Japanese ace Masahiro Tanaka apparently wants to pitch in the Majors. However, he is honor-bound to the Rakuten Golden Eagles and the financial whims of Golden Eagles owner Hiroshi Mikitani. So maybe he'll be posted or maybe he won't. What do I know? I'm just a white man living in America where the only thing I'm honor-bound to is my local football team.
That said, the Rangers may be on the verge of signing Tanaka. Only this refers to infielder Kensuke Tanaka, rather than Masahiro, according to Evan Grant.
Richard Durrett breaks down the new official posting process between MLB and NPB. The posting fee is now called the "release fee" which apparently has nothing to do with a massage parlor secret menu.
T.R. Sullivan takes a look at the long history of covert Ranger football operations within Baseball Town.
As a part of Durrett's Hot Stove Talk series, he makes the case for signing Shin-Soo Choo, rather than Nelson Cruz, which I can more efficiently sum up with info from Zachary Jones of ESPN Research in this Buster Olney Insider piece on Mike Trout's $400 million dollar extension future:
Most times on base 2012-2013
- Mike Trout: 564
- Miguel Cabrera: 562
- Shin-Soo Choo: 556
- Prince Fielder: 542
- Andrew McCutchen: 541
- Joey Votto: 541
That could potentially be a helluva lot of times on base acquired by the Rangers this offseason.
For example, Mitch Moreland and David Murphy, the players Fielder and Choo would be replacing from the 2013 team, reached base a total of 615 times combined in 2012-2013.
Finally, in an ESPN Insider piece, Paul Swydan writes about which team -- with the Rangers among them -- needs Choo's unique services the most.