NPB Tracker

A couple of notes on the upcoming draft to pass along…

• Yoshinori Yamarin is an 18-year old pitcher who wants to go pro in Japan, but has a move across the Pacific in his sites should he not be drafted. And if he isn’t drafted, the Braves are said to be ready to move to sign him. Yamarin is a lanky 6’1, 176 lbs, and has done well in pre-draft workouts. He’s reportedly hit 91 mph with his fastball, and also throws a slider. It doesn’t seem like he’s among the elite group of pitching prospects in this year’s draft, but given the potential of losing him to an MLB organization I wonder if an NPB team will select him just based on potential. 
• Remember Hayato Doue? He was the Shikoku Island League catcher who nearly signed a minor league deal with the Boston Red Sox last off-season, only to have his visa application denied. He wound up going back to the Island League and having a decent season for the Kagawa Olive Guynors. SoftBank has him shortlisted for a pick as an instructional player. It seems like it would be a good move; the Hawks have been weak behind the plate since Kenji Johjima left.

We’re a few short days away from NPB entry draft, and while much has been written about Junichi Tazawa (by me in particular), there are plenty of stories to write about. I’m going to try and get to a few of ’em over the next couple of days.

This year’s draft is unusual in that it features multiple foreign-born draft-eligible players. All of the players listed below have received their education in Japan and wouldn’t qualify as foreign players under the NPB roster rules.

Yi-Jie Hsiao (Pitcher, Nara Sangyo University, Taiwanese citizen): Known as Ikketsu Sho in Japan, Hsiao is the best prospect on this list. Hsaio came to Japan on his own volition as a 16 year-old, after seeing the Koshien High School Baseball Tournament on TV. Hsiao made two appearances in Koushien before moving on to Nara Sangyo University. After spending his first three years as a reliever, Hsaio came into his own as a starter in his senior season, allowing no earned runs in 34 innings pitched. 

Hsaio reaches about 92 mph with his fastball with good command. TTT of Taiwan Baseball has a brief scouting report on Hsiao, in English. Nippon Ham has expressed an interest in drafting Hsiao. 

Krissada Shirakura (Pitcher, Asia University, Thai citizen): Asia University and Thailand national pitcher Shirakura is one of the more interesting candidates in this year’s draft. Born in Bangkok to a Japanese father and a Thai mother, Shirakura picked up baseball after moving to Japan around the age of 10. Out of admiration for Daisuke Matsuzaka, he chose to pitch in high school.

Shirakura was invited to play for Thailand’s national team in his final year of high school, and has represented his country of birth internationally each year since. He attributes his stamina to playing internationally, and learned a slider and forkball from Cuban opponents. He’s put up pretty good numbers at Asia University, but is considered undersized. I’ve seen him toward the end of projected draft lists for Hanshin and Nippon Ham. 

Shin Son-Hyon (Shortstop, Kyoto International High School, Korean citizen): Like Hsaio, Shin saw the Koshien Tournament on TV, liked what he saw, and decided to go to Japan as an exchange student. It took him about a year to handle daily conversations in Japanese. 

Shin was among 53 players worked out by Hiroshima in September, and the only one that “passed” the tryout, and may take him with a later pick. According to Shukan Baseball, he’s also drawn interest from Korean and American scouts.

Rafael Fernandez (Pitcher, Hakuoh University, Brazillian citizen): Yakult intends to select exchange student Fernandez as an instructional player, which would make him the first Brazillian to be drafted into NPB since Norberto Semanaka in 2003. Fernandez reportedly hits 94 mph on the gun, but has only won two games in his four college seasons. Yakult has a training academy in Brazil, and they might have a diamond in the rough if they can get him to command his stuff.

Nothing official has been announced, but it looks like Chunichi Dragons closer Hitoki Iwase will decline to file for free agency and remain the team. Sanspo, Nikkan Sports, Sponichi and several others are all running a nearly identical report in which Iwase comments, “It’s not decided when we’ll talk to the team, but inside there’s practical part of me”.

I wonder if his confidence took a hit after his poor performance in the Olympics. Or maybe he realizes that he’s coming off a sub-par season (by his standards) and doesn’t like what the market will bear for him. Iwase earned a little over $4.3M in 2008, so a move to MLB wouldn’t necessarily have gotten him a big raise. I’d also suggest that Iwase is more valuable to Chunichi than any other team, as the team lost Fukudome last year and is likely to lose Kenshin Kawakami. Keeping Iwase also allows Kazuki Yoshimi to move into the starting rotation full time.

Nothing is official until a contract is signed, but Chunichi is reportedly preparing a multi-year deal for their star closer. Last year they let him choose between a 1-year and 4-year contracts, so it’ll be interesting to see if they show the same flexibility this time around.

Sanspo reports that Yokohama is looking to acquire two Korean players, SK Wyverns outfielder Lee Jin-Young and Doosan Bears pitcher Lee Hye-Chun. According to the articles, Lee Hye-Chun is a fastball/slider lefty with a three-quarters motion, while Lee Jin-Young is a steady defender with gap power.

This marks a different approach for the BayStars, who got very little production from their six foreign players in 2008, and won’t bring any of them back for next year. This off-season they’re looking for quality rather than quantity from their foreign roster. Attracting Korean players seems to be business driven as well: “Now Korea is a big market. This time we definitely want to acquire a player from Korea,” said the team official scouting Lee Hye-Chun.

The Giants have defeated Chunichi to advance to their first Nippon Series since 2002. Yomiuri will face traditional Pacific League rival Seibu for the title. 

Members of the Giants management smiled for a few seconds before going back to serious thoughts, and the players were permitted to take part in a modest on-field celebration. Meanwhile, Giants legend Shigeo Nagashima publicly reminded the troops that the real challenge is ahead of them: “‘You’ll want to be told ‘congratulations’ after the Series… the challenge is the battle against Seibu starting on November 1”.

Yomiuri-Seibu is a classic Japan Series matchup; I equate to something like a Yankees-Dodgers or Tigers-Cardinals World Series. The two teams also met in 2002, 1994, 1990, 1987, and 1983, with the Lions holding a 3-2 edge. The teams also met in the 50’s with Seibu predecessor Nishitetsu beating out the Giants three years in a row from 1956-58.

The first Japan Series I ever saw was the 1994 Series, which was televised in the Chicago area (where I grew up) during the MLB labor dispute that canceled the World Series. I watched every game and it’s really what got me started on Japanese baseball.

I’ve been piling up random bullet points for over a month now, so rather than sift threw ’em I thought I’d throw them all out there and let you decide what’s interesting. 

Japanese Articles

• Chunichi is preparing a multi-year offer for closer HItoki Iwase. I think the Dragons’ offer could actually be comparable to the offers he’ll get from MLB teams.
• The SoftBank Hawks’ billionaire owner Masayoshi Son attended three Hawks games this year, the last of which was on Sept 28.
• Kazuhiro Kiyohara got quite a send-off around NPB. In his last game against Seibu, he was treated to a dou-age* by the opposing Lions, the team he began his pro career with. A few days earlier he struck out in his final appearance in Kobe’s beautiful Skymark Stadium.
• I stumbled across a Yu Darvish promotion on some kind of frozen breafast food.

English Articles

• Mainichi has an interesting piece on Phillies manager Charlie Manuel’s time as a player in Japan.

Misc updates on other NPB free agents. Some of these guys are already on my list, others will be added in the next day or two.

On with the updates…

Tyrone Woods (1B, Chunichi Dragons): Yahoo (via Daily Sports) reported that Tyrone Woods is going to leave Chunichi after the season ends. Woods put up another strong season in the Central League despite turning 39 in August, and should attract plenty of interest around NPB if he chooses to stay. I could see him moving to MLB too — if Darryl Ward can stick for the whole year on the 97-game winning Cubs, I have to think there’s a place for Woods somewhere.

Hiram Bocachica (OF, Saitama Seibu Lions): Like most foreign players in Japan, Bocachica is playing for Seibu on a one-year contract. Though he played only 78 games, Bocachica hit a surprising 20 home runs this season. This blogger wants his Marines to go after him this offseason, but Hiram told Deanna that he wasn’t sure about staying in NPB.

Ken Takahashi (SP, Hiroshima Carp): Takahashi is coming off a resurgent season with Carp, and there’s a chance he’ll opt for free agency. It looks like teammate Hiroki Kuroda inspired this:  “I’m interested in seeing what American baseball is like. The image of Kuroda has had a big impact. I’m struggling (with the decision)”. Takahashi is a lifelong Carp and 40 at the beginning of next season. I think it’s either Hiroshima or America for him.

Colby Lewis (SP, Hiroshima Carp): Lewis put up a great year for the Carp, and has already re-signed and should be Hiroshima’s opening day starter next year.

Akihiro Higashide (2B, Hiroshima Carp): Higashide is still undecided about opting for free agency. Yokohama is showing interest.

Hiroshi Shibahara (CF, Softbank Hawks): Sponichi reported last week that Rakuten is targetting Shibahara as the first free agent acquisition in the team’s four year history. Shibahara is still a useful player and would fill a veteran role for the team.

Ryoji Aikawa (C, Yokohama BayStars): Aikawa has already announced his intent to declare free agency, with a move to MLB a possibility. He’s taken in some MLB playoff action and intends to participate in tryouts as a winter league invitee, but I don’t see him getting more than a minor league contract. Back in NPB, Yakult is interested in acquiring Aikawa to fill starting catcher role that no one has claimed since the retirement of the great Atsuya Furuta.

Sanspo is reporting that the Hanshin Tigers are planning to aggressively pursue Texas Rangers outfielder Nelson Cruz this offseason, to replace the disappointing Lew Ford. NPB interest in Cruz has been rumored before, and I actually thought this might have been the guy that SoftBank was really after when I was writing about Barry Bonds last summer.

This seems like a great move if Hanshin can pull it off. Cruz has always been solid at AAA but failed to impress in his one extended shot at the big leagues. He raked last year, to the tune of .342/.429/.695 in AAA and .330/.421/.609 with the Rangers. I thought there might be a place for him in the Texas outfield next season, so we’ll have to see what develops.

Michael Westbay of JapaneseBaseball.com has published this week’s podcast. This week’s edition covers Hanshin’s epic collapse and Marty Brown’s contract negotiations with Hiroshima. Download the audio here.

By now this is old news, but this is one of those posts that I started drafting, got interrupted, and haven’t had the time to get back to until now. Better late than never.

So, to get caught up, “the Tazawa penalty” is a new rule banning Japanese players who have opted out of the NPB draft to sign internationally from joining an NPB team for up to three years after leaving their international organization. The idea is make top Japanese amateurs think twice about bypassing NPB for MLB by eliminating the assumption that they have an easy path back.

Though I haven’t found anything concrete on this, I’m guessing the rule will be in effect from Tazawa forward, so Robert Boothe shouldn’t have anything to worry about if he wants to pitch in Japan in the future.

Tazawa has commented on the situation: “Personally I only thought about going to America. I wasn’t thinking about the next person, so this is something I have to apologize for”.

It feels like this is kind of a sour grapes move by the NPB establishment and they’ll eventually get over it. There is some historic precedence to suggest that they will: the cases of Hideki Irabu, Kazuhito Tadano, Hideo Nomo and Mac Suzuki.

Irabu is perhaps the most informative example. Prior to being a bust with the Yankees, Irabu was under contract with the San Diego Padres, whom he refused to play for. At the time, the NPB establishment felt that they had been embarrassed by Irabu’s antics and said that he wouldn’t be allowed back in, but Hanshin signed him for the 2003 season. He won the fans over with a strong start.

Kazuhito Tadano was a top college pitcher who went undrafted because of his appearance in an adult film. The story was that NPB teams were worried about their images, but a couple of years and MLB appearances later, the Nippon Ham Fighters had gotten over it and selected Tadano in the second round of the NPB draft.

There was severe backlash against Hideo Nomo after he pulled his retirement stunt to make it to MLB, but it didn’t take too long for him to turn that around and he’s now widely recognized as one of most significant figures in Japanese baseball over the last 20 or so years, along wth Ichiro. I’m not aware of similar backlash against Mac Suzuki, but when he decided he was ready to move to NPB at least two teams (Yakult and Orix) were interested in drafting him, and Orix did draft and sign him.

So my gut feeling, and my hope, is that this new rule basically amounts to an idle threat. Instead of threatening Japanese nationals like this, I’m hoping to see a little more effort to make signing and playing in NPB more appealing, and at the same time, investing a more in developing young talent, particularly young international talent.