Junichi Tazawa, a hard-throwing right-handed pitcher who wants to play in the major leagues, was passed over by Japan's 12 professional teams in Thursday's amateur draft.Back in September, Gene Michael went over to Japan on a scouting trip. George A. King III reported at the time that the weren't interested in Tazawa, but that could have changed since he went undrafted.Tazawa, whose fastball reaches 97 mph, had asked Japanese teams not to select him so that he could pursue a career in the United States.
"I'm very relieved," Tazawa said. "I was very nervous right up until the end of the draft."
Earlier this month, Japan's professional baseball teams agreed to introduce a ban on players who return to Japan after opting out of the amateur draft in order to play for overseas pro teams.
As the ESPN article states, he has a good fastball in the 90's, and according to this article, he also throws several breaking pitches. Here's some video of Tazawa:
And another.
Here's a frame-by-frame breakdown of his windup.
So what do you think, should the Yankees go after this guy?
11 Comments:
Geez....I just don't know anything much about this guy. Enlighten me, guys!
Mike
I don't know much either, just a little bit from the video and links I posted. Really have no clue.
Peter Abraham did say on his blog today that "Scouts and those knowledgeable about Japanese baseball have said he’s overhyped."
I haven't heard, or read that anywhere, but I'm sure Peter knows what he's talking about.
Eh... I don't care so much. Wait for Darvish
He looks like he has a pretty straight fastball which has worked for Dice-K but is also very risky if he does not have pinpoint control. From the video, I count two breaking pitches: A curve and a splitter. The Curve looks like a plus pitch but I cannot really say about the split. He may be better than Igawa but I would stay away.
He's young and can be molded since he has not played in any major league yet. Why not? Here's a chance to get raw japanese pitching talent and acclimate it to major league hitting from the beginning. Here's one of those opportunities to get young talent early and produce an integral team component, instead of over paying for a finished free agent product who may not even want to play for you.
Yes, you have to be interested. He's 22, and from the videos, has decent enough stuff for a player that age. The one video shows his fastball at around 92-93, so I'm doubting that he ever reaches 97. But even so, he seems to have a decent breaking ball and change up.
Anon: I don't believe that pitch is a splitter, but I could be wrong. It looked more to me like a change up, and the velocity was between 77-79 mph. Most splitters will register in the mid 80s for pitchers with a decent fastball and come out of the hand and have more downward action as opposed to a higher trajectory than the pitch Tazawa is throwing in the first youtube vid.
I'd like to see his off speed pitches be a little lower in the zone - it seems like he's hanging the the change/split a bit which would scare me in terms of HRs, but I like the variety and that he seems to have good control.
I found a link (http://www.npbtracker.com/2008/09/more-on-tazawa/#content) which has these stats for him: 54 IP, 46 hits, 56 K, 4 BB, 6 ER, 1.00 ERA. Fastest recorded pitch speed is 153 km/h (95.625 mph). Good numbers, obviously they don't mean much, but the part that I like the most is the low walk total (4BB). Extrapolated over 200 innings, that's less than 16 walks. Obviously against much different caliber hitters than MLB, but bad control will manifest as walks at almost any level, so it appears this guy throws strikes. That link also reports that he throws a Shuutu, which is best described as a tailing fastball that's similar to a two seamer, but does less sinking and more boaring in on the right handed hitters hands.
But anyway, yes, I'd absolutely take a chance on him. There's virtually no risk. He's a free agent. We shouldn't be gun shy because of what happened with Igawa. The Yankees have so much more money to throw around than we can possibly imagine. Just because they don't ADMIT it, doesn't mean they don't have loads of extra cash to spend. Considering that Matsui is likely gone after this season, Tazawa could be a guy to bring in a new, excited Japanese audience/market, especially when it could come to the expensive suites and things of that nature.
Low (no?) risk, high potential reward. I'd overpay for him. You're not losing a draft pick, you're not locked into having him in the majors (I can't imagine anyone would sign him to a guaranteed major league deal), so why not?
Exactly Pinstripes, there's no risk, he's 22 and can be built from the ground up to pitch in the majors. There's no posting fee to even talk to him, it's kind of a no brainer for a team looking to revitalize and reap benefits from its farm system now.
I say yes, why not? The only reason I would saty away from guys like this is if we have to send money to JAP like we did with Igawa and I guess thats not the case so bring him in pitch in the minors and give him a chance to grow.
I think you convinced me Pinstripes.
Go for it Yanks.
Good post Pinstripes. I say yes now
Can't have too much pitching
Too bad but Cashman won't anger the Japanese clubs and sign him.
He will go somewhere else. The Red Sox seem like a likely destination.
I doubt Cashman will sign another high profile Japanese player other than Darvish.
He sucks at picking up Japanese pitching talent anyway.
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