Who Might Be Coming Over from Japan in 2008?
September 24, 2007 by Geoff Young
Filed under Global Baseball, Hot Stove
That’s the question Jackson Broder asks at East Windup Chronicle. He profiles several hitters and pitchers playing in Japan’s NPB who could make the jump to North America.
Kosuke Fukudome of the Chunichi Dragons has been getting a fair amount of play as a potential impact outfielder should he cross the pond. Jackson compares him to Bob Abreu, with the caveats that Fukudome recently underwent elbow surgery and that some of his power could be lost in translation on moving to MLB (sometimes you get Hideki Matsui, sometimes you get Kazuo Matsui).
The pitching side is less clear. As Akinori Otsuka, Shingo Takatsu, Takashi Saito, and Hideki Okajima have shown in recent years, Japan can be a virtual gold mine in terms of finding good, cheap relievers. With all the fuss over someone like Daisuke Matsuzaka, this fact often gets overlooked.
Fukudome’s drop in production would arise less from his surgery–which went successfully according to reports coming from Japanese papers–than just from the usual dropoff in power #’s that occurs when hitters make the jump from the NBP to the big leagues. (Iwamura hit 40 plus HR’s the year prior to coming to MLB for example, and Matsui was more of a power hitter in NPB than in the majors). I do think he can contribute and be an effective player in MLB, just so long as expectations of power hitting are curbed a bit. Also, after Kaz matsui’s successful 2007 campaign, I think most teams would be happy to get a player to contribute what he’s done for colorado this year at 2nd.
thanks for the write-up
CJB
Thanks, Jackson, for the follow-up. I agree that many teams would be happy to get a player who produces like Kaz has this year — so long as they don’t have to suffer through what he did with the Mets first.