Seems logical, right? San Francisco, an international city with an approximately 30% Asian population. You know, Japantown aka Little Osaka aka J-Town aka 日本町? You’d think the team would be teeming with Japanese stars, right?
Well, no. Not until now anway. Not until today. Because today the San Francisco Giants signed a true Japanese star. Who’s that you say? Kosuke Fukudome? No, he went to Chicago. Hiroki Kuroda? No, he’s going to wind up in L.A. or Seattle. Fukumori? Wrong again, Texas.
Yes folks, today the Giants signed 40-year-old, 1994 Central League rookie-of-the-year Keiichi Yabu, who has apparently been kicking back in the Bay Area since he failed to make the Colorado Rockies back in 2006. Yabu last played in the majors with the Oakland A’s in 2005 when he posted a 4.50 ERA over 58 innings.
The signing of Yabu is actually not the Giants first foray into Asia, as the team already has Korean star, well, no, actually he’s a sun — as in Sunny Kim.
Kim tore up the Pacific Coast League last season as a member of the Fresno Giants, going 8-8 with 4.87 ERA and 88 strikeouts in 118 innings. Kim has now logged over 1000 innings in the minors.
Japantown (日本町)
Add in Dave Roberts, and Double-A prospect Travis Ishikawa, both who are half-Japanese, and the Giants suddenly have three Asian players and are truly a trans-pacific organization. Well done Brian Sabean. With the money the team has saved in not signing Asian players the Giants were able to superglue itself to Aaron Rowand for five years. Look for the Giants to make a serious push at not losing 100 games in 2007.
9 responses so far ↓
1 wayne // Dec 14, 2007 at 12:57 am
didn’t they have shinjo stinking it up for the in the outfield a few years ago?
2 A.S. // Dec 14, 2007 at 1:10 am
You’re right! I actually saw him hit a home run back in 2002. Then he went back to the Mets. I kind of liked him.
3 jackson // Dec 14, 2007 at 3:28 am
Alls I can say is that the fact that the Giants were actually considering trading Tim Lincecum for Rios is all you need to know. You’d think after the Bonser/Liriano/Nathan for AJ Pierzinsky (sp?) deal they’d pick it up a bit. But I’m now convinced that any 15 year old in a keeper fantasy league could run a baseball team better than the Giants do. Say, that’s not a bad idea….How do you apply for a GM job? Is there a monster.com ad you can find? Anyone?
4 KJOK // Dec 15, 2007 at 2:38 pm
I’m not sure I agree with the point here. The Giants have been more agressive than the ‘average’ MLB team in signing Japanese players.
Didn’t they have some guy named Masanori Murakami? Didn’t that make them the FIRST team to sign a Japanese player?
5 A.S. // Dec 15, 2007 at 3:58 pm
Yeah, but that was 1964 and I’m obviously talking about the present. Given that they are in San Francisco, a city and area with a higher population of Asians than most other MLB cities, I think they should be big-players in the signing of Asian and specifically Japanese players. They aren’t. Not even close. In the modern era, unless I’m drastically missing something, they have not had a single Asian player that has made a significant contribution. They lag behind all other west coast teams with the possible exception of the A’s, who at least signed Yabu at a point where he might make a contribution. They are light years behind the Mariners, and are quite aways behind the Dodgers (Nomo/Saito) and Padres (Otsuka and now Iguchi), and even the Rockies (Matsui) and D-Backs (Kim).
I don’t think the Giants must sign Asian players in order to win. They should sign good players. Basically, they do neither. I do think they ought to have signed Fukudome or Fukumori. They ought to be signing young players out of Taiwan and Korea. They don’t. They’ve got the money. It’d be a great draw for the team. But they aren’t even in the conversation as far as I can tell.
By the way KJOK, I like your site and your Japanese player projections.
6 Aaron Cheats // Dec 17, 2007 at 6:57 am
Eh, the only guy that made much sense for the Giants to sign this year was Fukudome, and they signed Rowand instead for the same amount of money per year. Rowand is younger and has an actual MLB track record. Will Fukudome produce that much more than Rowand will? He might, but I don’t think you could say it’s a sure thing.
As for Fukumori, the Giants’ strength is pitching. They don’t need to get in a bidding war for a 31-year-old reliever who’s never pitched in the majors, not when they should be spending that money on offense.
It would be nice if the Bay Area sports teams would go after more players from Asia, though. That said, the high posting fees that many Japanese stars require have been somewhat out of the Giants’ reach, seeing as how they’re one of the few teams that’s actually paying for their own stadium and that they have, until this season, been shackled to Bonds’ contract. Think of the attendance/marketing boost if the Warriors had drafted Yao or Yi.
I honestly don’t think the Giants are that badly run. Yeah, they made a bad trade. But at the time, Nathan was a struggling middle reliever, Liriano was an injury-prone minor leaguer that wasn’t even rated as one of their top prospects, and Bonser was a B-rated prospect, right? I mean, the only one of those guys that’s really panned out so far is Nathan. Liriano had a nice half-year, but there’s no guarantee he’ll be great when he gets back from Tommy John surgery. Bonser needs to get the ball in the strike zone a lot more to be effective.
7 A.S. // Dec 17, 2007 at 8:49 am
I agree with your ideas about the Giants/Twins trade. I think Sabean has taken a lot more gruff about that need be. Pierzynski was an all-star catcher and the Giants thought he’d be the final piece (the first of many “final pieces” as it would turn out). You can argue that they mis-scouted on Nathan, Lirano and Bonser. But I remember Nathan at that time. He was nothing.
The more I think about it, the more I think they should have signed Fukumori or Yabuta. $3MM is not a risk. Their bullpen stinks, but it’s overshadowed by the horror that their offense is. I can’t argue for signing Fukudome over Rowand. But I will argue over signing Rowand at all. CF is one of the few positions the Giants have someone(s). A platoon of Davis/Robers would probably have been fine.
And the starting pitching that everyone claims is a strength…is, but only on potential. Cain regressed
horriblylast year. Zito, who people forget is their supposed No. 1, was terrible. Lincecum has tons of promise. But even he isn’t a sure thing.I’ve put myself in a position of having to aruge that the giants aren’t good because they don’t have Japanese players. It’s not a good argument. However, it might represent a piece of a bigger picture. They put all their eggs in Bonds basket for years and he never (quite) delivered. They did it (I believe) knowing he was taking steroids. Pretty risky all told.
But now they have a huge gaping hole in their team. I think they’re a good bet to lose 100.
8 SHONEPUP // Dec 28, 2007 at 5:47 pm
Cain regressed horribly last year? How do you figure that? Sure, his k/9 dropped, but other than that his ERA, FIP, and other peripherals all improved. So where was this horrible regression? You’re not stupid enough to just be looking at his won-loss….are you?
9 A.S. // Dec 28, 2007 at 10:46 pm
I don’t think it’s stupid to look at win/loss, actually. Losing 16 games qualifies as a regression, regardless of his FIP. However, calling it a horrible regression is too strong. I was on a roll when I wrote it.
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