NPB Tracker

The Land of Rising Fastball is a Japanese baseball documentary currently in production at studio Happy Trailers HD. In the words of the director, ‘the documentary tells History of Baseball in Japan as told by intrepid filmmaker Lance Miccio”. The film so far has secured interviews with NPB veterans Sachio Kinugasa, Junzo Sekine and Gabe Kapler, MLB pioneer Masashi Murakami, Yale Prof. William Kelly, and members of the Japanese baseball blogosphere Deanna and Westbaystars-san.

Nikkan Sports is reporting that Yokohama has reached an agreement to bring Tampa Bay Ray Dan Johnson over to Japan. I saw Johnson quite a bit when he was with the A’s, and I like his approach at the plan; he always had a plan and was very patient. Where he plays in Yokohama will be a question, the BayStars have batting champion Seiichi Uchikawa at first, Johnson probably isn’t much of an outfielder and there’s no DH in the Central League. My gut feel is that he’ll wind up in left.

Don Wakamatsu won’t be the only coach breaking new ground in 2009; the Dodgers have hired former Yokohama BayStars manager Daisuke Yamashita to coach in their minor league system. From what I gather, Yamashita will spend most of his time at the rookie ball level in Arizona. JapanBall has the English-language Kyodo write-up of the news, but but I think their translation of his quote misses the eloquence of his original comment in Japanese. So I translated it myself:

“I played US-Japan college baseball at Dodger Stadium, and 35 years later I have another bond with the Dodgers. This time, I want to be an asset to the young players aiming for an American Dream.”

The only other former Japanese player/coach that has coached in an MLB organization is Denney Tomori. Denney pitched in the Boston organization in 2005 and re-joined the team after retiring, but I saw conflicting reports on whether he was a roving minor league pitching coach or a scouting advisor. Other coaches have spent short-term “foreign study” programs with US teams as well.

Good luck to Yamashita on his new position, and kudos to the Dodgers for thining outside the box with this hire.

Here’s the last piece of the player-by-player analysis portion of the series. Please check out parts 1 and 2 as well.

Part four will draw some conclusions from a big picture level.

2003

Hideki Matsui (OF, Giants -> Yankees): Turned down what would have been the largest contract in NPB history in 2000 (8 years,  6bn yen($60M)) to take a one-year contract, citing his goal of eventually playing in MLB. He eventually did after the 2002 season, and the Giants went from sweeping the Japan Series to finishing in 3rd place (71-66-3). Yomiuri had another 3rd place finish in 2004, then unthinkable consecutive sub-.500 finishes in ’05 and ’06 before finally recovering in 2007. The Giants made it back to the Japan Series in 2008, six years after Matsui’s departure. They had played in four Japan Series’ in the 10 years Matsui spent with the team (’94, ’96, ’00, ’02), winning three times. The team’s popularity took a hit as well.

So what went wrong? Yomiuri had a pretty weak strategy in replacing Matsui: they signed former Yakult 1st baseman Roberto Petagine and played him in right field, moving Yoshinobu Takahashi to center. Petagine played decent defense at first but was never mobile enough for right field, nor did he have the arm for it. Takahashi said he never felt comfortable in center, and obviously didn’t trust Petagine in right.

Things got worse when manager Tatsunori Hara left and was replaced with grouch Tsuneo Horiuchi. The Giants core offensive threats of Kazuhiro Kiyohara, Akira Etoh, Toshihisa Nishi, and Takayuki Shimizu and pitchers Kimiyasu Kudoh, Masumi Kuwata, Yusaku Iriki, and Koji Uehara all became old and/or ineffective at the same time. The team cycled through replacements like Gabe Kapler, Hiroki Kokubo, Tuffy Rhodes, and Jeremy Powell before finally assembling a team that worked in 2007.

Impact:Huge. No single player’s departure has had a greater effect on his former team than Matsui has had on the Giants. Yomiuri was probably headed for a downturn anyway, but the loss of Matsui certainly prolonged the team’s lean years.

2002

Kazuhisa Ishii (SP, Swallows -> Dodgers): Yakult posted Ishii after winning the Japan Series in 2001, and got about $11m from the Dodgers. Kevin Hodges took Ishii’s place at the top of the Swallows’ rotation and the team went from a 78-56-6 record in ’01 to a 74-62-4 record and 2nd place finish in ’02, 11 games behind the Giants. Had Ishii been around, the race might have been tighter but Yakult was still probably would have been a 2nd place team. Hodges posted a 5.90 era in 2004, and Yakult fell further.

Ishii returned to Yakult in 2006, but the team had faded into an also-ran by then. He left after 2007 for Seibu.

Impact: Medium. $11m was a good return for Ishii. Yakult may have been able to remain competitive for a little longer if he had stuck around, but that was an aging team.

So Taguchi (OF, Blue Wave -> Cardinals): Surprisingly, Orix mananged to maintain a solid record the year after Ichiro was posted, but fell from 70-66-4 to 50-87-3 after Taguchi left. Taguchi’s presence was never worth 20 games in the standings; the team’s offense tanked completely in 2002.

Impact: Low. Taguchi was actually a pretty average player in japan. He really improved his game in his time in America.

Satoru Komiyama (SP/RP, BayStars -> Mets): Yokohama dropped from 69-67-4 to 49-86-5 after Komiyama left. While the ‘Stars missed Komiyama’s 12-9 record and 3.03 era, I would say that Yokohama’s weak offense was more responsible for the team’s meteoric drop.

Komiyama didn’t perform at the MLB level, and returned to Japan after one season. Yokohama still owned his NPB rights, but refused to sign him to a contract for the 2003 season. After a “ronin” year, the BayStars finally released him and he re-joined the Chiba Lotte Marines, his original team. He’s been there ever since.

Impact: Low. Given the way Yokohama treated him, it didn’t seem that they wanted him back. They could have traded him to another NPB team and gotten some value back, so to me it was a case of the team cutting off it’s nose to spite it’s face. In general I’m a fan of Komiyama’s and I think he could have added some stability to Yokohama’s staff and mentored the team’s young pitchers. In that sense, it’s a big loss for Yokohama, but not one that I attribute to his MLB trial.

2001

Ichiro (OF, Blue Wave -> Mariners): This one needs no introduction. Orix posted Ichiro after the 2000 and Seattle won his rights with a $14m bid. I was living in Japan at the time, and it was such big, exciting news. It seemed like just announcing his move to MLB made him a bigger star than he already was.

Orix appeared in Japan Series’ in 1995 and 1996, but were a .500 team for the last few years of his tenure. The Blue Wave maintained it’s .500 record the year after Ichiro was posted, but fell apart in 2002. The team stunk again in 2003, and mid-way through 2004 announced that it would merge with the Kintetsu Buffaloes. The new Orix Buffaloes took the field in 2005 with a group of guys taken in the in the Orix/Kintetsu dispersal draft, and ranged from doormat to also-ran until their surpring 2008 campaign.

Orix’s popularity at the gate was flagging even with Ichiro, and his departure didn’t make things any better. The team suffered from the inconveniently located Green Stadium Kobe, and the proximity of the popular Hanshin Tigers. The post-merger team plays most of it’s home games in Osaka Kyocera Dome, which is a shame because Green Stadium is much nicer and was easily my favorite place to watch a game in Japan. For me, the old Blue Wave had a level of charm that the post-merger team lacks completely.

Impact: Medium. Everyone knew Ichiro was going to America at some point, and Orix did the right thing in posting him. I would argue that Ichiro’s MLB success is better for Japanese baseball than if he stayed and broken every NPB record. Orix’s competitiveness and popularity took a dive without Ichiro, but this was inevitable.

Tsuyoshi Shinjo (OF, Tigers -> Mets): Shinjo turned down a four-year offer from Hanshin to take a one-year minor league deal from the Mets. The Tigers felt no impact in the win column, going from a 57-78-1 record to 57-80-3. Hanshin backfilled Shinjo by drafting Norihiro Akahoshi, who has been the team’s center fielder ever since. Akahoshi has never had any power, but he has better on-base skills than Shinjo ever did and has won multiple Gold Gloves.

As a side note, Shinjo announced his move around the same time as Ichiro did. Though his move was viewed with some skepticism, he proved he could play at the MLB level, which helped inspire a wider range of players to make the jump across the Pacific.

Impact: Low. Hanshin built a balanced team after Shinjo left and has been competitve since 2002. Shinjo held his own at the MLB level, played in the 2002 World Series, and then returned to Japan to help build Nippon Ham into a competitive, popular franchise. I’d say this one worked out well for all parties.

That’s it for the player-by-player analysis. Anyone I missed? Anyone disagree with my assessments?

A couple of notes to pass along regarding Japanese player activity at this week’s MLB winter meetings:

• Sponichi is reporting that the Astros are interested in So Taguchi. Agent Alan Nero has talked to five teams so far and is continuing to shop Taguchi around.
• Tadahito Iguchi will be in the States during the meetings, and hopes to decide on a 2009 team by the 20th. Iguchi has offers on both sides of the Pacific, and has reportedly already decided against returning the Phillies.
• Ken Takahashi’s agent isn’t expecting to see any movement for his client until the meetings start. Takahashi has been working out with a Major League ball.
• The Orioles are reportedly preparing to offer both Kenshin Kawakami and Koji Uehara 2-year/$10m deals. This seems surprisingly low to me. Even in this bad economy, the Giants still found $8m for Jeremy Affeldt. 
• Another report has an international scout from an AL East team putting the market for Uehara at 2 years, $5m. I think he would be a tremendous bargain at that price.
• I had read that Rakuten manager Katsuya Nomura would be in attendance at the winter meetings, but I think the Golden Eagles are done shopping this offseason. SoftBank, HIroshima, Lotte and possibly Hanshin still have foreign player slots open and could be active at the meetings.
• And this last one isn’t really winter meetings related, but I’ll through it out anyway. Remember Akinori Otsuka? He spent the year training and rehabbing after his injury in 2007. He wrote of his good relationship with new Mariners manager Don Wakamatsu in his blog, so I’ll speculate that if he’s healthy enough to pitch in 2009, Seattle might be the place. Otsuka seems to maintain a residence in San Diego, and he would be a Padres-type signing.

Yokohama has reached an agreement with Cleveland Indians righty Tom Mastny. Mastny has nine career MLB wins, and will pitch 2009 as a 28 year-old, so he should still have some upside left. The BayStars have already acquired Blue Jays lefty Les Walrond and are looking to import one more MLB arm.

Hideki Matsui has selected a locker in the new Yankee Stadium!

This obviously isn’t newsworthy, but it’s interesting for three reasons:

1. The Japanese media thinks it IS newsworthy. It gives you an idea of how obsessive they are.
2. Matsui is resigned to the possiblity that he could be traded. His quote: “please look forward to next season. You know, if I’m here.”
3. Matsui is considerate: he chose a locker away from Derek Jeter, as not disturb the captain with his large media contigent. 

Yahoo Japan Sports has a piece on four teams’ lack of interest in Japanese free agents. Warning, translations of translations coming up:

• San Diego’s Kevin Towers: “We don’t have much room in our budget this offseason. We’re not going to be active in acquiring players”.
• Chicago’s Kenny Williams: “We really like Uehara, Kawakami, Takahashi, and Aikawa,” before adding, “we don’t have the budget to get involved in the Japanese market”.
• Cleveland’s Mark Shapiro: “We know Uehara, Kawakami and Takahashi but we’re not making it a priority to acquire them. This offseason we have budget limitations and looking to one or two players; an infielder and an experienced closer”.
• Milwaukee’s Doug Melvin: “We won’t acquire a Japanese free agent”.

Looks like the Hanshin Tigers have agreed on a contract former Blue Jay Kevin Mench. Sanspo is reporting that it’s a one-year, $2m deal, which looks good for Hanshin with the yen strong against the dollar. The contract isn’t final, but it’s looking good at this point. 

Mench should take over rightfield from the disappointing Lew Ford and bat fifth or sixth for the Tigers.