Japanese Players In MLB Rumors

Odds and Ends: Manny, Pavano, Gonzalez

Some Saturday mid-day linkage: Hitoki Iwase was lit up in the Olympics, possibly dropping his stock as a prospect. Iwase was one of several Japanese players being scouted by Major League clubs in Beijing. Luis Gonzalez reminisces about his trade to the Diamondbacks ten years ago. Manny Ramirez is not interested in talking about those old Philadelphia rumors. I'm shocked, shocked. J.D. Drew's back spasms are actually a herniated disk. According to Nick Cafardo, the Red Sox would love to add another outfielder, but can't seem to lay their hands on one. No offense to Jason Lane. He's baaaa-aaaack: Free-agent-to-be...   Continue Reading

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Odds and Ends: Lowell, Carroll, Saltalamacchia

Time to gather up today's links. With Mike Lowell headed to the DL, Jeff Horrigan wonders if a waiver trade for an infielder could be in order. ESPN's Buster Olney mentioned the Indians' Jamey Carroll as a possibility for the D'Backs on Monday, though he noted the two teams have not talked. Evan Grant suggests the Rangers trade Engel Beltre or Elvis Andrus for pitching this winter. Additionally, he thinks the Rangers might end up trading Jarrod Saltalamacchia rather than Gerald Laird. Aaron Gleeman revisits the '03 trade of Bobby Kielty for Shannon Stewart. Patrick Newman runs down some lesser-known...   Continue Reading

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Japanese Free Agents For '09

East Windup Chronicle points us to a list of some of the more interesting Japanese players who will be free agents after this season. Most of these guys are around 32-33 years old. Here's who we've got: Koji Uehara, SP/RP - NPB Tracker profiles him here. Tomohiro Nioka, SS - We wrote a little bit about Nioka in October of '07. Kenshin Kawakami, SP - East Windup Chronicle profiled him for us last year. Hitoki Iwase, RP - That same post also covered Iwase. Masahiro Araki, 2B - Hit .263/.296/.302 in '07 - not much with the bat. Hirokazu Ibata,...   Continue Reading

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Odds and Ends: Gallardo, NPB, Braves

Today's link collection... Check out the latest MLB Roundup video. The crew hands out April awards, assesses Billy Beane's gameplan, and looks at Jeff Ma's third-place Tout Wars team. RotoAuthority helps Yovani Gallardo owners pick up the pieces and find a replacement (he has a torn ACL). The Brewers have guys they can plug in but Gallardo seemed primed for a stellar season. They'll keep an eye on the trade market. Mike Hampton could retire, but it's highly unlikely that he'll abandon the rest of his '08 salary. Nippon Professional Baseball might shorten the tenure needed for free agency, except...   Continue Reading

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Ranking Japanese Pitchers

By my count there are five Japanese pitchers who stand a good chance of jumping over to MLB for the 2008 season. I asked Aaron Shinsano and Jackson Broder of East Windup Chronicle to rank them for us and write a short description for each. Another knowledgable friend, Tak Iwanaga, also added some info below. 1. Hitoki Iwase - Iwase was on the hill for the tail end of last night's perfect game, the Japan Series clinching victory for the Chunichi Dragons. The lefty closer has 40+ saves three years running with a career 1.91 ERA. Tops out at around..   Continue Reading

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Tomohiro Nioka Could Come To MLB

Tomohiro Nioka is a 31 year-old shortstop for the Yomiuri Giants of Japan. He's starting to generate a little buzz as a possible MLB crossover this winter, especially given the weak free agent shortstop market. Nioka will be a free agent this winter (no posting fee required). I haven't seen any recent quotes indicating that he wants to come over here, but he did say "I'd most definitely consider playing in the Major Leagues" back in 2003. The Daily Herald's Scot Gregor notes that the White Sox could opt to pursue Nioka over Juan Uribe. The Sox have had success..   Continue Reading

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Madden Takes On Mike Pagliarulo

Bill Madden of the New York Daily News illustrates an interesting discrepancy regarding some harsh criticism of Brian Cashman. Mike Pagliarulo, former player and co-founder of a scouting company, has a pretty cool website called The BaseLine Report where he dishes scouting knowledge. His company often gathers intelligence on Japanese players and consults for many teams. Pagliarulo put up this MySpace post a few weeks ago, giving Brian Cashman a D- grade and calling him one of the worst GMs in the game. He compares the Kei Igawa signing to the Mike Hampton contract. Huh? Madden quotes Pagliarulo as writing,..   Continue Reading

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Mike Plugh On Koji Uehara: Part 2

Have you heard about 32 year-old righthanded starter Koji Uehara? He's a free agent likely to come over from Japan to MLB this winter (no posting fee). I wanted to learn more about him, so I consulted the authority on such matters: Mike Plugh. Mike runs the Uehara Watch blog. He also has Matsuzaka Watch and writes for Baseball Prospectus. You can read Part 1 of our Q&A here; a few additional questions are below. Do you know of any specific teams that are expected to pursue Uehara? I've read that the Angels like him. I think the Angels are..   Continue Reading

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Mike Plugh On Koji Uehara: Part 1

Right fielder Kosuke Fukudome is going to be a big deal this winter. He's the next big thing from Japan, and you can scroll through multiple posts on him here. But there's another name surfacing on the radar: 32 year-old righthanded starter Koji Uehara. He's a free agent likely to come over to MLB this winter (no posting fee). I wanted to learn more about him, so I consulted the authority on such matters: Mike Plugh. Mike runs the Uehara Watch blog. He also has Matsuzaka Watch and writes for Baseball Prospectus. Our Uehara Q&A ran long so I'm breaking..   Continue Reading

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Japanese Players In MLB

Nerd that I am, I decided to compile a spreadsheet of all 28 Japanese players who have played in Major League Baseball. You can Download japanese_players_in_mlb_102906.xls here. Some highlights and fun facts: You might think that a Japanese player first played in MLB in 1995, when Hideo Nomo took the Majors by storm. Not true. The first Japanese player to play in MLB was reliever Masanori Murakami back in 1964 for the Giants. There's an interesting story behind that. Not only was Murakami the first, he was the youngest at 20 years old. The next youngest was Mac Suzuki, who..   Continue Reading

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