Luhnow to Japan

[Nate Colbert]

McTaggart

Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow and pro scouting director Kevin Goldstein are traveling to Tokyo on Friday for a trip designed to increase the club's profile in Japan, as well as interview five candidates for a scouting job based in the country.

Luhnow and Goldstein will spend five days in Tokyo and plan to meet with representatives from several Nippon Professional Baseball clubs to discuss and explore the types of relationships the Astros could have with the teams, whether it's information-sharing or something more collaborative.

"The Astros have not had a presence in Japan," Luhnow said. "We signed Kaz Matsui back in the day [2008-10], and we scout Japanese players in the big international events, so we felt we like we had enough information on Tanaka to be a competitor and to bid on him. I feel like the flow of Japanese players is going to continue.

"You've got two of the top starters in Major League Baseball right now, between [Yu] Darvish and Tanaka, that pitched over there and made a successful transition over here. I don't see that stopping anytime soon. I feel like the Astros need to have a scouting presence over there so we can be better informed as these players become available."

Luhnow wants to hire a Japan-based scout who is bilingual, bicultural, played baseball and can help the team better evaluate talent the next time the Astros are in the hunt for a premium Japanese player.

Luhnow said he and Goldstein will attend several games, scout some players and meet with the media to try to boost the Astros' name out there. Luhnow has been brushing up on his Japanese by using the Rosetta Stone language-learning software.

"People know we bid on Tanaka, and that was a surprise [in Japan]," he said. "I don't want it to be a surprise next time. I want them to know, the good Japanese players, the Astros are going to be players, and we'll have a presence there and the general manager has traveled over there.

Absolutely love this kind of commitment from Luhnow. Would like it to extend to amateur players in the Pacific Rim as well. I don't believe the Astros have signed any amateur players from there since he took over (Chia-Jen Lo and Chan Moon were signees of previous regimes).  

The seeming importance to the Astros of this is the fact that he's making this 5-day trip with the draft just 2 weeks away.

Would also quibble some with this statement from McTaggart in the article:

Japanese players usually only sign with Major League clubs after they've paid their dues in Japan and gone through the posting process

Junichi Tazawa, Mac Suzuki, Micheal Nakamura and Kaz Tadano are/were major leaguers from Japan who signed with MLB organizations directly out of high school. There's also several Japanese players in the minors right now who did the same.

And for those Japanese players who came to MLB after first playing professionally in Japan, only a minority came via the posting process. The majority (Hideo Nomo, most prominently) came to MLB as international free agents.

[Lefty]

Saw the thread title and thought that Crane had traded him to Japan for 3 promising young front office prospects.

[astrosfan76]

McTaggart

The seeming importance to the Astros of this is the fact that he's making this 5-day trip with the draft just 2 weeks away.

With many seasons winding down, the scouting department convening on June 1st, and the main invitational workout on June 2nd, his trip shouldn't affect too much. 

[Fredia]

you dont think he is scouting a  new location

[Nate Colbert]

McTaggart provides a followup:

Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow recently returned from a five-day trip to Japan with pro scouting director Kevin Goldstein, where they met with representatives from several teams to explore collaborative relationships, watched some games and interviewed candidates for a new scouting position.

"It was a very successful trip," Luhnow said. "Kevin Goldstein did a terrific job organizing it, and we really felt like this is an important first step for us in re-engaging our activity in Japan and hopefully, eventually signing some good Japanese players."

After the Yankees signed Masahiro Tanaka, Luhnow was struck by the fact that Yankees general manager Brian Cashman said they had a scout at every one of his starts for the previous two years. With that in mind, Luhnow wants to hire a Japan-based scout who is bilingual, bicultural, has played baseball and can help the team better evaluate talent the next time the Astros are in the hunt for a premium Japanese player.

Luhnow said he wouldn't rule out the Astros playing some games in Japan at some point.

"Playing games internationally is a great way to expand knowledge, whether it's awareness of the game, but also the Astros," he said. "We've talked about maybe doing something in Latin America. I wouldn't be opposed to doing something that -- doing something in Asia, Europe."

As far as the Japanese press goes, I did look at some of the English language sources I follow and contacted someone who follows Japanese language sources and it doesn't appear that Luhnow's visit was widely reported on over there. Given one of the reasons to go (see original article above) was to increase the Astros profile in Japan, at least by one measure (and obviously there are multiple ways you could slice and dice that) it doesn't appear that this was necessarily the case.

[Reuben]

I think they meant increase their profile among the Japanese teams/players/agents, which was presumably intended to happen more through face-to-face meetings than by press coverage.

[Nate Colbert]

I think they meant increase their profile among the Japanese teams/players/agents, which was presumably intended to happen more through face-to-face meetings than by press coverage.

Understood that and my slice and dice remark was intended to cover things such as you mention, but what better way to say "we're hiring" than getting some ink in the local press? Easier said than done, of course.

[Nate Colbert]

Given the Astros active interest in Japanese players, thought I'd post this BA article from Ben Badler about some of the guys who are thought to be the most likely movers to the US over the next few years. And yes as Badler mentions, Shohei Otani (sometimes spelled "Ohtani" depending on who's doing the romanizing) is a two-way player for Nippon-Ham.

Facing Hiroshima ace Kenta Maeda today, 19-year-old Nippon-Ham Fighters righthander Shohei Otani held the Carp to one run over five innings, striking out 10 with no walks while hitting 99 mph. Otani’s fastball was overpowering, sitting at 94-98 mph and hitting the upper end of that range consistently. His lone run allowed came on a hanging slider to Brad Eldred, who crushed Otani’s mistake for a home run.

Otani, who’s 6-foot-4, 190 pounds, overmatched hitters with his fastball, though his 84-88 mph splitter was a solid pitch at times. He also throws a 78-81 mph slider and a curveball that he manipulates speeds on, ranging anywhere from the mid-60s to the mid-70s. Otani would have pitched longer, but he sprained his ankle sliding into home to score a run in the bottom of the fifth (he’s also an outfielder batting .283/.343/.457 in 102 plate appearances), which ended his outing. On the season, Otani has a 3.13 ERA with 59 strikeouts and 17 walks in 54 2/3 innings.

While Otani flirted with the idea of signing with a Major League Baseball team out of high school, he instead signed with the Fighters as a first-round pick in 2012. He’s still likely several years away from ever being made available through the posting system, but scouts are keeping a close eye on him and 20-year-old righthander Shintaro Fujinami, the two best young pitchers in Japan.

Maeda showed solid velocity, sitting at 90-94 mph, though a lot of scouts project him as a back-end starter because they don’t see a reliable out pitch he can lean on to miss bats. Maeda mixes four-seam fastballs and two-seamers, along with an 80-83 mph slider, an 83-85 mph changeup and an occasional slow curveball in the low-70s. Maeda, 26, said in December that he would like to test his skills in MLB at some point in the future, which several MLB scouts believe means he’s likely headed over for the 2015 season. At 6 feet, 160 pounds, Maeda has a 2.88 ERA in 74 innings with 55 strikeouts and 17 walks.

I'll post periodic updates in the future about each of these players.

[Nate Colbert]

FWIW, MLB Trade Rumors guesses the Astros as the landing spot for Maeda in its forecast of where the top 50 free agents will relocate:

12.  Kenta Maeda – Astros.  Maeda, 27 in April, is the next big thing out of Japan.  The right-handed starting pitcher is expected to be posted by the Hiroshima Carp in November.  Assuming multiple teams reach the $20MM posting fee maximum, it will be open bidding among those clubs afterward.  As a team that fell short on Tanaka last year, the Astros could bring Maeda in to front their rotation for less than the Big Three starters will cost.  Most of the teams named for Ervin Santana could be possibilities here.

More realistically, the article also speculates Rafael Soriano and Pat Neshek to the Astros as bullpen upgrades.

[Nate Colbert]

Yakyu Baka is a website I use for the latest baseball news out of Japan. It's an English language website that recaps the reporting in the Japanese press. If you click here, it'll give you all the latest posts concerning Maeda. While recent press reports over there suggest the possibility of Maeda not being posted this winter, I would note (from what I've seen) the Japanese newspapers tend to be much more likely to print unsubstantiated rumors as fact and consequently you need to take a more skeptical view as to what gets printed.

[Nate Colbert]

Shohei Otani watch:

From John Manuel of BA back on Oct. 5

...on his second pitch of today’s game, Otani threw a 101-mph fastball

...finished the game with three strikeouts over two scoreless innings and hit 101 mph four times, with 14 of his 17 fastballs registering 99 mph or higher.

...2.61 ERA [on the season] ranks sixth among qualified NPB starters, and he has 179 strikeouts with 57 walks in 155 1/3 innings.

Shintaro Fujinami watch:

Finished the season with a 3.53 ERA (11th in the Central League) and had 172 Ks vs. 64 BBs in 163 IP. The whiffs ranked 5th in all of NPB.

Other names to watch:

Chihiro Kaneko

Winner of the 2014 Sawamura Award* (Japanese version of the Cy Young), the 30 year old righty recently said he'd like to make the move to MLB. Led NPB this past season in ERA (1.91) and was 2nd in Ks with 194 (in 184 IP). He's a domestic free agent (can only sign with a team in Japan) currently but apparently his old team Orix can still post him. If he does return to Japan for one more season, after 2015 he becomes an international free agent and can sign with an MLB team without having to go through the posting process.

Takahiro Norimoto

Probably a longshot given his size (5'10") and relatively young age (23, although that hasn't discouraged speculation about Otani and Fujinami who are even younger). After winning the Pacific League Rookie of the Year Award in 2013, followed that up by ranking 3rd in NPB this past season with 191 strikeouts.


*Won by Yu Darvish in 2007 and Masahiro Tanaka in 2011 and 2013. Other NPB to MLB winners include Koju Uehara (1999, 2002), Hideo Nomo (1990), Hisashi Iwakuma (2008), Daisuke Matsuzaka (2001), Masumi Kuwata (1987), Kei Igawa (2003), and Kenshin Kawakami (2004). Add Kenta Maeda (2010) to that list if he makes the move.


Programming note: the upcoming "All Star Series 2014" in Japan (which includes Altuve, Fowler and Carter from the Astros for the MLB squad) will feature Maeda, Otani, Fujinami, Kaneko and Norimoto for the Samurai Japan squad. I believe the games of that exhibition series are scheduled to be televised on MLB Network beginning Nov. 11 with a game against a combined squad of Hanshin Tigers/Yomiuri Giants followed the next day by the first of 5 games versus Samurai Japan.

[Nate Colbert]

The history of Japanese shortstops moving over to MLB from NPB is not a pretty one. The latest, Hiroyuki Nakajima, signed with the A's back in 2013 but in two seasons never made it out of the minors (even being demoted to AA this past season). According to this article, Nakajima may be headed back to Japan (where he was a career .302/.371/.472 hitter prior to his US debacle).

The same article notes that Hanshin Tigers SS Takashi Toritani wants to make the move to the USA. At 33 and with the question marks created by those previous Japanese shortstops (Kaz Matsui included), it'll be interesting to see what kind of market develops for his services. His career mark at the plate in Japan is .285/.372/.412 so you won't likely see much with the bat. A true free agent not subject to the posting process.

[Nate Colbert]

Toritani signs with Satan.

[VirtualBob]

I thought this was going to be a trade announcement.

[Nate Colbert]

Perhaps suggesting Orix has agreed to post him, Kaneko has signed up with agent Arn Tellum (per a tweet from Liz Mullen of Sports Business Journal as reported by MLBTR).

[Nate Colbert]

A scout for Japan has yet to be hired but plans are still in place per today's Drellich article:

"There will be (an Astros scout in Japan)," Luhnow said when asked if the position would be full-time. "We're still working on it, but we budgeted for a position in that area, and Kevin is in the middle of trying to get it figured out. Nothing to announce yet, but we're optimistic we'll have somebody representing the Astros in Japan, covering the NPB (Nippon Professional Baseball) in general."

The article also mentions that the GM said he wasn't sure if the Japan scout when hired would also cover amateur scouting in country and/or other leagues in Asia such as the KBO or CPBL (Taiwan).

SS Takashi Toritani (see above in thread) was per Luhnow someone the Astros would consider--along with a kajillion other options the seeming inference there.

There was also this:

Luhnow said he was amazed by how many people in Japan still remember Kaz Matsui...

Well sweet jeebus of course they remember him, one of the more famous players ever in Japan and not just because he was one of the 40-odd players who went from the NPB to go on to play in MLB. Never mind the fact that he was still playing in 2014 in the NPB for the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles and (as far I know) planning to return in 2015. Gotta believe there was an editing/reporting error with regard to that comment.

[Ron Brand]

Why does Drellich even bother with this stuff? He already believes Luhnow is a liar. Why not just make up his own little world inside a snow globe and write about that?

[Jacksonian]

Why does Drellich even bother with this stuff? He already believes Luhnow is a liar. Why not just make up his own little world inside a snow globe and write about that?

Snow globes break when you throw rocks at them.

[Nate Colbert]

It was reported earlier in the week that pitcher Chihiro Kaneko had given up on the idea on trying to come to the states this offseason and now it's learned he made need surgery to clean out some loose cartilage in his elbow.

[Nate Colbert]

Hiroshima Carp decide not to post Kenta Maeda.

[Ebby Calvin]

Hiroshima Carp decide not to post Kenta Maeda.

I gotta tell you, Nate, I get more baseball information from you on a daily basis that I do from any other coverage.  I don't know who you are or where you live, but I'd like to buy you a beer for that.
Thanks.

[Nate Colbert]

I gotta tell you, Nate, I get more baseball information from you on a daily basis that I do from any other coverage.  I don't know who you are or where you live, but I'd like to buy you a beer for that.
Thanks.

I'll take a rain check on the beer but always good to know the posts are appreciated.

[Reuben]

It's weird that the Maeda news hasn't been more widely reported. I haven't seen a mention of it from Baseball America or ESPN or MLBTR.

[Nate Colbert]

It's weird that the Maeda news hasn't been more widely reported. I haven't seen a mention of it from Baseball America or ESPN or MLBTR.

MLBTR at least finally gets around to acknowledging the news.

[Nate Colbert]

And then there were none...

Maeda didn't come, Kaneko didn't come and now it appears SS Takashi Toritani won't be coming.

[Mr. Happy]

I gotta tell you, Nate, I get more baseball information from you on a daily basis that I do from any other coverage.  I don't know who you are or where you live, but I'd like to buy you a beer for that.
Thanks.

+1,000

[Ty in Tampa]

I'll take a rain check on the beer but always good to know the posts are appreciated.

Absolutely appreciated.

[MusicMan]

Absolutely appreciated.

I'll echo that sentiment.

[Nate Colbert]

Thanks, guys.

[Reuben]

I'll echo that sentiment.

Me too. ...too ...too...

[Nate Colbert]

Hiroshima Carp decide not to post Kenta Maeda.

That was last offseason. The rumor is again circulating this offseason that the Carp will post Maeda. Supposedly Hiroshima will make an official announcement shortly after the conclusion of the current "Premier 12" international tournament which ends Nov 21.

The 27 year-old Maeda put up a 2.09 ERA and 1.013 WHIP in 2015 in 206 IP. Over his 8 seasons in the NPB, his career ERA and WHIP are 2.39 and 1.048 respectively.

The maximum release fee (previously termed posting fee) is $20MM.

Also former Fukuoka 3B Nobuhiro Matsuda is an int'l free agent and can sign with any MLB team sans release fee. Had 35 longballs for the Hawks last season at age 32 (rather anomalous considering he averaged just 14 HRs per year in his 1st 9 seasons in the NPB).