David

In the last 20 years there have been 17 players who came over from NPB and played at least 5 years(this is to self select for some level of desirability, although it's not perfect). Seattle 3 Boston 3 (all Epstein era) Dodgers 2 Mets 2 Yankees 1 (although Tanaka will make 2) Cubs 1 (Fukudome, non-Epstein era) Detroit, St. Louis, Baltimore, Milwaukee, Texas 1 each The Epstein era Cubs have also signed multiple Japanese players who didn't make it that long in Fujikawa and Wada. Big markets have an advantage in most historical cases because they're big enough to have communities that aren't completely foreign, and they have the most money to pay. The latter doesn't matter in this case, and the above clearly illustrates that the Cubs aren't some extreme underdog to NY/LA in the former. I would say the Yankees are the favorite, but not runaway favorites and I like the Cubs' odds as much as any non-Yankee team. I don't see any way I'd consider the Cubs' odds as good as LAD.

Have they now? Just taking a look at it. Since Ichiro, players that have had any sort of impact as a major leaguer, excluding guys that came over after 35: Mariners - 4 (Ichiro, Johjima, Kawasaki, Iwakuma) Yankees - 3 (H. Matsui, Igawa, Tanaka) Red Sox - 3 (Okajima, D. Matsuzaka, Tazawa) Cubs - 3 (Fukudome, Fujikawa, Wada) Dodgers - 2 (Maeda, Kuroda) White Sox - 2 (Iguchi, Takatsu) Teams with 1 - Rangers (Darvish), Brewers (Aoki), Twins (Nishioka), Orioles (Uehara), Rays (Iwamura), Padres (Otsuka), Mets (K. Matsui), Cardinals (Taguchi) I probably missed a few so feel free to call them out. Also I realize that the Dodgers (Nomo) and Yankees (Irabu) both had success pre-2001, I just sort of see the Ichiro signing as the opening of the Asian floodgates. Of the ones I listed, there are only a few that I remember as being big deals where a number of teams were bidding heavily. They are: Tanaka (Yankees), Matsui (Yankees), Maeda (Dodgers), Matsuzaka (Red Sox), Ichiro (Mariners), Darvish (Rangers), I guess sort of Kaz Matsui (Mets) and Fukudome (Cubs). So I don't know I see it as more spaced out then just 2 teams getting everyone. But I can obviously see the reasons why Ohtani would lean towards NY and LA. Edit: [expletive], 2 people already posted well crafted responses basically saying the same thing as I was creating mine) I definitely think of Nomo as the start of it.

Have they now?

I'm so horsefeathering jealous of this coaching staff [tweet] [/tweet]

Is that the same guy who leaked quintana No(that guy's source was with the Sox),but they appear to believe this poster knows someone in the Cubs org. i wish he had a funnier name but at least it has a nice ending

Is that the same guy who leaked quintana

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This is really good. Solak does really good draft work too. Whereas Pedersen's comments on Mitch included a lot of fluff, this is an unbiased breakdown of things Trubisky does well, and does not and how it compares to Wentz as a rookie. Bowen just RT'd this that you might like too http://www.philadelphiaeagles.com/news/article-1/Eagle-Eye-Heres-Why-Rookie-QB-Mitchell-Trubisky-Offers-Hope-For-Bears/b90c5803-eb17-4596-abf2-28b33082da7f

yeah i'm willing to go all out meatball on this. soft as horsefeathers. doctors had cleared him to play and he opted not to.

This Eagles blogger did a little bit of a deep dive on Mitch [tweet]https://twitter.com/BenjaminSolak/status/934431524799250432[/tweet]

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This

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Yeesh The gould thing was all about saving money, right? They were tanking, knew they were bad and didn't see the need in paying top dollar for a kicker. Yep

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love it won't be much longer before lavine is back too, right? maybe 3ish weeks?

It's good to start seeing Shaheen actually getting a little involved.

Tom Brady is so impressive

Couldn't we have tried one more play before kicking a near 50 yarder with that idiot? Maybe not, but either way. One week closer to Fox being fired

I'm thinking it was a Duensing charity event

looking for a nerd who is less lazy than i am to figure out what kind of game it would take for mitch to get his passer rating into the 80's tomorrow. not entirely sure if 90's is even feasible with a monster game. umfan, i'm looking at you

not quite this guy gets jokes

[tweet]https://twitter.com/tangotiger/status/931601824204951552[/tweet] This could be cool