Yasuhiko Yabuta was designated for assignment by the Kansas City Royals on Saturday, six weeks after being sent to the team’s Triple-A affiliate in Omaha. Assuming no one claims him, the Royals are looking at paying about $4 million over the next year-and-a-half for a minor league pitcher. His contract has an option for a third year or a $500,000 buyout.
Yabuta was 1-3 with a 5.46 ERA in 31 innings with the Royals. Since being sent to Omaha he’s actually been worse, giving up 14 ER in 20 innings, which is good for a 6.20 ERA. His walk rate, which was 1.44 last season for Chiba Lotte, was 4.88 for Kansas City and 3.98 for Omaha.
I liked the idea of Trey Hillman bringing Yabuta over as a veteran arm in the bullpen. How Yabuta, Masahide Kobayashi and Kazuo Fukumori would translate in MLB was anyone’s guess, and it’s still a little too early to write Yabuta off completely. But clearly this is a disappointment. I’ve mentioned it before, but I think this will have a bearing on how MLB teams approach signing Hitoki Iwase in particular, and to a lesser extent Koji Uehara (who I suspect teams will view as a starter) and Kenshin Kawakami.
Fukumori is still in Triple-A, but is having some success after getting bombed in Arlington early in the year. In 50.2 innings he’s 0-4 at Oklahoma, but with a respectable 3.37 ERA. The best news from Fukumori is that he isn’t walking batters, just 13 in the 50 plus innings.
The Rangers just fired their pitching and bullpen coaches, promoting Triple-A pitching coach Andy Hawkins and Jim Colborn, who has been working as the Rangers director of Pacific Rim operations, as bullpen coach. I’m assuming Colborn scouted and signed Fukumori for the Rangers, so perhaps a late season callup will be in the works.
5 responses so far ↓
1 jackson // Aug 3, 2008 at 9:11 pm
Not sure if I agree there, Herr Shinsano. First off, Iwase is a lefty, which will make him more of an attractive candidate. If I’m not mistaken, he’s also the all time saves leader in Japan and considered better. I think the trio of not-so-successful righties this year were a tier (or two even) below the three guys you mentioned. Uehara is far more talented than that gang, I believe Iwase and Kawakami also, even though the latter worries me some.
2 Shinsano // Aug 3, 2008 at 9:44 pm
I wasn’t saying Iwasse was the same kind of pitcher or has the same value as the three horsemen of 2008, but I think their lack of success will have a drag on Iwasse’s price. I think he’s a much better prospect than those three, but I bet he’ll end up with a contract just a touch above them.
We’ll see about Uehara and Kawakami. I think both have big question marks — Uehara with injuries and Kawakami with overall ability.
Neither will even approach the randsom Kuroda ended up getting from LA.
3 NPB Bullet Points (2008/08/03) » NPB Tracker // Aug 4, 2008 at 4:26 am
[...] Royals designated Yasuhiko Yabuta for assignment, giving the Royals 10 days to trade or release the former Lotte [...]
4 yakamashii // Aug 4, 2008 at 10:05 am
Colborn didn’t sign Fukumori, he was brought on after that deal.
5 Patrick // Aug 4, 2008 at 4:52 pm
Iwase isn’t the all-time saves leader in Japan — Shingo Takatsu, Kazuhiro Sasaki and Masa Kobayashi all have more than him. Iwase holds the single season saves record with 46 and has probably had more saves over a three-year period (’05-’07) than anyone else, but I’d had to look that up.
I’m putting together a post on Iwase for npbtracker.com to publish within the next couple of days, I hope you’ll enjoy reading it.
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