Hotshot Rookie Pitchers

It is most likely a phenomenon brought on by the "lapdog" press. It seemed to reach it's peak with Matsuzaka and has only gotten worse since then.

To be fair though, a young Japanese pitcher has a much better chance of making an immediate impact than a young MLB pitcher does. For example, two pitchers who are similar in age and talent to Hayato Terahara are Tsao Chin-hui and Wang Chien-Ming (who struck out 10 against Japan in the recent Asian Games). Both were hyped during their school years in Taiwan and signed to MLB teams (Rockies, Yankees). While they've both had injuries, they also are only at the single A (lowest) class of MLB. They are still years away from the Major Leagues.

Compare this to Terahara who is already a pro star with the Hawks. So I can understand why hotshot high school/college pitchers get more attention in Japan then those in the states do.

Is this much of a fuss made about talented rookies (pitchers especially) in MLB?

This season, there was a huge buzz surrounding Mark Prior's MLB debut. But he routinely threw 155km/h -- occasionally exceeding 160km/h -- with three plus pitches and excellent control, so perhaps the hype was warranted.

Just had a look at Prior's stats at the link provided. Wow. That's a pretty good first year, isn't it?

Anyway, back to the original topic: OK, so there was (deserved?) hype about Prior. Was this an exception, or is it the standard kind of thing that a young pitcher can expect?

As far as the everyday vernacular Japanese press goes, the Japanese are more interested in high school and college baseball than we here in the U.S. are. So that helps generate more of a buzz than you would have here in the states.

Terahara was good enough to be offered deals by the Atlanta Braves and the L.A. Dodgers, but he would have started in A ball with either of those organizations while he would make more money in Japan in the immediate short term and have a shot at a roster slot with the big club. As it turned out, Terahara had a decent rookie season, though hardly earth shattering. Chang Chih-chiah was easily the best of class among rookies this year and he was pursued by several MLB teams as well (Seattle definitely tried to sign him and the Dodgers were also interested).

This draft is going to see a passel of outstanding young college arms come into the Japanese league (Tomoyuki Kubota, who throws upwards of 95mph with a Nomo like motion just declared for Hanshin, in fact), especially at Daiei, who will get collegians Tsuyoshi Wada and Nagisa Arakaki while high schoolers will go in the lower rounds, for the most part. It is perhaps emblematic of both how soon Japanese teams burn out arms as well as their relative lack of talent depth that such young players can make an almost immediate impact. The meltdown of the starting rotation at Daiei gave Terahara some opportunities and I expect the same will happen with Arakaki and Wada.

If you want to follow what is happening with prospects in MLB, read Baseball America.

By the way, for those of you who haven't heard, Hanshin is going to sign Dodgers southpaw reliever Jeff Williams.

Thanks for the link, Gary-san.

> By the way, for those of you who haven't heard,
> Hanshin is going to sign Dodgers southpaw reliever
> Jeff Williams.

Excellent to hear the Tigers are after some decent relief pitching. Good relievers (southpaw in particular) were a rarity at Hanshin this season. That youngster Yoshino was pretty good, and I s'pose Taninaka was OK, but he's ostensibly a starter anyway. But as for Hashimoto, Fukuhara, et al, the less said the better.

Incidentally, Tom O'Malley went on a scouting trip to the USA late this summer. When he returned, there were rumours that Hanshin were thinking of hiring someone called Todd Greene to replace the disastrous Derrick White. Does anyone know anything about this Greene guy? I found a few stats [ESPN], but when they list him as a Texas Ranger and show him in a NY cap, it's hard to know how trustworthy the stats are. Other stats [SI/CNN] are even worse: they say "this player has not played this season" ) I mean, do Hanshin know what they're getting into here?

(Sorry for the digression. This isn't exactly about a hotshot rookie pitcher.)

Does anyone know anything about this Greene guy?

Greene was drafted by the Angels in 1993 and bashed 40 homers between AA and AAA in 1995 to attain top-prospect status. Despite his dreadful fielding stats (44 passed balls in 1994), Anaheim tried their best to get his bat into the lineup in 1996. Unfortunately, elbow and shoulder injuries limited his production and forced him into DH duties for three years.

The Angels gave up on Greene in the spring of 2000 and he spent an uneventful year with the Blue Jays before signing with the Yankees. In June 2001, Greene was called up from the Yanks' AAA team to be Jorge Posada's backup. Greene hit .268/.282/.580 in 42 games this year -- easily his best MLB season to date -- including 10 home runs in 122 at-bats.

Thanks 1908-san! That's great.

> ...Dreadful fielding
> stats (44 passed balls in 1994)

Haha. I think even I can do better than that .

So ESPN got it wrong about him being with the Rangers?

So ESPN got it wrong about him being with the Rangers?

No, ESPN got it right. I should've typed Greene hit .268/.282/.580 in 42 games this year with the Rangers -- easily his best MLB season to date -- including 10 home runs in 122 at-bats.

I really doubt that the injury prone and defensively suspect Greene will end up in Osaka. I can see him with Lotte as a DH, perhaps. Hanshin is hot after Roberto Petagine, which means they would have to release George Arias to fit within the four player limit (Moore, Valdez, and Williams would be the other three, obviously). George wouldn't be willing to spend any time in the minors. Kuman slammed Arias heavily in the press the other day anyway, so he may get the boot even if they don't get Petagine.

As for Fukuhara, he had shoulder surgery and won't be back until next May at the earliest. Two things are going to be critical for the Tigers next season: one, the bullpen has to improve; two, Akihiro Yano, who had a career year, absolutely has to replicate or come [darn] close to that and stay healthy.

> Hanshin is hot after Roberto Petagine

Right. SanSpo reported a day or two ago that Hanshin had the money ready and waiting to get him.

> which means they would have to
> release George Arias

That's a real shame. I like that guy. He did hit 32 home runs, though. Surely that's got to count for something?

Perhaps we're getting back to the CL vs PL pitching topics covered in the How can this possibly be? thread, and the Blessing or Curse? thread, but does the "getting used to CL pitching" argument count in this case?

> Akihiro Yano, who
> had a career year, absolutely has to replicate or
> come [darn] close to that and stay healthy.

Exactly (although judging by this season's injuries, I think the "stay healthy" part applies to the whole team!). Ironically, according to SanSpo, one reason the Tigers were looking at this Todd Greene guy is because apparently he can cover as catcher as well as play first base and... and... forgot (somewhere in outfield). This year, Hoshino-kantoku lamented the fact that whenever he sent a pinch hitter out there in the catcher's place, who was he going to replace the cather with? Asai? Yoshimoto? Yamada? Katsunori? Hardly world beating.

I think that Arias turned out to be much more of a blessing than a curse. After an awful start (batting below .200), he managed to finish with a .258 batting average. But where he was the most important to Hanshin's breaking out of last place was in run production. 64 runs scored and 82 RBIs, while no very impressive compared to Giants' standards, were both top on the Tigers.

> I think that Arias turned out to be much more of a
> blessing than a curse.

Me too. But perhaps not enough of a blessing to save his hide. It'd be a real shame to see him go.

Also, Tom O'Malley brought up a valid point when he came back from his scouting trip to the USA. At the time, Arias' firing was reportedly a done deal, but O'Malley said that there was no-one in the USA who they could realistically expect to perform better than Arias (after all, as I keep mentioning, the man did hit 32 HRs). I mean, if the best they could come up with is Todd Greene, then I suppose he's right. Although if Hanshin can get Petagine, that's a different story altogether!

> 64 runs scored and 82 RBIs, while not
> very impressive compared to Giants' standards, were
> both top on the Tigers.

I suppose I'm just making the same point, but it seems ironic to me that you could top the team's batting stats and still get fired. Mind you, perhaps that's more an indictment of Hanshin's current standards than a defense of Arias' abilities.