NPB Tracker

Once again I’m checking out the Japan Series on Justin.tv and chatting with the community at JapaneseBaseball.com. If you’re up late, I highly recommend stopping by.

Tonight’s game features Koji Uehara going up against Seibu ace Hideaki Wakui.

Sponichi is reporting that Texas is getting into the mix on Junichi Tazawa. The Rangers are rushing Pacific scouting director Jim Colborn over to Japan to visit the highly touted pitcher. Colborn was quoted as saying he hadn’t gotten to see any Japanese players this year due to taking over the Rangers’ bullpen coach job mid-season. Meanwhile, Nikkan Sports is reporting that Colborn will also looking at acquiring Kenshin Kawakami and Koji Uehara.

Texas had Japanese relievers Kazuo Fukumori and Yuginaga Maeda at thier AAA affiliate this year, but neither made an impact at the MLB level.

Update: Sanspo is reporting that Hanshin also has Rays OF/DH Jonny Gomes on their list, as well Nippon Ham starter Ryan Glynn.

Daily Sports reports the Hanshin Tigers have added a few more names to their offseason shopping list. We already knew about Nelson Cruz, and now the Tigers are looking at Kevin Mench and Jose Bautista, both of whom finished last year with Toronto.

Hanshin is also looking at a couple of foreign players who are already in Japan: Rakuten’s Jose Fernandez, Seibu’s Hiram Bocachica, and Michael Restovich, who was just released by Softbank. Fernandez is the most accomplished hitter of the three, smacking 159 HR with a .293 avg over his six years in Japan, though he is suspect with the glove. Bocachica hit well when he was in the lineup, with 20 HR in 78 games, and he’s always been sound with the glove. Restovich… he’s coming off a bad year and would be a reclaimation project at this point.

Update: I got to watch a little bit of the game last night, and was pretty impressed by justin.tv. I’d definitely recommend checking it out if you’re up. The Giants won the game, 6-4, taking a 2-1 lead in the series. Giants starter Tetsuya Utsumi looked pretty good when I was watching, he was able to throw all his pitches for strikes.

You can check out Game 4, same bat-time, same bat-channel.

Game 3 of the Japan Series is today starting at 6:15pm JST. If you’re a night owl like me you can perhaps check out this channel on justin.tv to watch it on and chat with the community at JapaneseBaseball.com.

If you miss it, Baseball Reference has a wiki page devoted to this year’s Series.

• Orix will work out former Phillies farmhand Mark Kelly. Kelly, an Australian, spent last year with Kochi of the independent Shikoku Island League, going 8-7 with a 3.31 era.
• Former Yomiuri closer Junichi Kawahara passed a try out with Chunichi and will join the Dragons. Kawahara was once an effective pitcher, but has been injured for the last three years.
• Nippon Ham has put Hanshin infielder Makoto Imaoka on it’s list of acquisition targets. Imaoka was one of my favorite Hanshin players from when I lived in the Kansai area from 2000-2003, but has been hampered by injuries the last few years.
• Rakuten will send manager Katsuya Nomura to the MLB Winter Meetings in search of import players to add to the team’s 2009 roster. Nomura is reportedly interested in Padres reliever Brian Falkenborg.

English Articles:

• NPB Tracker made it on to WashingtonPost.com.
• Tyrone Woods is leaving the Dragons, who are no longer interested in paying his salary despite another good season.
• Fangraphs considers some of the Japanese position players that have come to MLB in recent years to be bargains.
• Tsubamegun has a better write-up on Game 3 of the Japan Series than I will have time for.

Though Junichi Tazawa might be the first consensus NPB first round draft pick-caliber player to jump directly to MLB, he’s not the first to have considered it. And even when he signs, he won’t be the first amateur out of Japan to sign with an MLB organization.

The guys listed below have all either negotiated or signed with MLB teams before playing pro ball in Japan. None of the players listed elicited the kind of reaction Tazawa got, but none of them pursued an MLB deal with the same level of fanfare that Tazawa has now. 

Koji Uehara: came close to signing with the Angels out of college, but backed off because of language challenges and having to start in the minors. Went on to have immediate success in NPB, and subsequently make numerous requests to be posted. Finally coming to MLB this off-season. 

Hayato Terahara: taken directly from Gary Garland’s excellent site:

Dodgers V.P. Tommy Lasorda personally tried to sign the 18 year old high school phenom with a 98mph fastball, Hayato Terehara, laying on the blather very thick as only Lasorda can. Terahara ultimately decided to remain in Japan and was drafted by the Daiei Hawks after a lottery drawing between the Hawks and three other Japanese teams.

I was in Japan when this happened and while it was reported in the media,  Terahara didn’t really seem interested in signing with the Dodgers. Terahara spent several ineffective years with the Hawks, then got traded to Yokohama where he immediately blossomed into a frontline pitcher.

GG Sato: signed with the Phillies after college and played a couple of years in their system. Drafted by Seibu afterward with a late round pick and eventually became a pretty good player. Kind of a late bloomer.

Kazuhito Tadano: went undrafted in NPB because of his appearance in an adult film while he was in college, but the Indians were willing to give him a contract. Tadano pitched briefly in the show but never really did well enough in AAA to get an extended shot in the majors. Nippon Ham drafted him with their first pick in 2007, and he’s back in Japan now. 

Sho Nakata: drew interest from the Twins, and the Mariners reportedly had a $3M offer ready for him (can’t find the link now). Chose to enter into the NPB draft and was selected by Nippon Ham. Just wrapped up his first year with the Fighters’ farm team.

Robert Boothe: Grew up in Japan with an American father and Japanese mother. Boothe pitched in college but didn’t have must statistical success. Still, the five NPB teams that were said to be interested in drafting him backed off when he decided to sign with the Dodgers.

There’s a number of other lesser-known Japanese-born players playing affiliated ball in the US. JapaneseBallPlayers.com has a pretty comprehensive list of guys that are currenlty on US minor league rosters, as well as some notable former players.

This year’s Sawamura Award selection committee agreed with me and choose Rakuten ace Hisashi Iwakuma as the recipient of this year’s award. Here’s a YouTube clip of the game that really put Iwakuma over the top.

Runner-up Yu Darvish had an outstanding year, meeting all seven guidelines for selection, but in the end Iwakuma’s win total and slightly better era won out. Said selection committee member Choji Murata: “Darvish is a pitcher who can take the award again from next year”.

MLB veterans So Taguchi and Tadahito Iguchi both could be headed back to Japan next season.

Iguchi is said to be undecided about where he wants to play next year, but has expressed a strong desire in playing for Japan in the 2009 WBC (I don’t think he’s a lock to make the team though). Rakuten and his former organization Softbank have both hinted at interest.

Taguchi’s option was unsurprisingly declined by the Phillies, so he’ll be looking for work for next season. His former team Orix is watching the situation unfold, but not commenting on an acquisition yet. A return to Orix for a farewell season would be a nice ending for a guy that won one Japan Championship and two World Series Championships.

The Giants and Lions followed up Saturday’s pitcher’s duel with another closely fought game, as Yomiuri tied the Series up on Alex Ramirez’s walk-off home run. I didn’t get to watch the game, but I’ll share the Yahoo Japan box score and the YouTube highlights that I’ve found. Seibu starter Kazuyoshi Hoashi put a lot of runners on base, but his defense made plays behind him and kept the damage to a minimum. I didn’t realize that Seibu’s chunky 3rd baseman Takeya Nakamura was that competent with the glove.

You can catch Ramirez’s walk-off bomb at about 2:50 of this video. Seibu reliever Shinya Okamoto threw forkball in the dirt with his first pitch, then threw another on 0-1. He elevated the second one, and Ramirez took the mistake over the center field fence. Ramirez’s hero interview starts at about 4:55 in the same video.

For another view, check out the write-up at Tsubamegun.

Game 3 will be on Tuesday, Nov 4 at the Seibu Dome in the exotic Tokorozawa, Saitama.

I’ve added some updates to my free agent list. Here is a summary.

International Free Agents

• Hitoki Iwase (RP, Chunichi Dragons): Iwase will decline free agency and remain with Chunichi.
• Tomohiro Nioka (SS, Yomiuri Giants): My gut feeling is that the Giants are done with Nioka. Nippon Ham is interested.
• Hirokazu Ibata (SS, Chunichi Dragons): Staying put.
• Naoyuki Ohmura (CF, Softbank Hawks): Traded to Orix, missed qualifying for free agency by 13 days. Will be a Buffalo next season.
• Atsunori Inaba (OF, Nippon Ham Fighters): As expected, will remain with Nippon Ham.
• Daisuke Miura (SP, Yokohama BayStars): Hanshin is preparing to offer Miura a 4-year/12-oku yen ($12M) contract. Miura says he wants another shot at a title.

NPB-only Free Agents

• Ryota Igarashi (RP, Yakult Swallows): Staying with Yakult for now, with an eventual eye to the majors.
• Hidetaka Kawagoe (RP, Orix Buffaloes): Reportedly ready to move after being offered a pay cut by Orix. (Thanks to reader Jeff B for the tip)