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Japanese Players In MLB

Madden Takes On Mike Pagliarulo

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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, "The Yankees chose not to use (Cashman’s) Japan consultants, who told him to walk away from Igawa."  That’s Pagliarulo’s way of saying Cashman ignored his sound advice against signing Igawa.

However, that sentence has apparently been removed from the blog post since Madden revealed that Pagliarulo’s actual report to Cashman was fairly positive.

Madden called out Pagliarulo, whose response has apparently been to edit the MySpace post in his company’s favor. 

Mike Plugh On Koji Uehara: Part 2

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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 the team to watch with Uehara, simply because the drafted him out of college many years ago. He almost came to the Majors as a 23-year old, but the lure of the Yomiuri Giants proved too strong to pry him away. There’s a relationship there, albeit one from the distant past. Other than the Angels, I think you’ll see a lot of teams trying to get in on the action. There’s a huge market for Japanese players around the Major Leagues that is only growing. The Mets are very eager to get into Japan again. The Cubs seem to be active as well, and perhaps the Braves. The list may include every MLB club, so it’s a matter of money in the end, just like every other free agent. Would he play for the Mariners with Ichiro in center and Johjima is his backstop? Maybe. A lot of intriguing scenarios are out there.

Tell us a little bit about Koji as a person.

As for his personality, Uehara is very easygoing. He’s a funny guy by all accounts with a good sense of humor. He likes to keep things relaxed, but he’s extremely professional as are almost all Japanese athletes. He has a typically disciplined work ethic and is very focused in practice and on the field. He’d fit in virtually anywhere, although I think he’ll want to play on a winner if given a reasonable choice. He’s over 30 and may have a small window of opportunity to contribute to a championship ballclub.

Mike Plugh On Koji Uehara: Part 1

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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 this up into two posts.

You’ve described Uehara as having an 88-90 mph fastball as well as many other pitches.  Is his forkball his bread and butter?  Is there anyone in MLB past or present you’d compare him to?

Koji Uehara has a fastball that tops out at 94-95mph, but he rarely hits that velocity anymore. His hallmark is control and he uses a slower fastball, at about 88-89 on the corners, more effectively as a veteran. His plus pitches include a knee-buckling forkball, a nice curve, and an effective slider.  If I had to compare him to a Major Leaguer, I’d go with a more sturdy Brad Radke. He’s about the same size, right-handed, and has such amazing control that I’d be comfortable with that kind of expectation.

Given the apparent failure of Kei Igawa in the AL East, do you think American League teams will shy away from Uehara this winter?  Is Uehara better than Igawa?

I think there are a number of teams that will be scared away from Uehara based on having seen Kazuhisa Ishii, Hideki Irabu, and Kei Igawa coming out of Japan’s Central League. Those teams probably will have made a mistake by not doing their homework. Uehara is one of the greatest pitchers of his generation. Where the other players had good numbers in Japan, Uehara also brings the same type of translatable ability that Daisuke Matsuzaka has. He knows how to pitch.

Uehara has been used as a reliever this year.  Was that a surprise to you, and which role do you think he’ll fill for an MLB team?

The shift that Yomiuri has made this season hurts his potential value. The Giants used Uehara as their closer to break him in during a late start, the result of a lingering hamstring injury suffered in Spring Training. The team raced off to a fast start and management decided to keep him there. He’s excelled in the role, but he’s not happy. He’s one of the premiere starters in Japan and shouldn’t be in the closer’s role. I have a sneaking suspicion that the Giants are doing it to spite him, as they know he will be gone next year. In no way, shape, or form should he be considered anything but a starter in the Major Leagues.

Many thanks to Mike Plugh for the interview.  I’ll post a couple of closing questions in Part 2 on Friday.

Japanese Players In MLB

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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 came to the Mariners at 21.

The most common type of player to come from Japan is a reliever.  Relievers make up almost half of the players to come from Japan to MLB.

The Mets have had eight Japanese players, more than any other team.  The best year from any of them was Tsuyoshi Shinjo’s 2001 when he amassed 3.5 wins.  Shinjo played all three outfield positions for New York.

Of course you could guess that the best-ever season by a Japanese player was one of Ichiro’s.  It was his ’01 debut, when he was worth 9 wins.  Best year by a pitcher was Hideo Nomo in 2003; he was worth nearly 8 wins for L.A.

It’s also obvious that Ichiro has totaled the most wins throughout his career (more than 45).  You may be surprised to learn that Hideki Matsui places just fifth on the list, behind Nomo, Shigetoshi Hasegawa, and Tomo Ohka.

I bet you think 2006 was the best year for Japanese players, what with guys like Takashi Saito and Kenji Johjima joining MLB.  Nope – Japanese players were slightly more productive in 2002.  Back in ’02 there were major contributions from Ichiro, Nomo, Ohka, and Kaz Sasaki.  You can point to Matsui and Shinji Mori’s injuries as the reason 2006 wasn’t the banner year.  Regardless, I’m sure we’ll fly past the Japanese contribution of 36 wins from 2002 in the upcoming season.

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