death2redemptions
New member
He is being hyped like any exciting, young player entering a rookie season with the addition of being a two way player. I don't think he is overrated because I don't think he is rated at all, not even a sample size against MLB talent. I'm not seeing anybody here seriously saying he is a great player but I am seeing a lot of people saying he will suck. I for one am excited to see what kind of value a true two way player brings to the game and if that translates to excitement in the hobby I am for that too. Why not? What happened with Tanaka, besides jaded Yankees fans with unrealistic expectations? He has been in MLB for 4 seasons and during that time has arguably been a top 20 pitcher.
I'm excited too and think he'll live up to the pitching expectations however I'm a little skeptical of his offensive game maybe for no other reason than the fact that it's far easier to hit in the Japanese League than in the mlb, as we've seen with players who can no longer kick it here end up hitting 50+ bombs over there. Simply put, offensive stats tend to be inflated in Japan. But I could be completely wrong here, as from the limited coverage I've seen from him, he does appear to have a sweet swing. I guess I'm just curbing my expectations in regards to his offense. At the moment I'm looking at him as a slightly below average to average hitter with the ceiling of a #1/#2 type pitcher assuming he can eventually get used to pitching 180+ IP a year.