- 3 hours ago
ITL debates how long the Astros should stay patient before making a call.
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00:00Would you like to give me that line from the Corpus Christi start that I believe happened in San Antonio?
00:05Yes, it would be six hits, five runs, all earned, a home run, two innings.
00:13Oh, by the way, he walked three through 59 pitches in two innings.
00:17That included a wild pitch, and he had a pitch timer violation.
00:20Yeah, see, those are the ones that even gets me further.
00:22Clearly, only going two innings, that's rough.
00:25All these earned runs, hits, that's all bad.
00:27The thing that gets me, and honestly, I should pose the question.
00:32At what point is it that we can call it on Tatia Emai is ultimately the question here.
00:38Is he a lost cause?
00:39Yes, and the thing that gets me closer to that, because you know me, I try and be more optimistic,
00:43and obviously, I think that there's a lot more.
00:45Sometimes we get out on certain prospects or teams a little bit early.
00:49The thing that makes me really concerned in this way is the wild pitch, is the pitch timer violation,
00:55is some of the things that we continue to hear through translators that make it seem like,
00:59oh, this is between the ears.
01:01And one of the things, especially in baseball, and particularly on the mound,
01:04I won't say that this is specifically the yips, but this feels like some level of a cousin
01:07of that, that's the hardest thing to get right.
01:10Mechanical issues we can tweak, and it's not that.
01:13This is between the ears in a way that I don't know how to get to.
01:15Even the 30 pitches an inning, at 59, 30 and 29, or however it spread out over the course
01:21of the two innings, just the pitches in those two innings tells you he was scuffling, he
01:25was searching, he was trying to find something, wasn't comfortable or whatever.
01:31I'll put it this way.
01:32I don't hate Tatsuya Emai.
01:35Don't believe you.
01:36Don't believe you.
01:37I've seen the text messages.
01:38I do not believe that.
01:39I don't hate him.
01:40You've called him various different iterations of crook, and con man.
01:47You called him a con man.
01:48I did call him a con man.
01:48As though he came here with the explicit intent to rob the Astros of, what is it, $20 million?
01:53We have been unwicked, banned bulldozed, led astray, run amok, and flat out deceived.
01:59Thank you, Stephen A. Smith.
02:00No, as if that was his sole goal, and he wanted to embarrass them in the process of doing that
02:05by making them look like fools.
02:06The sarcastic side of my take on Emai is, are we sure he actually knows how to pitch?
02:11That he's ever pitched?
02:12That he's not just a con man?
02:14This is just a catch-me-if-you-can situation?
02:16Yes, that he, you know, this is the long con.
02:20That's the sarcastic take.
02:22The real take is really leaning heavily into, if not there already, I think he's soft.
02:30I think he's soft.
02:31But here's the weird part.
02:33I know we had Emai on the show.
02:34Yeah, well, Emai would have used a different word that starts with B.
02:39In the press conference, he'd be saying soft, y'all playing soft.
02:41Yeah, but on that court, he'd be calling people all sorts of female dogs.
02:46And yet, while I do think that's the case, it's not entirely his fault.
02:51You know, because Dana Brown has to equip a player like him coming from Japan with all
02:59the right resources and personnel and, you know, the support systems that could help
03:07him thrive.
03:07The thing about the Astros is they are the world leaders, literally, in Latin American
03:13players.
03:14I mean, they created the first...
03:16I feel like Latin America is the world leader in Latin American players.
03:18Well, no, I'm saying in terms of bringing them over to Major League Baseball.
03:22Like, they created...
03:24You wouldn't even just laugh at the show.
03:26They created the first ever Latin American academy.
03:31The Astros did.
03:32And they have developed it and they've thrived because of it.
03:34I mean, from Altuve and before Altuve to the more recent, you know, iterations of Latin
03:40American and South American players that have shown up here.
03:42They have equipped them with the right systems, support systems to make, to help them thrive.
03:48Yes, I think two things are true here.
03:51Yes, I think Tatsuya Emai, until he proves otherwise and makes us all look stupid, is
03:55soft.
03:56I do.
03:57I also feel the Astros, and specifically Dana Brown, are not without their responsibilities
04:03here that they just flat blew.
04:06You know, they just flat blew it.
04:09Yeah.
04:10You know?
04:10I think that there's a few things...
04:12He's gone through three interpreters.
04:14He's gone through three interpreters.
04:15Oh, he's on the third one now?
04:16Yeah.
04:16Yeah, he's on his third interpreter.
04:18I thought he was on the second one.
04:19Nuh-uh.
04:19I wonder how much that has to do with him being...
04:21And that's just the interpreter.
04:22Yes.
04:23Yes.
04:23Yeah.
04:25Remember, this is one of the things that I brought up early on as a question of, are
04:29the Astros equipped to handle it?
04:30Because there are other teams like the Dodgers who have done a decent amount of this.
04:34I do wonder if they are prepared to handle this and how much that factors in.
04:38Because I can remember the feeling of Shohei Otani needing to find some level of comfort
04:45here, and I'd hate to get to a place where we get to, like, anywhere near some level of
04:49xenophobia, right?
04:50But, like, is this something that happens a little bit more with Japanese players in
04:54general?
04:54Just that level of attunement to the smaller details, and if they're out of whack, does
04:59this throw them off, right?
05:01But I think it's fair to bring up, and you know, I don't like getting to these places,
05:05that he might be a little bit more finicky when it comes to these things.
05:09Finicky, he said.
05:10He said finicky.
05:11He said finicky.
05:12Soft, just don't feel right.
05:15Accusing of someone being a soft feels like a roof.
05:16Just a little nervous.
05:18A lot nervous.
05:19There's a lot of anxiety in there.
05:21Come on, man, you can say it.
05:22I mean, I've said the word.
05:24I just don't want to allow the accusation quite there.
05:26Because also, I do wonder, though, how I make Jell also the idea that there was a lot
05:34of pressure put on him in ways that some of the Japanese players coming over don't have.
05:39Shohei clearly had that.
05:40But some of these other Japanese players come over, and there's expectations, but there's
05:43not, hey, save us.
05:44We're seeing the way that the Astros are.
05:47Mind you, the Astros lost again last night.
05:49And they did so in a way that was very frustrating to me that I'm trying to keep at bay.
05:52We'll talk about it later, because I don't want to get super mad right now with them leaving
05:57runners in scoring position and swinging at pitches out of the zone when you could have
06:00walked in running.
06:01Okay.
06:01Sorry.
06:02You're doing it.
06:03You're doing it.
06:04I think that some of that pressure also shows up.
06:07But then, coming back to the, is he a lost cause, where I get even closer to that as
06:11an answer.
06:12I'm not willing to go just there yet.
06:13Yeah.
06:14The whole idea of going to a rehab assignment is, you should have the confidence in, I'm
06:19better than these cats.
06:20Right?
06:21Being what we believe to be already a major league pitcher, maybe your mind ain't against
06:25major league batting.
06:26This ain't triple A either.
06:28This is double A. You should come in with a level of confidence that allows you to at
06:31least get out here and be aggressive.
06:33And it feels like that's not there.
06:34And that's why I keep coming back to the mental side of this.
06:36And even if he is not equipped, it does feel like there's something in there that you need
06:40to attune a lot better.
06:41And I don't know if they're properly equipped to handle that.
06:44No, I think it's both.
06:45I think you're right.
06:46And I think the Astros, specifically Dana Brown, it's a great idea.
06:49Bring over a pitcher that has had some incredible numbers in Japan and see if you can work some
06:57magic here.
06:58I think it goes beyond Dana Brown, but it falls on his lap because there's also pitching coaches.
07:03There's also baseball people that you should have hired or brought in or whatever, contracted
07:09to help him.
07:10And I know they probably did a lot of research with how do the Dodgers do it?
07:14How does Seattle do it?
07:15How does some of these teams that have...
07:16I mean, Joe Spada said he called around.
07:18Yeah, but what does that mean?
07:20I mean, are you really getting what you need?
07:22But it's both things.
07:23You know, you can't say, and to your point, like Emai, if he were really strong-minded and
07:32strong-willed, would say, damn it, I'm going to go down there.
07:36I'm going to mow him down.
07:37I'm going to get over this.
07:37So it is him.
07:38Yeah.
07:39But it's also the system.
07:40And it's him in ways that are also...
07:42It might just be like the dude, even outside of just strong-willed or anything.
07:45I take you back to April 16th when he was talking through an interpreter about, you
07:50know, feeling like he was getting the strength back in his arm.
07:53Also in the course of that, again, through an interpreter, he talked about how he doesn't
07:57really have many friends when it comes to even talking to Japanese players around him.
08:00Yeah.
08:00Like, this might just be really internal with him.
08:05And where I will come back to the reason why I'm not willing to go all the way there is
08:09if he can make some changes himself.
08:11Because we've seen dudes who need the sports psychologist to get themselves back right,
08:17and they've made it happen.
08:17Again, baseball, pitcher, makes me a little more skeptical about it.
08:21Yips, so on and so forth.
08:22But if he can get to a place where now you would need someone who understands Japanese
08:27culture as a psychologist and could do this from a space of through an interpreter, or
08:32maybe could speak Japanese, that feels like it's a little bit less readily accessible.
08:36But if he can get to a place where he's like, okay, can I get the right support system?
08:39And can that allow me to be confident?
08:41Maybe you can come back around.
08:43Sure.
08:43The problem is, right now for this Astros team, the need is so immediate, and he's not going
08:47to be able to be an answer for you.
08:48No, and that's the here and now for this Astros team.
08:51And I was chatting with you and Figgy and T-Mail before the show.
08:55The other part of this is, there are some people in this world, we all have acquaintances, friends,
09:01that are soft, you know, that are soft-minded, you know, weak-willed.
09:06And he might, it might be as simple as that.
09:08You know, in his comfort zone when he was pitching in Japan, he had success, he was comfortable.
09:13He gets over here, it kind of breaks him.
09:14So that's a possibility as well.
09:16Because one more thing, this whole tired arm thing, they literally said there's nothing
09:21wrong with his arm, that it came back clean.
09:23I mean, tired from what?
09:26No, that's, it's a good question.
09:28It's the question that, it's the question du jour, right, so to say.
09:31The thing that, again, trying to be cognizant of all the various different angles that this
09:35could possibly be.
09:36I don't think that you become as successful as he was in Japan by being like flat-out soft.
09:41Like, there's still competitive baseball happening there.
09:43It's considered the second best league in all of the world.
09:46Understandably, still, there's, there's a difference between there and here, but pitching
09:50in Japan is notable.
09:52It's not like the boy can't do this at all.
09:54It feels like there's, there is something somewhat particular to here that is making
09:58this a problem, but it's, it's not the here's issue.
10:00It's ultimately his issue that he's going to have to figure out.
10:02The thing that gets uncomfortable is, one, obviously, he's not going to be able to help
10:05your team this year.
10:06That I'm willing to say flat-out.
10:07I agree.
10:08He can't help you.
10:08This, this is, this goes beyond that, and I'm, I'm willing to go there.
10:12The question is, is this something where he's a lost cause for this year, but is he a lost
10:16cause for the entirety of the contract, the three-year contract that you signed him to
10:19that, mind you, has player options in it?
10:21Yeah.
10:22No, that's right.
10:23Yeah, that's right.
10:23It's not team options where you go, well, this didn't work.
10:25And so, you know, we will eat the cost on this year.
10:29I forgot about that.
10:30Yeah.
10:30This is now, maybe he takes the player option.
10:32I'm out.
10:33Maybe he takes the player option because he's where we are.
10:35And he goes, actually, the Astros were ready to help me.
10:37And maybe I go to the Dodgers and they help me.
10:38Maybe that's how this works.
10:40Best of luck if he thinks that's how that's going to work.
10:42Um, but I do wonder, and I feel like you can't be in the place as an organization where
10:47you go, one of the few dudes who has some level of promise in this, we just going to
10:50give up on him.
10:51You don't really have that luxury.
10:53And they're paying him a lot of money.
10:55So yeah, you're right.
10:56You're right.
10:56Yeah.
10:57So that's the uncomfortable thing.
10:59And well, actually one more uncomfortable thing is there's a lot of uncomfortable things.
11:03Are we certain that the, the structure that you have right now for the Astros is the structure
11:07that's going to be the right one to fix him?
11:09No, we're not.
11:10And I think that that might be enough.
11:11I don't think it should be a major consideration, but I think that might be a secondary or even
11:14tertiary consideration on does Dana Brown stay at the helm here?
11:18Does Joe Espada stay as the manager?
11:20I think that that factors into some of these.
11:22And as of right now, the seeming mishandling of him, at least from their side of it, without
11:27even talking about him, I think that that's another demerit on what is the organizational
11:32hierarchy.
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