The latest international signings involving former big leaguers:
- The CTBC Brothers of Taiwan’s Chinese Professional Baseball League are nearing an agreement with right-hander Gabriel Ynoa, reports Daniel Kim of ESPN (Twitter link). The 27-year-old saw action in parts of three big league seasons with the Mets and Orioles, tossing a career-high 110.2 innings for Baltimore in 2019. Ynoa has a career 5.39 ERA and a matching FIP in his big league time. He spent last season with the Yakult Swallows of Nippon Professional Baseball but posted only a 10.13 ERA in 24 innings at Japan’s highest level.
- The CPBL’s Wei Chuan Dragons announced the signings of right-handers Junichi Tazawa, Jake Brigham and Drew Gagnon, as well as utilityman Rosell Herrera (h/t to CPBL Stats). Tazawa was once a notable set-up piece in Boston and logged eight big league seasons between the Red Sox, Marlins and Angels. Brigham’s MLB experience consisted of 12 games with the 2015 Braves; he’d spent the past four seasons in the Korea Baseball Organization. Gagnon threw 35.2 innings of 7.32 ERA ball with the 2018-19 Mets before heading to the KBO last season. Herrera played for the Reds, Royals and Marlins in 2018-19 and hit .225/.286/.316. As an expansion franchise, the Dragons are allowed five foreign-born players next season instead of the customary three. (Right-hander Bryan Woodall signed as the fifth foreign player).
i wonder if Chia-Jen Lo is coming back to the Dragons
I wonder if Gabriel Ynoa is in any way related to the Braves pitcher Huascar Ynoa. Maybe they are brothers? I also don’t remember Jake Brigham ever pitching for the 2015 Braves, much less in a dozen games. Can any Braves fans refresh my memory? I think Junichi Tazawa was always kind of a bust in my eyes. I know he was a productive major league pitcher but when he was acquired, Tazawa was almost billed as a younger, healthier, harder throwing version of Dice-K when Dice-K was in his prime. That clearly never came close to occurring. Didn’t Tazawa start off in MLB basically getting handed a starting pitching job that he lost pretty quickly? I think he was viewed as a possibly dominant starting pitcher for the long term when he was acquired and paid for.
Tazawa signed a 3 year deal for $3.3 million total as an undrafted free agent. He wasn’t posted because he declined to be drafted by the NPB. The Sox then owned him in arbitration and over worked his arm. They got way more value than what they paid for.
Looks like he got a $1.8 million signing bonus too. Still, I think the Sox make that signing 100% of the time if they had the chance to do it over again.
… the Marlins on the other hand.
hmmm. I didn’t know all that. I thought he was posted like other players from Japan. I just remember the hype. It does sound like an incredible deal for the Sox financially in that case. Why did they over work him like that? It always bugs me when teams do that because it’s like watching them destroy something that could be great. I watched Bobby Cox and the Braves do it with Steve Avery and I watched Dusty baker and the Cubs do it with both Mark Prior and Kerry Wood simultaneously. I literally heard both Cox and Baker say they “didn’t believe in pitch counts.” It’s very frustrating watching someone throw away something great when you know it’s happening and they clearly have know clue. Can you imagine what Steve Avery, Mark Prior and Kerry Wood could have done combined if they were allowed to stay healthy enough to reach their long term potential?
Calvin Schiraldi at UT. They had Clemens and Swindell but he was the go to guy for them.
Monitored pitch counts has not solved the injury issues we continue to see on the mound. Perhaps Cox and Baker aren’t necessarily wrong and there is a bigger problem nobody is noticing.
The issue is mechanical. Its not how often you throw the ball but how you throw the ball. Pitching is unnatural, throwing over hand with all of these herky jerky motions is straining on the body. And these days everyone wants they’re own delivery. Its not like 40-60 years ago where pitchers threw 250-300 innings every year and didn’t seem to have as many injuries as there are today with guys throwing 130-180 innings a lot of the older pitchers seemed to have very similar, much smoother deliveries.
I am a little surprised that the Orioles didn’t bring back Ynoa. His record in the majors is not that good but he would be a solid depth piece and maybe someone out of the bullpen.
Surprised at all these CPBL signings of former major leaguers. I wonder after this year and the popularity it got due to COVID it’s gonna try and compete with the KBO and NPB?