Right-handed hurler Kazuhisa Makita is heading back to his native Japan. The Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles have announced his signing.
Makita jumped the Pacific in 2017-18, landing a two-year deal with the Padres. While he was able to generate quite a few more strikeouts in the majors (9.5 per nine) than he averaged over his prior tenure in Japan (5.0), the submariner was also prone to the long ball and surrendered a 5.40 ERA over 35 innings in his debut campaign.
While the Friars lost their bet that Makita’s low-eighties sinker would sufficiently befuddle MLB hitters, he was quite effective last year in the upper minors. In 70 1/3 frames across 43 Double-A and Triple-A appearances, he worked to a 3.33 ERA with 8.6 K/9 against 1.4 BB/9. The showing did not convince the San Diego organization to give him another crack at the majors.
Now, Makita will attempt to pick up where he left off in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball. But he’ll do so with a rival of his former team. Before coming to the bigs, Makita had compiled 921 1/3 innings of 2.83 ERA pitching over seven seasons with the Seibu Lions.
Bummer… I was really hoping [TEAM NAME] would take a flyer on him.
Oh, Wilford, Mama June loves you so.
How is your seizure situation Mama June? I hope it has gotten better. You had me worried about you last season. You need to stay away from that man. He is no good for you. He is a bad person that just uses you and disrespects you. I’m confident he is cheating on you as well. Have you kicked him to the curb yet?
Stand Up Man, I am doing well, thank you. No need to worry, Eugene is a kind man who I love dearly, How could anyone ever cheat on me? Have you SEEN me? Eugene is very lucky to have me.
But Eugene has all those golf ball sized lumps on his scalp. Has he had a doctor check that out yet? What are those about?
I mean, the Golden Eagles did take a flyer on him…
Ron Fowler read about Randy Jones and how effective he was with his slow ball sinker.
That was 1976.
Pete Rose was on the Reds, he couldn’t hit Randy Jones from either side of the plate.
The game has changed, RIP strategic baseball. It’s a swing for the fences league now.
That’s because the game is being played by GMs and their SABR-geeks, neither of whom understand the nuances of strategic baseball because they never played the game.
Too bad, it was a kick watching him pitch. He also makes a nice cordless drill, so that will be missed too.
Makita was just one more piece of evidence that Preller can’t scout or acquire legitimate ML-level players. Especially pitchers.