Baseball: A Two-Way Player-Chapter 640 - 7: Dust Settles Advertisement
[Latest news: All 8 teams that made it to the final stage have finished meeting, and Lin Guanglai's team will announce the player's choice next week.]
On the night after negotiations with the Dodgers and Yankees ended, Lin Guanglai's agent team released related news on the player's personal social media, once again causing a sensation among the fan community.
[Hmm, is the drama that's lasted most of the offseason finally coming to an end? Where will Lin Guanglai choose to go? I think with his skills, he might as well go straight to the top—Yankees, Dodgers, Red Sox are all top-tier teams, choosing them will definitely not be wrong!]
[That's quite right, just thinking about the pitcher lineup with Lin and Kershaw, and the hitting relay with Lin and Betts, it's pretty frightening—Eh, looking at it this way, it seems like the Yankees, the super elite team, don't have any top-tier superstars... A-Rod and Iron Man have both announced their retirement, so aren't the Yankees' chances the smallest?] 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺
[Did you get it reversed? I think precisely because A-Rod and Mark Teixeira have retired, the chances of Lin joining the Yankees are greater—after all, whether he goes to the Dodgers, Red Sox or Giants, the teams there have those core superstars from their own farm system. It's hard for Lin Guanglai to have any sway when he first joins. On the contrary, the Yankees are currently in a power transition vacuum period. If he can show his strength, he can easily establish his position in the locker room, right?]
[But suddenly losing an historic-level star like A-Rod and a top lefty-righty batter like Iron Man, the Yankees' strength will definitely be affected, right? Judging by Lin's choice, he should prioritize teams that are title contenders, right? In this case, isn't the probability of Yankees still quite small?]
[A-Rod's performance was clearly off after being banned for steroids, last season his WAR was even negative; Iron Man was also plagued by injuries, last year's OPS dropped to the 0.6 range... and although losing them might affect the team somewhat, the Yankees lineup isn't bad, right? Pitcher lineup has Tanaka in his prime, CC is still sharp, and there's Severino as a potential star; in batting there's Gardner and Didi who are both pretty good, and Judge, who was just promoted last year, I'm really optimistic about him exploding next season!]
[Exactly, and not to mention, this is the Yankees! Even if Yankees cool off for a year or two, so what? Top-tier superstars will eventually join them—I checked all teams' contract situations, Machado from the Orioles and Harper from the Nationals, their contracts are up in two years, if Yankees can snag either one, how could their grand vision not succeed?]
[I don't care, among all the teams in Major League, my least favorite is the Yankees, if Lin really goes there, do I have to pinch my nose and watch Yankees games... please don't go.]
[Upstairs, no one cares whether you watch the Yankees or not, since when can fans interfere with a player's personal choice? If you ask me, the only pity is Ichiro already went to Miami—if Lin went a bit earlier, the late-career legend and the rising genius playing for the same elite team, competing for the championship together, the imagery is too beautiful to behold.]
The range of fan discussion mainly focused on which team Lin Guanglai would choose as his destination, but some expressed more negative views—most of them believed that Lin Guanglai's behavior was just a show orchestrated by the agent team to create greater profit; some even compared it to LeBron James' high-profile announcement to join Miami Heat in the summer of 2010, "The Decision."
[Am I the only one who thinks Lin is too high-profile? Yes, I admit he has dominated Nippon Professional Baseball, but Major League Baseball and Nippon Professional Baseball are two different worlds. A player who hasn't pitched a single ball or had a single batting match in Major League, first stating that he won't play if not in Dual Swordsmanship, then making such a big show of choosing a team publicly, after all these antics, my initial goodwill towards him is completely gone—I really can't like players who love showboating...]
[Turns out I'm not the only one who thinks this way? I'm now impatiently waiting for the spring training games, to see how Major League batters educate him—Major League isn't easy to play in, and Nippon Professional Baseball at best is stronger than 3A league, there have been players who dominated 3A before, but how many who actually made it?]
[Hurry up and end this farce, I don't care which team he goes to, the key is whether he can exhibit the god-like skills that the media talks about, that's what concerns me most as a neutral fan.]
[Those people above seem a bit anxious, the sourness is about to overflow: The players and teams mutually agree, it's not your place to oppose as bystanders. Besides, if not for concerns about affecting spring training and the new season preparation, Lin hasn't accepted Japan Team's WBC invitation temporarily, if it wasn't for that, you'd see his abilities during WBC matches!]
The online discussions have intensified, with opinions gradually becoming polarized; yet, regardless of public chatter, Lin Guanglai and his team continue to passionately evaluate the prospects offered by various teams.
