Welcome to Rates and barrels. It is Wednesday, January 10th. Derek Van Riper here with

Enosaris on this episode. We have some process-related things that we're going to talk about because we're back in it. We are drafting against each other. I didn't know it when I signed up for a draft two nights ago. I saw you talking about drafting. I was like, well, maybe I should draft. And you clicked into the same one I was in, so we're in the same draft room, which is, you know. Well, actually, I bought a three pack, so I didn't even, the weird thing about three pack is, like, you just have to, you just, like, kind of give me your preferences, and then they just, like, fill it. There you go. I didn't, I didn't mean to, but then I was like, oh, our league just filled. A lot of familiar names, industry folks. There are just very good NFBC players in this particular league. There's some listeners mixed in there, too. So it should be a fun room. We're about, I don't know, midway through the sixth round as we start recording here on this Wednesday. So I'm sure we'll talk about some things that have happened in the early round so far, talk about it in the next couple of episodes. Maybe we'll talk about something as it happens since I'm about two away from picking. Yeah, I probably get a pick during the show today too. Live thought process. Should I do it? Well, I don't know. We could try it and I don't know if it'll be repeated.

So we could try at least one time.

Give us feedback if I make my pick live on air.

Tell me that was interesting or don't do that again.

We may be able to just get us there with one topic first and that is Shota Imanaga nearing a deal with the Cubs.

It sounds like it's close to done or almost done at the time of this recording.

A complicated deal is the term that I've seen thrown around.

So I don't know if that means multiple opt-outs or deferred money or some combination to both or something else entirely.

But this would be a pretty big get for a Cubs rotation that needs

at least one more high quality starter. So we did this a little bit with Yoshinoba Yamamoto

the week you were gone. We were talking about the impact he should bring and can reference the

piece that you wrote looking at his arsenal. What are we talking about with Imanaga?

Like, what is the possible payoff for him as he makes the move to Major League Baseball?

Well, the positives are immediate with Imanaga, is that he has, he would have the fastball with the most ride in baseball the minute he lands. I mean, yes,

they use a different ball in Japan, but I'm comparing to the WBC where they used a Rawlings ball.

And yes, that was a tournament where he only threw like 45 fastballs, but stuff like shape and stuff plus in 45 fastballs is usually

enough. So I would say he will at least immediately have top 10 ride in baseball. And so you're

comparing him to guys like Felix Battista, you know, there's, you know, Alex Vescia, Nestor

Cortez has a lot of vertical ride. So, you know, that's, you know, Alex Vescia, Nestor Cortez has a lot of vertical ride.

So, you know, that's a group that you're looking at. But if you look at the top 10 guys in

ride, Ipanaga's release point is 10 inches lower on average than that top 10 group. So it's a combination of a really low release point,

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