Thanks to the Philadelphia Phillies dispatching the upstart Tampa Bay Rays, baseball is over on this side of the world, but in Japan, the NPB version of the World Series is just heating up.
The Seibu Lions and Yomiuri Giants are engaged in a good old fashioned barn burner, with the series squared at a game piece and Game Three on tap Tuesday night.
Game One brought back memories of last season’s Japan Series finale when two Chunichi Dragon hurlers combined to toss a no-hitter as they eliminated the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters.
When it took until the fourth inning before the Giants snapped Hideaki Wakui’s no-no, it looked like the improbable of improbables was shaping up – back-to-back Series no-hitters.
But a fourth-inning error by Seibu brought Giant slugger Alex Ramirez to the plate and he hit a ball to right that looked catchable, but Lion right fighter Hiram Bocachica, after making a diving catch, had the ball roll out of his glove for an RBI double.
“The ball was in my glove, but then my glove got stuck in the turf and I almost broke my wrist,” Bocachica told The Daily Yomiuri.
Bocachica’s shame for making the only mistake of the game ended when Takuya Kimura hit a leadoff single in the ninth off Lion closer Alex Graman, but that’s all the Giants could accomplish in dropping the opener, 2-1.
In Game Two on Sunday night, The Giants pulled one out of the fire when Ramirez went yard with one out in the ninth inning to give Yomirui a 3-2 win and a 1-1 series tie.
If Seibu hopes to gain control of this series, it needs to manufacture a run in this series; all five of its runs so far have come via the home run.
In some recent news coming out of Japan, it seems the Boston Red Sox are seriously pursuing amateur free agent Junichi Tazawa, currently pitching in the Japanese Industrial Leagues. Also rumoured to be interested are the Mets, Braves and, of course, most NPB teams. The 22-year-old righthander is enjoying a solid year for Eneos Oil and is most worthy of the attention. In 54 IP, Tazawa has allowed 46 hits, a scant four — yes four – free passes and has struck out 56 with an ERA of 1.00.
A probable early round choice heading into this year’s NPB draft, Tazawa throws a low 90s fastball, a curve and a shuuto, which is a pitch common to NPB hurlers that breaks down and in to right-handers when thrown by a righty (it’s essentially a reverse slider). It looks like the Red Sox are being very serious in their efforts to both scout and recruit from the Asian market and it is going to be very interesting to see the reaction from the NPB should Boston or any other MLB team sign Tazawa prior to the draft.
This is definitely a name and a situation that merits monitoring over the next several months.
In a report over at Japanball.com Monday, Koji Uehara, after finally attaining free agency, announced his intention to pursue a career in North America in 2009, a development that should surprise no one. Contrary to some reports currently surfacing, Uehara does not have any arm problems at this time. He is also not looking going to be a closer again in 2008. Uehara was inserted into the closer role in 2007 for the Yomiuri Giants, but with the off-season acquisition of Marc Kroon, he has been returned to the starting rotation this year, his preferred position.
Uehara should be a most welcome addition to a MLB starting rotation for 2009. He consistently pounds the strike zone and flat out doesn’t walk people. With a career K/BB ratio of 6.9 to 1 and a nine-year total of only 190 free passes, he should transition to the majors as a very strong No. 3 calibre starting pitcher with great potential to have immediate success. For those in deep keeper formats, the time to start acquiring Koji Uehara would be today.
After setting a league record for hits in a season, Alex Ramirez landed a free agent deal with Yomiuri. (Kyodo Photo)
With the holiday season now behind us, let’s take a quick look at some of the recent happenings around the NPB.
It has been a very busy offseason over in Japan, with the Yomiuri Giants - the “evil empire” of the NPB - being front and centre in the news. The Yankees might have written the book on how to buy a championship, but the Yomiuri Giants stole most of the pages this winter. The Giants added three top tier free-agents in Marc Kroon, Alex Ramirez, and Seth Greisinger to an already impressive lineup that managed to win the Central League title in 2007.
The acquisition of Kroon will allow Yomiuri to slide Koji Uehara back into the starting rotation for 2008. Uehara will be eligible for free agency after another eight days of service time and is in all likelihood heading to MLB for 2009. This past season, Ramirez set a new league record for hits with 204 and led the league with a whopping 122 RBI. Greisinger went 16-8 with a 2.84 ERA for Tokyo Yakult in 2007.
As it sits right now, barring catastrophe, you can pretty much pencil Yomiuri in for another Central League title in 2008.
One of the top potential free agents this past offseason was closer Hitoki Iwase of the Chunichi Dragons. Iwase elected to not exercise his free agent rights and recently re-signed with Chunichi for one year. Offered both a one- and a four-year deal, he chose the shorter deal, explaining that this will allow him time to more carefully look at his future this coming year. This one sounds an awful lot like the Hiroki Kuroda situation that occurred in 2006. With three consecutive seasons of 40 or more saves and a career ERA of 1.97 in over 500 appearances over nine seasons, should Iwase decide to venture to MLB he could very well be a top acquisition heading into 2009.
Softbank Hawks’ righthander Kazumi Saito has finally decided to have surgery to repair his damaged right rotator cuff. This past year, he had a 6-3 record with a 2.74 ERA in only 12 starts, and, as we discussed in May, he chose to attempt to rehab his shoulder muscle fatigue rather than taking the surgery route. This is a major setback and will probably mean another short season, if he pitches at all in 2008. For those hoping to see Kazumi playing in MLB real soon, I think those plans better be revised.
In early December, the Hanshin Tigers’ hard tossing closer Kyuji Fujikawa formally advised his team of his desire to pitch in the majors, as early as the 2009 season. Team owner Tsuneaki Miyazaki’s response was, “We will never consider using the posting system for him.” Fujikawa currently has another four-plus years before heading into free agency. Now, this is the same team that posted Kei Igawa following the 2006 season, so there is at least some history here that Hanshin is willing to use the posting system, but at this time it looks like Fujikawa will be looking at MLB much further down the road than he’d prefer. This past season, he tied the single-season record with 46 saves to go along with a stellar 1.63 ERA (although, believe it or not, that was his worst ERA over the last three seasons). Even more amazing, over the past three seasons, Fujiwaka has struck out 376 in only 254 2/3 innings with a mere 35 earned runs. These are truly staggering numbers, leading one to easily understand Hanshin’s position on that posting request.
Speaking of interesting rumours, the current scuttlebutt concerning Yu Darvish is certainly a gem. Reports surfaced that he was heading to the Yankees through the posting system for 2009. Squash this one right quick. The 21-year-old, coming off both a Pacific League MVP and Sawamura Award this past season, has another six years before he’ll attain free agency. Last year, Darvish went 15-5 with a 1.82 ERA and a league-leading 210 strikeouts.
What I do consider very interesting is that even if he completes the full nine years to attain free agency and has the desire to pitch in North America, he would still only be 27 at that time. A posting could be possible in the future, but certainly not as early as 2009. Prior to Christmas, Darvish re-upped with the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters on a contract that will be paying him 200 million yen for 2008. To put this in perspective, Ichiro, Hideki Matsui and Dice-K all took six years to reach the 200 million yen mark. Darvish is the youngest player to ever reach that salary level.
After the furor last year with Dice-K, Igawa and Akinori Iwamura all moving to MLB through the posting system, this offseason has been a very quiet one. In fact, there have been no postings at all. Three top candidates, Koji Uehara, Shinnosuke Abe, and Tomo Nioka, are all property of Yomiuri, a team that steadfastly refuses to use the posting system.
Lotte Marines right-hander Hiroyuki Kobayashi had requested a posting this offseason but was turned down. Coming off three double-digit win seasons and a 2.69 ERA in 2007, the 29-year-old Kobayashi should be on the radar heading into the fall of 2008. Combine that with the younger players who are simply too young and valuable, and it was just one of those years.
Wrapping this up, let’s take a moment to congratulate the Japanese side for its recent success in the Asian Olympic qualifier. Team Japan was led by the “kiddie corps” pitching trio of Hideaki Wakui, Yu Darvish, and the elder statesman of this group at 22, Yoshihisa Naruse. They swept all three games, earning a ticket to Beijing this summer. Combined, this group went 48-10 in 2007.
Add to that rotation the veteran presence of Koji Uehara , with Kenshin Kawakami and Hiroyuki Kobayashi in middle relief and possibly two of the best closers on the planet in Iwase and Fujikawa. While the offense this time around would be lacking in the power department, little ball and that pitching will be the keys to a podium finish.
Apparently, when we reported last week that Japanese outfielder Kosuke Fukudome’s injury could affect his ability to become a free agent next year, we jumped the gun. Thanks as always to Tim McLeod for passing along a news item that sheds more light on the situation. It turns out that a special exception that was incorporated from this season allows a player who was on the active roster for more than 145 days the previous season to add up to 60 registered days to their service time in the event of an injury. So Fukudome, currently 29 days shy of the requisite amount of service time, will be eligible to become a free agent at season’s end. However, contrary to what Chunichi stated earlier, Fukudome will require surgery on his ailing elbow, and that’s apparently what he was doing in the U.S. An examination in Los Angeles on Friday discovered bone fragments in his right elbow. Fukudome is expected to undergo endoscopic surgery some time over the next week and change, a procedure that will sideline the 30-year-old for the remainder of the season. He will need about two months to recover from the operation, meaning he’ll be fine by the time next season rolls around.
While things didn’t work out so well for teammate Mark Prior this year, Kerry Wood has been impressive in his first week back in the Show in over a year. History has taught us not to get too excited when it comes to Wood, but so far, his transition to the bullpen is going quite well. In three appearances covering 3 2/3 innings, he has yet to give up a run while surrendering just three hits. Wood has fanned four and walked two. Like I said, it’s very early days, and the fact that he needs more time to warm up than other relievers suggests this is still a work in progress, but the results so far are encouraging. It will be interesting to see if Wood can work his way into a more vital bullpen role by season’s end.
