Yakyu Cosmopolitan
@yakyucosmo
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🇯🇵⚾️ Covering Japanese baseball in English. Contributor for @JapanBall & @WorldBaseball_. 日本の野球を英語でお届けしてます。
Joined December 2022
🚨 NEW PODCAST: 🇯🇵 NPB Talent to MLB This Winter ❄️ ft. @BrandonTeweets 🟢 Posting System - Munetaka Murakami - Kazuma Okamoto - Tatsuya Imai - Kona Takahashi 🔵 Foreigners Returning? - Foster Griffin - Anthony Kay - Jon Duplantier - Cody Ponce (KBO) https://t.co/w03m7SncrI
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Japan is positioned much better at shortstop for the 2027 Premier12 and beyond. A tandem of Yusei Ishizuka and Rui Muneyama is one to dream on for the next decade. Ishizuka’s 99th percentile outcome for his career is Hayato Sakamoto 2.0. The No. 1 prospect in NPB at just 19.
Samurai Japan 🇯🇵 Notable WBC Shortstop Candidates with 2025 NPB Stats. Kaito Kozono & Itsuki Murabayashi were the only ones selected to the exhibition series vs. Korea 🇰🇷 in November.
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New Astros pitcher Tatsuya Imai was throwing up the H at today's Houston Texans game 🤘
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Murakami, Imai, Okamoto Sign MLB Deals
japanball.com
Munetaka Murakami, Tatsuya Imai, and Kazuma Okamoto join the White Sox, Astros, and Blue Jays, respectively. Learn about their potential and new beginnings.
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Imai switched from number 11 to 48 with Seibu in 2022. He will now have 45 in Houston.
Tatsuya Imai will wear number 45 for the astros. Plan accordingly.
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Shotaro Morii (#Athletics No. 21) became the highest-paid Japanese amateur to move stateside when he signed last January. After a solid debut in the Arizona Complex League, the two-way player is a breakout candidate for '26: https://t.co/cJgXBEhijT
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Tatsuya Imai at the Houston Texans 🏈 game with Scott Boras and his wife
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Updated my database to no longer label so-called “NPB sinkers” as sinkers to avoid confusion. NPB sinkers are commonly changeups with arm-side run like a vulcan, rather than a two-seamer or shuuto. As shown with Imai, the pitching cards will now combine it with other changeups.
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Allowing your body to get to natural slots and positions gives pitchers the best chance at success more times than not. Interesting stuff from Taneichi and his 4s and splinker dominated down the stretch last season!
Atsuki Taneichi on his second half success (via Tokusan TV) “I was throwing from a lower angle for a while, trying to copy Imai. But around August, I realized maybe I shouldn’t be lowering my arm angle at the cost of less vert on my fastball, especially because I’m a forkball
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Atsuki Taneichi on his second half success (via Tokusan TV) “I was throwing from a lower angle for a while, trying to copy Imai. But around August, I realized maybe I shouldn’t be lowering my arm angle at the cost of less vert on my fastball, especially because I’m a forkball
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Former Seibu Lion Jefry Yan still having fun with the K strut
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Thumbnail would suggest Kazuma Okamoto’s former teammate Naoki Yoshikawa is the one that signed 🥀
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NPB players w/a Z-Con% >90%, Chase% < 28% and at least 8 HR: - Shota Morishita - Tyler Nevin - Keita Nakagawa - Keita Sano - Souma Uchiyama - Jose Osuna Uchiyama has also steadily increased his HR output since making his debut and is only 23!
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Former BayStars and new Marines pitcher Andre Jackson has the goal of winning the Pacific League strikeout title in 2026.
アメリカにいる #アンドレ・ジャクソン 投手からメッセージをいただきました。 「目標はパ・リーグで最多奪三振を獲得し、チームのリーグ優勝に貢献することだよ。今は週5日トレーニングしていて、ホリデーはモンタナ州の山々で過ごしてリフレッシュしているよ！」との事です。 #chibalotte #広報
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Kona Takahashi is officially back with the Seibu Lions for the 2026 season.
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new for @YahooSports, on the latest big Blue Jays move, AKA Sign Kazuma Okamoto Now, Ask Questions Later ⤵️ https://t.co/5V7slYSPdD
sports.yahoo.com
Okamoto's signing is a bold reminder of Toronto's fresh status as one of baseball's certified behemoths.
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Important context that Boston & Texas both paid over $50 million in posting fees alone for Dice-K & Darvish under the old blind bid format. Only Yamamoto generated such a fee with the current system. NPB teams not being compensated well will make them more reluctant to post.
Tatsuya Imai’s posting fee to the Seibu Lions should come out to about $11.3M, a bit more than what the DeNA BayStars received for Shota Imanaga. The biggest “loser” from Imai and Murakami getting smaller deals are their respective NPB teams. Orix got $50M for Yamamoto.
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🚨 NEW VIDEO: How Good is Kazuma Okamoto? The Yomiuri Giants star can be an immediate impact bat in MLB. The 29-year-old’s ceiling is lower than Murakami, but do his plate skills make for a smoother transition? My comps: Seiya Suzuki & Christian Walker. https://t.co/vTyPqUOlYr
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Munetaka Murakami ends up with 34/2 (17M AAV) and Kazuma Okamoto gets 60/4 (15M AAV) plus a 5M signing bonus. Murakami’s transcendent raw power will show up in the exit velocities as top 10 in the world. Entering his age 26 season, he has plenty of space to adapt to MLB pitching
Many contract estimates prior to free agency beginning were overinflated. However, @mlbtraderumors just about nailed the contract for Okamoto. Their initial projection was 4 years, $64 million. Teams simply saw Okamoto’s skill set as more projectable than Imai & Murakami.
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Here's a reminder of the pod we did with @yakyucosmo breaking down all of the NPB stars who came over this offseason. We have time stamps in there so you could jump around to different players! https://t.co/yvTj8kaZSA
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