crap shoot but MLB has given us the money which is tied for the most, Who has the presentation that Sasaki likes best (IMO has purposely left out a lot of info just to cut the BS) is the winner. So it's in the Twins' best interest to pitch one doozy of a presentation. BTW Twins' pitching program isn't going anywhere no matter who owns the club.

Technically Ted is a professional writer because he gets paid by sites like this, yes, but he isn't a professional writer like Gleeman or Hayes or Do. He's a blogger. His professional career is an IT recruiter. And, again, even in that article he says it's "highly unlikely" the Twins sign Sasaki.

Just like Wolfe was speaking for himself and just giving his thoughts on the small markets he gave his thoughts when asked if Roki would be able to handle New York and he was quoted as saying "I think he could handle it." when asked if Roki would have problems with the pressures of playing in New York. That comes from Anthony DiComo from MLB. com. 

And, again, I've never said the odds are 0. I said the Twins should talk to him. But the realistic odds are about 1%. I'm sorry that breaks your heart or something, but that's the realistic odds. There aren't any "known boxes." That's what you keep ignoring. Roki Sasaki hasn't said anything. He hasn't presented any boxes. The "boxes" the agent presented weren't even Roki's boxes. As I already told you the agent even said he hadn't discussed this with Roki in detail. Those quotes weren't the agent passing along Roki's thoughts they were just the agent giving ideas. That was an agent doing agent things. There are no boxes to check yet. And the Twins definitely don't check the "Yu Darvish" box. San Diego, another mid-market team without the media circus, does check that box. Roki and Yu are very close. But you ignore that part of the press conference because it doesn't fit your happy narrative about the Twins being a dream destination.

The Twins' pitching program isn't going anywhere no matter what? Says who? The new owners might fire Falvey on day 1. Then there's no promises who stays and who goes and the entire development program is up in the air. That claim is totally outrageous. 

SD, who I thought was the front-runner for Sasaki. Ownership is going through a serious court case, which'll prove to be an unstable situation. Which could prove to alter greatly the possibility of him going there. Yes the Twins are changing ownership but are a stable organization which will only be more appealing with the change. The Ishbia brothers could reach a deal by opening day!

2 hours ago, Doctor Gast said:

SD, who I thought was the front-runner for Sasaki. Ownership is going through a serious court case, which'll prove to be an unstable situation. Which could prove to alter greatly the possibility of him going there. Yes the Twins are changing ownership but are a stable organization which will only be more appealing with the change. The Ishbia brothers could reach a deal by opening day!

Roki needs to sign by January 23rd.