While big ticket items like Darvish Yu and Uehara Koji gobble up headlines as the next big thing to come out of Japan, crafty left-hander/magician Naruse Yoshihisa continues to make quiet noise as one of Japan’s top starting pitchers.
While Naruse still has a ways to go before he is eligible for free agency, it’s hard not to take notice of his spiffy numbers: In his NPB career he is now 21-6 with a 2.32 lifetime E.R.A. for the Chiba Lotte Marines–with 221 k’s to only 48 walks. Lost in the shuffle of this year’s olympic disappontment for Japan was the fact that Naruse tossed 12 scoreless innings, striking out 19 while walking only 5.
Naruse reaches only 86-87 on the gun, but he is a smart pitcher who maximizes just above average stuff by locating and employing a highly deceptive devliery that hides the ball. Naruse is also brilliant at the chess game–the more hitters try to figure him out the more baffled they become.
Some may balk at the lack of velo, but the way Naruse does more with less has led to his emergence as arguably Nippon’s best starting pitcher.
3 responses so far ↓
1 Shinsano // Aug 27, 2008 at 3:37 pm
I saw him against Canada and he looked great. K’d 10 I believe. I haven’t seen much about it, but I thought the Japanese team showed a lack of confidence (or lack of something) in Darvish by not starting him versus the U.S. I have to think they would have started him had Japan gotten into the gold medal game. Naruse relieved Darvish in that first game versus Cuba and did what Yu couldn’t do — contained the Cuban lineup.
2 Simon Currie // Aug 27, 2008 at 8:38 pm
There are conflicting reports about Darvish’s health. He said he was ready to start in the medal rounds, and was surprised as anybody not to be starting the semifinal game, but some people in management mentioned that he’d had a strained back since his lacklustre performance in the warmup game against the PL squad.
Canada were a team of free swinging lefties. They piled up the strikeouts while hardly walking, not that Naruse didn’t pitch great against them.
3 Westbaystars // Aug 27, 2008 at 11:49 pm
Naruse surprised everyone last season, going 16 and 1, undefeated against the Pacific League (the one loss was to Yokohama during inter-league play - until losing in the playoffs). This post by Deanna should let you know how close he was for the Sawamura Award in 2007.
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