Due to cultural reasons Sea, NY and LA are the most desirable cities for Japanese players. They're in our division. They have the money. Cruz is only signed for 2 more years, plus he's played ~120 games in the OF the past 2 years anyway plus-plus due to the difference in scheduling and travel b/t the 2 leagues I'd almost guarantee he sits a game every week or 2 b/t starts...so I don't see how they couldn't make that work.
This guy will either be a Yankee or a Dodger. Crane can't compete with the money that these clubs will be doling out.
He CAN but I don't know that they will choose to put such a high portion of the clubs financial assets into one player.
Wow, he's worth a try, but teams like the Dodgers or Yankees will always land the top Japanese exports.
Yeah... he can... it is up to the owner decide what he wants to do and how many resources he wants to allocate.
Well then by that logic any owner can. The reality of it is, he won't because like you said that would be a lot of money to allocate to one player. Meanwhile someone like the Yankees would have no problem allocating that much money to one player as they have already in the past. Of course owners have surprised us before (Stanton deal, Tigers owner employing 4 of the 30 biggest contracts in baseball, etc.) so it's not like it can't happen. I should've worded it differently. It's not very likely.
No. Teams that have a strict budget and long term contracts eating up that budget won't have the flexibility to sign him. As for the Astros, they are likely to add greatly to their payroll over the next few seasons and most of the Astros priority players are years from free agency. So yes, if the Astros owner wants to add him and believes it is worth tying up future flexibility; then they can likely compete with signing him. Is it likely? I wouldn't put the Astros in the top 2-3 likely landing spots but the Astros have been very aggressive with international players so I wouldn't be shocked or overly surprised if the Astros were a finalist or landed him IF the Astros conclude he is that good.
Exactly, but I'm sure they aren't going to just spend up that strict budget on one player when their budget is more limited compared to franchises like the Dodgers and Yankees. Even though the Astros payroll is pretty low right now, I'm sure your owner isn't wanting to spend a big chunk of it on one guy assuming he commands some ridiculous contract. If it's Tanaka type money, yeah I can definitely see the Astros signing him at that kind of value. Higher? I wouldn't bet on it.
If I win the Powerball, I'll offer him all my winnings if he Playa for the Astros. That dude on this team, that's a dynasty.
