Uehara’s Debuts
Quick notes about Koji Uehara — he’ll make his spring debut on Feb 27 vs the Marlins, and his regular season debut on April 8 at home against the Yankees. Uehara opens the season as the Orioles’ #2 starter behind Jeremy Guthrie (who as it happens, has a Japanese-American mom).
19/02/2009 at 12:13 pm Permalink
Hey,
As an O’s fan, thanks for the coverage fo these players. I admittedly knew nothing about these guys nor where to find out more about Japanese baseball before finding your site. A great resource for an Oriole blogger now that the team is mining talent on the other side of the Pacific.
Ryohei Tanaka: What’s the story with this guy? The minor league stats are not good…why would the Orioles be interested? did he have any success in the Japanese majors?
Also, any good source for stats for the Japanese league? Thanks again for your coverage.
19/02/2009 at 1:00 pm Permalink
Thanks for the kind words. I hope you will continue reading the site throughout the season and become a fan of Japanese baseball.
Regarding Tanaka, he only made a handful of appearances at the top level in Japan, all in 2003. This was included in the entry I posted on him last weekend. I can’t explain why the O’s signed him, but they must have seen something they liked in his tryout. Perhaps he’ll be able to improve with the right coaching or conditioning.
JapaneseBaseball.com is far and away the best place to get NPB stats. Check out their player page for more.
19/02/2009 at 5:23 pm Permalink
Didn’t know Guthrie is part-Japanese, neat.