Pirates interested in Japanese Reliever Ryota Igarashi
"In acquiring Iwamura, we opened the door to getting Japanese players. We gave up a middle reliever to get Iwamura, so he [Igarashi] is a player we have interest in."
UPDATE by Charlie: Here are some stats.
3 months ago
ElDuce
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A decent writeup of him:
http://www.npbtracker.com/2009/05/player-profile-ryota-igarashi/#content
High 90s fastball, power splitter, decent breaking pitch. Very good K numbers, not great but not unreasonable BB numbers.
by ElDuce on Nov 12, 2009 12:11 AM EST reply actions 0 recs
Haha check out those mechanics:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YXzDrxHk6s
by poobah on Nov 12, 2009 1:24 AM EST reply actions 0 recs
If the pitching thing doesn’t work, he can always be in martial arts movies.
by WTM on Nov 12, 2009 7:14 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs
High-effort delivery.
I like the aggressive leg drive, though.
Depending on the price, he could be a nice addition.
by Vlad on Nov 12, 2009 8:41 AM EST reply actions 0 recs
Red flags
Doesn’t disguise the ball at all on that clip. Fastball looks flat. In the longer clip of him striking out the side, he pitched backward. Doubt he’d be effective in MLB.
by azibuck on Nov 12, 2009 9:51 AM EST reply actions 0 recs
Eh, it's one pitch.
In the longer clip (here), his ball had decent movement. And there’s nothing wrong with pitching backwards, as long as it works. For all you know, he was doing it for a reason – he’d set it up in past AB with the hitters, or was drawing on a scouting report for their particular approach, or something like that.
by Vlad on Nov 12, 2009 10:58 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs
Also worth noting:
The second guy in that clip is Larry Bigbie (career .726 OPS in parts of seven ML seasons), not just some random dude. So he’s apparently effective against at least one MLBer.
by Vlad on Nov 12, 2009 11:01 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs
Larry Bigbie
was hurt a good bit of the year he played in Japan and he played like crap.
by patthatt on Nov 12, 2009 11:03 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs
True
He got faked right out of his cleats in that clip, though.
by Vlad on Nov 12, 2009 11:04 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs
The good thing about all this
is that NH/FC are showing an interest in acquiring quality players from Japan.
by patthatt on Nov 12, 2009 11:05 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs
One pitch
If his mechanics are wildly different pitch to pitch, he has other problems.
I think his fastball looks straight in both clips.
He pitched backward to all three batters. You could be right about past AB, but I doubt it. Relievers with 95+ fastballs shouldn’t be working backward.
by azibuck on Nov 12, 2009 12:24 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs
The "one pitch" was in reference to it looking flat.
When guys go for max velocity, their stuff often flattens out a bit. And that was the FB where he set the Japanese record.
by Vlad on Nov 12, 2009 1:03 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs
I’m not sure pitching backwards is a relevant criterion for guys pitching in short relief. If your best pitch is a splitter, that means you may not even throw your best pitch to half the hitters you face. I always thought pitching backwards had more to do with a starter throwing primarily fastballs in the early innings, since he’s going to be seeing the same hitters later. I often see starters throw first-pitch offspeed stuff in the middle innings.
by WTM on Nov 12, 2009 2:28 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs
That’s what I was thinking. and sometimes, i’m guessing esp in Japan, are probably good 1st pitch fastball hitters, or in general fastball hitters (perhaps throw in the pirates too lol) So breaking ball stuff is good. I guess the question is? Does he have plus stuff? or is it all average? And Can Kerrigan teach him any new pitches, adjust mechanics to help hide the ball better. are there similar MLB Pitchers with the same pitching mechanics and learned to adjust?
by lfhlaw on Nov 12, 2009 12:51 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs
I wrote this on a Japan news site a few days ago
after Igarashi made his intentions known about pursuing an MLB career:
“Igarashi will probably run into a couple of big problems in the U.S. First, his velocity is nothing special for MLB. And, more importantly, he has a throwing motion where he “cocks” his arm and the batter gets a very good view of the ball before it ever leaves his hand. I’d be surprised if he doesn’t have a gopher ball problem if he goes to the U.S.
I wonder if he’ll do well in the U.S. If I were a GM in MLB, I’d also remember the case of Shinji Mori before doling out too much money to Igarashi."
He does not throw consistently in the upper ‘90s, not even close. Prior to his arm injuries which shut him down for part of 2006 and all of 2007, he at times hit the 154-157 km/h range. But the times I’ve seen him post-injury, I’ve seen him much more at just 150 km/h or less.
I remember one year in his prime he pitched against the visiting MLB All-Stars in November. Now I don’t usually make much of those series due to them being held after a grueling season and, especially on the MLB side, tending to be somewhat out of shape. But I do remember someone absolutely teeing off on an Igarashi pitch at the Tokyo Dome and, when asked afterwards, the player said Igarashi threw pretty hard, but the ball was easy to see out of his hand.
In the end, I think Vlad is right. He could be a decent pick-up, but it depends on the price. I would say somewhere in the 2yr/$3-4 million range.
by patthatt on Nov 12, 2009 11:01 AM EST reply actions 0 recs
Just checking:
You mean $2M per for 2 years, right?
by Vlad on Nov 12, 2009 11:04 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs
I figure $1.5-2 million guaranteed for the first season
would be in the ballpark. With his injury history, we might want to be creative with the 2nd year and have some flexibility with performance incentives, options etc.
by patthatt on Nov 12, 2009 11:09 AM EST reply actions 0 recs
That's reasonable.
I think he said a while back that he’d be willing to “pull a Shinjo” (i.e. take less in order to get to MLB), so he may not be looking for a huge payday.
by Vlad on Nov 12, 2009 11:32 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs
But then again,
the front office didn’t ask my opinion.
I’ll just say that there are many ways for NH/FC to improve the Pirates in 2010 without getting away from the long-term goal of a championship-caliber team in a few years.
Akinori Iwamura should be a useful player for us, and Ryota Igarashi could be a nice addition, too.
by patthatt on Nov 12, 2009 11:16 AM EST reply actions 0 recs
oh, patthatt...
What do you know about Japanese baseba – - um…never mind.
Free your ass and your mind will follow.
by cocktailsfor2 on Nov 12, 2009 5:57 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs
He could be at the least a 1:1 replacement for Chavez.
by Adam Reynolds on Nov 13, 2009 9:00 AM EST reply actions 0 recs
Adam
I think that’s a very good comparison. And with Igarashi being a much more experienced pitcher, I think he could do even more if he stayed healthy and one or both of Capps and Hanrahan don’t get the job done in 2010.
Igarashi fits the mold of what NH seems to want in a reliever-righties who throw hard.
One way or the other, we need more quality bullpen depth heading into spring training, rather than relying on Yankees’ rejects to fill out the ’pen.
by patthatt on Nov 13, 2009 11:15 AM EST reply actions 0 recs
rather than relying on Yankees’ rejects to fill out the ’pen.
+1
by WTM on Nov 15, 2009 6:54 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs
There's actually one Yankees' reject...
…I’d like to see in our pen.
Word is that they’re going to bump Jon Albaladejo off the roster to make room for some guys who need to be protected, and if so, I wouldn’t mind getting him back.
by Vlad on Nov 16, 2009 10:00 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs












