Tatsuya Imai comments on the Dodgers: ‚I want to beat them!‘

Daisuke Matsuzaka and Tatsuya Imai have a number of issues in frequent. The appropriate-handers every pitched in Japan’s famed Koshien Match (a nationwide highschool baseball event that pulls consideration much like the Tremendous Bowl) earlier than being chosen on the prime of the next NPB Draft by the Seibu Lions. 

The pair have been even teammates with the Lions for the 2020 and 2021 seasons following Matsuzaka’s return to Japan. 

Matsuzaka and Imai developed a fast friendship whereas teammates, which was evident in an interview the duo gave earlier this month on Japanese TV’s “Hodo Station” (video through Reddit; expanded translation through MLB.com’s Michael Clair and Ayako Oikawa). The pair talked for greater than seven minutes about their respective careers and Imai’s objectives along with his pending transfer to MLB. 

The place may Tatsuya Imai signal? 

Naturally, Matsuzaka’s first query lower proper to the purpose:  

“Matsuzaka: Will it’s a robust crew just like the Dodgers who’re already effectively positioned to win the World Collection? Or do you wish to defeat the Dodgers? What are you imagining?

“Imai: Nah! If something, I wish to beat them (the Dodgers)! (laughs) After all, I’d take pleasure in taking part in alongside Ohtani, Yamamoto and Sasaki, however profitable towards a crew like that and turning into a world champion could be probably the most helpful factor in my life. If something, I’d reasonably take them down.” 

It seems, the sentiment is yet one more space the duo has in frequent, as Matsuzaka adopted up by explaining that he went by means of the same thought course of when he first got here to MLB. There was an attraction in becoming a member of Ichiro Suzuki with the Seattle Mariners, however Matsuzaka finally selected the Boston Crimson Sox partly as a result of he “wished to problem himself to beat Ichiro.” 

Tatsuya Imai does not wish to play with one other Japanese participant 

Somebody on set requested Matsuzaka the place Imai ought to signal. After pausing for a second, he smiled and advised that Imai ought to be part of the Crimson Sox, one in all a number of golf equipment already believed to have some stage of curiosity. Although that may pose a priority, as Imai advised that he may choose to hitch a crew that doesn’t have already got a Japanese participant on its roster. 

“If there have been one other Japanese participant on the identical crew, I might simply ask them about something, proper? However that’s truly not what I’m on the lookout for. In a method, I wish to expertise that sense of survival. Once I come face-to-face with cultural variations, I wish to see how I can overcome them by myself — that’s a part of what I’m enthusiastic about.” 

Boston already has Masataka Yoshida. The Los Angeles Dodgers, after all, have Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Roki Sasaski. The Chicago Cubs have Shota Imanaga and Seiya Suzuki. The San Diego Padres have Yu Darvish. Yusei Kikuchi is with the Los Angeles Angels and Kodai Senga is (nonetheless) with the New York Mets. If Imai is critical about “survival mode,” then that’s six golf equipment who may very well be out of the combination already. 

The 27-year-old was 10-5 with a 1.92 ERA and 178 strikeouts over 163.2 IP this previous season with Seibu, profitable the NPB’s Sawamura Award. The Lions formally posted Imai on Nov. 19. MLB groups have 45 days (or till Jan. 2) to signal him.