I’m lucky enough to be heading to the Asia Series tournament starting on Thursday in Tokyo. There’s no specific reason for me to go other than to do some training and I’m really looking forward to it. Three out of four lions isn’t bad, and fits better with the actual “Three Lions” English football song from 1996. One can only hope The Lightning Seeds and lyricists David Baddiel and Frank Skinner (British comedians who did lyrics for the song) will be on hand at the Tokyo Dome.
Ok, for those of you still reading after that here are my thoughts on the round-robin tournament: I think SK is in a very good position to become the first non-Japanese team to win. I suggested an upset was possible last year, and indeed, SK beat Chunichi in the first game 6-3 to hand a Japanese team its first ever Asia Series-play loss. Unfortunately for the Wyvrens — who outscored the competition 32-4 on the way to the final — they had to play Chunichi again in the championship. Ace Kim Gwang-hyun had started Game 1 three days prior and wasn’t about to be thrown out on what would essentially be two days rest, and the Korean representative fell 6-5 following an tiebreaking RBI single by the Dragons Hirokazu Ibata in the 8th.
The 2008 version is at least as good as the 2007 team. Kim Gwang-hyun is a year better and dominated Japan in both Olympic games he started, yielding just 2 ER in 14.1 innings. I can’t say with certainty that the Saitama Seibu Lions, despite having won the Nippon Series, are even the best team in the NPB. I doubt many NPB fans would argue that point.
At any rate, the Asia Series is getting increasingly competitive (China should be better as well) and the Thursday, Friday, Saturday, championship game on Sunday format is starting to feel a bit slight. Should SK actually win the Asia Series, or if one of the other Lions teams pulls an upset that confuses things, I have to wonder if there might be a move to expand the format. It’ll depend on the attendance. And you can bet the attendance will increase in 2009 if the Lions, sorry, the Saitama Seibu Lions don’t keep the championship in Japan. Can these countries actually put their heads together, get investors, and make a formidable WBC-ish Asia Series?
Yes, we can! Yes, we can!
I’ve heard there will be a number of scouts coming in for the early part of the Asia Series then heading down to Osaka for the Industrial League tournament running Nov. 17-23 to see Junichi Tazawa. The Braves have supposedly made an offer, and Indians GM Mark Shipiro, according to a Japanese source via NBP Tracker, thinks the bidding will reach $7 million.
Shipiro might believe that. Or, he might be hoping a team spends its entire international scouting budget in one fell swoop. That figure would put Tazawa ahead of the $6.15 million the Rays paid first overall pick Tim Beckham. Frankly, I’m with Shipiro. I hope it happens. But I doubt it will.
I haven’t seen Tazawa pitch in person, only on the oft linked to YouTube clip. First of all, I don’t think very many scouts have actually seen him, so the team names being bandied about by the Japanese media should be met with some skepticism. Not all teams scout Asia to begin with, and of those that do, most scout NPB free agents in Japan, not the industrial leagues. The Yankees came over and were obviously not interested. I know with certainty another one of the teams frequently mentioned as suitors has not seen him pitch. So what’s left? Basically, the Braves offer, the fact that the Mariners have a full time scout in Japan, and this upcoming tournament.
Second, his blazing quick tempo will turn off a number of scouts who prefer a more “traditional” tall-and-fall approach to pitching. Tazawa’s all drop and drive, which scouts might be quick to forgive if he actually threw the 97 mph sometimes reported in the Japanese media. However, he doesn’t throw 97, he touches 93 on the YouTube clip, which, keep in mind, is a Japanese broadcast of an Industrial League game. I haven’t talked to anyone who’s seen him top 91. Taking that into consideration alone it’s hard to imagine a team paying him twice the money that Brian Matusz got.
Still, he’s obviously got a nice feel for his breaking stuff and I like the way his hands explode out on the windup. He’s quite deceptive, although he has no extension on his follow through. Like I said, I hope someone pays him $7 million. It’ll mean one less team buzzing over to Korea next August.
15 responses so far ↓
1 simon // Nov 11, 2008 at 8:07 pm
The Saitama Seibu Lions are at a disadvantage because they used all their starting pitchers in games 6 and 7 of the Japan Series, and there are only 3 days rest between the game 7 and the first game of the Asia Series against the Wyverns. Seibu will also be without its foreign players, and injured key pieces catcher Hosokawa and shortstop Nakajima. This could very well be the first year that the championship does not stay in Japan.
2 simon // Nov 11, 2008 at 8:11 pm
Of course, Seibu has the advantage of playing in front of a home crowd. Hopefully this Asia Series will be rotated between the countries in the near future.
3 Shinsano // Nov 11, 2008 at 9:16 pm
Geez. I assumed after Tyrone Woods bailed for home last year that they’d make everyone stick around.
They should dress it up. Rotate the countries, make it double elimination, increase the prize money and include the MLB champion.
or something like that….
4 Patrick // Nov 12, 2008 at 1:54 am
I’ve written about Tazawa ad nauseum on my site, and watched every clip I could find of him and the best fastball I’ve seen was about 94 mph. A good Japanese scouting site has him topping out at about 94 as well. One thing to consider is that he’s been overworked, particularly in the tournament in September where his manager would run up his pitch counts and have him starting and relieving. Like most guys he’d probably through harder on proper rest.
The Yankees sent Gene Michael to Japan a few months ago, but he was (reportedly) mainly interested in Yu Darvish. The Yankees official line was that they were going to respect the NPB draft and stay out of the Tazawa derby.
I’m actually pretty surprised that he’s already gotten a major league offer — I thought he’d probably get an upper-mid 1st-round level contract. This is definitely a result of the free market — Seattle couldn’t sign their first-round pick this year, and Boston hasn’t had an upper-1st round pick in a while.
5 Shinsano // Nov 12, 2008 at 10:19 am
I’m waiting to see if the Rangers end up getting involved. I really respect the pitching evaluation ability of Jim Colburn. If by this time next week we’re hearing the Rangers are in the mix I won’t be skeptical anymore. If it’s still the Braves and whomever the Japanese media happens to recognize at the Asia Series games…well….
6 Patrick // Nov 12, 2008 at 11:16 am
http://www.npbtracker.com/2008/11/rangers-in-on-tazawa/#content
Reported a couple places last week, haven’t seen it mentioned since.
7 Patrick // Nov 12, 2008 at 11:17 am
Of course, the Rangers haven’t made a bid or anything, they’re just have Colborn watch him.
8 Matt // Nov 12, 2008 at 12:51 pm
The problem with rotating the venue is the stadiums. The other Asian countries don’t have domed stadiums. If the tournement is going to be played in November every year, it needs to be played indoors. Until Korea, Taiwan or China build a domed stadium that can accomodate 40,000+, I don’t see the Asian Series moving out of Japan.
9 Shinsano // Nov 12, 2008 at 1:56 pm
Good point Matt. Is that Daegu stadium on the backburner? I assumed they’d started to build that, but then I heard they haven’t.
10 DJ // Nov 12, 2008 at 2:43 pm
The Far Glory Taipei Dome was scheduled for completion in 2010, but opposition from local residents is pushing back construction–as is, no doubt, the collapse of Far Glory’s stock value in the worldwide financial crisis.
The contracts have been inked there for years, however, so it would be pretty remarkable if the HOK-designed stadium doesn’t come on line some time in the next five years.
11 simon // Nov 12, 2008 at 2:46 pm
CPBL has bigger problems, but Taiwan’s climate should be fine for November ball, no?
12 Charles_zh // Nov 13, 2008 at 6:40 am
Yes or no, it depends on where and when cold front comes by, especially in Taipei. But better stadiums are located on central or southern Taiwan.
13 Matt // Nov 13, 2008 at 12:53 pm
Who knows about the new stadium in Daegu. I was told it would be ready for the 2nd half of this season, then it was next year. Now its the dreaded, “TBA.”
14 simon // Nov 13, 2008 at 3:54 pm
Oh c’mon, November in Taiwan can’t be worse than October in Sendai, Seoul, or NYC?
15 myworldofbaseball » Blog Archive » Japanese Awards, Tazawa Sightings // Nov 22, 2008 at 4:29 am
[...] In other Japanese news, Junichi Tazawa tossed his second straight shutout in the corporate baseball championships. He was clocked at a little over 90 miles per hour with his fastball. He is a free agent to any major league team that wants to sign him. For a good analysis of his pitching capabilities (One man’s opinion) go to http://eastwindupchronicle.com/asia-series-tazawa/#more-2796 [...]
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