Shota Imanaga to sign deal with Chicago Cubs || Mike Vrabel next to be tossed out || Sacramento Kings Named NBA Team of the Year || NHL Trade

Edition #41

Intro

We’ll get back to our schedule starting next week.

Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Monday, Wednesday, Friday.

Shota Imanaga didn’t go to the Super Team. Sacramento makes a big turnaround and wins an award. Top prospect, boom, gone. Mike Vrabel enters the room of darkness on… Black Tuesday? All of these stories, one edition. Only on Sports Square.

Shota Imanaga Heading to the Northside

The Cubs are making their first big move of the offseason, agreeing to a deal with Japanese left-hander Shōta Imanaga, pending medical review, last night. The club has not confirmed the move.

Besides bringing in Craig Counsell, the Cubs haven’t made any moves. And Craig Counsell is not even a player. He’s a coach.

Imanaga was posted by the Yokohama DeNA BayStars, allowing him to seek an opportunity in Major League Baseball after eight seasons in NPB. The deadline for the posting period was set to expire on Thursday at 5 p.m. ET. Many expected him to sign before that, though.

But.

The Cubs are not the team I expected to sign this guy.

Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto both chose the Dodgers and, keep in mind, that Imanaga was teammates with them in the World Baseball Classic. But he didn’t sign with the Super Dodgers.

He doesn’t leave all of his Japanese friends, though.

He joins a team with Seiya Suzuki, who also came into the MLB through the NPB just last year.

Utilizing a four-pitch mix that features a mid-90s fastball, a splitter, a slider, and a curveball, Imanaga posted a 3.18 ERA in 1,002 2/3 innings during his NPB career. That included a 2.53 ERA with 306 strikeouts over 291 2/3 innings across the past two seasons, as he bounced back after undergoing left shoulder surgery in 2020, something that forced him to miss the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Players, MLB fans, GMs, and coaches got a good look at Imanaga when he pitched for his country in the 2023 World Baseball Classic. After delivering amazing performances against South Korea during pool play and Italy in the quarterfinals, Imanaga started and won the gold-medal game against Team USA.

Mike Vrabel is next to be tossed out

6 years.

Vrabel had winning records in his first four seasons and started 7-3 in his fifth before the wheels came off in Nashville. The Titans lost their final seven games of the 2022 season and missed the playoffs for the first time since Vrabel's first season in Tennessee in 2018. That losing streak would carry over to this season before Tennessee finally snapped it in Week 2.

Still, Vrabel was 6-18 in his final 24 games, and controlling owner Amy Adams Strunk felt like it was time to make a move two days after the season ended.

Strunk said in a statement, "As I continued to assess the state of our team, I arrived at the conclusion that the team would also benefit from the fresh approach and perspective of a new coaching staff.”

Vrabel who is 48, is now the 6th coach to be fired and the first one on Black Tuesday.

Vrabel ends his time with the Titans 54-45.

POTENTIAL LANDING SPOTS: Patriots, Commanders, Panthers, Chargers.

Sacramento Kings Named NBA Team of the Year and Recognized with Team Innovation Award

After receiving the NBA Innovation Award for the Kings Victory Beam and the NBA Team of the Year Award, the Sacramento Kings released the following statement yesterday. The NBA Team of the Year Award honors outstanding team performance in operational focus areas like people and culture, community impact, creative thinking, and data-driven outcomes, as well as important revenue drivers. The NBA Team Innovation Award honors excellence in coming up with and putting into practice original concepts that have improved the team's bottom line.

THE STATEMENT

“We are tremendously proud to be recognized with these distinguished honors as we have further ignited our fanbase, continued to build international excitement, and revolutionized our business,” said Kings Owner and Chairman Vivek Ranadivé. “On behalf of my partners, I want to thank Matina Kolokotronis and John Rinehart for their leadership in fulfilling our vision to make the Kings a global brand that positively impacts our community and makes the world a better place. I want to further express my gratitude to all of the Sacramento Kings team members who work tirelessly every day to make these ideals a reality. We have the best fans in the world, and we are committed to working hard to bring them the best we can, which they so richly deserve.”

 Highlights from the Kings business results during the 2022-2023 season include:

·       Nearly 100% Season Ticket Renewal

·       Ranked #2 among all NBA teams in ticket revenue growth

·       Added over 20 new Corporate Partners 

·       Ranked #1 in fan in-game experience in the NBA 

·       Game viewership was up 200%+ and Postgame shows up 177%

·       Most-watched 1st Round Playoff Game in 24 years 

·       ABC's largest-ever audience for a non-NBA Finals game

·       Launched new e-commerce and renovated in-arena team store that led to a 35% increase in merchandise sales

·       Hosted more than 100 community events impacting nearly 100,000 people

Flyers trade top prospect Cutter Gauthier: 'We don't want you'

Philadelphia’s top prospect Cutter Gauthier said he didn’t want to play for them and the Flyers traded him saying, “We don’t want you.”

This trade was a long time coming, the GM said. When Cutter was drafted, he said he wanted to be a Flyer and was built to be one, but then ultimately changed his mind.

"Maybe a few months later, he told us he didn't want to be a Flyer and didn't want to play for the Flyers," Briere said. "So, in our mind at first, we have to protect him. If he changes his mind again, and it's out there that he doesn't want to play, it's going to be tough for him to put the uniform on."

The Flyers had selected Gauthier with the fifth pick of the 2022 NHL draft with the expectation that the hulking forward would be part of their future once he left Boston College, where he is a sophomore.

John Tortorella might have even been a little mean when talking about him, but he was definitely on point.

"I don't know Cutter from a hole in the wall," Tortorella said. "I'm not too interested in talking about him. I rather talk about Jamie. He's the guy who's coming here.

Gauthier has been in the news much. Especially when he scored two goals and 12 points over seven games as the U.S. won its sixth gold medal at the IIHF World Junior Hockey championship last week. Gauthier finished tied with Jiri Kulich for the most points in the tournament.

But here’s the burning question.

What would make the Flyers move away from him after winning gold?!

Briere said the team tried giving Gauthier space and tried to get in touch with him several times, only to not hear anything back from Gauthier's advisers.

"At some point, we had to make a decision, and we thought with what happened a few days ago, that this was our time to get the highest value," Briere said.

Weird, right? Comment in the thread in the chat on why the Flyers would move away from him. Or you can comment down below. Anything works, and we’ll put the best ones up in the newsletter Friday or Monday. Give me all of your opinions.

Conclusion

Well, that’s all for this one. Make sure to share your opinions and whether you disagree with anything I say. I would love to hear it, as Sports chit-chat is one of my favorite things to do. Until the week ends, we’ll be having random editions. One has already been decided as a topic, The Texans and their story to this point will take up a whole edition. Be on the lookout for that. Make sure to share this newsletter with everyone you know, and so long from The Editor at Sports Square!